On June 4, 2026, Hong Kong residents in cities across Germany such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, and Stuttgart held events to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre and to send a message to all those in China fighting for freedom: your voices have not disappeared, your hope has not been extinguished. We remember, and we will continue.
For 30 years from 1989 to 2019, Hong Kong Victoria Park hosted the world’s largest annual candlelight vigil to commemorate the June 4th events, a tradition that was unbroken. However, starting from 2020, after the implementation of the National Security Law by the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, residents were prohibited from holding such events at Victoria Park.
Chairwoman Aniessa Andresen of the Hong Kong People in Germany Association made the following statement during the gathering:
Dear friends,
Dear comrades in freedom and human rights,
Today we stand here not just to remember, but also to take responsibility.
On June 4, 1989, 37 years ago, thousands of people in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and surrounding streets were brutally suppressed for peacefully advocating democracy, freedom, and political reform. Students, workers, and citizens believed their voices could be heard, but the Chinese Communist Party responded with violence.
“June 4th” is not just a historical event; it is a national repression of the people by their own government.
For many of us from Hong Kong, this history is not distant. We grew up with the memory of June 4th. From 1989 to 2019, hundreds of thousands gathered annually at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park for the world’s largest candlelight tribute. For thirty years, we have kept the memory alive – not out of habit but out of conviction. Because we understand: to let memories fade is to open the door to oppression.
In 2014, Hong Kongers took to the streets in the Umbrella Movement. What they demanded was freedom and fair elections – not violence, not chaos, but political participation. In 2019, millions of people rose again against the Extradition Bill to protect their rights, freedoms, and the future of their city.
Yet, once again, the government did not listen but responded with suppression.
Whether in Beijing in 1989 or Hong Kong in 2014 and 2019, we see a common pattern: people peacefully seeking freedom and democratic participation are not seen as citizens but as threats.
Today, mourning events in Hong Kong are prohibited, memorial actions criminalized. But memories cannot be banned.
That is why we stand here today.
We stand here as overseas Hong Kong diaspora, not to cling to the past but because we know: memory is resistance to forgetting.
Things that Hong Kong can no longer commemorate, we must continue to pass on abroad. We remember the victims of June 4th, we remember the people of the Umbrella Movement, we remember all those who bravely spoke out in 2019.
We also pass on a message to all those fighting for freedom:
Your voices have not disappeared. Your hope has not been extinguished. We remember. We will continue.
Thank you.