March of Freedom

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The March of Freedom took place on December 10, 1989 during the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia on the Czechoslovak- Austrian border. It was organized by the leading members of the “ Public Against Violence ” movement, Jan Budai and Milan Kňažko .

Preparations in Czechoslovakia

The Austrian-Czechoslovakian border was open since December 4th and citizens of Czechoslovakia were allowed to leave. The iron curtain on the Austrian-Czechoslovakian border was still standing, the communist sole government in Czechoslovakia was in its last days and was challenged daily by mass protests of the citizens. The organizers of the March of Freedom planned to march with the participants to the Austrian border and beyond after a demonstration against the sole communist government, although it was unclear how the Czechoslovak border police would react to this mass departure.

The March of Freedom was evidently based on the Pan-European Picnic and was also intended to test the government's reaction after the Iron Curtain had already fallen in Hungary and the GDR .

Preparations in Austria

On the Austrian side, Thomas Häringer was contacted in advance and he was inaugurated about the action. Exactly why he was chosen by the organizers is unknown, but is likely to be related to an earlier visit by Häringer to Czechoslovakia. Häringer informed the mayor of Hainburg , Johann Ritter, about the planned March of Freedom. There was a second meeting with the organizers of the March of Freedom, at which Austrian representatives from the Foreign , Interior and Defense Ministry were also present and the processes were clarified.

The Austrian population was hardly informed and was subsequently greatly surprised by the dimension of the action. Since it was unclear how the Czechoslovak authorities would react to the action, the Austrian side made camouflaged preparations and an exercise by the armed forces and the Austrian Red Cross was scheduled near the border, during which a plane crash was officially assumed and training was given for this case. Under the pretext of the exercise, among other things, a large number of elite soldiers from the Austrian Jagdkommando were on standby to secure the Austrian federal territory near the border. The number of staff in the nearby hospitals was also increased.

procedure

Contrary to all fears, the action took place calmly and peacefully in unexpected dimensions. Due to the deliberate lack of information of the Austrian population about the possible size of the campaign, they were hopelessly overwhelmed by the number of visitors, if at all prepared for it. For example, the actors at the Hainburg Castle Games had decided to greet visitors with bread and salt and had prepared 15 kg of bread for this purpose. The community of Hainburg had prepared for the visitors with a pallet of mineral water and a few bags of toilet paper.

On December 10, 1989, in bright sunshine, 50,000 visitors, including Alena Heribanová , crossed the Czechoslovakian border and brought a 3 meter high heart made of barbed wire and a poster as a gift. There was singing in an unbelievably euphoric atmosphere and the changing times celebrated in a relaxed atmosphere. In the end, all visitors went back to Czechoslovakia, where President Gustáv Husak , for the first time since 1948, pledged a majority non-communist government of national agreement under Marián Čalfa and immediately resigned.

The barbed wire heart stood in Hainburg as a memorial to that day until it was washed away by a flood. Its counterpart is still on the Slovak side today.

Web links

Commons : Commemoration ceremony, 30th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Robert Salzer, noe.orf.at: “March of Freedom”: contemporary witness remembers. December 8, 2019, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Invitation to commemorate the “March of Freedom”. Retrieved December 8, 2019 (Austrian German).
  3. ↑ Federal President: Ceremony for 30 years of the fall of the Iron Curtain and “March of Freedom” from Bratislava to Hainburg. Retrieved December 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Live from Berg: 30 Years of Freedom from December 10, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b Stefan Weiss: Hainburg and freedom. In: MFG - Das Magazin - St. Pölten's good side. November 2014, accessed on December 10, 2019 (German).
  6. ↑ Memory of the “March of Freedom”. December 19, 2014, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  7. ^ Pressburger Zeitung - 1989: Regime in the last breaths. Retrieved December 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Live from Berg: "30 Years of Freedom" TV special on the occasion of the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Accessed on December 8, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Petit Press as: Tri dni k slobode: Ľudská reťaz, pochod priateľstva a pád železnej opony. Retrieved December 8, 2019 (Slovak).