30 Years Since the Fall of the Wall: Paneuropean Youth Sees a Warning

Oppression and political violence must be consigned to the past – the unjust GDR regime and its crimes should not be celebrated.

Thirty years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell. “It was more than just a symbol of oppression – it was an instrument of separation, terror, and torment,” stated Philipp Jauernik, Federal Chairman of Paneuropean Youth Austria, on this day of remembrance. “We must never forget the suffering caused by oppression in the so-called Eastern Bloc.” History, therefore, should serve as a warning in Austria too, for ‘Never Again’, against oppression and political violence. “We owe this to the many who died at all borders of the Iron Curtain.”

Jauernik finds the tendencies to whitewash the systems behind the Iron Curtain particularly alarming. “There can be no doubt whatsoever: the GDR was an unjust state. Otherwise, it would not have needed the Wall. A state where law, justice, and freedom prevail does not need a wall to imprison its inhabitants. In free countries, people do not have to risk their lives if they wish to leave,” was his unequivocal message.

“Thousands of people tried to flee the GDR. Many paid for their attempt with their lives. Shots were fired at the Berlin Wall just as they were along other parts of the Iron Curtain,” Jauernik recalls. He therefore finds it “appalling” that a celebratory event with Hans Bauer (former Deputy Attorney General of the GDR) is taking place in Linz on Monday. “Have these people learned nothing?”