Alpine and Danube Reichsgaue

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Ostmark 1941: Reichsgaue, rural and urban districts

As the Alpen- und Donau-Reichsgaue or Danube and Alpenreichsgaue , which was Ostmark until 1942 , the former Austria was referred to during the Nazi era (from 1938 to 1939 still formally as the country of Austria ).

designation

Austria was the " connection " de facto on 12 March, de jure on 13 March 1938 as the country the German Reich (from 1943 United Empire was incorporated) whereby the state existence of the First Republic was effectively finished in 1938th Adolf Hitler had the newly won economic area renamed "Ostmark" by ordinance on the establishment of the Reich trustee administration in Austria on October 14, 1938. Ostmark is a translation of the medieval name Ostarrichi or Marcha orientalis that emerged in the 19th century . This should weaken the regional identity consciousness and at the same time strengthen the self-perception as part of a single German nation in the political construct of the old Reich . In addition, open connotations to the medieval unity of Germanness should work in this direction. From 1940 the areas of Austria and the Ostmark were also officially designated as the Reichsgaue der Ostmark . In January 1942, this term, which was too reminiscent of the country's former statehood, was replaced in the sense of Nazi propaganda by the name Alpine and Danube Reichsgaue of the Greater German Reich .

Administrative division

By the Ostmarkgesetz of April 14, 1939, the former Austrian territory was divided into seven Reichsgaue , which only partially corresponded to the Austrian federal states . At its head ever a standing government in Berlin under standing Reich Governor , who is also the NSDAP - Gauleiter acted. Those in question were usually referred to with this party rank even when they appeared in a state function.

The name Austria also the name of the former provinces Upper and Lower Austria to pay off, they were in 1939 as Oberdonau or as Niederdonau referred. Further changes affected Tyrol and Vorarlberg , which were combined into a Gau Tyrol-Vorarlberg , East Tyrol was later connected to Carinthia . The Burgenland was dissolved and between Niederdonau (Lower Austria, districts Neusiedl, Eisenstadt, Mattersburg and Oberpullendorf) and the Steiermark divided (districts Oberwart, Guessing and Jennersdorf). The Ausseerland , the Styrian part of the Salzkammergut , became part of the Upper Danube, the “ Führer’s home district ”.

Vienna was expanded to include a number of formerly Lower Austrian areas, which made the newly created Greater Vienna the largest city in the German Empire in terms of area , but remained the second largest in terms of population after Greater Berlin . Moreover, were through the Munich Agreement in 1938 and then after the destruction of the remainder of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 - in the concept of German Austria claimed the 1918 strong German territories in South - Bohemia ( counties Kaplitz and Ceský Krumlov ) and South Moravia ( counties Mikulov , Znojmo and Neubistritz ) were added to the Upper and Lower Danube districts. In July 1939 improvements were made and the South Bohemian judicial district Gratzen, originally assigned to the Lower Danube region, was transferred to the Upper Danube. Because the annexed area of ​​Gratzen became part of the Reichsgau Oberdonau in the state and party area, but initially remained under canon law at St. Pölten (Niederdonau), it was popularly known as "Middle Danube".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In a letter of April 8, 1942 (Rk. 4490 B.) to the Supreme Reich Authorities, the Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers , decreed that “instead of the previous collective name, Reichsgaue der Ostmark”, the name “Alpen- und Donau -Reichsgaue 'to be used'.
  2. ^ Eckart Reidegeld: State social policy in Germany. Volume II: Social Policy in Democracy and Dictatorship 1919-1945 , 1st edition, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14943-1 , pp. 406, 542 .
  3. ^ Andreas Zimmermann : State succession in international treaties: at the same time a contribution to the possibilities and limits of international law codification. Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law , Springer, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-540-66140-9 , p. 48 f.
  4. ^ Eckart Reidegeld: State Social Policy in Germany , Vol. II: Social Policy in Democracy and Dictatorship 1919–1945 , Wiesbaden 2006, p. 406 .
  5. ↑ Cf. law on the structure of the Sudeten German areas of March 25, 1939 and the associated ordinance of the governor for the Upper Danube Gau of July 18, 1939 regarding the integration of formerly Sudeten German areas into the districts of Kaplitz and Krummau a. d. M.
  6. ^ Siegfried Haider : History of Upper Austria (= history of the Austrian federal states), Publishing House for History and Politics, Vienna; R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 411.
  7. ↑ Harry Slapnicka , Grenz und Grenzraum. On the history of the state, provincial, language and diocesan borders between Austria and Bohemia , in: Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv (OÖLA), Mitteilungen des Oberösterreichisches Landesarchivs , Volume 17, Linz 1993, pp. 205–224, here p. 219; ders., Upper Austria - when it was called "Upper Danube" (1938–1945) (= contributions to the contemporary history of Upper Austria 5), ​​Upper Austria. Landesverl., Linz 1978, p. 40.