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Article: A border made for crossing. (stream of East Germans crossing border between Austria and Hungary) (Europe)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 26, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A border made for crossing
THE stream of East Germans making their way across the border between Austria and Hungary and on to West Germany has become a flood. In just a few hours on August 19th, close to 700 surged jubilantly through a border gate at Sopron, past Hungarian guards told to look the other way. About 200 a night are now finding their way across different bits of the largely unguarded border. Some 300 more have been holed up in West German diplomatic misions in East Berlin, Budapest and Prague.
West Germany had expected some 90,000 East Germans to arrive this year with the official blessing of the East German government. If the flood of ...