Hungarian historian: 'Kohl's promise was not kept'
Chancellor Helmut Kohl's promise that no one’s life will be worse than it was before Germany’s reunification was not met, György Fehéri, a literary historian, told EurActiv Hungary in an interview.
As commemorations get underway to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, EurActiv explores the significance of the event in a series of interviews.
György Fehéri, a fellow of the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, is a Hungarian citizen who was living in East-Berlin. From the mid-1980s, he owned a so called “world passport” allowing him to travel to the West.
"I used its advantages and went to West Berlin to spend my time there in the library or in the museum," he told EurActiv Hungary. Thus, when the Wall fell down, he didn’t fully realise the importance of the event.
Fehéri felt a wind of change in the previous 6-12 months. More than two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hungarian dissidents and Austrian intellectuals organised a joint “pan-European picnic” on 19 August 1989. On that occasion, the Hungarian authorities agreed to open one of the border’s gates for a short time. On that day, some 900 East Germans who were living in Hungary escaped the country.
Less than a month later, on 11 September, Hungary dismantled its border with Austria. This moment "created huge tension that could be felt here in East Berlin," said Fehéri...
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As commemorations get underway to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, EurActiv explores the significance of the event in a series of interviews.
György Fehéri, a fellow of the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, is a Hungarian citizen who was living in East-Berlin. From the mid-1980s, he owned a so called “world passport” allowing him to travel to the West.
"I used its advantages and went to West Berlin to spend my time there in the library or in the museum," he told EurActiv Hungary. Thus, when the Wall fell down, he didn’t fully realise the importance of the event.
Fehéri felt a wind of change in the previous 6-12 months. More than two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hungarian dissidents and Austrian intellectuals organised a joint “pan-European picnic” on 19 August 1989. On that occasion, the Hungarian authorities agreed to open one of the border’s gates for a short time. On that day, some 900 East Germans who were living in Hungary escaped the country.
Less than a month later, on 11 September, Hungary dismantled its border with Austria. This moment "created huge tension that could be felt here in East Berlin," said Fehéri...