1989 was a year of astounding revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe. One by one, the Soviet Union’s satellite states shook off their communist regimes and Moscow’s iron heel. First came Poland and Hungary, then the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia, finally Romania and Bulgaria, before the Soviet Union collapsed. “People power” and “velvet revolutions” confronted communist regimes and unhinged their repressive power.
Unlike the massacre of Tiananmen Square in China, and apart from brief violence in Romania, no blood was shed. Gorbachev did not intervene as his predecessors had done in the GDR (1953), Hungary (1956), and Czechoslovakia (1968). Historians will be challenged to assess these uncharacteristically gentle “velvet revolutions.” Given its geostrategic location on the periphery of the Soviet sphere of influence, Austria was deeply affected by all these events and the opening of the iron curtain along its borders.
AN EXHIBIT BY THE AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM NEW YORK
SPONSORED BY:
The Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies
CONCEPT:
Günter Bischof
CenterAustria, The University of New Orleans
CURATORS:
Günter Bischof; Lorenz Mikoletzky
Austrian State Archives, Vienna
DESIGN:
Ahoy Studios, ahoystudios.com
COORDINATION:
Lisa-Maria Matzinger
MAPS:
Vehling Verlag Graz | Andreas Sassman
WEB SITE:
Campaign Digital | Hannes Richter
ADDITIONAL SPONSORS:
Die Presse | Michael Fleischhacker, Michaelk Haller,
Michael M. Boschner
Bildarchiv der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek | Hans Petschar, Michael Pfunder, Monika Kranzl
Österreichisches Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung | Erwin Schmidl, Michael Bauer
Marketing NÖ Landesausstellung, Schallaburg Kulturbetriebsges.m.b.H | Roland Sandhofer
Ironimus Gustav Peichl Private Collection
Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush Presidential Libraries
Otmar Lahodynsky
BIK Graz | Peter Ruggenthaler
