The Picnic: A Rush for Freedom and the Collapse of Communism

by Matthew Longo

The gripping story of a collective passion for freedom that shook the world.
In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists organized a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria. But this was not an ordinary picnic—it was located on the dangerous militarized frontier known as the Iron Curtain. Tacit permission from the highest state authorities could be revoked at any moment. On wisps of rumor, thousands of East German “vacationers” packed Hungarian campgrounds, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents.
The Pan-European Picnic set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: hundreds crossed from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union—the so-called end of history—all would flow from those dramatic hours. Drawing on exclusive interviews, Matthew Longo gives an invaluable account of historical change, and the disillusionment that followed, as emotionally powerful as it is revealing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, European History, Audiobook, Germany, Historical

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2024

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to race to the end to finish this one for a book discussion group... I knew some of what happened--that the Hungarians opened their border in 1989, leading to the fall of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Opening that border led to East Germans streaming into Hungary to cross that border in order to enter Austria-and, then, West Germany and freedom. I did not know anything about the picnic of the book's title that was organized by Hungarian activists in August 1989. The "Pan-European Picnic" was to be held on the Hungarian-Austrian border ( part of the "Iron Curtain") to celebrate international peace and solidarity. Because it involved opening the gate of the border wall, it set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history. Not long afterward, the East German people demanded that the walls that imprisoned them must come down. In November, the Berlin Wall came down..
I thought it was a compelling retelling of a key event in the fall of communism in Europe. Longo did his research, including interviews with key people who were involved in making history. He also raises the question: why did the people who wanted the walls to come down, in just a matter of years, want to raise walls back up?

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact I remember watching the Berlin wall fall on TV I did not know it was a picnic that started it. When a new fledgling political party got together to discuss what they could do to gain some freedom someone suggested a picnic some scoffed and others stared into space but one woman who had grown up having to hide what they listen to on the radio and having a passion for rebellion said she would help organize it and this is how the picnic was born with people from Hungary and from Germany all getting together peacefully and just wanting freedom and it would only end win the wall eventually came down three weeks later. On August 17, 1989 Germany became a whole country and True neighbors with Hungry and although they still have their issues today with Germany welcoming refugees of war in Hungary putting up a fence to keep them out of Europe at least those who live there have more freedom before 19 89, Hungary didn’t even allow private citizens to have a telephone and and now they even have cell phones. so things are improving. it seems no matter where you look in the world you tend to always find someone actively hating someone else so any of these moments of success with people getting their freedom should always be celebrated. This was a great book that came from a great idea Matthew Longo did a good job writing this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to any history fan. It’s just sad we don’t all evolve at the same time because if we did then maybe we could all live peacefully or at the very least no one would be fearing death from another. I want to thank the author the publisher and net galley for my free Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind.

[History Today]

It is a curious fact that Hungary – which has always possessed a deeply conservative culture – continues to avidly celebrate a number of its revolutionary moments, especially those that caught the world’s attention. The first of these came in March 1848 when Hungarians revolted against Habsburg centralisation, ushered in an era first of reform and then of brutal warfare, and turned their leaders, notably Lajos Kossuth, into international celebrities. The second came in October 1956 when Hungarians revolted against the Stalinist regime, exposed the lie that communism had popular support, and were celebrated by Time magazine which made the (anonymous) ‘Hungarian freedom fighter’ its ‘Man of the Year’. The third revolutionary moment arrived during the long summer of 1989 when a series of astonishing news stories from Hungary captured the world’s attention as the country dismantled the first piece of the ‘Iron Curtain’ that had imprisoned most of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe within the communist dictatorships.

That process of reform bore its first fruits on 2 May when, ostensibly for financial reasons, reform-minded communist politicians in Budapest obtained Moscow’s approval to de-electrify the border fence with Austria. Initially, only Hungarian nationals were allowed to travel to ‘the West’, mostly on day-trips to go shopping, but on 11 September 1989 the entire border was opened to anyone travelling through Hungary. That led to a wave of pressure on other communist countries to open their own borders, culminating, on 9 November, with the East German border guards allowing the crowds to cross the Berlin Wall – the symbolic moment when communism visibly began imploding in Central Europe.

As Matthew Longo persuasively argues in this gripping account of how the Hungarian border was opened, a key precursor to the events of November 1989 came in the August that preceded it. On the afternoon of 19 August, a group of Hungarian activists took advantage of the liberalising atmosphere to hold a ‘Pan-European Picnic’ near the town of Sopron in the far west of the country. The plan was for Hungarians and Austrians living on both sides of the border to meet for food, drink and speeches as they symbolically cut open another section of the hated fence that they would then take home as souvenirs. In the resulting chaos up to 1,000 East Germans barged across the border. When again the USSR raised no objection, the Hungarian government felt confident enough to open the border to tens of thousands of other East Germans holidaying in the country, which unleashed the pressure for similar reforms across the entire Eastern Bloc.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Thomas Lorman is a lecturer in Central European History at UCL.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary explanation of both political and social/emotional reactions and reasons for opening the Berlin Wall.

As an American, the knowledge I had of the Berlin Wall was very limited. I remember seeing it televised and being told it had come about due to President Ronald Reagan’s speech to Gorbachev. The Picnic debunks that claim.

It was a very engrossing read that not only explains how the picnic came about and ended in the wall being breached that day but also stories from people who were there.

I was intrigued to learn how hard it was to set up the picnic. It’s amazing that it even happened! But my favorite part of the book were the firsthand accounts of the people who lived in the east and were able to cross to the west. Each story blew my mind! I can’t imagine living like they did. And the desire to obtain their freedom was palpable.

I was also enlightened by Matthew Longo’s discussion about freedom and how people understand it to mean different things. It’s something I’ve taken for granted and have never thought deeply about until now.

The Picnic is not a textbook retelling of the Berlin Wall’s breach but an emotionally packed story of the people that lived through it!

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about the Berlin Wall and people that initiated its removal.

Many thanks to Matthew Longo and W. W. Norton & Company for the ARC via NetGalley!!!

[Ignace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voor wie wil leren over de kleine geschiedenissen achter de val van de muur, de rommelige geschiedenissen van het einde van communistisch Hongarije en de DDR en een goed voorbeeld van hoe de geschiedenis (in de handen van individuen en politiek) blijft veranderen in het heden: lees dan dit boek. Ik denk wel dat het boek beter was geweest zonder de verwijzingen tussendoor naar overbekende, eerstejaars politieke-filosofie-theorieën. Maar al met al zeker een aanrader! Veel geleerd!

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A picnic that ran from east to west.

[Anemone V.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Add one to the record of books I've finished in one day for a university research project... But this one was such a fantastic read that I wasn't even skimming it, I read the whole thing. Amazing insight into a key geopolitical moment that dominant historical narratives have a tendency to overlook. If we can argue that the beginning of the end of the Cold War was the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's worth thinking about how we can extend that argument to the Pan-European picnic, and this book really highlights the significance the picnic as a visceral moment of human connection, morality, and compassion just as much as it was a product of geopolitics. The author's style of integrating interview accounts, personal perspective, historical narration, and political philosophy is extremely compelling. Also, this book brought me closer to my Hungarian family's stories as activists and refugees, which is just a wonderful additional aspect.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember these events from TV news - we were all holding our breath.

[Mark Peacock · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first and last trips to Hungary bookend Longo's story. My first visit to Hungary was in the spring of 1989. It was before the main events of the book, but I could feel the tension of change building. My last visit was the autumn of 2019, around the time of the 30th anniversary activities of Pan European Picnic and the fall of the Communist regime. By then, that feeling had pivoted -- from excitement and fear of political change to disappointment and cynicism as to what that change had actually delivered. With this background, I looked forward to reading The Picnic.

It didn't disappoint. The book is, at its core, a range of oral histories -- from the then-Hungarian Prime Minister trying to reform the country without sparking a re-run of the 1956 Soviet invasion, to the Hungarian dissidents who organized the picnic, to a number of East German families who breached the Austrian-Hungarian border during and immediately after the picnic. Focusing on these personal stories and following them through to current times (the last interview was in Feb 2022) makes it meaningful and relatable, adding a massive amount of richness and context to the high-level news headlines we all saw in 1989.

The stories also make the book a compelling read. It moves quickly; pulling the reader into the building risk and the subsequent let-down felt by all the participants. I give Longo a lot of credit for not getting in the way of these folks telling their stories; letting their own words stand without surrounding them with his own commentary. As a professor of politics at Leiden University, Longo has a definite point of view -- and I give him huge credit for keeping it to the Prologue and the Epilogue; less than 20 pages.

Highly recommended if you're interested in modern European history.

[Adrian]

On August 19th, 1989 a picnic was organized on the frontier between Hungary and Austria. Two months before Hungary's government had cut the wire which made up the iron curtain separating east from west. Word got out that for several hours the Austria-Hungary border would be open. Thousands descended on Hungary including many East Germans followed closely by interested Stasi. Longo interviews many of the principals and tells the story of this remarkable event which was the push needed to bring down the Berlin Wall a few months later. Longo pursues the story into 1990 and reveals how difficult acculturation into the west was for many Easterners. Interesting nich of history. The windy philosophic chapters at the end could have been cut.

[Victoria Lisek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about the Pan-European picnic that took place on the Austrian-Hungarian border in 1989, which hundreds of East Germans used to escape to the West. Told through interviews with Hungarian political & civil society leaders, as well as East Germans who escaped. Unfortunately the writing style falls short. The author uses a confusing mix of academic and pop history writing, and jumps around the different characters too frequently, meaning I couldn't properly connect or appreciate the stories. The chronology of events from 1980s liberalising Hungary, to Europe in the 2010s, is helpful, but takes away from the actual picnic, which is only afforded a short chapter.

[Clare Boucher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the Audible version and found it very engaging. In 1989, the Pan European Picnic was held at Sopron near the Austrian-Hungarian border. At the picnic, hundreds of East Germans crossed the border into Austria and sought refuge in the West. Just a few months later, the Berlin Wall fell. The book tells the story of that extraordinary year, focusing on the Hungarian experience, reflects on its aftermath and the nature of freedom. Recommended.

[Irl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Iron Curtain was first torn down on the Hungarian/Austrian border...with a picnic! (and a formal wire-cutting ceremony). I always wanted to know more about the August 1989 Pan-European Picnic, and Longo's book did not disappoint.

Longo deftly weaves the high stakes discussions between young, reformist Hungarian PM Miklós Németh & Soviet Gorbachev, and tensions amongst East German refugees, Hungarian & Austrian activists and the border guards. There is a sprinkling of political science which enhances the book. I also liked Longo's reflections on his own research experience in the archives and interviewing for the book.

Whether you are well read in this area or new to 1989, you will enjoy this page-turner. This documentary episode is well worth watching too: Cold War - The Wall Comes Down [E23/24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAHhS...

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is history. The breach of the Iron Curtain by Hungarians who wanted freedom. It started with a picnic in Austria.
And then the stories of people. How they feared the rulers in East Germany, East Berlin, other communist countries.
A few months after the picnic, the Berlin Wall fell. The Iron Curtain unraveled. The were refugees pouring into fee lands
Reminds me of what the US is experiencing now. Very sobering

[Fleur]

Indrukwekkende vergeten historie. Interessant ook in relatie tot m’n eigen leven, wonend in oud-DDR (oké nouja theoretisch gezien i guess West-Duitsland) en dagelijks onderweg, treinend door het platteland dat wordt besproken. Soms voelden de overgangen van persoonlijk naar politiek theoretisch een beetje klungelig, maar interessante perspectieven!

[AdiTurbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic non-fiction read - fascinating story, but also compelling writing and eye-opening insights on the nature of remembrance, democracy and freedom. Deeply enjoyed this one.

[Rayhan Kalevi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit too arendtian for my liking ;)

[Ash Bebbington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb history of the fall of the Iron Curtain told from the perspective of a group of Hungarian activists and East German refugees on the Hungary-Austria border in 1989. Histories of that dizzying year tend to be told with a much broader focus, but this book tells an undeniably human story. Strong recommend for any narrative non fiction fans.

[Beer van Duuren · Rating 5 out of 5]

longooooo

[Mary Arkless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed from the library. I'm the first one to have borrowed this book.

I think I heard about this book as a reference in something else I read recently. It is quite a recent book, so maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps I read a review of it in the newspaper.

This book looks at the events in 1989 which lead to Hungary first turning off the electricity to their section of the Iron Curtain, the flight of many East Germans from their country, the toppling of the Berlin Wall and thus the Iron Curtain. It is mostly centered around Hungary, but also includes quite a bit about East Germany. Let's face it, if so many East Germans hadn't decided to flee their homeland, the Iron Curtain probably wouldn't have fallen. A large contributor to the Iron Curtain falling at that time was a pan-European picnic held on 19 August, 1989 on the Hungarian/Austrian border.

Why am I interested in this? In mid-August 1989 I returned to the US after a university year abroad in Hamburg. In October 1988 our exchange program had gone to Berlin, which included one day in East Berlin. We stood at the Berlin Wall and thought it would never come down in our lifetimes!!! In February 1990 I held a piece of it in my hands, sent to me by the brother of a friend. The brother lived in Berlin and watched the piece being hacked out of the wall. He wanted me to have a piece of it. Being back in the US and having to study for my final year and work to afford my textbooks, I didn't realize quite what was happening in late August 1989, but was a tiny bit heartbroken to miss out on the party that November. I was delighted for my friend who grew up in East Germany but legally emigrated to the West, and was able to be reunited with his sister and her family because the Wall and Iron Curtain fell.

For me, this was a fascinating read about the wheels that turned to bring about what happened. At so many points, history could have easily taken a different path. The world could very easily be a different place today. I am quite aware that we now live in interesting times, and wonder what disasters the world is currently skirting around. Is there a stone in the road that we will trip over and lead to devastation? Or at least some sort of tragedy?

Much of the book is based on interviews with people who were there. Some of them were "big, important" people (like the leader of Hungary at the time), some were grassroots activists, many were ordinary people looking for freedom. As one contributor pointed out, many of these people are getting quite old now and might not be here much longer for us to speak with them. Indeed, by the time the book was written and published, and number of them had died.

I highly recommend this if you want to know more about Hungary's and Germany's more recent history.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

The popular history of the end of cold war prominently features the opening and dismantling of the Berlin Wall. In Matthew Longo's The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain the political realities of 1989 behind the Iron Curtain are unraveled from their apparent appearance of longevity and permanence to the actual limits of authoritarianism and the chain of unexpected consequences.

The central event of the book was the organizing and holding of the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. Under Gorbachev's leadership of the Soviet Union, borders and measures were loosening, in Hungary, a group of activists took a big risk to organize a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria, along the highly militarized border between the Free West and Soviet East.

While these activists were at work gaining permissions and preparing the physical arrangements, many East Germans were looking for ways out of their repressive police state. The Stasi (East German Secret Police) knew everything possible, where people lived, their hobbies and habits. Information gained from spying, tapping phones, stalking and photography and interrogations. East Germans were able to vacation, and many of them journeyed to the Hungarian countryside where they could still be followed and observed by the Stasi. This singular event is detailed through the words of the activists, governmental figures and East Germans who used it as their opportunity to gain freedom.

Longo builds the narrative from extensive direct interviews with participants, witnesses and figures of authority as well as journalistic, academic and narrative accounts of 1989. He also drew from works of political philosophy, especially Hannah Arendt, and literature from east Germans and Hungarians. These are all weaved together masterfully, allowing the narrative to unfold mostly chronologically, heightening the tensions as it remains unclear if the picnic would take place as at any moment it could've been halted.

A highly readable account of the events of a pivotal time in modern history. The Picnic shows the power of people organized and willing to take risks, the shocking speed of change, and how our identities and nationalities are constructed and maintained. While Longo centers the events on August 1989, he also details the lives of those caught up in the title event and how it shaped the rest of their lives. Some found freedom and new lives others found themselves back home mere months later but still refugees of a country that no longer existed.

Recommended reading for those interested in history, politics or the societal costs and adjustments of change.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Erica Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Picnic" by Matthew Longo is an interesting and well-researched history book on the Pan-European Picnic on August 19, 1989 - just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is a readable explanation of the social and political context for the picnic and the other pivotal events in 1989 and afterwards. The interviews with both the people behind the picnic and those who participated in it and their stories about how it changed their lives were well-selected and very engrossing to read. I also appreciated the author's discussions about freedom and authoritarianism on both the social and personal level. Additionally, how he connects it with today's political landscape regarding Hungary and Germany but also our modern-day borders and the other walls we still have everywhere around us.

However, as someone who knew quite a bit about the transition period before, I also found some parts very basic. While I know that many other readers may not have that, I personally grew a little bored with this repetition and that impacted my reading experience. Similarly, I couldn't help feeling that it was written with an American audience in mind, which may have impacted the way he describes Europe, its geography, and history. E.g. how he has to write the German word for everything and then explain it to the readers as to demonstrate the fact that he speaks and understands German... I don't know... it rubbed me the wrong way.

Nevertheless, the author has done an impressive job with this book and I am sure many people will benefit from reading it.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the historical account was interesting and well put together. It was great to learn about the individuals and brave acts that were a catalyst for the emergence of freedom for the GDR. But I didn’t enjoy his sermonizing about politics, religion, etc which came mostly in the epilogue. He states his opinions on these topics as facts just the same way he asserts his historical evidence of the events leading up to and surrounding the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. Unfortunately this left a bad taste in my mouth and left me wondering what previous information he had twisted to fit his clear biases.

One example is that he decries nationalism and shows how horrifying it was that Hungary was building up borders against an influx of Islamic refugees after they had worked to break down the Iron Curtain, but then later on asserts how individuals in a nation should be acting in the best interest of the society as a whole (which maybe isn’t open borders to the world?). Also that people should be free to make their own determinations without being crushed by the government, clergy, etc, but then talks about anti mask wearing over and over citing it as example of people taking their liberty too far. Just a lot of conflicting points of view and cherry picking philosophies in my opinion but maybe I’m mis-understanding.

Basically, even though it was somewhat hard for me to track all the players, I liked the book a lot better before the authors rant in the epilogue.

[Mark Allinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important history told in a fairly compelling style. At times, there appeared to be a novel struggling to escape from the historical narrative, and there appeared to be a degree of dramatic licence in the telling of the tale, especially as a few avoidable factual errors crept in. However, grounding the story in the lives of the actors and the individuals caught up in the exodus from the GDR did bring this history alive. A possible 3* was promoted by the engagement with the theories of Hannah Arendt and the interesting reflections on how Hungary has developed - not at all for the better - under the rule of Orban. Even so, there was room for a little more critical discussion of the legacy of Trianon. Thankfully, the author steers in a very different direction from the mistelling of Hungarian history peddled by Norman Stone.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subject matter important but I didn’t think that Longo’s delivery worked. He introduces lots of characters and picks their stories up and puts them down again frequently throughout the book, with gaps large enough that I forget the particular details of the characters. This means their stories have less resonance.

He waffles a lot, and strangely uses the word “bodies” often instead of “people”. Sometimes his syntax was so off that I had to read a sentence two or three times to follow it, or worked things out later from context.

I still got a lot from this in terms of the history, which is particularly relevant again now, but was disappointed overall by the delivery hence a 3 star rating.

[Andrew Forbes · Rating 5 out of 5]

How the Iron Curtain came down. It had seemed such a permanent feature of Europe when I was growing up, and then suddenly it was gone. Our kids can’t imagine it even existing, but we, in our youths couldn’t imagine being gone. The Berlin Wall was the headline, but there were thousands of miles of it. I saw a German section in 1982. This is a Hungarian tale, and perhaps where it started, rather than Berlin. Hungary had inched towards freedom before, only to be crushed by Russian tanks in the 50s. The arrival of Gorbachev in Russia gave Hungarians courage to try again. Reforming politicians climbed through the ranks, so that the book’s 1st hero, Miklós Németh, was PM in 1989. He negotiated with Gorbachev that he wouldn’t intervene militarily, whatever he did; a spectacular result. Ceausescu in Romania was hopping mad, and given what eventually happened to him, we can see why. Honecker similarly (he would have gone to prison but trial abandoned because of his terminal illness). Németh realised that the West was very much better off, because communism held the East back. He determined to look W; opposition party leaders like Maria & Ferenc couldn’t believe the change in their lives when they were suddenly allowed to assemble without harassment. They started planning the picnic. Rumour spread like wildfire, they worried they’d be crushed, particularly as E German would-be defectors and the Stasi showed great interest. When the picnic happened, sheer weight of numbers flooded through the fence. The commander at the time refused to fire on them; refused to be a butcher, and went home fearing arrest, cancellation of pension etc. Unsung hero. They burst through to freedom with elation. What did they do then? What did they think? Suddenly they had to make a living. The W is free in only 1 sense. It’s hard to imagine their delight at encountering soldiers and policemen and not having to be afraid; at reading critical opinions in newspapers, and being able to speak as they please. E Germany in particular had a hard time coming to terms with finding themselves in the same country as much wealthier others. The Westerners did pour money into the E, but it certainly came with a lot of condescension and insult. Other countries were at least able to set their own pace. Our younger generation, though, don’t remember this. Budapest is a place for a damn good weekend. Hard to imagine it as anything else. Given their own problems and priorities, Eastern Europe doesn’t seem so bad everyone had a flat and a job. They don’t especially worry about freedom of speech; we who saw the Iron Curtain understand its value. To them it’s the freedom to engage in on-line bigotry and misinformation, and so must be regulated. Right wing views, who used to oppose communism most vociferously, are now a unmentionable to many of them, stained by bastard capitalist and exploiting landlords. Green party politics are v attractive to them, though to me they are the hard left at its most spiteful. I wonder if young people will read this book; a world they can’t imagine that was on their doorstop only about 30 yrs ago.

[Desi A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one where I am extremely grateful to have worked in the library, because it passed through my hands and it otherwise would have been a long time before I learned of its existence.

TL;DR - Extremely well done, and an absolute niche topic custom-made just for me.

Longo focuses on a very particular moment in time that I think most people are not aware of - the summer *before* the opening of the Berlin Wall, when East Germans began finding ways to cross the Hungarian border with Austria into the west. He investigates the relative liberalization in the Hungarian Communist Party toward the end of 1988, and the circumstances that led to the loosening of border restrictions at the same time that members of the opposition were planning a symbolic "Pan European Picnic" at the border with Austria. Add to the mix, record numbers of East Germans who decided to take their summer holidays in Hungary on the off chance that the rumors they had been hearing (and news reports from West Germany) were true and they might be able to make a break for it.

In the summer of 1989, I had just turned recently turned 12 (you had to know there was going to be a story here, right?), and I had been fascinated with the Cold War and the Iron Curtain for some time already, having done reports on Austria (thanks, The Sound of Music) and the Berlin Airlift, and heard stories of my parents' acquaintance from Poland who made us baklava and who told them about what was happening when Poland was under martial law, and watched Night Crossing with rapt attention on the roll-in TV/VCR combo in 5th grade ("Are we....in the West?").

I saw stories in the paper about events in Eastern Europe that summer that people couldn't yet make sense of, followed by articles about East Germans trickling -- then flooding -- across the Hungarian border. I started saving cuttings of these articles and following the developments as closely as I could. By December 1989 I had a full gift box (you know, the ones you could get from a department store to use for a nice polo shirt) full of newspaper clippings about the disintegration of the Iron Curtain. (Which I (or my parents) LOST, and I think about it more frequently than I care to admit).

All of which is to say, I loved this book. Longo did a great job covering the context in both Hungary and East Germany and moving between these two theaters. He is a political scientist, and draws heavily on political theory/philosophy, particular Hannah Arendt, and ideas of loneliness and atomization under authoritarian regimes, but his writing is not at all boring or stilted, and really the focus is on the individual stories of certain people and families who he follows all the way through the events of 1989 to the 30th anniversary of the picnic and what has happened to the idea of freedom and borders in Central Europe since then. When the first people make it through the barbed wire ("Are we....in the West?") I actually burst into tears.

[Stephen Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

When hardline General Secretary Károly Grósz resigned from the prime ministership of Hungary in late 1988 leading to the promotion to that role of Miklós Németh, few would have expected that this would lead to a cascading of events, with a summer picnic in 1989 at the border being the key catalyst, which would lead, only one year later, of the pulling down of the Berlin Wall and ultimately to the collapse of the iron curtain. This book reconstructs these world-shaping events.

While the western border of East Germany was well-secured against escape by the government of hardline Erich Honecker, much of the barbed wire fencing separating Hungary from Austria had fallen into disrepair and, in poor shape economically, the Németh asked the Soviet Union’s government to pay for its repair but they declined. Then in May 1989, Németh had himself shown on television cutting a section of barbed wire. At the same time, at a meeting of a semi-underground quasi-political group which was founded in 1988, Ferenc Mészáros proposed a pan-European picnic in which Hungarians, Germans, Austrians and others would picnic together on the Hungarian-Austrian border. In due course, it was agreed that the picnic would held on 19 August, August being Europe’s holiday month. And as planning progressed, it added a significant supporter, a minister in the Hungarian government.

In countries with a myriad of informal underground communication networks, word of the picnic spread, especially in East Germany whose citizens had a long history of vacationing in Hungary and, as the date approached, thousands made their way to the area. Assisted by rumours and signs nailed to poles and trees, and shadowed by Stasi agents, the numbers converging on the border town of Sopron swelled with some 20,000 attending the picnic. 600 East Germans crossed the border on the day and 20,000 within a couple of days which set the stage for the fall of the Berlin wall in November.

The book backgrounds and then reconstructs the events leading up to and the picnic itself, interspersed with profiles, gained from extensive interviews by Longo, of several participants in the picnic as well as key figures such as Laszlo Nagy, son of Imre Nagy who led Hungary during the 1956 uprising and who was executed for his role, and Miklós Németh. Although the collapse of the iron curtain can seem certain in hindsight, it was anything but at the time and one of the strengths of the book is that it captures the moods of the times, and another being the pacing which has much of the excitement of a thriller yet giving the reading cause to pause and reflect given that it is a reconstruction of events that happened, and within living memory. It’s the best book I’ve read this year so far and it won’t disappoint.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a free digital advance review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

Anybody who was an adult at the time remembers the astonishing fall of the Berlin Wall and the (relatively) quick collapse of communist regimes throughout eastern Europe. But of course those events didn’t just happen; they were preceded by years of resistance to authoritarianism. In the late 1980s, there was a sense in Hungary, in particular, that this particular section of the Iron Curtain was being taken down. Since travel within the Warsaw Pact countries was generally permitted, more and more residents of the GDR, in particular, traveled to Hungary—ostensibly for vacation—in hopes of being able to escape to Austria.

Hungarian political activists had the idea in the summer of 1989 to put on a Pan-European Picnic; an outdoor gathering at a bucolic area on the border between Hungary and Austria, where the fence would be removed so that all attendees could mingle. Astonishingly, they were able to obtain the needed permissions and organize within just a few weeks. Publicity was a challenge, though, and it was mostly word of mouth that brought East Germans to the picnic site, rather than to the usual spot for vacationers, Lake Balaton. In the days before the official picnic, many campers were helped to cross the border by friendly locals, particularly the lady who ran the concession stand. And on the day of the picnic, hundreds of East Germans fled en masse. Less than three months later, the Wall fell.

Longo presents the story of the organizers of the picnic and several of the East Germans who escaped that day. It’s fascinating to read about the various personalities, their lives and their motivations. I hadn’t previously known that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was a political activist in 1989 and called for the end of communism and for Soviet troops to leave the country. Though he was far from the only activist, his speech gained him great fame and led to his political ascendancy. It’s sadly ironic that he has become an autocrat himself and has developed a close relationship with Vladimir Putin. He favored democracy and aid to refugees in 1989, but now that he is in power, he rejects western-style democracy and is virulently anti-immigrant and against aid to refugees. Longo doesn’t focus on Orbán as intensely as I may be making it sound. Instead, he focuses on the individual activists most involved in the picnic, and the handful of couples and families who escaped that day. This is history at the ground level, and it’s fascinating.

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent narrative nonfiction. Longo is telling the story of the picnic that was held in Hungary next to the Iron Curtain and the Austrian border in August of 1989. The picnic was the brainchild of several Hungarian activists who saw the event as a way to open the border for an afternoon, have Hungarians and Austrians meet and mingle, and act as one incident to help the thaw that had been happening in Hungary, allowing Hungarians more freedoms and access to the world beyond their borders.

Longo pulls together the stories of the leading politicians and describes key events that happened prior to the picnic, most importantly Gorbachev's glasnost, that allowed it to take place a all. What made it become all the more significant is that the day became so important to East German's - many who were on summer vacation in Hungary (some with a thought of escaping) who used the opportunity to escape to the West. Longo went to Hungary and Germany and interviewed many of these couples so that we hear their stories in quite a bit of detail, which is very effective in capturing their frustrations, the tension of the day, and their feelings of liberation when they get to the other side.

Some key takeaways for me were that after these people escaped and set up life in W. Germany or Austria, most returned to East Germany when they could. The power of home and the land they were from was more valuable than the capitalism of the west. Given our current migration crisis and the complete lack of communication between our red and blue states, I thought it was fascinating that Austria, Hungary and W. Germany were all communicating together to set up a process to help these refugees find asylum in the west. Granted there were hundreds of them, instead of the thousands we're facing, but communication goes a long way to solving problems. The evolution of Victor Orban from an anti-Soviet, anti-Communist leader to the pro-Nationalist prime minister and ally of Russia that he is today was fascinating.

I wish that a list of characters had been included with this - it would have helped me to keep track of everyone as the story went along. And, maybe more complete information about his sources, with some more specificity would have helped as well.

A great way to use a singular event to help explain a larger historical movement.