Austrian State Treaty (1955): Austria Regains Independence

The Austrian State Treaty was signed at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna on 15 May 1955 by Austria and the four Allied occupying powers. It ended ten years of occupation and restored Austria as a sovereign, independent and democratic state. Together with Austria’s declaration of permanent neutrality later that year, it was one of the few clear East–West agreements of the early Cold War.

Background: occupation after 1945

Austria had been absorbed into Nazi Germany in the Anschluss of March 1938. In the Moscow Declaration of 1943 the Allies described Austria as the first free country to fall victim to Hitler’s aggression, while also noting its responsibility for taking part in the war on Germany’s side.

After liberation in 1945, Austria was restored as a state under a provisional government led by Karl Renner, but it was divided into four occupation zones, American, British, French and Soviet, as agreed among the Allies and confirmed around the time of the Potsdam Conference. Vienna, inside the Soviet zone, was also divided into sectors, with the city centre administered jointly; soldiers of the four powers famously patrolled it together, “four in a jeep”.

Occupation weighed heavily on daily life. Austria had to pay the costs of the occupying forces in the early years, the Soviet authorities ran confiscated businesses in their zone outside Austrian control, and travel between zones required identity cards. An Allied Council of the four high commissioners supervised the government in Vienna.

Unlike Germany, Austria had a single national government recognised by all four powers from late 1945. However, talks on a treaty to end the occupation stalled for years, mainly over Soviet claims to former German assets in its zone, including oil fields and the Danube shipping company, and over Yugoslav territorial demands.

The breakthrough of 1955

The situation changed after Stalin’s death in 1953. The new Soviet leadership sought to ease tensions and, in particular, to prevent Austria from joining the Western alliance. In February 1955 the Soviet government signalled that it was ready to settle.

In April 1955 an Austrian delegation led by Chancellor Julius Raab, with Vice-Chancellor Adolf Schärf, Foreign Minister Leopold Figl and State Secretary Bruno Kreisky, travelled to Moscow. In the Moscow Memorandum of 15 April 1955, Austria undertook to declare neutrality on the Swiss model, and the Soviet Union agreed to a treaty and to accept payment, largely in goods and oil, for the German assets it held.

Signing and terms

The treaty was signed on 15 May 1955 in the Marble Hall of the Belvedere Palace by Vyacheslav Molotov, John Foster Dulles, Harold Macmillan, Antoine Pinay and Leopold Figl, with the four ambassadors. Figl then showed the signed treaty to the crowd from the palace balcony, a scene that became one of the best-known images in Austrian history. He is widely reported to have proclaimed that Austria was free, though accounts differ on exactly when and where he spoke.

Among its main terms, the treaty:

• recognised Austria as a sovereign, independent and democratic state within its borders of 1 January 1938;
• prohibited any political or economic union with Germany;
• guaranteed rights for the Slovene and Croat minorities in Carinthia, Styria and Burgenland;
• banned Nazi organisations and restricted certain weapons;
• required Austria to keep the 1919 law excluding members of the Habsburg family who did not renounce their claims.

Neutrality and its consequences

The treaty entered into force on 27 July 1955, and the occupation troops had to leave within 90 days. On 26 October 1955 the Austrian parliament passed a constitutional law on permanent neutrality, committing the country never to join a military alliance or allow foreign bases on its territory. That date is now Austria’s National Day. Austria joined the United Nations in December 1955.

The treaty also carried economic costs. Under the Moscow Memorandum and related agreements, Austria paid the Soviet Union 150 million US dollars in goods over six years for the former German assets and delivered millions of tonnes of crude oil over ten years to recover the oil fields. The Western powers renounced most of their claims.

Neutral Austria became a bridge between East and West. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 it received around 180,000 refugees, and Vienna later became a seat of United Nations agencies and a venue for superpower diplomacy.

Timeline

• 1938, 12–13 March: Nazi Germany annexes Austria.
• 1943, 1 November: The Moscow Declaration calls for a free and independent Austria.
• 1945, April–July: Austria is liberated and divided into four occupation zones.
• 1955, 15 April: The Moscow Memorandum is agreed between Austria and the Soviet Union.
• 1955, 15 May: The State Treaty is signed at the Belvedere Palace.
• 1955, 27 July: The treaty enters into force.
• 1955, 25 October: The deadline for the withdrawal of occupation troops expires.
• 1955, 26 October: Parliament adopts the law on permanent neutrality.

Why it matters

The Austrian State Treaty showed that the Cold War powers could negotiate a peaceful withdrawal from occupied territory. It gave Austria full independence for the first time since 1938 and defined its post-war identity as a neutral, democratic state in the heart of Europe.