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The Hungarian outer fence became the first part of the Iron Curtain to be dismantled. After the border fortifications were dismantled, a section was rebuilt for a formal ceremony. On 27 June 1989, the foreign ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn , ceremonially cut through the border defences separating their countries.
The border was still closely guarded and the Hungarian security forces tried to hold back refugees. The dismantling of the electric fence along Hungary's 240 kilometres (149 mi) long border with Austria was the first fissure in the "Iron Curtain" that had divided Europe for more than 40 years, since the end of World War II.
The Iron Curtain was strictly guarded and fully intact until August 1989, even if individual technical systems were dismantled. [21] [22] According to its files, the Hungarian State Security Service had known since 10 July 1989 that an event was planned at the border on the basis of a suggestion from Otto Habsburg.
The initially inconspicuous opening of a border gate of the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary in August 1989 then triggered a chain reaction, at the end of which the GDR no longer existed and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961.
The Pan-European Picnic was a peace demonstration held on the Austrian-Hungarian border near the town of Sopron on 19 August 1989, an important event in political developments which led to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany. [citation needed]
Another consequence was the creation of new laws, an effort in the Hungarian Diet led by István Werbőczy. The resulting Tripartitum elaborated the old rights of peasants, but also greatly enhanced the status of lesser nobility (gentry), erecting an iron curtain between Hungarians until 1848 when serfdom was abolished. [41]
After 42 barren seasons, a young Steel Curtain gave Pittsburgh its first NFL title thanks to suffocating defense and MVP Franco Harris' 158 rushing yards, a Super Bowl record at the time. 42. XX ...
The Iron Curtain made Hungarians and Austrians living near the border feel the division of Europe quite personally. [citation needed] During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Austrians hoped Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and the thousands of revolutionaries would succeed.