Memorial

Near the Hotel Guglwald there is a memorial for those expelled from the Bohemian neighbourhood in the period from 1946 to 1950 as well as all those from the neighbouring municipality of Heuraffl. Not far from here, on the Nordwaldkammweg, there has been a memorial since 1999, which does not commemorate the expulsion, but the Iron Curtain and the division of Europe after the Second World War into two very different social systems. The „Eiserner Vorhang“  Association is responsible for erecting this memorial and taking care of it. The suggestion for this goes back to the former Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Alois Mock. He was also the first to cut through the Iron Curtain with his Hungarian counterpart Gyula Horn. From Hungary, the new freedom also spread to Upper Austria. The Eastern Bloc system broke down. This fact became known worldwide, but today, after 25 years, it is almost forgotten.

Annual commemoration

The association is under the scientific direction of the Rohrbach-born historian Roman Sandgruber. The chairman of the association is former VP MP Helmut Kukacka, who also invites people to an event at the memorial every autumn. In the building, which was modelled on a former bunker, there are information boards about the historical facts from the time of the Iron Curtain. The association considers the memorial in the immediate vicinity of the former Iron Curtain important because today the traces of communist oppression have been forgotten. Former Vice-Chancellor Mock sees this project as an important reminder of the struggle in the Eastern Bloc countries for democracy, but also against extremism, as it is today in many parts of our civilised world.