Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

Over a decade later, political changes were taking place to our
north in Czechoslovakia which culminated in the Prague Spring.
This attempt at political emancipation was in turn also crushed by
Warsaw Pact troops and once again refugees streamed into Austria.
I remember driving to Prague with a friend to collect and bring
back to Vienna personal belongings from the apartment of a refugee
family I did not know. Years later, during a public debate, a young
woman came forward and thanked me on behalf of her family for
this act of solidarity.
The Soviet-dominated world was separated from the West but for
Austrians it was relatively easy to travel there. Visas were unproblematic
to obtain and in some cases, East Germany for example, not
required at all. As a keen student of politics, I was a frequent visitor
to East Berlin and many of the Eastern Bloc countries, the Soviet
Union itself and Uzbekistan. By this stage, I was representative
for the City of Vienna in the Community of the Danube Countries
and in this capacity I also visited Odessa. In a sense, we grew accustomed
to the division of Europe although we hoped for a gradual
process of transformation. Convergence theory – the hope that
there would be gradual rapprochement between the two systems
and with it the reconciliation of a divided Europe – became the
modern idea.
One country that did offer such hope was Hungary. The Goulash
Communism of the later Kádár period and subsequent years promised
a greater opening up to the West than in any other country in
the Eastern Bloc. So it was that we tried to develop links from Austria
with our eastern neighbours, particularly from Vienna. The idea
of a joint world fair in Vienna and Budapest was born. The plan
was to hold the fair in 1995 based on the twin city concept. After
some discussion, both countries and both cities agreed to the plan
and submitted a bid to the appropriate international organisation in
Paris.
As the responsible member of the Viennese Provincial Government
and the City Senate, I was commissioned to plan a site in Vienna
and assigned to represent it to the outside world. Together with
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, today European Union Commissioner for
External Relations and at the time working at the Austrian Embassy
231 Hannes Swoboda