I am reading a great book, just out, Roller-Coaster, the historian Ian Kershaw’s story of Europe since 1950.

“When the [Austrian] border was opened, on the night of 10-11 September [1989], thousands of East German citizens voted with their feet, crossing through Hungary into Austria, then from there into the Federal Republic of Germany. By the end of October 50 000 had left. They also took refuge in the embassies of the Federal Republic in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. On 30 September the West German Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, announced that he had successfully negotiate with Moscow and East Berlin to transfer 60 000 GDR citizens to the Federal Republic. Between 3 and 5 November [when restrictions on travel to Czechoslovakia were lifted] more than 10 000 crossed the Czech border, en route into West Germany. On the evening of 9 November [when rumours spread that direct passage into West Berlin was permitted], thousands of GDR citizens headed for the Wall. The border guards tried at first to prevent people leaving but soon gave up. Left sometimes with lipstick on their cheeks, they simply waved the masses through. West Berliners rushed to their side of the wall, embracing strangers, plying their fellow Germans from the east with flowers, chocolates – and bananas (like all fresh fruit not readily available in the GDR). Nearly 120 000 East Germans left for the West between the opening of the Wall and the end of 1989.”