- Gyula Horn from Hungary and Alois Mock from Austria - cut the wire fences thus part of the "Iron Curtain" to mark the opening of the border. (Bundeskanzleramt, 2019) But there was only a small part of the border fence because the soldiers worked very quickly, as László Nagy explained. (Nagy, 2020)

figure 3: Symbolic Meeting of the Former Foreign Ministers of Hungary and Austria. photo Robert Jäger, APA (Bundeskanzleramt, 2019)

The border between Hungary and Austria remained guarded. As part of the "Pan- European Picnic" on August 19, 1989 near St. Margarethen in Burgenland, the border was symbolically opened from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., which was the impetus for a final opening of the Hungarian border. (Nagy, 2020) Hundreds of GDR (German Democratic Republic) citizens (officially one speaks of 750 people) who spent their vacation in Hungary used this time window to flee. A total of 25,000 people took part at the picnic, although the organizers only printed 1,500 flyers in Hungarian and 1,500 flyers in German because their private budget could no longer afford it. In addition, the organizers expected a maximum of 1,500 participants. (Günther, 2019) Hungary finally opened its western border from midnight on September 11, 1989 to those GDR citizens who persevered in Hungary. Thousands of GDR citizens also managed to leave the country through the West German representative authorities in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. (Bundeskanzleramt, 2019)

History philosopher Matthew Longo conducted an extensive research on the events of the Pan-European Picnic because he was asked, among other things, why Moscow/ the Soviet Union did not intervene in all measures. He found that Gorbachev was plagued by great uncertainty because he did not know how long he would be in office. Gorbachev already sensed that the Soviet Union would not continue to exist in this way. (Günther, 2019)

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