ABSTRACT
The end of communism started with an event at the Hungarian-Austrian border in May 1989. Hungarian politicians arguably dismantled the Iron Curtain – assisted by the Austrian Foreign Minister and observed by Hungarian and Austrian media – by providing their fellow citizens with international passports. In September 1989, the Hungarians finally permitted citizens of the German Democratic Republic to pass the same Hungarian-Austrian border to leave towards West Germany. According to some scholars (e.g. Swain 1993) these political events in Hungary at the dusk of communism were of significant importance for accelerating the speed of the central and eastern European revolution at the end of 1989. Hence, it is not an historical exaggeration to postulate that the first cracks in the Iron Curtain in the annus mirabilis of 1989 occurred in the Hungarian part of the communist bloc. Over 15 years after the events of 1989, the democratic transformation of the Hungarian political system is almost complete.
