1939 to 1945 - Never to be forgotten

On 1 September we commemorate the beginning of World War II which was set off by the assault on Poland on 1 September 1939 by the German Reich. In 1945, after seven years of madness and a war of unprecedented brutality, Europe lay in ruins and millions of people had lost their lives. Not just in Vienna or Austria. The killing and dying took place around the world.

Just like in our previous historical series about the years leading to the fatal developments in 1938, wien.at commemorates the years of 1939 to 1945 with these articles which intend to look at the events in their historical and political context.

The Mayor and the Gauleiter of Vienna from 1938 to 1945

The mayors of Vienna installed by the National Socialists had by no means the functions previously held by the mayors of the city. In accordance with the entire system of the NS regime they were mere assistants of the Gauleiter (leader of a Gau or regional district who had to swear personal loyalty to the Führer) whose orders and instructions they had to execute.

NS Mayor of Vienna

Fritz Lahr, the former vice mayor of the Ständestaat, the corporative authoritarian system under the leadership of the Fatherland Front, became the first National Socialist mayor. In 1934 Lahr who at the time was a functionary of the Heimwehr (paramilitary Homeguard) had become the liaison person to the still illegal National Socialists in Austria. He most likely owed his top position in City Hall to these clandestine activities. Lahr served as quasi mayor until 13 March 1938 (presumably taking up his function on 11 March). He dismissed a number of high ranking public officials and replaced them with people whose sole qualification was the fact that they were Nazis. This marked the beginning of a great number of dubious and swift careers based on political beliefs rather than qualification.

Fritz Lahr was succeeded by three national socialist mayors. The first was Hermann Neubacher, a forest engineer, who in the years of "Red Vienna" had worked his way up to the position of General Manager of the communal "Gesiba". In 1933 Neubacher joined the illegal NSDAP. He stayed in office from 1938 to 1940 and was succeeded by the German Philipp Wilhelm Jung who was the mayor of Vienna from 1940 to 1943. Hanns Blaschke, a patent attorney, was the last Nazi mayor of Vienna until the liberation in 1945.

Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Vienna

Josef Bürckel from Germany served as Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter (Reich governor) of Vienna until 1940. Because of his drinking habit the Viennese called him "Beer Leiter Gauckel" - obviously only under their breath. In 1940 Bürckel became the chief administrator of occupied Lorraine. Faced with the imminent liberation he committed suicide in 1944.

Bürckel’s successor in Vienna was one of the highest-profile Nazis, a man called Baldur von Schirach from Berlin. Previously the Reichsjugendleiter (leader of the Reich’s youth) he was in charge of the pre-military training of young people. When the Red Army approached Vienna, Schirach fled to the West. He took on a false name and hid in Tyrol but was eventually captured by the American forces. At the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals Schirach was sentenced to 20 years of prison which he served at the Berlin prison of Spandau. Both the Gauleiter and the Reichsstatthalter had their office not in City Hall but in Parliament which under the Nazis was called the Gauhaus.

The bureaucracy marches to its doom

Today we know from many historical sources that the NS regime – both in the Altreich as well as in the "Ostmark" - was able to rely on a well trained and well organised bureaucracy. The same was true in Vienna where enforced political conformity took place soon after the arrival of the Nazi troops. In accordance with a decree by the Führer of the German Reich signed by Hitler on March 15 1938, all Austrian public officials and civil servants had to swear an oath of loyalty to the Führer. They had to swear by God to faithfully serve the Führer of the German Reich and the German People, Adolf Hitler, to observe the laws and to obediently perform their duties.

The only ones exempt from the oath were Jews and Mischlinge (half-breeds) of the first degree (i.e. with three or two Jewish grandparents). Those who refused to take the oath were immediately dismissed. The civil servants of the City of Vienna took the oath on 17 March 1938. The procedure was the following: the director of the municipal authorities, the group leaders and the directors of the municipal institutions and enterprises had to repeat the oath after the Mayor and then pass it on to their immediate subordinates.