20 years ago today on 10 Sep 1989, the Hungarian government agreed to allow the thousands of East German refugees who had been flooding into the country to leave for West Germany. This in effect was the beginning of the removal of the Iron Curtain, and the event was the catalyst for the collapse of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mr Coy was living in West Germany at the time, and remembers there being a big street party when his neighbours welcomed their East German and Hungarian friends. Lots of East German cars called Trabants suddenly appeared, often causing traffic jams because they were so slow, had broken down, or had crashed.
More information can be found in this BBC article. Here is a timeline of key events in 1989, and here is some more Hungarian history.
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