!!!Zensur

Censorship: served as a means to control printed works prior to their 
publication, in the 18%%sup th/%  century especially prevalent during 
the time of Empress Maria Theresia. Censorship was first relaxed under 
Joseph II, but was intensified after 1786 after the establishment 
of the secret police. Exercised by a commission, censorship was 
regarded as an instrument for controlling cultural and educational 
policy in theatres, schools, and the church. During the time of the 
French Revolution censorship was also applied to correspondence. 
During the time of Vormaerz ("pre-March": revolutionary period in 
Austria and Germany between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the 
March Revolution of 1848,  Biedermeier), censorship was a repressive 
instrument administered by the state to control vast spheres of 
intellectual life and was also applied to sermons, public lectures, 
and even shop signs and inscriptions on tombstones. Abolished during 
the  Revolution of 1848, censorship was re-established after the 
Revolution had been suppressed. In the 2%%sup nd/%  half of the 
19%%sup th/%  century censorship was exercised by the granting of 
licences or requiring publishers to pay deposits. During World War I 
there was a "war supervisory department", which examined not only 
newspapers but also soldiers' mail. During the time of the  Corporate 
State, 1934-1938, oppositional publicity was eliminated by licensing 
or by controlling the public communication system (Official 
Communications Section). In these years 325 books were forbidden. 
Under  National Socialism rigorous, complex censorship was introduced 
in 1938, which also included the inspection of the correspondence of 
soldiers. An "Austrian Censorship Institution" was established by the 
Allied occupation authorities in 1945, which censored letters until 
1953. Since then prepublication and postpublication examination of the 
press, motion pictures, radio and television has been common; certain 
measures of business promotion or reglementation and the self-control 
of the press and film industry also constitute forms of censorship.

!Literature
G. Klingenstein, Staatsverwaltung und kirchliche 
Autoritaet im 18. Jahrhundert, 1970; Zensur in Oesterreich 1780-1989, 
Symposium 24./25. 10. 1989, Veroeffentlichungen des 
Ludwig-Boltzmann-Instit. fuer Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 1991.


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