The event, called Pan-European Picnic Redux, was organised as part of the Extremely Hungary Festival together with the PEN World Voices Festival and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
On August 19, 1989, Hungarians organised a symbolic opening of the border between Hungary and Austria near the Hungarian village of Sopronpuszta. During the "picnic", more than 600 citizens of the former East Germany passed unheeded across the border into Austria.
The commemoration of the event took place in the Empire Fulton Ferry Park, between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges.
Speakers at the event, which recreated the picnic-like atmosphere of the original demonstration, included Newsweek's Eastern European correspondent Michael R. Meyer, the historian and journalist Eszter Babarczy, Profil magazine editor George Hoffmann-Ostenhof and one of the demonstration's organiers Alexander Wind.
"When we celebrate this event from a time during which borders opened, we must not forget that many, many borders are still closed in today's world," said Anthony Appiah, chairman of PEN's American chapter. The opening of the border between Hungary and Austria in 1989 required two separate acts: the Hungarians had to open the border to those people leaving, and the Austrians had to allow them in. In today's world, the problem is not that people can't leave their homes, but that they aren'g being allowed in elsewhere, Appiah added.
While the ideologies off the East and the West disappeared at the end of the Cold War, now the rich and poor worlds are pitted against each other, Appiah said. "The main border in the world is being drawn here."
Countries in today's world do not want to open up their borders because rich countries don't want to allow in residents from poor countries, Appiah said, citing the example of the border between Mexico and the United States. In Europe, too, there is a similar effort to keep out refugees seeking work and a livelihood, he added.
The event was rounded out by a performance by the Hungry March Band.
Almost a hundred people participated at the event, in spite of the rainy weather - weather much like that on August 19, 1989.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
