Australian Left Review
Article Title
Interview with Ernst Fischer
Abstract
Spiegel: Mr. Fischer, last year we asked you about the hopes of a human socialism, about the danger that in Czechoslovakia the experiment of a reconciliation between democracy and communism could be ended by violence. You told us: The traces of what occurred till now will never disappear. On the next day, foreign troops invaded Czechoslovakia.
Fischer: I am still firmly convinced. The traces will not disappear. Something extraordinary occurred at that time, which goes well beyond everyday politics: for the first time in history a people was happy for eight months. Whomever I spoke to in Czechoslovakia — whether worker or intellectual — there was simply the light of happiness which rose from the whole people A t last, what we thought, at last, what we dreamt!