8 May
Capitulation of the Wehrmacht – end of the Second World War.
10 May
Adoption of the
Law on the Registration of Aryanized and Other Assets Seized in Connection with the Assumption of Power by the National Socialists.
“The object of this Law is the registration of assets and property rights expropriated from their owners after 13 March 1938, be it arbitrarily or on the basis of laws or other regulations on racial, national or other grounds, in connection with the assumption of power by the National Socialists.” (§1)
The owners of expropriated assets were required to register this. It was not until September 1946 that the implementing regulation (Asset Expropriation Registration Regulation – VEAV) entered into force.
26 June
Adoption of the
Constitutional Law on War Crimes and Other National Socialist Crimes (War Criminals Act).
“Anyone who, by exploiting the National Socialist seizure of power or otherwise exploiting National Socialist institutions or measures, appropriated, passed to others or otherwise inflicted damage on another person’s assets with the intention of acquiring disproportionate pecuniary advantage for themselves or others is to be punished by imprisonment of one to five years, or rigorous imprisonment of five to ten years in the case of significant pecuniary advantage or appreciable damage.” (§6)
July
From July 1945, all art objects discovered until then that had been looted by the Nazi regime were consolidated in three Central Art Collecting Points in Munich, Wiesbaden and Marburg. One of the hiding places was the salt mine in Altaussee, where the Nazi regime hoarded 6,500 paintings, 1,500 crates of books and several hundred other artworks. Most of the objects hidden in Altaussee were intended for the “Führermuseum” in Linz. The find was transported to Munich.
Experts inspected the works at the Central Art Collecting Points, and attempts were made to identify the rightful owners and return the artworks to them.
4 July
Signing of the first Allied Control Agreement, fixing the control arrangement until the formation of an Austrian federal government recognized by the Allies and confirming the status of the occupying forces in Austria.
4 July
Adoption of the
Victim Welfare Act, in which only Austrian resistance fighters were classified as victims. The victims of racial persecution by the Nazi regime were not mentioned in the law.
24 October
Founding of the United Nations through the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations.
15 May
Adoption of the
Annulment Act.
“Legal transactions and other legal action with or without payment during the German occupation of Austria are null and void if they were carried out as part of the political or economic penetration by the German Reich in order to expropriate the assets or rights of natural or legal entities that they held on 13 March 1938.” (§1)
28 June
Signing of the second Allied Control Agreement giving the Austrian government greater autonomy.
26 July
Adoption of the
1st Restitution Act (RStG).
“The assets expropriated by the German Reich on the basis of repealed Reich legal provisions [§1.2(2), Transition of Legislation Act] or through an administrative decree for reasons stated in § 1 of the Law of 10 May 1945 (Criminal Law Gazette of 10 May 1945, no. 10) and currently administered by federal or provincial offices on the basis of the provisions of the Transition of Authority Act are to be returned, owing to the invalidity of the asset transfer at the time, to the owners from whom they were expropriated or their heirs – hereinafter referred to as aggrieved owners – in accordance with the following provisions.” (§1)
16 September
Entry into force of the
Asset Expropriation Registration Regulation (VEAV) (see
Law on the Registration of Aryanized and Other Assets Seized in Connection with the Assumption of Power by the National Socialists of 10 May 1945).
The USA and United Kingdom increased pressure on Austria to continue restitution legislation.
Simon Wiesenthal (1908–2005) and other survivors of the Nazi regime established the Centre for Jewish Historical Documentation in Linz.
6 February
Adoption of the
2nd Restitution Act, providing for the return of assets held by the state as a result of the so-called National Socialist Act or the War Criminals Act.
Adoption of the
3rd Restitution Act, providing for the return of assets held by private individuals to their rightful owners.
21 May
Adoption of the
4th Restitution Act.
Austria was included in the Marshall Plan, leading to economic recovery. The authority of the Austrian government was extended on account of the Cold War. The USA did everything possible to enhance Austria’s economic and political stability and to avoid public criticism of Austrian politics so as to deprive the Soviet Union of any grounds for attack.
December
The unscrupulous looting of art objects by the Nazi regime and its profiteers became increasingly evident.
In 1950, 1952 and 1954 the Austrian National Council attempted to end denazification but was unsuccessful on account of resistance from the Allies.
The Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria was founded in New York.
Spring
Negotiations by Austria with the Joint Executive Board (board of the Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria and the Federal Association of Jewish Communities in Austria), in which the Jewish organizations demanded a series of compensation payments. Austria did not consider itself responsible for the Nazi crimes or obliged to make such compensation payments.
15 May
Signing of the
Austrian State Treaty. The obligation by Austria in draft versions of the State Treaty to pay compensation in those cases in which the expropriated assets had disappeared and could not therefore be restituted was successfully opposed through diplomatic means and considerably weakened, marking the failure of international Jewish organizations to establish compensation payments in the Austrian State Treaty. The Austrian foreign minister Leopold Figl (1902–65) also managed to have references to Austria’s shared responsibility for the Second World War, which was to have been mentioned in paragraph 3 of the Preamble, deleted from the State Treaty.
14 December
Austria became a member of the United Nations Organization.
Simon Wiesenthal (1908–2005) founded the Association of Jews Persecuted by the Nazi Regime and affiliated Documentation Centre.
October
Almost twenty years after they were hidden there by the Nazi regime, 1,141 paintings were found in a shaft close to Lake Toplitz in the Salzkammergut, including works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Correggio.
31 March
The Borodajkewycz scandal
After Taras Borodajkewycz (1902–84), professor at the Vienna University of World Trade, attracted attention for his antisemitic and Greater German nationalistic comments, a demonstration was organized by former members of the resistance and the Antifascist Student Committee. The former resistance fighter Ernst Kirchweger (1898–1965) was badly injured during the demonstration and died two days later. Ferdinand Lacina (1042) and Heinz Fischer (1938) were instrumental in exposing Borodajkewycz’s comments at the University of World Trade.
7 July
Adoption of the
Collection Point Settlement Act.
“In settlement of the claims by the Collection Points against the government for the return of heirless assets belonging to persons persecuted by National Socialism, for the return of part of the shares in Aktiengesellschaft Dynamit Nobel Wien, for the return of the property EZ. 864, KG. Josefstadt (Sanatorium Fürth), and for compensation for the balance of account no. 10551 at Landeshypothekenanstalt in Klagenfurt, the sum of 22,700,000 schillings is to be transferred to the Collection Points within two months of the entry into force of this federal law.” (§1)
September
Following an inquiry by the Austrian Documentation Centre of the Association of Jews Persecuted by the Nazi Regime, both the education and the finance minister announced a new Artwork Settlement Act. Countless artworks looted by and during the Nazi regime were still stored at Mauerbach Charterhouse near Vienna. Austria gave the rightful owners and their descendants until 31 October 1970 to assert claims. Thereafter, 657 oil paintings, 84 watercolours, 250 drawings, numerous sculptures, 28 documents, 35 pieces of furniture, 25 carpets, 3,000 books, along with silverware, tapestries, a coin collection and ten crates of theatre literature became the property of the state.
9 October
A press conference by Simon Wiesenthal marked the start of the Kreisky-Peter-Wiesenthal affair. Wiesenthal stated that the FPÖ national party ombudsman Friedrich Peter (1921–2005) had been a member of one of the notorious SS Einsatzgruppen that committed countless war crimes behind the Eastern front during the Second World War. Peter admitted membership but denied any wrongdoing. Federal chancellor Bruno Kreisky (1911–90) opposed Wiesenthal, giving rise to a bitter and drawn-out conflict fought for the most part in the media.
March
Broadcast of the US series
Holocaust on Austrian television.
23 August
Opening of the United Nations headquarters in Vienna.
December
Publication in the magazine
ARTnews of an article by Andrew Decker entitled “A Legacy of Shame: Nazi Art Loot in Austria”. The article dealt with the art objects stored in Mauerbach Charterhouse and the Austrian government’s handling of them.
24 January
Start of the Reder-Frischenschlager affair
The former Waffen-SS Sturmbannführer Walter Reder (1915–91) was released early from prison. He was the person mainly responsible for the massacre of Marzabotto in October 1944, in which almost 1,800 inhabitants of a small town near Bologna were murdered. Reder was flown after his release to Graz, where the Austrian defence minister Friedhelm Frischenschlager (1943) from the FPÖ officially welcomed him and shook his hand. This led to demands for Frischenschlager’s resignation.
November
Premiere of
Burgtheater by Elfriede Jelinek (1946) in Bonn. The play dealt with the deficits in Austria’s confrontation with its Nazi past and in particular the history of the Austrian actress Paula Wessely (1907–2000).
13 December
Adoption of the
2nd Art and Cultural Object Settlement Act.
2 March
Start of the Waldheim affair. The article by Hubertus Czernin (1956–2006) “Waldheim and the SA” was the first in a series over several weeks in the magazine
Profil about the former United Nations Secretary General and current Austrian presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007) and his war record.
4 March
The World Jewish Congress in New York informed the international public of the gaps in the official biography of the former UN Secretary General and current Austrian presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim. It claimed that as an officer in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War Waldheim had been involved in war crimes in the Balkans. The accusations and the role of Austrians in the German Wehrmacht dominated the presidential election campaign in Austria, in which Waldheim was the ÖVP candidate.
8 June
Kurt Waldheim elected president of Austria.
June
Start of the historians’ dispute.
April
The US Department of Justice placed Austrian federal president Kurt Waldheim on its watch list, preventing him from entering the USA as a private person. Waldheim criticized this decision in a television address.
Presentation of the Waldheim Report by the International Commission of Historians, stating that Waldheim must have been aware of war crimes in the Balkans. Simon Wiesenthal, head of the Jewish Documentation Centre, called for Waldheim to resign as president.
During the fiftieth anniversary of the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, a fierce debate raged regarding Austria’s Nazi past, with several discussion events and numerous publications.
24 November
The highly controversial
Memorial against War and Fascism by Alfred Hrdlicka (1928–2009) was unveiled on Albertinaplatz in Vienna.
8 July
Incited by the statement in parliament by governor of Carinthia and FPÖ chairman Jörg Haider (1950–2008) in praise of the National Socialist employment policy, federal chancellor Franz Vranitzky (1937) called for an in-depth consideration of Austria’s role in a changed Europe and the historical background to it. Vranitzky said: “We acknowledge all the acts, both good and bad, in our history and by our citizens. We can take credit for the good acts and must apologise to the survivors and descendants of the dead for the bad acts. Austrian politicians have always refused this acknowledgement. I would like to do so today explicitly and on behalf of the Austrian federal government: as a measure of the relationship we must have today to our past, as a measure of the political culture in our country, but also as our contribution to the new political culture in Europe.”
8 July
Thomas Klestil succeeded Kurt Waldheim as Austrian federal president.
23 January
The “sea of lights” on Heldenplatz in Vienna – demonstration against racism and xenophobia.
9 June
Speech by federal chancellor Franz Vranitzky at the University of Jerusalem during a visit to Israel asking the victims of Austrian perpetrators for forgiveness on behalf of the Republic.
1 March
Successful conclusion of the negotiations for Austria’s membership of the European Union.
4 March
Release in Austria of the Hollywood film
Schindler’s List.
8 April
The UNHCR declared Austria to be generally no longer a safe third country for asylum seekers.
12 June
Referendum on EU membership: 66.58% in favour.
15 November
Speech by federal president Klestil in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Klestil was the first president of Austria to address the Knesset. He spoke of the “burdensome legacy arising out of our history that Austrians must acknowledge”.
1 January
Austria joined the European Union.
January
International symposium “The Spoils of War – World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property” in New York.
The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism was founded.
4 August
Proclamation of the amendment to the 2nd Art and Cultural Object Settlement Act, known as the
Mauerbach Act.
Autumn
Presentation in Austria of the touring exhibition
War of Annihilation: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944 (part of the project “Civilization and Barbarism” by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research), giving rise to fierce discussions.
Release of the documentary
East of War.
Ruth Beckermann and Peter Roeshler collected the reactions of visitors to the touring exhibition
War of Annihilation: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944 in Vienna. Descendants of former Wehrmacht soldiers and eyewitnesses were also interviewed. Because the original exhibition before its modification focused more on the individual responsibility of Wehrmacht soldiers, the reactions tended to be very personal.
September
Founding of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) in Washington D.C. The documentation centre assisted descendants of victims of looting and researchers in locating stolen artworks.
9 October
Opening of the exhibition
Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection, Vienna at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York.
December
London Conference on Nazi Gold.
24 December
Publication in
The New York Times of Judith H. Dobrzynski’s article “The Zealous Collector” about the Austrian art collector Rudolf Leopold.
8 January
Seizure of
Portrait of Wally and
Dead City II from the Leopold Collection by the New York district attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Spring
Heated discussion about the need to address the history of forced labour and asset expropriation during the Nazi period and about compensation and restitution in the Second Republic. Ariel Muzicant, president of the Vienna Jewish Community, called for the setting up of a commission to study the issue.
1 October
Adoption by parliament of a decision establishing the Historians’ Commission of the Republic of Austria with the task of investigating and reporting on the entire issue of asset expropriation on the territory of the Republic of Austria during the Nazi period and on restitution and compensation (including financial or welfare payments) by the state since 1945. The results of the individual research projects and expert opinions were finally published in 2003.
5 November
Adoption by parliament of the
Art Restitution Act.
30 November to 3 December
Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, resulting in an agreement by forty-five states on the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art.
4 December
Promulgation of the Art Restitution Act in the Federal Law Gazette.
5 December
Entry into force of the Art Restitution Act.