ABSTRACT
Torrents sometimes start as trickles. Early in May 1989 the Hungarians, in the process of absconding from Communism, began dismantling the barriers which separated them from Austria and allowing refugees from the DDR to pass through without the documentation which had usually been required. This was reported on West German television, watched widely in East Germany, and thus became common knowledge. In August 600 East Germans, who had been allowed to attend a Pan-European Conference at the Hungarian town of Sopron, decided to go west rather than home. The number of those waiting in Budapest refugee camps to follow their example grew so fast that early in September the Hungarian authorities decided to disregard their arrangements with the DDR regime and allow campers to leave without formality; 15,000 did so in the next three days and 50,000 before the end of October. Others sought sanctuary in the West German Embassies in Prague and Warsaw and after elaborate negotiations were taken in sealed trains across East Germany to the West. The monthly total of emigrants had reached the level at which it had been decided in 1961 that a wall was indispensable.
