Addressing students in Shanghai University on March 23, 2016,German President Joachim Gauck condemned the "illegitimacy of Communist rule" in East Germany and lauded the benefits of human rights. He said “Most people were neither happy nor liberated, and the entire system lacked proper legitimacy. Free, equal and secret public elections were not held. The result was a lack of credibility, which went hand in hand with a culture of distrust between the rulers and those they ruled. It was a state that, as part of the union of Communist countries dependent on the Soviet Union, silenced its own people, locked them up and humiliated those who refused to comply with the will of the leaders.” Gauck added that “vibrant and active civil society always means an innovative and flexible society and even if the universal applicability of human rights does not yet mean that every person can de facto enjoy those rights... they can nonetheless lay claim to them.,” He said "This freedom is a precious commodity.”