25 years ago, in the night of September 10th to September 11th 1989, the Hungarian government briefly opens the border to Austria for East German citizens. Hungary allows about 7000 refuges from communist east Germany to leave, which bypasses the iconic Berlin Wall. In the following days and weeks, tens of thousands of former GDR citizens travel to West Germany via the Austro-Hungarian border.
Later Mikhai Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, confirms that Hungary did not ask permission in Moscow before opening its borders.
