Austrian Commission of Historians

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The Historians' Commission of the Republic of Austria was a commission that was active between 1998 and 2003 and, on behalf of the Austrian government, researched the "asset deprivation" during the National Socialist era, as well as returns and compensation measures that have taken place since then.

Within four years, this contract was carried out with the participation of 160 researchers and in the form of 47 projects. The comprehensive results were published in 49 volumes. With the handover of the final report to the client on January 24, 2003, the Commission of Historians ended its work.

prehistory

After the Second World War , the “ victim thesis ” prevailed in Austria, i.e. the historical image that the Republic of Austria had been invaded in 1938 and did not exist until 1945. With this point of view, claims to national territory or German property could be successfully fended off and it helped to consolidate the Austrian identity . However, he was soon instrumentalized to reject justified restitution claims. It was only in the wake of the Waldheim affair from 1986 that a differentiated view of history gradually began.

In June 1987 the Austrian government set up an international commission of historians, which until February 1988 could find "no personal culpable behavior" and "no involvement in war crimes" by Kurt Waldheim (Austrian Federal President 1986-1992). However, due to his functions, Waldheim was very knowledgeable about war crimes.

After the fall of the Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989/90, there were increased efforts in numerous European countries to come to terms with the past . Until their demise, z. For example, the SED regime has repeatedly accused West German politicians and other officials of a Nazi past or tried to discredit them in some other way.

In 1990 a German-Czech historians commission was set up.

At the end of 1996, the Swiss Federal Council set up the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - World War II . As part of the proceedings relating to Jewish assets in Swiss banks, she investigated the whereabouts of assets transferred to Switzerland during the Second World War.

Mandate and subject areas

The Commission of Historians was set up on October 1, 1998 by Federal Chancellor Viktor Klima , the Vice Chancellor and the Presidents of the National Council and the Federal Council. They were given the mandate to research and report on the "entire complex of asset deprivation in the territory of the Republic of Austria during the Nazi era as well as provisions or compensation (as well as economic and social benefits) of the Republic of Austria from 1945".

The following topics were defined in the work program of the commission: deprivation of property from Jews (" Aryanizations "), from Roma and Sinti and other national minorities , from associations, foundations and funds, from the Israelite religious community and the Catholic Church , as well as the questions of provisions and compensation after 1945.

Members and permanent experts

Members were the following people:

  • Clemens Jabloner , President of the Administrative Court , Chairman of the Historians' Commission
  • Lorenz Mikoletzky , General Director of the Austrian State Archives, Deputy Chairman
  • Brigitte Bailer-Galanda , scientific director of the documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance, deputy chairwoman
  • Robert Graham Knight , Historian Department of Politics, International Relations and European Studies Loughborough University
  • Bertrand Perz , Deputy Head of the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna
  • Roman Sandgruber , director of the Institute for Social and Economic History at the Johannes Kepler University Linz

The Commission of Historians consisted of the following persons as permanent experts:

Research Coordinator:

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Clemens Jabloner : The Historians' Commission of the Republic of Austria . In: Forum Politische Bildung (Ed.): Memory and Presence. Historians' commissions, politics and society (=  information on political education . Volume 20 ). StudienVerlag, Innsbruck / Vienna / Munich / Bozen 2004, p. 15–20 ( article online at Demokratiezentrum.org (PDF; 106 kB)).
  2. ↑ Hans Rudolf Kurz, James L. Collins, Hagen Fleischer, Gerald Fleming, Manfred Messerschmidt, Jean Vanwelkenhuyen, Jehuda L. Wallach: The Waldheim Report. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen, 1993, ISBN 87-7289-206-4 .