Barbara Stelzl-Marx
“Peace is not always peace. Was peace in 1945 really peace if half of Europe was divided? It was an interval. Peace was always an interval before a new war broke out.” These words come from Ukrainian writer Tanja Maljartschuk, speaking from Vienna after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
In the following article, we will examine the beginning of this “interval”, namely the end of the war in Europe in 1945 with the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht. On 8 May 1945, the Second World War came to an end, a war waged with unprecedented brutality and disregard for human life as a war of conquest – and in the East, as an annihilation war by the totalitarian National Socialist regime. This war claimed over 56 million lives, bringing untold misery, suffering, and destruction. Similarly to the end of the First World War, 8 May 1945 is rightly regarded as a turning point in history: the “Anschluss” of Austria in March 1938, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “It was a merciless time”, recalls an Austrian witness who experienced the turning point of 1945 as a child.
The Moscow Declaration
On 29 March 1945, the Red Army crossed the border from Hungary into Austria at Klostermarienberg in Burgenland, marking the beginning of Austria’s liberation from National Socialism and the Allied occupation of the country. The basis for this lay in the Moscow Declaration of 1943, which stated that Austria was the “first victim of Hitler’s aggression” and should be restored as a free and independent state. This led to the “victim thesis” that would endure for decades. However, the Moscow Declaration also urged Austria to contribute to its own liberation and reminded it of its shared guilt and responsibility for participating in the war. This latter part was long swept under the rug.
The Condensation of Violence
From late March 1945 until the end of the war, there was a severe intensification of violence. In these 41 days, the National Socialist regime committed numerous “end-phase crimes”, including the murder of Hungarian Jews on death marches to the Mauthausen concentration camp from the “South-East Wall”, the so-called “Reich Defence Position” along the eastern border of the Third Reich, including Austria. Mauthausen, the largest Nazi concentration camp in what is now Austria, would eventually be liberated by US troops on 5 May. In addition to the shooting of forced labourers who could no longer walk, massacres took place at locations such as Rechnitz, the Präbichl Pass near Eisenerz, and the Graz-Liebenau camp.
In Rechnitz alone, on the night of 24–25 March 1945 (Palm Sunday), 200 Hungarian Jewish forced labourers who were constructing the “Reich Defence Position” and could not be “evacuated” to the Mauthausen concentration camp were shot. These crimes represent what is termed “the Holocaust on our doorstep”. Only ten days later, the Red Army would reach Rechnitz and uncover the mass graves. In time, even literally, grass would grow over them. The search for the victims continues to this day.
The Birth of the Second Republic
During this period, events unfolded rapidly. In early April, an Austrian Wehrmacht resistance group led by Major Carl Szokoll established contact with the Red Army. The goal of “Operation Radetzky” was to support the Soviet troops in liberating Vienna and to prevent greater destruction of the city. However, the plan was betrayed, and the officers involved—Major Karl Biedermann, Captain Alfred Huth, and Lieutenant Rudolf Raschke—were arrested, sentenced to death by an SS court, and publicly hanged on street lamps in Vienna-Floridsdorf on 8 April. Major Szokoll, having been forewarned, informed the Soviets of the failure of “Operation Radetzky”.
Liberation of Vienna and the Birth of the Second Republic
Vienna was liberated on 13 April, with each side suffering nearly 20,000 fatalities. Stalin celebrated the capture of the Austrian capital with fireworks in Moscow, and 270,000 Red Army soldiers were awarded a special medal. A Viennese resident recorded in her diary, “Today, at half-past two in the morning, the Russians entered our house in Vienna. Since 6 April, we, like all the residents of our building, have been living and sleeping in our cellar.”
Just two weeks later, on 27 April 1945, representatives from the ÖVP, SPÖ, and KPÖ signed a proclamation of Austrian independence. This “Declaration of Independence” annulled the “Anschluss” of the Republic of Austria to the German Reich, dated 13 March 1938. It served as the basis for the provisional Austrian government formed at Stalin’s request the same day under Karl Renner, the first Chancellor of the First Republic, and comprising representatives of the three parties mentioned. Thus, 27 April is celebrated as the birth of the Second Republic of Austria.
On 29 April, a ceremonial government declaration was held in the Parliament building, which had previously served the Nazis as the “Gauhaus”. The red-white-red flag was hoisted to the cheering of the people, who danced in the streets amidst the ruins of the bombed Parliament and past cows grazing in the Volksgarten. The Western Allies had not yet entered Austrian territory at this point. They were taken aback by images of the new Chancellor Karl Renner alongside Soviet officers, fearing that Stalin had installed a puppet government in Austria – more precisely, in the Soviet occupation zone. The provisional government was thus initially recognised only in the Soviet zone, and a central task lay in achieving nationwide acceptance and preventing the division of Austria.
Military End of the War and Economic Situation
At the same time, the war was still ongoing. The National Socialist regime did not collapse from within but was defeated militarily from the outside. When the German Wehrmacht surrendered on 8 May, Austria was fully liberated from National Socialism and was occupied by the Allies. Up until the end of July 1945, Styria was even under fivefold control [The five occupation powers of Styria until the end of July 1945 were: Soviet, British, US-American, Bulgarian, Tito-Partisans]. The demarcation line between the Soviet and Western zones, under British, American, and French occupation, formed not only a political but also an economic barrier.
The economic situation was dire: the war had left the State Opera, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, private homes, and industrial plants in ruins. There was confiscation, looting, and dismantling, particularly by Red Army forces in eastern Austria. Added to this was the burden of housing occupation soldiers (400,000 Red Army soldiers were stationed in eastern Austria at the end of the war—always more than the combined forces of the three Western occupying armies). The black market thrived, and “hamster trips” to rural areas helped ensure survival. Countless refugees, displaced persons, liberated forced labourers, and concentration camp survivors needed assistance.
Karl Renner wrote at Pentecost 1945, “We are facing a catastrophe of hunger and disease.” Vienna, in particular, faced the threat of famine. The Red Army granted food aid, known as “pea aid” due to its high legume content. People coined the rhyme: “Land of peas, land of beans, land of allied zones.” Children, especially, suffered in this post-war landscape. The dire economic situation extended into schools: there were few shoes, little warm clothing, and a lack of heating materials, while many teachers had been killed, were prisoners of war, or faced employment bans due to denazification. Until 1946, many pupils only came to school once a week to hand in and collect assignments.
Rape and Arrests
The situation was particularly difficult for women. In the Soviet zone especially, but not exclusively, rape was rampant. For Vienna and Lower Austria alone, it is estimated that there were around 200,000 rapes at the end of the war and during the early occupation period. As a result of both sexual violence and voluntary relationships, thousands of “occupation children” were born. These children often faced stigmatisation and discrimination alongside their mothers. To this daily insecurity and threat in eastern Austria were added arrests and the deportation of civilians to the Soviet Union. The last civilian prisoners returned to Austria only in 1955, following the signing of the State Treaty, along with the last prisoners of war. A long journey lay ahead.
Zone Exchange and Government Recognition
Control over Austria was in the hands of the occupying powers, whom Renner called “the four elephants in the small boat of Austria”. By the end of July 1945, the occupation zones had been definitively established. Vienna was occupied quadruply, with its centre administered by troops of the four occupying powers: “four in a jeep” – a stroke of luck for Austria.
The provisional government was fully recognised throughout Austria in the autumn. Renner had not become a puppet of Stalin, as the Western Allies had feared. Quite the contrary: Stalin referred to him as a “cunning fox” in an internal document.
The November Elections
At the end of November 1945, Austria held its first free elections in 15 years. The ÖVP achieved an absolute majority, followed by the SPÖ, with the KPÖ lagging behind Kremlin expectations with only five percent. ÖVP Chancellor Leopold Figl, despite heated debates and lengthy discussions, formed a coalition government with all three parties – a solution the Allies would not have accepted otherwise. Unity was paramount to prevent the country and society from fracturing.
With these elections, Austria had chosen a western democratic path. Chancellor Figl declared in his policy statement, “The Austria of tomorrow will not be a repetition of 1918, 1933, or 1938,” naming several turning points. At Christmas, he appealed, “Believe in this Austria!”—an appeal to forge an Austrian identity, which ultimately succeeded.
Addressing the “Brown” Past
In this context, another essential task arose: denazification, the cleansing of public life and the economy from former Nazis through Allied trials or people’s courts. Yet National Socialism was also family history. It had a deeply permeated society, affecting each family. Austria’s often hesitant and not very determined approach to dealing with the legacy of the National Socialist past has been and remains a major challenge, especially today in light of a resurgence in antisemitism.
A Turning Point Today
In 1945, the essential foundations were laid for Austria’s successful development. As the nation fought for survival, it undertook a courageous new beginning. Today, we find ourselves again at a turning point. Looking back on the past can remind us to remain vigilant and not to take democracy, freedom, and peace for granted.
Barbara Stelzl-Marx – professor at Ludvig Boltzmann Institute (Vienna)
Further reading:
- Alfred Ableitinger, Siegfried Beer, Eduard G. Staudinger (eds.), Austria under Allied Occupation 1945–1955. Vienna, 1998.
- Stefan Karner, Barbara Stelzl-Marx (eds.), The Red Army in Austria: Soviet Occupation 1945–1955. Contributions. Graz – Vienna – Munich, 2005.
- Wolfgang Mueller, The Soviet Occupation in Austria 1945–1955 and Its Political Mission. Vienna – Cologne – Weimar, 2005.
- Manfried Rauchensteiner, The War in Austria ’45. Vienna, 1995.
- Barbara Stelzl-Marx, Stalin’s Soldiers in Austria: An Inside View of the Soviet Occupation 1945–1955. Vienna – Munich, 2012.
- Barbara Stelzl-Marx, Silke Satjukow (eds.), Children of Occupation: The Descendants of Allied Soldiers in Austria and Germany. Vienna – Cologne – Weimar, 2015.