 right|thumb|alois mock in 1983 alois mock (born 10 june 1934) is a politician and member of the austrian people's party (Ãvp). he was vice chancellor of austria from 1987 to 1989. as foreign minister he helped take austria into the european union. born in euratsfeld, lower austria, to august and mathilde mock, he studied law at the university of vienna and later international law in bologna and brussels. in vienna, he became a member of k.a.v. norica wien, a roman catholic student fraternity, which is a member of the cartellverband. from 1961-66, he advised the bundeskanzler josef klaus on european economic community and efta policy and for the oecd in paris. in 1966 he became klaus' cabinet secretary. from 1969-70 was the youngest education minister in austrian history.  after the nationalrat elections of 1971 - where the social democratic party of austria (spÃ) under bruno kreisky won a majority&nbsp;â he became a member of parliament and mayor of euratsfeld. from 1971-78, he chaired the Ãaab, the most important grouping of the Ãvp. from 1978-87 he was chairman of the parliamentary party and from 1979 was also federal party chairman. he was later to be succeeded by josef riegler, erhard busek and wolfgang schÃ¼ssel. in 1979, mock became the president of the european democrat union (edu), and from 1983 to 1987 also of the international christian democratic international democratic union (idu). at the 1983 elections the Ãvp got almost the same percentage as kreisky's spÃ, who did not want to continue without an absolute majority and therefore retired.  following the 1986 elections, from 1987 to 1989 alois mock was austrian vice chancellor in the government of franz vranitzky (spÃ). he held the position of foreign minister from 1987 to 1995, leading austria into the european union. he became one of austria's most popular politicians. in june 1989, in the area of odenburg, he cut the wire of the iron curtain at the fortified border with communist neighbour hungary, together with his hungarian counterpart gyula horn. during the following months thousands of east german citizens could therefore emigrate to austria and [[west
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