List of high commissioners (Austrian occupation)

The four zones of occupation in Austria 1945–1955, Vienna was divided into four sectors

The High Commissioner of the Allied Control Commission for Austria was the military governor of the four respective occupation zones of France , the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States in occupied post-war Austria after the Second World War .

Function of the High Commissioners of the Allied Occupation Powers in Austria

The High Commissioner , between the first and second control agreements (July 1945 and June 1946), was also just a commissioner , and was the representative of the occupying powers in the Allied Council of the Commission for Austria .

Initially, the high commissioners were the commanding officers of the respective occupation forces. From the 1950s, the military administration was gradually replaced by civilian diplomatic missions , and diplomats took over the provisional office.

The current high commissioners - for France the ambassador-designate and deputy high commissioner - signed the State Treaty on the restoration of an independent and democratic Austria on May 15, 1955 (entered into force: July 27, 1955), after which their function became obsolete.

List of high commissioners

The following high commissioners headed the individual zones:

British zone of occupation

Surname	image	Term of office	Remarks
Sir  Richard McCreery Lieutenant General		1945-1946	Supreme Commanding British Forces in Austria and High Commissioner before that, in command of the 8th Army ; then 1946–1948 OKdo. British Army of the Rhine , 1948–1949 Military representative UN  Military Staff Committee
Sir  James Stuart Steele Lieutenant General		1946-1947	Supreme Commanding British Forces in Austria and High Commissioner before that, 1943 Director of Staff Duties at the War Office ; then 1947–1950 Adjutant-General to the Forces
Sir  Alexander Galloway Major General		1947-1950	Supreme Commanding British Forces in Austria and High Commissioner before 1945 Commander XXX Corps , 1946–1947 Malaya Command , 1951–1952 Director UNRWA Jordan
Sir  John Winterton General		1950	Supreme Commanding British Forces in Austria and High Commissioner (1945–1949 Deputy High Commissioner ); then 1951–1954 Military Governor Zone A and Commander BETFOR / TRUST in the Free Territory of Trieste
Sir  Harold Caccia		1950-1954	Ambassador and High Commissioner before until 1945 British representative at the Allied headquarters in North Africa ; then 1956–1961 Ambassador to the USA , 1962–1965 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Perm. Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs)
Sir  Geoffrey Wallinger		1954-1955	Ambassador and High Commissioner , until 1958, before that 1949–1951 Ambassador to Hungary , 1951–1954 to Thailand ; then 1958–1963 in Brazil

US zone of occupation

Official title: United States High Commissioner on the Allied Council for Austria

Surname	image	Term of office	Remarks
Mark W. Clark General		1945-1947	High Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief USFA before that, Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in Italy ; then command of the 6th US Army
Geoffrey Keyes Lieutenant General		1947-1950	High Commissioner, Commander in Chief USFA before Kdo.Gen. II Corps , 1945 7th US Army command, 1946–1947 3rd US Army command ; then 1951–1954 Director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group (WSEG)
Walter J. Donnelly		1950-1952	High Commissioner and envoy until 1951 , then ambassador before that, ambassador to Costa Rica in 1947, and in Venezuela 1947–1950 ; then 1952 High Commissioner in Germany
Llewellyn E. Thompson		1950-1955	High Commissioner and Ambassador ; until 1957 ambassador then 1957–1962 and 1967–1969 ambassador to the Soviet Union

French zone of occupation

Surname	image	Term of office	Remarks
Antoine Béthouart General of the Infantry		1945-1950	French commander in Austria and high commissioner before that Kdo. 1st Corps; then Senator (Commission des Affaires étrangères et des Forces armées)
Jean Payart		1950-1955	High Commissioner and Ambassador before 1945–1950 Ambassador to Yugoslavia ; then 1956–1957 in South Vietnam

Soviet occupation zone

Surname	image	Term of office	Remarks
Ivan Stepanowitsch Konew Marshal of the Soviet Union		1945-1946	High Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Land Forces in Austria and Hungary (until 1946) before that, command of the 1st Ukrainian Front ; then 1947–1957 OKdo. Soviet Land Forces , 1955–1960 OKdo. Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty , 1963 Chief Inspector Defense Ministry , member of the Supreme Soviet , member of the Central Committee of the CPSU
Wladimir Wassiljewitsch Kurassow Colonel General / General of the Army		1946-1949	Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Land Forces and High Commissioner before that 1943 Chief of General Staff 1st Baltic Front / 3rd Belarusian Front , 1945 Chief of Staff SMAD (Germany); then 1949–1956 Chief of Staff at the Military Academy , 1956–1961 Stllv. Chief of Staff of the Soviet Union (military science department), 1961–1968 again GenStCh military academy (1963 professor), 1968 advisor to the military inspection at the Ministry of Defense
Vladimir Petrovich Sviridov Lieutenant General		1949-1953	Commander-in-Chief of the Central Group of Land Forces and High Commissioner (OKdo. From April, HK from May; 1950–1954 Deputy of the Supreme Soviet , 3rd convocation) before that Command 42nd Army, 2nd and 3rd Baltic Front , 1945–1946 / 47 Deputy High Commissioner in Hungary , then high commissioner until 1949, 1948–1949 also commander of the army; afterwards 1954–1957 Stllv. Kdt. Military District of Odessa
Iwan Iwanowitsch Ilyichev		1953-1955	Ambassador and High Commissioner before 1942–1945 Director of the GRU Military Intelligence Service , 1952 Ambassador to the GDR ; then from 1956 at the Soviet Foreign Ministry (3rd Europe Department), 1966–1968 Ambassador to Denmark , then again at the Foreign Ministry

Individual evidence

1. ↑ General Sir Richard Loudon McCreery GCB, KBE, DSO, MC (* February 1, 1898, † October 18, 1967); McCreery, Sir Richard Loudon (1898–1967), General , Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives
2. ^ General Officer Commanding British Forces of Occupation in Austria and British Representative on Allied Commission for Austria
3. ↑ The British Forces in Austria were assembled from the disbanded Eighth Army , which had completed the Africa campaign.
4. ^ British Army Representative, Military Staff Committee, UN
5. ↑ General Sir James Stuart Steele, GCB, KBE, DSO, MC, LLD (* October 26, 1894, † July 24, 1975), General 1947. See RH Hewetson: Steele, Sir James Stuart (1894–1975) , in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004.
6. ↑ the highest ranking British military after Chief of the General Staff and Assistant Chief of the General Staff , member of the Army Board
7. ^ Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Galloway KBE, CB, DSO, MC (* 1895, † 1977), Lieutenant General March 1947
8. ^ British High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief British Troops Austria
9. ^ Landing in Normandy - Operation Market Garden - Ardennes Offensive. Galloway only took over the unit at the end of the war, he had participated in the Africa and Italian campaigns and the battle of Montecassino
10. ↑ Headquarters Malaysia / Singapore since the 1920s, killed in the Battle of Singapore in 1942, rebuilt in November 1945, was again significantly disbanded in the Malayan Emergency in 1950, in 1957.
11. ↑ Sir (Thomas) John Willoughby Winterton KCB, KCMG, CBE, DL (April 13, 1898, † December 14, 1987).
12. ↑ Harold Anthony Caccia, Baron Caccia, GCMG, GCVO, GCStJ (born December 21, 1905 in Pachmarhi, India, † October 31, 1990 in Builth Wells, Wales), Sir since 1950
13. ↑ Sir Geoffrey Arnold Wallinger, KCMG, GBE (* 1903, † July 5, 1979) - Wallinger, Sir Geoffrey (Arnold) . In: Who Was Who . A&C Black. Retrieved October 12, 2008. For a portrait of the person, see May 30, 1958: Farewell visit by the British Ambassador . Section in Vienna 1958: reports from May 1958 , wien.at
14. ↑ His Excellency Sir Geoffrey A. Wallinger, extraordinary a. Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Her British Majesty - for example in the agreement with Great Britain on the settlement of Austrian bonds issued in Great Britain StF: Federal Law Gazette No. 259/1954
15. ^ Anzio - Monte Cassino - Italian Western Front;
16. ↑ 5 stars 1948
17. ↑ Commandant en chef français en Autriche, Haut-commissaire , 1945–1946 Commissaire Militaire , cf. Klaus Eisterer: La présence française en Autriche, 1945–1946. Volume I Occupation, dénazification, action culturelle (=  Publications de l'Université de Rouen , Vol. 5), Publication Univ. Rouen Havre, 1998, ISBN 2-87775-239-9 , in particular Annexe 1 , Organigramme N ° 1 (1945), p. 244 and Organigramme N ° 2 (1946), p. 245 (French, limited preview on Google Books ).
18. ↑ Landing in Provence in August 1944 via the Rhone Valley and Alsace to southern Germany
19. ^ Wolfgang Mueller: The Soviet occupation in Austria 1945–1955 and their political mission . Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-205-77399-3 (especially “The Soviet Occupation Apparatus in Austria 1945–1955” and an overview in the appendix ).
20. ↑ occupied the territories in the Czech Republic in 1945, coming from the Battle of Berlin
21. ↑ Vladimir Wassiljewitsch Kurassow (* July 7 (19), 1897, † November 29, 1973), General of the Army November 12, 1948, Hero of the Soviet Union
22. ↑ 1st Baltic united in 1945 with the 3rd Belarusian, East Prussia - Samland - Fresh Spit
23. ↑ инспектор-советник Группы генеральных инспекторов Министерства обороны СССР
24. ^ Leningrad-Novgorod offensive, Riga offensive, Kurland blockade