Although World War I ended in 1918, Austria suffered immensely in between WWI and WWII. There was little time for improvement in between the wars, but artists persisted through. Vienna suffered great losses and dealt with starvation, economic loss, and other post-war issues. Just as Austria began to pull itself out of its post-war depression, WWII hit with its devastation.

With Nazi Germany annexing Austria in 1938, Austria was a integral part of the Third Reich with more than 10 percent of the population joining the Nazi Party. This being said, when the war ended in 1945, the Allied forces proclaimed that Austria was truly Germany’s first victim of indoctrination yet it still must have consequences due to its support of the Nazi party. The Moscow Declaration of 1943 stated that Austria would have complete liberation from Germany, but in order to do this, the Allied powers split up Austria into four occupation zones, Vienna being occupied by the Soviet Union. 

The Allied forces wanted Austria to reach for independence, so in April 1945 the provisional city government was constituted and the political parties re-emerged in Vienna. This time was known as the Second Republic. Vienna didn’t look much different from the rest of Europe during this time. There was intense starvation, with food shortages from not only the destruction of the war, but an intense winter in 1946 followed by a harsh summer in 1947 which made it hard to produce good crops. Many homes and companies were destroyed through bombing, pipelines and bridges were in disarray, sewers and gas lines were practically unusable. Austria soon became dependent on food imports and assistance from the Allied powers, causing the idea of independence to be pushed farther away. 

In November 1945, the first City Council elections were held in Vienna, and the city returned to democracy

The first desires of the new city council was to get the city back in working order- create support for elders and children, rebuild the city, and take their independence back. After 10 years of being occupied by the Allied forces, on May 15th 1955 the country regained its political independence by signing the Austrian State Treaty, stating the country’s future neutrality with war. This day became a national holiday of Austria, the phrase “Austria is free!” becoming popular in society. Soon after this, the Marshall Plan, a plan for the United States to supply Western Europe with financial aid, finally came into effect resulting in an economic boost. With the leaving of industrial property by the Soviets, the economy continued to flourish, allowing the country to no longer need dependence on food imports or other assistance.

With all of this success, still many Viennese clung to their antisemetic values that they had gained during the war. The Jewish population in Vienna practically vanished due to the horrids that happened during the war, and many did not return to their homes. A sort of encoded form of antisemitism rose as the people embraced the victimizing title of “Hitler’s First Victims”, and many used that as an excuse for their antisemetic ethics. This allowed copious citizens to live in a fantasy of victim-hood while still having an intense public dislike for people of Jewish heritage. This continued for roughly 10 years after the ending of the war, but the generational trauma and systemic values continue to affect people to this day. 

In more modern times, public transportation in Vienna and throughout Austria was greatly improved, allowing citizens to have more access to places all around Austria and, in the 1970s, Vienna became the third official seat of the United Nations. Since then, Austria joined the European Union in 1995 and has achieved a very high standard of living, often coming in the top 20 richest countries of the world. It continues to flourish in art and culture, Vienna being famous for its contributions to the visual arts.

 

Silverman, Lisa. “Absent Jews and Invisible Antisemitism in Postwar Vienna: Der Prozeß (1948) and The Third Man (1949).” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 52, no. 2, Sage Publications, Ltd., 2017, pp. 211–28, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44504013. Assessed 31 Jan 2022.