Global Utah Weekly

Franz Kolb, Director for Europe at the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, hosted a group of local dignitaries and Hungarian-Utahns on August 19th in honor of the 20th anniversary of the famed “Hungarian Pan-European Picnic,” one of the key incidents contributing to the fall of the Iron Curtain. Mr. Kolb presented to Dr. George Simon, Honorary Consul for Hungary to Utah, the original Proclamation, signed by Utah Governor Herbert, commemorating this historic event.

 

As briefly noted in the Governor’s Proclamation, the August 19, 1989 “Pan-European Picnic” resulted in hundreds of visiting East German tourists in Hungary rushing across the Hungarian border to freedom when the Hungarian authorities at the picnic location made it obvious that their border guards would ”ignore” any individuals who were headed across the fortified “no-man’s land” separating the Communist regime in Hungary from the free land of Austria and the West. Less than three months later—on November 9, 1989—the Berlin Wall fell in divided Germany, signaling the demise of the Iron Curtain and the beginning of new freedoms to millions in the former Soviet Bloc.

Declaration Whereas, on May 2, 1989, the Hungarian Government ordered the 150 mile-long fence along the Austrian border to be dismantled; making the first visible cracks in the Iron Curtain appear; Whereas, the relatively open border with the West allowed for East Germans to escape to Austria; the largest break-out was the “Pan-European Picnic” on August 19, 1989, when hundreds of East Germans rushed the border and escaped into Austria; Whereas, on September 11, 1989, Hungary opened her borders for citizens of the German Democratic Republic; Whereas, the decision of the Hungarian Government created a domino effect; some weeks later the Berlin Wall fell, the Velvet Revolution took place in Prague, the people of Romania god rid of a cruel dictator during a bloody revolution, and a year later, the Soviet Union ceased to exist; Whereas, most nations of the former Soviet Bloc chose a democratic way of life which made it possible for Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland to join NATO; Whereas, a large number of Central and Eastern European Nations are allies of the United States and proud members of the European Union, and Whereas, the dream of ‘Europe whole and free’ came true and 1989 became the year that changed Europe, and later the world, Now, therefore, I, Gary R. Herbert, Governor of the State of Utah, do hereby declare August 19, 2009 as Hungary Day in Utah. Signed, Gary R. Herbert Governor