At the end of World War II in Europe, Austria was occupied by the Allies and declared independence from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offensive. The occupation ended when the Austrian State Treaty came into force on 27 July 1955.
After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In November 1943, however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression—without denying Austria's role in Nazi crimes—and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four occupation zones and jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council. Austria, unlike Allied-occupied Germany, had its own government from 1945 onwards.
While Germany was divided into East and West Germany in 1949, Austria remained under joint occupation of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union until 1955; its status became a controversial subject in the Cold War until the warming of relations known as the Khrushchev Thaw. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full independence on 15 May 1955 and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year.
Background
At the 1943 Moscow Conference, the Soviet Union, United States, and the United Kingdom had jointly decided that the German annexation of Austria would be considered "null and void". In addition, all administrative and legal measures since 1938 would be ignored. The conference declared the intent to create a free and independent Austria after the war, but also stated that Austria had a responsibility for "participation in the war at the side of Hitlerite Germany" which could not be evaded.
1945–1946: First year of occupation
Soviet rule and reestablishing Austrian government
On 29 March 1945, Soviet commander Fyodor Tolbukhin's troops crossed the former Austrian border at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland.Eisterer 2009, p. 190. On 3 April, at the beginning of the Vienna Offensive, the Austrian politician Karl Renner, then living in southern Lower Austria, established contact with the Soviets. Joseph Stalin had already established a would-be future Austrian cabinet from the country's communists in exile, but Tolbukhin's telegram changed Stalin's mind in favor of Renner.Bordjugov 2005.
On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany, and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic. Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the fighting was over.Eisterer 2009, p. 196.
Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by NKVD bodyguards.Petrov 2009, p. 259. One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including crucial seats of the Secretary of State of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Education, was staffed by Austrian Communists. The Western allies suspected the establishment of a puppet state and refused to recognize Renner.Bischof 2009, p. 174. The British were particularly hostile; even American President Harry Truman, who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin, denied him recognition.Bischof 2009, p. 175. However, Renner had secured inter-party control by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not designating the Secretary of State.
As soon as Hitler's armies were pushed back into Germany, the Red Army and the NKVD began to comb the captured territories. By 23 May, they reported arrests of 268 former Red Army men, 1,208 men, and 1,655 civilians.Petrov 2009, p. 260. In the following weeks the British returned to the Soviets over 40,000 Cossacks who had fled to Western Austria; they were likely put to death on their return.Petrov 2009, p. 263. In July and August, the Soviets brought in four regiments of NKVD troops to "mop up" Vienna and seal the Czechoslovak border.Petrov 2009, pp. 252–253.Petrov 2009, p. 255, provides a roll of NKVD troops stationed in Austria.
Soviet commanders on the ground ordered the troops to stop as soon as they entered Austria. On 4 April 1945, the command issued a directive that was read to all soldiers on the front lines. The directive declared the Austria victim theory and that the Red Army had entered the country to liberate it and annihilate the German Army. For years, it said, propaganda in Nazi Germany terrorized Austrians with atrocities committed by Soviet soldiers. The directive called Nazi propaganda a lie and called on the military not to confuse Austrian civilians with German occupiers. The end of the directive reads, "be merciless towards German enslavers, but don't offend the Austrian population. Respect their traditions, families, and private property. Proudly carry the glorious title of a Red Army warrior . . . let your conduct cause respect everywhere for the Red Army." The Red Army lost 17,000 lives in the Battle of Vienna. Soviet troops engaged in systematic sexual violence against women, beginning in the first days and weeks after the Soviet victory. Repression against civilians harmed the Red Army's reputation to such an extent that on 28 September 1945 Moscow issued an order forbidding violent interrogations.Petrov 2009, p. 258. Red Army morale fell as soldiers prepared to be sent home; replacement of combat units with Ivan Konev's permanent occupation force only marginally reduced 'misbehaviour'.Eisterer, p. 194. Throughout 1945 and 1946, all levels of Soviet command tried, in vain, to contain desertion and plunder by rank and file.Petrov 2009, pp. 266–268.Lewis, pp. 145, 153, wrote that Tolbukhin "was reported to have been relieved of his command in the summer of 1945 because of the behaviour of his troops." According to Austrian police records for 1946, "men in Soviet uniform", usually drunk, accounted for more than 90% of registered crime (in comparison, U.S. soldiers accounted for 5 to 7%).Berg 2000, p. 162.Berg 2000, pp. 161–162, reviews the studies and sources on alcoholism in Soviet troops. At the same time, the Soviet governors resisted the expansion and arming of the Austrian police force.Carafano 2002, p. 177.
French, British, and American troops
American troops, including the 11th Armored Division, crossed the Austrian border on 26 April, followed by French and British troops on 29 April and on 8 May, respectively. Until the end of July 1945 none of the Western allies had first-hand intelligence from Eastern Austria (likewise, Renner's cabinet knew practically nothing about conditions in the West).Eisterer 2009, p. 197.
The first Americans arrived in Vienna in the end of July 1945, when the Soviets were pressing Renner to surrender Austrian oil fields.Bischof 2009, p. 177. Americans objected and blocked the deal but ultimately the Soviets assumed control over Austrian oil in their zone. The British arrived in September.
At the end of the war, the British Eighth Army moved into Austria and became part of the occupation force. On 29 July 1945, the army was disbanded and its forces were used to form the command British Troops Austria. The new command maintained the gold crusader cross insignia of the Eighth Army.
The Allied Council of four military governors convened for its first meeting in Vienna on 12 September 1945. It refused to recognize Renner's claim of a national government but did not prevent him from extending influence into the Western zones. Renner appointed vocal anti-communist Karl Gruber as Foreign Minister and tried to reduce Communist influence. On 20 October 1945, Renner's reformed cabinet was recognized by the Western allies and received a go-ahead for the first legislative election.Bischof 2009, p. 176.
Occupation zones On 9 July 1945 the Allies agreed on the borders of their occupation zones.Agreement on the occupation zones in Austria and the administration of the City of Vienna (9 July 1945) & Movement of occupation troops ("zone swap") continued until the end of July. The French and American zones bordered those countries' zones in Germany, and the Soviet zone bordered future Warsaw Pact states:
Vorarlberg and North Tyrol were assigned to the French Zone Salzburg and Upper Austria south of the Danube were assigned to the American Zone. East Tyrol, Carinthia, and Styria were assigned to the British Zone. , Lower Austria, and the area of Upper Austria, north of the Danube, were assigned to the Soviet Zone. Vienna was divided among all four Allies. The historical center of Vienna was declared an international zone, in which occupation forces changed every month. In determining the occupation zones, the administrative changes made after the Anschluss were applied in the western zones (Steirisches Salzkammergut to Upper Austria and East Tyrol to Carinthia) and were disregarded in the Soviet zone (Vienna not enlarged and Burgenland re-established).
First general elections after the war The election held on 25 November 1945 was a blow for the Communist Party of Austria which received a bit more than 5% of the vote. The coalition of Christian Democrats (ÖVP) and Social Democrats (SPÖ), backed by 90% of the votes, assumed control over the cabinet and offered the position of Federal Chancellor to Christian Democrat Julius Raab.Wollinetz 1988, p. 94. The Soviets vetoed Raab, because he had been a member of the austrofascist Fatherland Front during the 1930s. Instead President Karl Renner, with the consent of parliament, appointed Leopold Figl, who was just barely acceptable to the Soviets.Bischof 2009, p. 176. They responded with massive and coordinated expropriation of Austrian economic assets.
The Potsdam Agreement allowed confiscation of "German external assets" in Austria, and the Soviets used the vagueness of this definition to the full.Bischof 2009, pp. 176–177. In less than a year they dismantled and shipped to the East industrial equipment valued at around US$500 million. American High Commissioner Mark W. Clark vocally resisted Soviet expansionist intentions, and his reports to Washington, along with George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram", supported Truman's tough stance against the Soviets.Bischof 2009, pp. 177–178. Thus, according to Bischof, the Cold War in Austria began in the spring of 1946, one year before the outbreak of the global Cold War.
On 28 June 1946, the Allies signed the Second Control Agreement which loosened their dominance over the Austrian government. The Parliament was de facto relieved of Allied control. From now on, its decisions could be overturned only by unanimous vote by all four Allies.Bischof 2009, p. 172. Soviet vetoes were routinely voided by Western opposition. Over the next nine years the country was gradually emancipated from foreign control, and evolved from a "nation under tutelage" to full independence.Bischof 2009, p. 173. The government possessed its own independent vision of the future, reacting to adverse circumstances and at times turning them to their own benefit.Lewis 2000, p. 139. The first allied talks on Austrian independence were held in January 1947, and deadlocked over the issue of "German assets" in Soviet possession.
Mounting losses