- Title: Hungarian border town remembers 30 years since first break through Iron Curtain
- Date: 19th August 2019
- Summary: SOPRONKOHIDA, HUNGARY (AUGUST 18, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS PROFANITY*** VARIOUS OF CAR GOING THROUGH AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN BORDER WHERE PAN-EUROPEAN PICNIC TOOK PLACE 30 YEARS AGO AND FIRST BREAK THROUGH OCCURRED OF IRON CURTAIN SIGN READING: REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA BORDER CROSSING BORDER STAFF GIVING FINGER WHEN SEE CAMERAS FORMER BORDER TOWER AUSTRIAN, GERMAN, HUNGARIAN AND EU FLAGS PICNIC TABLES AT MEMORIAL CENTRE OF PAN-EUROPEAN PICNIC MEMORIAL CENTRE VISITORS HAVING PICNIC DDR (GDR) SIGN ON EAST GERMAN CAR, TRABBI SIGN IN TRABBI WINDOW READING: YOU ARE IN AUSTRIA, NO DANGER ANYMORE, WE WILL HELP RED TRABBI IN MEMORIAL CENTRE VARIOUS OF MEMORIAL STATUE VARIOUS OF OPEN DOOR MEMORIAL AT THE BORDER VARIOUS OF CYCLIST SETTING OFF PAST WHITE TRABBI IN MEMORIAL CENTRE VISITORS LOOKING AT RED TRABBI IN MEMORIAL CENTRE GROUNDS 15, VARIOUS OF TRABBIS COVERED IN MOSS WITH EYES LOOKING AT EACH OTHER GERMAN CAR COMPANY GARAGES IN HUNGARIAN BORDER TOWN SOPRON, HUNGARY (AUGUST 18, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS TOP SHOTS OF SOPRON TOWN
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2019 08:09
- Keywords: Pan-European picnin Sopron Prime Minister Orban Chancellor Merkel Iron Curtain Berlin Wall 30 years
- Location: SOPRONKOHIDA + SOPRON, HUNGARY
- City: SOPRONKOHIDA + SOPRON, HUNGARY
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Living / Lifestyle,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001ASVTX6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday visit the Hungarian border town of Sopron where the Iron Curtain was first cut through on August 19, 1989.
Both leaders will attend a church commemoration service and later address the media.
Thirty years ago at a small road on the border between Hungary and Austria, hundreds of East Germans broke through a border gate and made their way to the West from one of the most oppressive of the communist regimes.
The event helped pave the way for the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany.
Hungary planned to open its border with Austria symbolically for three hours at the 1989 picnic but hundreds of East Germans, who had gathered in the hope of a chance to flee, broke through before the official opening.
Less than a month later, on September 11, Hungary formally opened its border with Austria and historians estimate that more than 60,000 East Germans had left via Hungary by early November, when the Berlin Wall came down on the night of November 9, 1989.
(Production: Tanya Wood, Fedja Grulovic, Kriszta Fenyo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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