Refugees and displaced persons in the Republic of Austria
Refugees and displaced persons in the Republic of Austria
1. Definition
Refugees and displaced persons whose mother tongue was German, who were residing in the Republic of Austria after the end of the Second World War, were referred to there as‘Volksdeutsche’(ethnic Germans), primarily to distinguish them from ‘Reichsdeutsche’, but also from German-speaking Austrians and South Tyroleans.[1] This terminology thus draws on traditions from the interwar and Nazi periods. The Bohemian and Moravian Germans (Sudeten Germans), who had held German Reich citizenship since 1938, occupy a somewhat special position in this context.
2. Discourses
Whilst the term ‘Volksdeutsche’ was commonplace in contemporary official and public discourse in 1945, it is now scarcely used even amongst displaced persons. As demonstrated, for example, by the renaming of the Austrian umbrella organisation of regional associations from the ‘Association of Volksdeutsche Regional Associations in Austria (VLÖ)’ to the “Association of German Old-Austrian Regional Associations in Austria” in November 2014, the term is increasingly being replaced by “Old-Austrians”.[2] However, this new terminology, which has arisen due to the political connotations of the old term, leads to new ambiguities, which are reflected in its sometimes contradictory use in politics and journalism. Thus, in a legal sense after 1945, only those members of German-speaking minorities within the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy who had already held Austrian citizenship in 1937 were regarded as ‘Old Austrians’. By contrast, in the narrower, ethnographic-regional sense, the (Upper) Austrian Protestants (‘Landler’) who were resettled in Transylvania in the 18th century are referred to as ‘Old Austrians’. The term was and is also used for the German-speaking South Moravians, who have close ties to Lower Austria. Furthermore, ‘Old Austrians’ can also refer to all former inhabitants of ‘old Austria’, that is, the Austrian half of the Habsburg Monarchy.
Of the members of the German-speaking minorities within the territory of the former Habsburg Monarchy, 100,000 already held Austrian citizenship as early as 1937 (and were therefore ‘Old Austrians’ in the legal sense); yet some 80,000 of them had, between 1938 and 1945, carried out acts (such as marrying a ‘Reich German’) which resulted in their losing this citizenship and now had to apply for it to be reinstated. By contrast, around 20,000 Sudeten Germans were already living in Austria before 1938, without, however, having acquired Austrian citizenship, and were therefore regarded as stateless in 1945, just like the other‘ethnic Germans’, as the ‘Reich German’ naturalisations of previous years were not recognised by the Republic of Austria.
3. Historical overview
In 1945, there were around 1.6 million displaced persons (DPs) within the territory of the Republic of Austria (out of a total of 6.5 million Austrian nationals). Of these, approximately 1 million were non-German-speaking and 660,000 were German-speaking. At the time, the German-speaking population was divided into 260,000 ‘Reichsdeutsche’ and around 400,000‘Volksdeutsche’.[3] Whilst the majority of foreign-language DPs and ‘Reich Germans’ were repatriated by June 1946,[4] the question arose as to how the so-called‘ethnic Germans’ would be integrated into the host society.
As at 21 February 1948, the non-naturalised‘ethnic Germans’were distributed by country of origin as follows: Yugoslavia: 139,539 (Danube Swabians, Gottscheer Germans, South Styrians, etc.), Czechoslovakia: 113,648 (Sudeten Germans, Carpathian Germans), Romania: 56,601 (Transylvanian Saxons, Danube Swabians), Hungary: 12,718, Poland: 9,530, Others: 5,650.
Of these, 53,872 were living in refugee camps. In contrast, there were 139,352 foreign-language-speaking foreigners, 51,594 South Tyroleans and 24,791 foreign Jews. 44,887 DPs had left the country during the course of 1947.[5]
Despite the Republic of Austria’s diverse links with the German minorities in the territory of the former Habsburg Monarchy, Austrian policy towards refugees and displaced persons in the years 1945–1946 was largely hostile. However, its scope for action was limited by the ultimate responsibility of the Allied occupying powers, which, for example, despite interventions by the Austrian Government, did not halt the ‘uncontrolled expulsions’of Germans from South Moravia and South Bohemia into the Federal States of Lower and Upper Austria. Nevertheless, the provisions of the Potsdam Agreement were also to be applied to Austria, and the‘ethnic Germans’who had come from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland were to be ‘repatriated’ to occupied Germany. This was also in line with the intentions of the Austrian government, which found itself completely overwhelmed by the material burden of the refugees, but also wished to draw a sharp line under its own pre-war ‘Greater German’ traditions.[6] The Austrian Foreign Minister Karl Gruber (1909–1995, Austrian People’s Party), for instance, remarked in a conversation with his Czechoslovak counterpart Jan Masaryk (1886–1948) regarding the Sudeten Germans that these were people “who have always caused you difficulties and who would cause difficulties for anyone.”[7]
In total, some 160,000‘ethnic Germans’were thus deported in 1946, primarily from the Soviet occupation zone in Austria to the US occupation zone in Germany. This figure was lower than the Austrian authorities had anticipated. In addition, a new wave of refugees from Yugoslavia began in 1947, whilst the resettlement of ‘repatriable’ persons to Germany was de facto (though not de jure) suspended by the Allies at the end of 1946. By 1951, there were around 383,000‘ethnic Germans’in the country, about a third of whom were in the Federal State of Upper Austria. At that time, 145,000 had already been naturalised,[8] whilst 238,000 did not hold Austrian citizenship.[9] In 1953, there were 329,471“ethnic Germans”(of whom 147,612 had been naturalised) 76,690 foreign-language DPs, 83,895 ‘Reich Germans’ and 76,960 South Tyroleans.[10]
Initially, integration efforts on the part of the government and the administration were slow to get off the ground, partly due to the country’s limited sovereignty. The granting of the right to remain and the conferral of citizenship (on an individual basis following a proposal) were initially based on criteria relating to employability, though regional and cultural proximity also played a role. Preference was given to residents of regions directly bordering Austria, particularly South Bohemia andSouth Moravia, but also Western Hungary (Ödenburg/Sopron), the former South Styria and the Canal Valley. Thus, by 1951, 60 per cent of all Sudeten Germans had already been naturalised, but only 10 per cent of the Transylvanian Saxons.[11] Similarly, the population’s willingness to accept newcomers varied depending on proximity or distance, as well as on the potential benefit the people concerned could bring to the host society. For instance, labourers were needed, particularly in agriculture, to replace the forced labourers of the war years.
It was not until 1951 that the right to work in non-agricultural occupations was no longer tied to Austrian citizenship. Seven ‘Equality Acts’ laid the foundations for economic and social integration. Financial assistance came from funds provided by the ‘Marshall Plan’, the ‘Jäger Plan’ – named after Gilbert Jäger, an employee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees – and the Federal Government’s ‘Austria Programme’. Finally, with the ‘Options Act’ of 1954, the‘ethnic Germans’who had not yet been naturalised were granted citizenship simply by submitting a declaration. The‘ethnic Germans’thus also became Austrians de jure.
Bibliography
- Tony Radspieler: The Ethnic German Refugee in Austria 1945–1954. The Hague 1955 (Studies in Social Life 2).
- Oliver Rathkolb: Displacement and Instrumentalisation. The Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans and its Belated Reception in Austria. In: Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, Oliver Rathkolb (eds.): The Beneš Decrees. Vienna 2002, pp. 138–151.
- Brunhilde Scheuringer: Thirty Years On – The Integration of Ethnic German Refugees and Displaced Persons in Austria. Vienna 1983 (Essays on Refugee Issues 13).
- Eduard Stanek: Persecuted – Driven Out – Displaced. Refugees in Austria from 1945–1984. Vienna, Munich, Zurich 1985.
- Stickler, Matthias: The Integration of Displaced Persons in Austria and Germany – A Comparison. In: A Comparison of Different European Approaches. Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1945/49 to the Present. Festschrift for Rolf Steininger on his 65th birthday. Edited by Michael Gehler and Ingrid Böhler. Innsbruck 2007, pp. 416–435
Notes
[1] Radspieler: *The Ethnic German Refugee*, pp. 5ff.
[2] Association of German-speaking Communities from the Former Austrian Territories in Austria: www.vloe.at/dervloe.html (accessed 12 January 2015).
[3] The statistical figures vary considerably and, until the first official census in 1948, can only be regarded as estimates. In addition to the high rate of fluctuation, the problems associated with data collection and classification must also be taken into account. The figures used here are taken from Radspieler: *The Ethnic German Refugee*, pp. 37–43. Radspieler refers to data from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Austrian Central Statistical Office.
[4] By July 1946, there were only around 76,000 ‘Reich Germans’ and 173,000 non-German-speaking refugees remaining in the country. See Radspieler: *The Ethnic German Refugee*, p. 62.
[5] As at 28 February 1948, according to: *Österreichisches Jahrbuch 1948*. Edited by the Federal Press Service. Vienna 1948, pp. 104–105.
[6] See Oliver Rathkolb: ‘Displacement and Instrumentalisation. The Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans and its Belated Reception in Austria’. In: Coudenhove-Kalergie/Rathkolb (eds.): The Beneš Decrees, pp. 138–151, here pp. 139–141.
[7] Quoted in Rathkolb: ‘Repression and Instrumentalisation’ (note 6), p. 140.
[8] Half of these cases concerned the reinstatement of Austrian citizenship for individuals who had temporarily lost the Austrian citizenship they had held until 1937.
[9] The figures here are taken from Scheuringer: Integration, pp. 57ff. The author refers to data from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
[10] As at 1 October 1953, according to Radspieler: The Ethnic German Refugee, pp. 62ff.
[11] See Scheuringer: *Eingliederung*, p. 57.
Citation
Niklas Perzi: Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Republic of Austria. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2015. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32875 (accessed 16 April 2015).
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