!!!Besatzung 1945-1955

Occupation of Austria 1945-1955: During the last weeks of  World 
War II, Allied troops occupied the whole of Austria: Soviet 
Russia Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland and large parts of Styria, 
the USA Upper Austria, the provinces of Salzburg and Tyrol, the French 
Vorarlberg, Britain parts of Carinthia, Styria and East Tyrol, and 
Yugoslavia the southern part of Carinthia. On July 4, 1945 an 
agreement was reached on the First Control Agreement and the 
occupation zones. The Soviet zone encompassed Lower Austria under the 
borders of 1937, Burgenland and the Muehlviertel region in northern 
Upper Austria; the United States took the southern part of Upper 
Austria and Salzburg; the British Styria, Carinthia, and East Tyrol; 
the French North Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In Vienna, the city centre (the 
first district) was placed under joint four-power control, while the 
remaining "old" districts were divided as follows: districts 2, 4, 10, 
20, 21 Soviet; districts 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19 American; districts 3, 5, 
11, 12, 13 British; districts 6, 14, 15, 16 French. This division 
remained until the Austrian  State Treaty came into force on July 
27,1955 and characterised the first 10 years of the  Second Republic. 
In August 1945 the Western powers took control of their respective 
Viennese zones; on September 11 the Allied Council was 
constituted, which was made up of the four commanders-in-chief (later 
the ambassadors) acting as high commissioners. They had supreme power 
of decision and met on a monthly basis in Vienna under rotating 
chairmanship. The Second Control Agreement of June 28, 1946 
extended the authority of the Austrian government.

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While initially the occupying armies numbered 700,000 men, by 1955 the 
Western powers were reduced to around 20,000 and the Soviet forces to 
40,000. The occupation costs had to be covered by Austria (initially 
making up 35% of its budget; from December 3, 1946, this went 
down to 15%). In 1947 the US declared that it would pay its own 
occupation costs; the other three powers followed suit in 1953.

\\
The occupation powers also intervened in local affairs in their zones. 
The Soviet Union confiscated  German Assets in its zone in 1946.

!Literature
Die Stunde Null in Niederoesterreich, exhibition 
catalogue, provincial museum of Lower Austria 1975; M. Rauchensteiner, 
Der Sonderfall. Die Besatzungszeit in Oesterreich 1945-1955, 1979; 
E. M. Czáky, Der Weg zu Freiheit und Neutralitaet, 1980; 
A. Schilcher, Oesterreich und die Grossmaechte, 1980; H. Portisch and 
S. Riff, Oesterreich II, vol. 1: Die Wiedergeburt unseres 
Staates, 1985, vol. 2: Der lange Weg zur Freiheit, 1986; G. 
Stourzh, Um Einheit und Freiheit: Staatsvertrag, Neutralitaet und das 
Ende der O-W-Besetzung Oe. 1945-1955, %%sup 4/%1998.


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