The Limits of Integration: Nazi Officials and Their New Political Careers after 1945 in West Germany and Austria

Abstract:Gerald Steinacher assesses the afterlife of Nazism in Austria and West Germany from the immediate postwar years to the most current developments. While there were some similarities between these two nations, in contrast to West Germany, former National Socialists in Austria could form their own enduring political party, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ, Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs), soon after 1945. The myth of Austria as a victim of National Socialism, and Austria's neutrality during the Cold War years, helped the country avoid both scrutiny from the outside as well as inner reflection about guilt and responsibility until the 1980s. Since that time, the FPÖ's inclusion in coalition governments has led to criticism. For instance, in 2000, when the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP, Österreichische Volkspartei) and the FPÖ formed a coalition government, the European Union put Austria under a symbolic "diplomatic quarantine." An unusual outlier in Europe at that time, the Austrian experience has become the norm twenty years later. In 2018 the governments of eight EU countries were run by far-right political parties. While Austria was among them, Germany was not.