Pan-European Picnic Memorial

The Berlin Wall divided the German capital into two parts between 1961 and 1989. The Pan-European Picnic and the breach of the border on August 19, 1989 played an important role in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The city of Sopran received the part of the wall in 2019 as a gift from Germany on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of this important historical event. Today the Berlin Wall is a symbol of freedom and the peaceful revolution.

History was made at this memorial in 1989. The Pan-European Picnic was a peace demonstration on the Austro-Hungarian border near the town of Sopron (Ödenburg). With the consent of both countries, a border gate on the old Pressburger Landstrasse between St. Margarethen in Burgenland and Sopronköhida (Steinambrueckl) in Hungary was to be symbolically opened for three hours.On August 19, 1989, before the official start of the program, scheduled for 3 p.m., refugees from the GDR appeared at the scene of the event and broke through the border in several waves. The Hungarian border police did not prevent this escape, which became the first, truly spectacular action of German reunification.The memorial is a worthwhile excursion destination with a beautiful park, a walkway with informative display boards, the peace bell and the remains of the Iron Curtain.

A memorial of great European interest