European leaders mark Iron Curtain fall in Hungary
BUDAPEST, Hungary — European leaders marked the 20th anniversary of the symbolic fall of the Iron Curtain, often described as the first crack in the Berlin Wall and one of the key episodes leading to the end of communism in Eastern Europe, in Budapest on Saturday.
The presidents of Germany, Austria, Finland, Slovenia and Switzerland, as well as high-ranking officials from Poland, Britain and more than 20 other countries participated in a commemorative session at the Hungarian parliament and a gala event at the Hungarian State Opera House.
On June 27, 1989, the then-foreign ministers of Hungary, Gyula Horn, and Austria, Alois Mock, cut through some barbed wire on the border between the two countries, putting a symbolic end to a physical and psychological boundary of which by then there was little left.
“Looking at the entire chain of events, we rightfully and deservingly celebrate June 27 as the day in which the partitioning of Europe came to an end,” Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom said at the start of the special session in parliament. “We have every reason to celebrate together. The cut barbed wire fence was an immediate symbol that helped the whole world understand what was happening here in the center of Europe.”
Hungary had begun to dismantle the Iron Curtain nearly two months earlier, on May 2, 1989 — partly because border guards said it was in such poor condition that even small animals were setting off false alarms along the electrified fence.
With most of it already gone, officials had trouble finding even a small section of the Iron Curtain for Horn and Mock’s staged photo opportunity with wire cutters.
“What happened at the end of June was a nice symbolic gesture … but the border continued to be strictly controlled,” Swiss-Hungarian journalist and historian Andreas Oplatka said on state radio.
Still, pictures of the event were published around the world and inspired tens of thousands of East Germans to leave their country, find temporary refuge in Hungary, Poland or Czechoslovakia and wait for an opportunity to travel to West Germany.
By the end of the summer, thousands of East German “tourists” were living in tents on the grounds of the West German embassy in Budapest and in several other locations around the city, including church yards and the site of a communist youth camp.
After allowing some of the “Ossies” to leave for West Germany via Austria in August and then some more a few weeks later, Hungary finally decided to let all East Germans out from Sept. 11, 1989.
Within two months, on Nov. 9, the Berlin Wall fell and Germany’s reunification was formalized in October 1990.
On Saturday, German President Horst Koehler thanked the Hungarians for their solidarity with the East Germans and their contributions to German unity.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the Hungarian people for their bravery, attitude and support toward the East Germans,” Koehler said.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer drew parallels between the 1989 transition to democracy in Eastern Europe and the current protests in Iran.
“1989 was a dramatic year but it had a peaceful outcome,” Fischer said. “No dictatorship, however solid it may seem, can ever feel truly safe.”
“These were events which can motivate people in Iran to feel that their democratic opinions can be expressed,” Fischer said, drawing applause from hundreds of guests in the upper chamber of Hungary’s parliament on the banks of the Danube River.
Speaking at a Friday evening memorial on the border with Hungary, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger characterized the 1989 events as “the great triumph of the citizens of the former Eastern Bloc states.”
“Today, watchtowers and barbed wire are a part of the past. The ‘peace project Europe’ has prevailed with much success,” Spindelegger said.
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