The Postwar Occupation of Austria: History Matters (Short Animated Documentary)

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Franco La Bruna
James Baker
Daniel Lambert
Richard Wolfe
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Blaine Tillack
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Cornel
Thomas Mitchell
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Joooooshhhhh
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Byzans_Scotorius
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anon

This episode covers the postwar occupation of Austria and how this ten year period affected the country's character and outlook. Life in the country was pretty brutal after the war but after some economic aid and presenting a united front to their occupiers the Austrians were able to negotiate the end of their occupation in 1955. They just can't join Germany again. Ever.

[thesupertsar]

Not many people even know that Austria was divided. Thanks for helping people figure this out.

[excanadianpheasant]

Never ever ever...EVER unify with Germany? But what if Germany became part of Austria?

[TheECSH]

It's strange to think that the Habsburg Austria was once a European great power like Britain, France, Russia...etc, and now Austria is just a small landlocked central European country.

[Choppytehbear]

The year is 2842 Earth has colonies across dozens of star systems. There are only two nations on Earth. The Terran Union, and Austria.

[thewaterdrop]

Fun fact. My great grandfather fought on the eastern front and got captured in Breslau by the soviets. After the war they set him free somewhere in Russia and he had to travel back on his own. In Warsaw he got into problems with the locals at the train station because the only clothes he had were his uniform. A soviet officer then came and helped him and after he found out he was Austrian and not German helped him get the correct train to Vienna.

[MTTT]

A thing that could be noted here, is that the first district of Vienna was occupied by all four allied powers together. Much like Berlin, Vienna was split up in a similar fashion, but they couldn't decide which nation should control the first district, as many major ministries and institutions were located there. So they came up with the agreement that neither should and instead all should together, most visibly seen by the 'Four men in the jeep' . Each allied patrol on the streets consisted of a military vehicle, mostly a Jeep, having four soldiers in it, one of each occupying power.
Edit 5. June 2019: Holy shit, I did not expect so many upvotes on such an explanation!

[kalyka]

Allies: You are being liberated
Allies: Please do not resist

[raulfierro]

Germany and Austria not being allowed to unify is like when your friends mom won’t let you guys hangout because you always get into trouble

[Koellenburg]

0:43 .. fun fakt. UDSSR really took all industrial parts of austrias steel industry ... but that forced rebuilding and 10 years later austrian steel mills had one of the most advanced equipment of the world :)

[vcrsalesman]

Hanging out with friends: ❌

Watching a video about post WWII Austria: ✅

[DSgamrz]

World, to Austria: “How can you base your whole national identity around NOT being the same as your more powerful, nearly identical neighbour?”

Canadians: “Uhh...”

[vadersfist]

Fun fact: It was actually quite hard for Austria to join the EU because of the state treaty, as being in the same union as Germany may have violated the treaty

[DirkusTurkess]

Found a massive loophole, AUSTRIA ANNEXES GERMANY!

[romulusnuma]

I don't know why but Austria never being allowed to join with Germany is very funny to me

[simbachvazo]

The amount of stressing that Austria can never unite with Germany is very ominous.

[ErikHare]

Overall, the withdrawal of the Soviets from Austria was a missed opportunity. Imagine JFK going to Vienna and proclaiming, "Ich bin ein Wiener."


(It's better than a pastry)

[SvrWxArchive]

I'd like to see a longer post-Habsburg history of Austria as well. Very interesting stuff!!

[fusel]

There’s a myth here in Austria that the Russians left because our Delegation managed to outdrink the soviets so we got a favourable deal

[alexs.]

You didn't mention one of the most important factors that allowed Austria to not get split up like Germany. They promised to the Soviet Union that they will create a state similar to Switzerland, not only neutral but also and most importantly a safe habor for money with a strict bank secrecy.
The problem with this is that since it became neutral, it never happened a denazification in the same fashion as in Germany. Sure the party was forbidden, but there weren't huge compaigns to eleminate the nazi ideas from people's minds.
And despite the promises, Austria was actually never really neutral between west and east, but always favored the west.
This is not a hate comment at all, but i am Austrian and in school half of our history lessons were only about the second world war, therefore i heard these things endless times and wanted to add this information.

[tomasribeiro]

Western and Eastern powers after WW2: you are Austrian.
Austrians: Who says I'm Austrian?
Western and Eastern powers: You are Austrian.