Workers and politics in occupied Austria, 1945-55 / Jill Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, Jill, Dr.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Austria--History--Allied occupation, 1945-1955.

Austria.

History.

Austria--Politics and government--1945-.

Politics and government.

Austria--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

224 pages : map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In March 1946, Winston Churchill warned his audience and the world about the 'Iron Curtain' which had descended across Europe and behind which now lay, he said, the eight capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. In fact, one of these eight, Vienna, escaped absorption into the Soviet bloc. Between 1945 and 1955, Austria and its capital were occupied by the four (increasingly mutually antagonistic) Allied Powers.

During this decade of confusion, insecurity, suspicion and fear, and confronted by poverty and the threat of famine, Austria's political and economic elites joined forces to promote a culture of political unity and harmony from which eventually emerged the Austrian model of corporatism, commonly referred to as the Social Partnership. This study shows that conservatives, Socialists and Communists initially co-operated in coalition government, industrialists embraced nationalisation, and union leaders abandoned class conflict, accepting wage controls in return for a role in national policy formation. By 1948, the two superpowers were competing for influence in the country. Whilst the USA sought to bind Austria to itself by means of lavish aid under the Marshall Plan, the USSR grew steadily more intransigent in asserting what it considered to be its rights. In the meanwhile, food shortages and low wages led to grass-roots protest, which union leaders opposed and Austrian Communists sought to exploit.

This book sets the social and economic difficulties which Austria encountered in this decade in their international context and examines how they were contained. It will be essential reading for all those interested in twentieth-century European and political history.

Contents:

Map: Austria - zones of occupation and international frontiers 1937 viii

1 The Anschluss 10

2 1945: liberation 34

3 Hunger, rape and recognition 61

4 Supervised independence 87

5 Labour and threats to consensus 104

6 Transformation and confrontation 129

7 Rising tensions 155

8 The putsch that never was 170

9 The aftermath 194.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [207]-219) and index.

ISBN:

9780719073502

0719073502

OCLC:

173348883