Remembering 1989
June 2, 2009
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in Budapest to honor the actions of the Hungarian and Austrian foreign ministers of 1989, Gyula Horn and Alois Mock, who helped speed the fall of the iron curtain.
About a month short of 20 years ago, on July 27th 1989, the two ministers took bolt-cutters to the border separating the two nations. It was a symbolic act – it's now clear the border had already quietly begun to be dismantled – but it has lived on as the day when the iron curtain publicly began to crumble.
Many Hungarians left for the west, and were followed by tens of thousands of East German citizens who traveled to Hungary in order to make their way to West Germany through Austria. The East German government banned travel to Hungary in September 1989, but by then the movement that would eventually topple the government was well underway.
Steinmeier paid tribute to Hungary's role in igniting that movement on Tuesday, as he delivered a speech at Budapest's Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Unity in Euro Zone
In that speech, Steinmeier also called on the 16 countries in the Euro Zone to work more closely on economic matters in light of the current downturn.
Steinmeier added that only together could European countries now overcome the economic crisis.
Tuesday's address in Budapest follows a day spent in Prague, where Steinmeier met with current and former Czech leaders, and visited a commemorative multimedia exhibit called “Twenty years of freedom – Germany says ‘thank you'” on Wenceslas Square.
mrh/AP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman