The Picnic

The Picnic by Matthew Longo, winner of the Orwell Prize 2024, tells the exhilarating story of the greatest border breach in Cold War history.

This gripping reconstruction details the daring escape to freedom of hundreds of East Germans in the summer of 1989, a pivotal moment that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists undertook the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain and held a picnic. Thousands of East German 'holiday-makers,' propelled by whispers and rumours, made their way to the border, all under the watchful eyes of lurking Stasi agents. The scene was set for the most significant border breach in Cold War history. The events that followed precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union, signaling what many would call the end of history.

Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved, Matthew Longo reconstructs this world-shaping event and its tumultuous aftermath, offering a vivid glimpse into this dramatic chapter of history.