Dürnstein
Another
artist, Siegfried Stoitzner, has caused controversy in Dürnstein where
he remains an honorary citizen after having joined the Nazi Party. He
first joined on December 1, 1928 (membership number 83,189), but left
again on December 1, 1930, before rejoining on January 9, 1932
(membership number 781,279). In 1934 he was interned in the Wöllersdorf
detention camp as a member of the party, which was illegal in Austria
after the assassination of Dolfuß and the attempted coup. In 1936 he had
to sell the Kuenringer tavern in Dürnstein and move to Rossatz. In 1938
he was called up again, but soon demobilised and spent the war in Bad
Traunstein. That year he exhibited a pencil drawing of the Austrian Nazi leader Hans Hiedler and was represented at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich in 1938 and later in 1940. His
extensive work mainly involved landscape paintings, portraits and
hunting scenes connected to the Wachau and the Waldviertel; in
1939, Hitler bought the oil painting “Wachau Ferryman” there for 2000
Reichmarks. After the war Stoitzner was expelled from the Society of
Visual Artists of Vienna because of his Nazi connections although in
1950 he was readmitted together with other members who had been tainted
by Nazism and expelled in 1945.
Melk
St. Pölten
At the Soviet cemetery to the north of the town
Amstetten
The
town hall on the former Adolf-Hitler-Platz. Today this tiny village is
infamous as the place where Josef Fritzl imprisoned, raped and kidnapped
his daughter Elisabeth for twenty-four years in a fallout shelter,
fathering seven children with her. After the horrific story died down
eventually, the town returned in the news after it was revealed that
Hitler was still listed as an honorary citizen.
Amstetten
had served as a garrison town for the Imperial and Royal Army and later
the Austrian army (Melk Command), which was absorbed into the Wehrmacht
after Austria was annexed in 1938. In the strategic considerations of
the Cold War, Amstetten was considered a “key military area”.
It
wasn't until May 2011 that the local Green Party sponsored the move to
strike his name from the honours list which was passed by a large
majority in the town council. But two members of the far-right Freedom
Party, formerly led by Jorg Haider, abstained, arguing simply that Hitler’s suicide in 1945 had de facto made him lose his honorary citizenship.
The
Seegrotte in nearby Hinterbrühl bei Mödling has changed besides the
flags it flies. Under the Nazi regime, Amstetten served as the setting
for the abuse and arrest of political opponents as well as the
increasing disenfranchisement and expropriation of Jews and gypsies. At
least sixteen of 43 Jews were deported and murdered. In the Amstetten
hospital, as in the Mauer-Öhling nursing home, forced sterilisations
were carried out on so-called Erbkranken (hereditary patients).
Mauer-Öhling also served as a transit station, and from autumn 1944 also
as the scene for numerous euthanasia murders. At the same time in
parallel to the extermination program, the Nazi officials responsible
for Amstetten pursued a comprehensive expansion programme for the city,
which included housing estates, schools and impressive Nazi buildings.
Only a few of these were realised due to the war, although industrial
and rail systems in particular were expanded.
Traismauer
In
the old town itself one an still clearly see the street grid of the
Roman camp streets. Parts of the fortifications are within the remains
of the southeast corner of the mediæval city wall. The auxiliary fort
was built in the second half of the 1st century AD initially as a
wood-earth fort and housed a cavalry unit of around 500 horsemen, who
probably belonged to the Ala I Hispanorum Auriana. After being destroyed
by fire, a new wood-earth fort was built at the end of the 1st century.
An inscription stone documents the construction of the first which was a
large stone fort approximately 3.75 ha in size dating around 140 CE, in
which the Ala I Augusta Thracum, a mounted auxiliary unit with around
500 horsemen, was stationed. After the Marcomannic invasions around 170,
the fort was reinforced with walls and towers. In the following
centuries it was enlarged to approx. 4.1 hectares and the fortifications
reinforced. In Late Antiquity, the number of soldiers was greatly
reduced and their location shifted to a residual fort (burgus) in the
north-west corner, whilst the civilian population settled within the
fortified fort area. After the destruction by fire in the late 4th or
early 5th century, most of the remaining residents left the fort after
the soldiers had themselves left. It wasn't until the 8th century that
the place, which was now called Treisma, was resettled again; Traismauer
was first mentioned in documents in 799 as Tresma.
Parts
of the Roman fort defences were integrated into the mediæval city wall
and are still visible today. Remains of the foundations of the principia
were found and excavated under today's parish church. In the south-east
corner of the camp you can still see the rubble stone foundations of
the Roman fan-shaped tower from the 4th century, which also belonged to
the city fortifications in the Middle Ages. The brick wall visible today
was built just outside the original Roman walls in the 17th century to
protect against Turkish incursions. The Traismauer city palace was built
on the foundations of Roman Burgus from the 4th to 5th centuries. Roman
tombstones and components are exhibited in the inner courtyard of the
castle, including the dedicatory inscription for the construction of the
fort at the time of Antoninus Pius.
More recently
in the town a 21-year-old accused of being a drug dealer by a roommate
led to a house search in September 2018. The investigators noticed a
15x20 cm Hitler picture in a brown frame that was clearly visible on a
living room shelf. The black and white print was labeled "Uncle Adi from Purkersdorf" and because the picture was visible not only to the three
residents of the flat share, but also to about twenty visitors, it was,
according to the indictment, a crime.
Döbling
Just north of Vienna with the Leopoldsberg in the background. During the Weimar republic the Social Democrats had planned and established many blocks of public housing, siedlungen of which the Karl-Marx-Hof is one of the largest. The suburb of Döbling had a high percentage of Jewish residents and maintained a synagogue in the district. During the Reichskristallnacht this synagogue (like almost all others in Vienna) was destroyed. The harbour itself only ever became economically important for the logging industry and after the war it was converted into a marina for rowing clubs and motorboats. This was not before the Russian raping and looting that took place in which
[a] boon to the Russians and the looters were the big wine houses in Döbling and Heiligenstadt. The Russians emptied the great tun in Klosterneuburg and then sprayed it with machine- gun fire when it would provide them with no more solace. People were seen carrying off wine from Heiligenstadt in large vessels... (MacDonogh, 30)
‘The great provision of wine and schnapps in Vienna, above all in the vineyard areas, possibly provided a foundation for the raping of the women when it took place.’ It is true that some of the most aggravated instances were in the great cellars of Döbling, where Austrian sparkling wine or Sekt is made, and the wine ‘village’ of Grinzing. (33)
Salzburg
On February 5, 1914 Hitler travelled from Munich to Salzburg and was found "unfit for service, too weak and incapacitated for weapons" (which did not prevent him from serving as a war volunteer in the Bavarian Army during the First World War). Bullock (47) records that "after the Germans marched into Austria in 1938 a very thorough search was made in Linz for the records connected with Hitler's military service and Hitler was furious when the Gestapo failed to discover them." In the years after the Great War, as a politician for the Nazi Party he appeared at party events of the sister party DNSAP; at the Representatives' Day of all national socialists in the German-speaking area held in Salzburg on August 7, 1920, Hitler, who was still unknown outside Munich and who was also not the chairman of the Nazi Party, spoke up and delivered a celebrated speech in which he invoked the "Volksgemeinschaft" (as opposed to class thinking), calling for workers to win national ideas and make National Socialism a popular movement, and attacked Jews. The following evening in the Kurhaus gave him the opportunity for another speech. The Austrian Nazis used the opportunity to invite Hitler for a campaign campaign in the fall of 1920. On October 1, Hitler spoke at the Kurhaus in Salzburg in a speech lasting several hours where he distinguished himself as "a speaker far beyond the usual level of outstanding speakers who has the power to disseminate his views with compelling force," according to the Salzburg party newspaper "Deutscher Volksruf".
The following day Hitler appeared in Hallein at an event disrupted by Social Democrat participants led by Mayor Anton Neumayr. Hitler also gave a speech at the national Nazi party conference which took place from August 13 to 15, 1923 in Salzburg, The Nazi press reports focused more on the staging and inspiring effect of the performance than on the content of the one-and-a-half-hour speech in which Hitler openly announced that in a short time in Germany the decision would fall - bringing this a few months in his later attempted coup. The attitude of the Salzburg Nazi Party to Hitler was ambiguous. On the one hand glorifying him through visits of the Salzburg Nazi functionaries Otto Troyer, Anton Funk and Hans Prodinger with the imprisoned Nazi leader. On the other hand, some articles in the "People's Call" argued against the Hitler cult and against the Munich way of the violent seizure of power.
On the morning of March 12, 1938, German troops marched into the city of Salzburg. In many places, solstice fires in the form of swastikas were lit by supporters of the Hitler Youth in the mountains whilst, on official orders, the church bells rang throughout the country. The first German officers arrived in Salzburg at midnight between 11 and 12 March 1938.
Austrians celebrating the German army's entry into Salzburg via the Staatsbrücke over the river Salzach on March 12, 1938 and the site on my birthday, 2018. The first tank tips arrived in the early morning and from 10.30 to 11.00 aircraft of the German Air Force dropped leaflets with Hitler's greeting over the city. The German troops entered Salzburg with the roaring cheers of the population. Large quantities of Nazi flags and armbands had been delivered by truck and were distributed to the population. Franz Krieger's press photos seen here, taken on the afternoon of March 12, show German troops on the Staatsbrücke and Platzl, critical points at which a particularly large number of people had flocked to one another. The propaganda campaign for the "Anschluss" consisted of promises and
concrete economic improvements. In the course of the initial propaganda
effort workers received higher wages; child benefits, marriage loans and
unemployment benefits were paid out.
Not all Salzburgers cheered, although the only noteworthy resistance actions in the district of Salzburg were
in the working class strongholds Hallein and Bischofshofen. In the
afternoon and evening of March 11 there were clashes between Nazis and
Communists in Hallein and riots in Bischofshofen. Nazi newsreels showed
images from Salzburg on April 29, 1938 under the title "The borders have
fallen," where members of the Hitler Youth dismantled and destroyed
border symbols between Germany and Austria as boundary markers and signs
were symbolically burned. Books were next twenty-four hours later when,
on April 30, 1938 at around 20.30 books were burned at Residenzplatz which
the Nazis described as "degenerate art." 1,200 works by Jewish,
social-democrat, Marxist, ecclesiastical or liberal authors were
destroyed including works by Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler, and Franz
Werfel that had previously been collected
from libraries and private households near Residenzplatz with as many as
5,000 watching or taking part. This organised book burning was the only one on Austrian soil. Zweig wrote, shocked,
to a friend the next day of how Salzburg was the "most Nazi city" and
"humiliated" him. Zweig had lived in the city for many years, but went
into exile in 1934 after the fascist coup attempt. Now, four years
later, one of his books was thrown into the fire so that "it burns the
flames like all Jewish writing" as it roared over the Residenzplatz.
Nevertheless, at this stage of the dictatorship the Nazi leadership was
not at all happy about the burnings given the view of it abroad and how
it was a provocation for conservative Catholics. Thus the press ignored
the Salzburg book burning; in the Austrian section of the Münchner
Neuesten Nachrichten for example one reads a report about the
celebrations before May 1st, but nothing about the book burning.
In Austria, a total of 72,000 people were imprisoned in the first few
days after the Anschluss. Political opponents, Jewish citizens and other
minorities were subsequently arrested and deported to concentration
camps. The synagogue was destroyed.
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, several PoW camps for Soviet prisoners and other enemy nations were organised in the city. During the Nazi occupation, a Romani camp was built in Salzburg-Maxglan intended as an Arbeitserziehungslager (work 'education' camp), which provided slave labour to local industry. It also operated as a Zwischenlager (transit camp), holding Roma before their deportation to German camps or ghettos in German-occupied territories in eastern Europe.
Soon Allied bombing would end up destroying roughly 7,600 houses and kill 550 inhabitants. Fifteen air strikes destroyed 46 percent of the city's buildings, especially those around Salzburg railway station. Although the town's bridges and the dome of the cathedral were destroyed, somehow much of its Baroque architecture remained intact. As a result, Salzburg is one of the few remaining examples of a town of its style. American troops entered the city on May 5, 1945 and it became the centre of the American-occupied area in Austria. Several displaced persons camps were established in Salzburg—among them Riedenburg, Camp Herzl (Franz-Josefs-Kaserne), Camp Mülln, Bet Bialik, Bet Trumpeldor, and New Palestine.
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, several PoW camps for Soviet prisoners and other enemy nations were organised in the city. During the Nazi occupation, a Romani camp was built in Salzburg-Maxglan intended as an Arbeitserziehungslager (work 'education' camp), which provided slave labour to local industry. It also operated as a Zwischenlager (transit camp), holding Roma before their deportation to German camps or ghettos in German-occupied territories in eastern Europe.
Soon Allied bombing would end up destroying roughly 7,600 houses and kill 550 inhabitants. Fifteen air strikes destroyed 46 percent of the city's buildings, especially those around Salzburg railway station. Although the town's bridges and the dome of the cathedral were destroyed, somehow much of its Baroque architecture remained intact. As a result, Salzburg is one of the few remaining examples of a town of its style. American troops entered the city on May 5, 1945 and it became the centre of the American-occupied area in Austria. Several displaced persons camps were established in Salzburg—among them Riedenburg, Camp Herzl (Franz-Josefs-Kaserne), Camp Mülln, Bet Bialik, Bet Trumpeldor, and New Palestine.
The Mirabellgarten and Mozartdenkmal with the wife today. The primary allure of Mozart for the Nazis lay in the representation of a purely German cultural icon. As one of the most revered composers, Mozart's Austrian roots were conveniently overlooked, his legacy instead co-opted into a narrative of German racial and cultural supremacy. Erik Levi argues that the appropriation of Mozart was a strategic move by the Nazis to "claim cultural capital". They reinterpreted Mozart's operas to fit into a vision of German culture that was steeped in the ideals of racial purity, national unity, and Aryan supremacy. This appropriation was not merely an ideological imposition, but was facilitated through active reinterpretation of Mozart's works, with Nazi officials even going as far as altering Mozart's operas to suit their ideology. For instance, Kater's "The Twisted Muse" elucidates how The Marriage of Figaro, a critique of aristocratic privilege, was moulded into a piece that celebrated Aryan nobility. Such distortions of Mozart's operas were pivotal in creating a cultural narrative that served Nazi propaganda.
| View over Salzburg from the Hohensalzburg |
The Theresienstadt camp, for example, often used performances of Mozart’s pieces to deceive Red Cross inspectors about the conditions of the camps. Shirli Gilbert, in her book "Music in the Holocaust", explains how the Nazis used Mozart’s music to create an illusion of normalcy amidst the brutal conditions in these camps. Even the victims of the Nazi regime, the Jewish prisoners, were coerced to perform Mozart’s music. This is a haunting testimony to the Nazis' duality, appreciating the beauty of Mozart’s music while inflicting unimaginable cruelty. It shows the deeply disturbing use of Mozart's music as a tool of deception and control in the hands of the Nazis. Gilbert further expounds how, paradoxically, many Jewish musicians held onto Mozart's music as a symbol of resistance and a source of solace amidst their grim circumstances. This showcases the complex, dualistic role Mozart’s music played during this period – as both a tool of Nazi propaganda and a beacon of hope and resistance for their victims. Another intriguing aspect to consider is the post-war perception of Mozart in light of his association with the Nazis. Levi argues that the post-war era saw a strong push to "denazify" Mozart, with extensive attempts made to disassociate his legacy from the taint of Nazi propaganda. This process not only reinstated Mozart’s universal appeal but also presented a case study on the lasting implications of art appropriation in a political context. In this endeavour, scholars like Brigid Brophy, in her biographical study "Mozart the Dramatist", sought to reinstate Mozart's cultural and historical context, arguing that his operas were not celebrations of racial superiority but humanistic dramas that transcended national and racial barriers. Thus, the post-war perception of Mozart was heavily shaped by the need to extricate his legacy from its wartime manipulation.
Despite the uniquely Germanic character of the 1938 Salzburg Festival Nazi propaganda stressed both Mozart operas were still presented in the original Italian, ostensibly to emphasise the burgeoning alliance with Italy, and which overrode the embarrassment of highlighting the Jewish authorship of the libretti. Of note too was the significant role allotted to sacred music, possibly as an attempt to reach out to the Catholic Church although the performance of Mozart’s Requiem under Joseph Messner in Salzburg Cathedral was dedicated to the memory of the 140 Nazis who had died during an abortive coup in July 1934.
| With Drake Winston |
Although depicted at the time as the shining example of youthful German genius, whose memory German soldiers were supposedly fighting on the Eastern front to preserve, his music, unlike that of Beethoven or Wagner, does not easily fit into the mould of Teutonic heroism that was required at this particular time. In fact, Mozart was probably the least easily malleable of all the great composers to have been appropriated by the Nazis. On almost every level, his philosophical and moral outlook seems at odds with their weltanschauung. For example, despite a few isolated expressions of German patriotism that appear in his letters, he does not strike one as a virulent nationalist, at least not in the sense in which such a position was understood by the Nazis. As a libertarian who generally felt at ease in most of the countries of Europe, his vision appears to have transcended national barriers rather than emphasised Germanic hegemony. Furthermore, had he been alive and working during the 1930s, his well-known activities as a Freemason and his apparent willingness to collaborate with a Jewish librettist on three of his greatest operas would surely have placed him on a collision course with the regime.
Hitler at Residenzplatz on April 6, 1938. Hitler had arrived at Salzburg at 14.00 at the main train station where he was met by Gauleiter Anton Wintersteiger, General Eugen Beyer, ϟϟ Obergruppenführer Josef Dietrich, ϟϟ Obergruppenführer Franz Lorenz and various police and party officials. Accompanying Hitler were Reichsführer ϟϟ Heinrich Himmler, SA Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Brückner, Reichspressecheffer Dr. Otto Dietrich and ϟϟ group leader Julius Schaub. The entourage drove here to the residence, where a reception with party leaders including state governor Dr. Albert Reitter as well as Minister Edmund Glaise-Horstenau awaited him. Hitler signed the city's golden book and a choir of Salzburg middle school students under the direction of Prof. Friedrich Gehmacher performed a “folk song homage” and Otto Plantl recited a poem. As a welcome gift, the city presented him with one of the most valuable
objects from the Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum: Carl Spitzweg's
painting Der Sonntagsspaziergang. He then drives to the Austrian Court from where Hitler was cheered on the balcony by spectators and then asked a boy from the crowd to enter the hall. At 15.30 the procession continued to travel through Südtirolerplatz, Rainerstraße, Dreifaltigkeitsgasse, Adolf-Hitler-Platz,
Bismarckstraße, Staatsbrücke, Rathausplatz, Kranzlmarkt, Alter Markt,
Residenzplatz, Domplatz, Franziskanergasse to end at the rally in the Festspielhaus which lasted until 17.00. Among the roughly 3,000 people attending were predominantly “old fighters”, and was broadcast with loudspeakers on the streets and squares of the city, where 50,000 people were expected to have listened. 6,000 SA and ϟϟ men served on security detail. The rally itself began with a flag march and speeches by district leaders and Gauleiter Fritz Wächtler; apparently first aid had to be provided in 214 cases during the rally. Hitler spoke in his speech of his supposed longing for home: "For years I dreamed of entering this country in spite of everyone who hated this hour - and now I'm here!" He eventually ended his speech with reference to the issue of an economic integration of Austria into the Reich:
We have a most magnificent goal before us, the goal of rendering this Volksgemeinschaft more profound and to integrate this country economically in the enormous cycle of our great economic life—a truly magnificent goal. I am so happy that I was allowed to create this goal and to work on it. In only a few months’ time, the tide of new creativity and new economic activity will surge through this country. In a few years, thoughts of Social Democracy and Communism will have faded like the memory of an evil spirit from a distant past, and these ideas will be laughed at... Never before have I stepped before the nation with a clearer conscience or with greater pride and confidence. I am certain: on April 10 the entire German Volk will make its greatest avowal in history. It will solemnly pledge its allegiance to the new Reich and the new community. For only if all Germans form part of a sworn-in and unified community can Germany’s future be assured for all time. Our children and grandchildren shall not have to be ashamed of their ancestors. One day they shall, with all due respect, look back to those who lived before them, to those who protected the Reich, the Reich which gives life and sustenance to them. By then, April 10 will have become one of the great days in German history. All of us greatly rejoice in the knowledge that Providence has chosen us to fashion this day.The next day Hitler attended the breaking of new ground at the Walserberg near Salzburg for the Reich Autobahn, which was to connect Salzburg and Vienna one day. In front of an assembly of construction workers, Hitler delivered a short address, declaring
Here, too, we will begin with action immediately. I will hold you responsible, Herr Generalinspekteur [Todt], not only for commencing work here on this very day, but also for completing this first section within three years. You, my fellow workers, will help him. This bond shall tie together all of Germany and it shall serve as proof to the world that a Volk and a Reich capable of seeing through such an enormous undertaking—that these can never be separated. Now I myself will commence this work.Subsequently, Hitler himself inaugurated the construction by digging the ceremonial first spadeful. Nonetheless, his wish did not come true that the Autobahn might be completed “within three years.” As with many of his other enterprises, the war was to end the construction work prematurely.
Roughly three miles west of Salzburg is schloss Klessheim, a Baroque palace located in Wals-Siezenheim. Due to its proximity
to the Obersalzberg, Schloss Kleßheim was chosen as the "Guest House of the Führer" and served as the setting for state receptions. The palace was designed and constructed by Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach for Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun in 1700. It became the summer residence of the Archbishops of Salzburg. After the anschluss Hitler, when staying at his nearby Berghof residence, used Schloss Klessheim for conferences and to host official guests like Benito Mussolini, Miklós Horthy, Ion Antonescu, Jozef Tiso and Ante Pavelić. On April 16 and 17 1943, Horthy was Hitler’s guest at Klessheim castle. In addition to political and military matters, the talks mostly concerned the round-up of Hungarian Jews and their transport to concentration camps, that is, extermination camps. Horthy did not want to deal with this problem, and so Hitler felt forced to explain to him the necessity of the extermination of the Jews in the following manner:
If the Jews do not want to work there, then they will be shot. If they cannot work, they will go to seed. They must be treated like the tuberculosis bacillus that can infect a healthy body. This is not cruel if you consider that even innocent creatures of nature, like the rabbit and the deer, are shot so that they cannot do harm. Why should you be more kind to these beasts, who want to bring us Bolshevism? Nations that do not fight off the Jews go to seed. The decline of the once-so-proud Persian people is one of the most famous examples of this. Today, they lead as pitiful an existence as the Armenians.
Whilst Horthy stayed at Klessheim on another occasion the following year, Hitler on March 19, 1944 secretly gave orders for Operation Margarethe to occupy Hungary and enforce the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. On July 7, 1944, on the occasion of a weapons exhibition, an attempt by several Wehrmacht officers around von Stauffenberg to kill Hitler failed, when conspirator Helmuth Stieff did not trigger the bomb. Until October 1944, the palace remained outside the reach of Allied bombers. In May 1945 it was seized by the American military administration. The American commander Mark Clark had his headquarters in Schloss Klessheim like Hitler before him. Clark was pleased with Klessheim, and was under no illusions about its previous role as a guesthouse for visitors to Berchtesgaden. It had been ‘wonderfully modernised and furnished with art treasures, mostly stolen from France’. Reichsadler statues made of lime stone, that were attached to the entrance portals, remain a reminder of the Nazi era today
Zell am See
Drake Winston overlooking the town flanked by Nazi-era postcards.
The church and Schmittenhöhe during the Nazi-era and today with wife and kid. Years before the Nazis even took power in Germany, Zell
am See organised a "Gautag der Hitlerpartei" for the 11th and 12th of
October in 1930 in the district capital. At the welcome party about 250
people, mostly Germans, were involved. On Sunday at 9.00 a festive
service took place in the parish church, although its pastor of Zell am
See refused to allow the flags and standards inside the church. After
the service, a celebration took place in the town square. Here, various
speakers from neighbouring Bavaria spoke of 'Austromarxismus;' the
region, directly adjacent to Bavaria, was well located geographically
for supporting propaganda from Germany. A month later on November 9, 1930 National Council elections took place in Austria which would prove to be the last free, secret and democratic National
Council election until 1945. 
The Nazis, or "Hitler movement", as it was called on the ballot
paper, received around 3
percent of the vote nationally whilst in the Zell am See
district alone, around 10 percent of the population voted for the “Hitler
movement”.
After the seizure of power by Hitler in 1933, Austrian Nazi officials
found shelter in neighbouring Germany and can continued their work from
there. In the spring of 1931 bloody clashes between Nazis and Social
Democratic supporters occurred again and again in the Zell am See area.
In April 1931, 34 Nazis held a meeting in Ferleiten. On the return trip,
they were attacked by about 200 workers, and in the ensuing mêlée one
person was severely injured and four persons slightly injured. In
September 1932, a meeting in Zell am See ended in a bloody hall battle
between the Social Democrats and the Nazis. The local organisation of
the Social Democratic Party was invited under the theme "National
Socialist demagogy" to a meeting in the Park Hotel on Zell am See. After
the event, three people were seriously injured and ten slightly
injured. The Parkhotel was badly damaged. During the parliamentary
elections between the National Council election in 1930 and the state
election in 1932, the Nazis made considerable gains in this area.
From Where Eagles Dare and the same site today
Overlooking Zell on Schmittenhöhe.
As they drove up to the gaunt stone building, Göring glimpsed a G.I. and an ϟϟ officer standing guard on opposite sides of the gateway. Rather alarmingly, the castle still housed the staff of an ϟϟ cavalry division. “Guard me well,” he said, turning to his captors, but a Luftwaffe major noticed that his face was wreathed in smiles. Emmy and Heli Bouhler fell into each other’s arms as they stepped out of the cars. “When do I get to meet Eisenhower?” asked Göring. Stack answered evasively. Later, Göring returned to the matter. He turned to the interpreter. “Ask General Stack,” he said, “whether I should wear a pistol or my ceremonial dagger when I appear before Eisenhower.” “I don’t care two hoots,” retorted the general.Irving, Göring (686)
In May 1945, Hermann Göring was captured in Altenmarkt im Pongau by
American soldiers. From May 7-9, 1945 Göring lived with Emmy and
daughter Edda in castle Fischhorn before being transferred to the Grand Hotel in Kitzbühel.
The castle's story doesn't end there- Philipp Bouhler, a senior Nazi Party functionary who was both a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer and the ϟϟ official responsible for the Aktion T4 euthanasia programme that killed more than 70,000 handicapped adults and children, as well as co-initiator of Aktion 14f13, the so-called "Sonderbehandlung" ("special treatment"), that killed 15,000–20,000 concentration camp prisoners, was arrested with his wife Helene by American troops on May 10, 1945. Thereafter, both committed suicide. His wife Helene jumped from one of the castle's windows whilst on May 19 Bouhler used a cyanide capsule whilst in the American internment camp at Zell-am-See.
Innsbruck
Maria-Theresien-Straße |
Kitzbühel
Kitzbühel was fortunate to be spared from destruction in the First and Second World Wars. During the Nazi period from 1938 to 1945, Kitzbuhel was a holiday destination among leading Nazis. Speer, Göring and Riefenstahl were guests; Foreign Minister Ribbentrop bought a farm in the village of Bichlach. At the same time, a communist resistance group organised in Kitzbühel, with connections to Berlin's Robert Uhrig. Five members of the group, Anton Rausch, Andreas Obernauer, Joseph Pair, Viktor da Pont and Ignaz Zloczower, were arrested and murdered in 1942 after being spied on by the Gestapo. Novelist and sports writer Budd Schulberg, assigned by the American navy to the OSS for intelligence work whilst attached to John Ford's documentary unit, had been ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in here in Kitzbühel, ostensibly to have her identify Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by the Allied troops shortly after the war. At this point Riefenstahl claimed not to have been aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "[s]he gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political'".
Bad Radkersburg
Kufstein
Nazi flag on the Römerhofgaße in front of the Auracher Löchl on the left, and on the Italian-Austrian border during the war and today with baby Drake Winston. In 1938 Kufstein became the connection of Austria to the German Reichkreisstadt in the Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg. Even before the anschluss high-ranking Nazis such as Himmler, Göring, Heß and Hitler himself enjoyed staying in Kufstein around 1930, sitting on the terrace of the Hotel Egger for meetings or hiking in the mountains. Hartmann Lauterbacher, who ran a chemist's in the town, founded a “German Youth” group with fifty youths which was later incorporated into the Hitler Youth making it in 1923 the first Nazi-oriented youth group in Austria. Shortly before the end of the war, the city was bombed and attacked with artillery, destroying many historic buildings. After the end of the war, Kufstein was occupied by the Americans and the French.
Gröbming
Bad Leonfelden
Schloss Brunnwald, built between 1724-1727 in the midst of a forest as an hunting lodge. A fire in 1898 badly damaged it but by 1905 it had been rebuilt. In 1939 the castle was confiscated by the Nazis to serve as an NSV Müttererholungsheim. After the war services were held for the large number of refugees within.
Friesach
Kapfenberg
Lienz
The annexation of East
Tyrol to the Gau Carinthia took place in October 1938. Lienz also experienced
population growth through the settlement of several hundred South
Tyroleans, who had decided to resettle in the German Reich. For the new arrivals the so-called South Tyrolean
settlement was built in typical Nazi construction.
Towards the end of the war, several bomb attacks on Lienz occurred, the first attack on June 13, 1944, meeting the district of Peggetz. As a result, the population was often destroyed by minor and major bombings, with the heaviest bombings taking place on February 5 and April 26, 1945. A total of about a thousand bombs were dropped on Lienz, killing thirteen people and destroying 19 buildings, including the station. thirty buildings were also heavily damaged, twelve medium and 41 slightly damaged. Altogether about 360 Lienzers were killed in the war.
Towards the end of the war, several bomb attacks on Lienz occurred, the first attack on June 13, 1944, meeting the district of Peggetz. As a result, the population was often destroyed by minor and major bombings, with the heaviest bombings taking place on February 5 and April 26, 1945. A total of about a thousand bombs were dropped on Lienz, killing thirteen people and destroying 19 buildings, including the station. thirty buildings were also heavily damaged, twelve medium and 41 slightly damaged. Altogether about 360 Lienzers were killed in the war.
On May 8, 1945 victorious British forces occupied Lienz, which together with Carinthia and Styria became part of the British occupation zone. At this time several thousand members of the former Wehrmacht 1st Cossack Division coming from Yugoslavia had arrived in and around Lienz who then surrendered to the British troops before being forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union. These Cossacks
who had fought alongside the Germans had been saved
from Soviet troops in a British-controlled area. The Cossacks,
however, were handed over to Soviet units by the British army in June
1945, and hundreds of Cossacks died by suicide or were killed in the tragedy on the Drava.