Liberation of Austria
Zvonko Springer (zzspri@COSY.SBG.AC.AT)
Mon, 11 Mar 1996 22:20:52 +0100
To : Project Memories for Children in Project Chatback
For : MEMORIES@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU
From : zzspri@cosy.sbg.ac.at \ Zvonko Springer \
Date : Mon, March 11, 1996
Subj.: Manny's e-mail of 26 Feb 1996
Ref. : MEMORIES.E21
Lines: 125
Manny:
May I give you some precise data about how Austria has been liberated
by the Allied Forces incl. Russians and some Bulgarians & Hungarians armed
troops as well about Tito's unsuccessful atempt to conquer southern parts
of Styria and Carinthia. I'ld suggest that one takes a modern map of Austria
as I will refer to places and County (= Land) borders as they are today.
Firstly, are dates and places when various Armed Forces crossed the
international borders of Austria. All dates are in the year _1945_.
29. March - Russian Army crossed border at Klostermarienberg
(Burgenland);
29. April - Americans crossed border at Schoenbichl/Vils (Tirol);
29. April - French troops (Maroccans) passed over at Hohenweiler
(Vorarlberg);
7. May - British units came over Ploeckenpass (Carinthia).
Here are more data about some important dates referring to major cities
and other important political events. I'll start with the Russians first.
2. April - Karl Renner got in touch with Russians at Gloggnitz;
13. April - Russians entered into the City of Vienna;
17. April - Theodor Koerner became provisional Mayor of Vienna;
27. April - Nominated the Provisional Government of Austria under
Karl Renner.
2. May - Innsbruck surrendered to Americans without any combat;
4. May - Nominated the Provisional Government of Tirol;
4. May - Salzburg taken by Americans without any combat;
5. May - Richard Hildman nominated Mayor to the City of Salzburg;
6. June - First free-elected Mayor (Franz Brueggler) at Strobl
am Wolfgangsee, County of Upper Austria (Ober-Oesterrech)
5. May - City of Linz liberated by Americans without any combat;
5. May - A Provisional Government nominated for Upper Austria;
7. May - Ernst Koref nominated Mayor to the City of Linz;
8. May - First meeting between Americans (Stanley Reinhart) and
Russians (Daniil Drishkin) at Erlauf (!).
2. May - French troops occupied City of Bregenz; the same day
Stephan Kohler became Mayor of Bregenz;
24. May - Provisional Committee of Voralberg led by Ulrich Ilg
at Feldkirch and moved to Bregenz on 15th June;
6./8. May - At Klagenfurt a Provisional Committee of Carinthia
started working under Hans Piesch;
8. May - British Armed Forces entered Klagenfurt from the West
and Tito's Yugoslav Army came from South crossing over
the Loiblpass;
9. May - Provisional Counter-Committee of Carinthia forced upon
by Titoist's Slovenes in person of France Petek;
11. May - Friedrich Schatzmayr took over as Provisional Mayor of
Klagenfurt;
6. June - Consultive Committee for Carinthia has been nominated
led by Hans Piesch;
7./8. May - Provisional Committee of Styria (Steiermark) organized
in Graz under Reinhard Machold incl. Engelbert Rueckl/
Eduard Speck as provisional Mayor to City of Graz;
9. May - Russian Army takes over City of Graz without any combat;
15. May - Nominated New Committee of Styria and accepted by the
Russians.
13. May - British troops _stop_ the retreat of several hundred
thousands mostly Croatian civilians including the armed
220.000 troops of Croatian Regular Army and Ustashees
Units at Bleiburg - some 40 km eastwards of Klagenfurt;
15. May - British Army ordered ALL CROATIANS, disregarding the
Geneva Convention re: Prisoners of War, to MUST return
and surrender to the 'waiting' Tito's Yugoslav Army;
15. May - became the _Day of Croatians' Tragedy of Bleiburg and
their Death Marches_. Until now one couldn't make any
reasonable account of the number of victims caused by
the Yugoslav Army's in their first genocide or 'ethnic
cleansing' as it's called now-a-days.
19. May - Very close break-out of the 3rd World War between the
western Allies and their Russian counterpart because of
Tito's refusal to withdraw the Yugoslav Army units from
occupied regions in Carinthia and Styria.
*******
In February of 1945 at the Conference of Jalta, it has been agreed upon
that AUSTRIA should become an independent state again. However, it was also
obvious that Austria had to be partitioned in four zones first - one each
for the four victorious Allies: Russian, Americans, French and British. The
final divisions of Austria in four zones has been agreed by July 1945 after
a many proposals and changes of the originally occupied regions. The City of
Vienna has been divided in 4 zones (remember "The four in the Jeep") too as
well as the rest of Austria. The four zones borders coincided more or less
with present County's (= Land) borders as described bellow.
1. Russian zone : Burgenland (capital at Eisenstadt), Lower Austria
(Nieder-Oesterreich with cap. in Vienna) and part
of Upper Austria north of Danube river (Linz);
2. American zone: Upper Austria (Ober-Oesterreich) south of Danube
river (cap. at Linz) and Salzburg (cap. Salzburg);
3. French zone : Voralberg (cap. at Bregenz) and western Tirol
(capital at Innsbruck);
4. British zone : Eastern Tirol, Carinthia (Kaernten with capital
at Klagenfurt) and Styria (Steiermark with Graz
as capital).
In accordance with the Declaration of 15th May 1955, Austria got its full
state's independance at last and the four zones became obsolate afterwards.
*******
I extracted the above data from Hugo Portisch "OESTERREICH II - Die
Wiedergeburt unseres Staates" published by Kremayr & Scheriau, Wien 1985 -
ISBN 3 218 00422 5. Sorry about this long letter but I do hope that it'ld
meet its purpose. Many regards from an getting-old CROATIAN SOLDIER alias
Zvonko of the Oak Hill
End of MEMORIES.E21 .