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Before the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, Hungary tore down its barbed wire. Hungary’s prime minister didn’t ask permission in Moscow. He just told Soviet President Gorbachev it was a done deal. Hundreds would escape to the West in a single day. The World’s Laura Lynch went back to Western Hungary.
 Retired border guard Arpad Bella remembers when the fences at the border were electrified. (Photo: Laura Lynch) |
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago signaling the end of the Cold War. That of course happened in Germany but some, including a former German leader, say it was communist Hungary that kicked the first stone out of the wall. It all involved some critical decisions by a handful of Hungarians and a fateful picnic. The World’s Laura Lynch has the story from Western Hungary.
[TRAFFIC]
LAURA LYNCH: Cars cross freely into Austria on this narrow road just outside the border town of Sopron. There are no guards, no one checking passports. Under European Union rules everyone can pass freely. Retired border guard Arpad Bella remembers when it wasn’t like that at all. The fence was electrified, land mines were underfoot and he was ready to shoot.
ARPAD BELLA: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
TRANSLATOR: It was an order up until 1989 to fire if someone tried to cross the border illegally. If someone wanted to cross and he didn’t stop when he was ordered to do so, when that person tried to flee we had to use our guns.
LYNCH: But things were starting to shift at the beginning of 1989. The then prime minister, Miklos Nemeth, decided to order guards to switch off the electricity and dismantle the barbed wire billing it as a cost-saving measure. Advisors warned him against it. They feared there would be a repeat of the violence of 1956 when the Soviets cracked down on an uprising in Hungary. So in March of 1989 Nemeth went to Moscow to tell Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev about his plans.
MIKLOS NEMETH: I was not asking for permission from him but I briefed him. I told him that we made already the decision to pull down the Iron Curtain between Hungary and Austria mainly for financial reasons. For us, or for me, it was the most important thing – to check how strong Gorbachev position was that time. So then I told him we destroying, physically destroying, the barbed wired. First test. No negative reaction.
LYNCH: The fence at Sopron was dismantled. Nemeth made certain everyone knew about it. Laszlo Magas, a professor in a nearby town, got the message loud and clear. Magas had his own personal reasons for wanting to see the Iron Curtain fall.
LASZLO MAGAS: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
TRANSLATOR: In the 50s for political reasons my mother was in prison for one and a half year precisely because she tried to escape to the west and she was caught.
LYNCH: Magas says what happened to his mother inspired him to organize what he and other activists called pan-European picnic at the end of August in 1989. They wanted to hold the picnic at the border, open it up for a few hours as a symbolic gesture, then go home. What neither Magas nor guard Bella Arpad knew was that bus loads of East German’s were on their way to their border intent on escaping to the west. They were in effect refugees who had come to Hungary on holiday and stayed until they saw posters written in German advertising the picnic. Hungary’s government was responsible for the posters – part of a plan to encourage the refugees to the border that day. Arpad and his fellow guards weren’t told about the plan or what to do when the East German’s approached.
BELLA: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
TRANSLATOR: It was impossible for the five of us to stop 600 East German’s who were coming toward us. The only way to stop them would have been to use our weapons. The government simply dumped the responsibility onto our shoulders.
LYNCH: Arpad had only seconds to make a decision.
BELLA: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
TRANSLATOR: If we had tried to stop them it would have made things worse. If we had fired warning shots there would have been so much panic. There would have been violence. We would have had to use force. But if we let them go without doing anything then I would be responsible for it because I didn’t obey the orders.
LYNCH: Arpad told his fellow guards to stand aside. All day long the East Germans kept coming. Six hundred and seventy one of them in total. Laszlo Magas watched in amazement and also with a little bit of fear.
MAGAS: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
TRANSLATOR: Obviously we all thought this might have consequences and in the evening we did get threats. But the next morning people said we made history. And something really important had occurred.
LYNCH: Over the next few weeks more and more East German’s poured over the border. Within three months the Berlin Wall had fallen and Prime Minister Nemeth was presiding over a new Hungary.
NEMETH: I did not do the impossible. But I have done all it was possible that time. And that’s why I am so proud of the very fact that when I stepped down in May 1990 and I went back to see in my native village my father, he clapped my shoulders and said to me son well done.
LYNCH: Two decades later the country is struggling. The economy is in tatters. There are deep political divisions and a recent poll suggests many Hungarians say they’ve lost more than they gained since 1989. Standing at the site of that momentous picnic Laszlo Magas acknowledges the problems but he believes it’s all been worth it.
MAGAS: [SPEAKING HUNGARIAN]
LYNCH: He says, I think yes the fact we got freedom that my family is living in peace. As for the conflicts we’re facing now they’re part of human nature. I’m not going to get into that now.
For The World I’m Laura Lynch, near Sopron, Hungary.
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