!!!Geheimdienst

Intelligence Services: In Austria the military secret service and the 
state police share the duties of an intelligence service. From the 
time of Emperor Maximilian I secret information was obtained by 
surveillance of the post routes, state chancellor W. A.  Kaunitz 
sent spies to all major European courts and had aliens under 
surveillance in Vienna (especially at inns). At the time of 
Joseph II, Count J. A. Pergen established a secret service, 
which discovered the conspiracy by the  Jacobins in 1794. After the 
Napoleonic Wars the secret service was improved by Count J.  
Sedlnitzky and literary censorship formed part of its duties. In the 
2%%sup nd/%  half of the 19%%sup th/%  century the state police was 
used in internal affairs, especially against social revolutionaries, 
later also in the struggle between the various nationalities of the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire and in the fight against state enemies and 
spies in Austria during World War I, closely co-operating with the 
military secret service.

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The military secret service was developed at the time of Prince 
Eugène around 1700, but it never gained major importance and at 
first was even rejected by Emperor Franz Joseph. However, in 1850 the 
so-called "Evidenzbuero" was established as a permanent military 
secret service, which operated in the wars of 1859 and 1866 without 
great success. From around 1880 there was considerable competition 
among the various secret services of the European powers. In Austria 
there was the Russian "Ochrana", used Colonel A.  Redl as an excellent 
spy on the Austrian General Staff (exposed on May 24, 1913) and the 
Serbian secret service was active in the Balkans. Until 1915 Italy was 
off limits to the Austrian secret service. During World War I 
activities increased and for the first time included radio 
intelligence. Towards the end of the war about 300 officers, 50 civil 
servants, 400 police agents, 600 soldiers and 600 informers worked for 
the military secret service and state police.

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During the 1%%sup st/%  Republic the state police continued its 
activities, under the name "Polizeiliche Zentralevidenzstelle", under 
the leadership of J.  Schober. In 1930 a bureau for public security 
(Staatspolizeiliches Bureau) was founded and given additional 
responsibility as the political situation within Austria worsened, but 
it proved powerless in the face of the National Socialist putsch on 
July 26, 1934. By the early 1930s it had already been severely 
undermined by the National Socialists. After the Anschluss in 1938 the 
 Gestapo became a feared instrument of the National Socialist regime. 
In 1945 the Minister of the Interior, F. Honner, established a new 
Austrian state police and O. Helmer removed it from the influence of 
the Austrian Communist Party (KPOe). Until 1955 the occupying powers 
also had centres of their secret services in Austria. During the past 
few decades the fight against political extremism and international 
terrorist organizations has become the most important task of the 
state police.

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From 1956 the Austrian Armed Forces developed three intelligence 
units, the Nachrichtengruppe, the Heeresnachrichtenamt and the 
Abwehramt, using high-quality technical equipment (intercept stations, 
sound locator and direction finder networks); the latter was 
frequently used during the political crisis on the territory of former 
Yugoslavia in 1991.

!Literature
M. Fuchs, Der oesterreichische Geheimdienst, 1994.


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