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Hitler's Hometown under Nazi Rule: Linz, Austria, 1938–45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Evan B. Bukey
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Nearly four decades have passed since the collapse of the Greater German Reich, but the subject of Nazi rule in Hitler's homeland of Austria still remains something of a mystery. While the appearance of pioneering works by Karl Stadler, Radomir Luža, Gerhard Botz, and John Bernbaum, among others, has illuminated the landscape of what until recently was terra incognita, a great many dark valleys and ravines still remain. The purpose of this essay is to examine Nazi control in the Upper Austrian city of Linz as a means of addressing certain unresolved issues of Central European history such as the degree of Austrian participation, support, or acceptance of the Hitler regime, the role of the Roman Catholic Church, the extent of German penetration of Austrian institutions after 1938, and the impact of fascist industrialization in transforming and modernizing Austrian society. Linz should make a particularly interesting test case since it has long mirrored the currents and ambiguities of Central European history. The boyhood home of Hitler, Eichmann, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, it was a center of German Nationalist agitation before World War I, a model of democratic propriety during the 1920s, and a major battlefield of the Austrian Civil War of 1934. Rapidly evolving from a bastion of Social Democracy into a stronghold of National Socialism, it was a focus of the Anschluss in 1938 and the recipient of lavish aid from its Führer-son thereafter. What occurred in the Danubian city between 1938 and 1945 foreshadowed something of Hitler's intentions, not simply for Austria but also for much of the Greater German Reich.

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Articles
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Central European History , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 171 - 186
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1983

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References

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2. The literature taking this approach is endless. It includes the works of the otherwise sophisticated Gerhard Botz, whose extensive use of quantitative data and theoretical models occludes the very real power wielded outside Vienna by the native-born NSDAP. Cf. Botz, Wien vom “Anschluss” zum Krieg, pp. 355–64, 487–505; idem, “Comments,” Austrian History Yearbook 14 (1978): 167–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Hanisch, Ernst, “‘Gau der Guten Nerven’: Die Nationalsozialistische Herrschaft in Salzburg 1939/40,” in Ackerl, Isabella et al. , Politik und Gesellschaft im Alten und Neuem Österreich: Festschrift für Rudolf Neck zum 60. Geburtstag (Munich, 1981), 2: 195–218, especially 202–8.Google Scholar For a sample of the ongoing emphasis on discontent and resistance see the publications of the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW), Vienna: Widerstand und Verfolgung in Wien 1934–1945: Eine Dokumentation, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1975)Google Scholar; Widerstand und Verfolgung in Burgenland 1934–1945: Eine Dokumentation (Vienna, 1979)Google Scholar; and Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich 1934–1945: Eine Dokumentation, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1982).Google Scholar To date, no one has systematically tackled the problem of collaboration in the Ostmark, but see Bernbaum's pioneering dissertation, “Nazi Control in Austria” as well as his article, “The New Elite: Nazi Leadership in Austria, 1938–1945,” in Austrian History Yearbook 14 (1978): 145–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a balanced introductory assessment of the question see Katzenstein, Peter J., Disjoined Partners: Austria and Germany since 1815 (Berkeley, 1976), pp. 163–76.Google Scholar

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4. Botz, “Comments,” p. 180.

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6. DÖW, Vienna, doc. 8359: Unveröffentliche Manuskripte für das Bundesregierung herausgegebende Rot/weiss/Buch 1946: Berichte verschiedener Gendarmeriepostenkommandos in Oberösterreich.

7. Berlin Document Center, West Berlin, SS-Führer, Hans Feil: Ernst Kaltenbrunner to v. Herff, 14 Dec. 1944.

8. Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, p. 98.

9. Botz, “Comments,” pp. 177–81.

10. Ibid., and Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, p. 62.

11. Botz, “Comments,” pp. 177–81.

12. Hanisch, “‘Gau der Guten Nerven,’” pp. 202–8; Luža, Austro-German Relations, pp. 231–63, 317–20; and idem, “Nazi Control of the Austrian Catholic Church, 1939–1941,” Catholic Historical Review 63 (1977): 537–72, esp. 537–39 and 547–51.Google Scholar

13. Amtskalender für das Gau Oberdonau 80 (Linz, 1939): 51–60; 82: 51–60Google Scholar; Luža, Austro-German Relations, pp. 319–20; Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 55–60; and National Archives (NA), Washington, D.C., Microcopy T 175, Serial 124, Roll 124, frames 599664–71: Malz to Ohlendorf, 25 Nov. 1942, and Himmler to Bormann, 14 Jan. 1943. Eigruber's ruthless vigor earned him the admiration not only of Hitler and Goebbels but also of Franz Ziereis, commandant of the nearby Mauthausen concentration camp. With Ziereis the Gauleiter was in fact on a “du” basis. Lochner, Louis P., ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 1942–1943 (New York, 1948), p. 433Google Scholar, and Archiv der Stadt Linz, Tonbandsammlung, Reel 33: Interview of Rudolf Jirkowsky by Wilhelm Rausch, 9 Mar. 1965.

14. Most notably Jedlicka, Ludwig, Der 20. Juli in Österreich (Vienna, 1965).Google Scholar On the problem of Austrian views of the Nazi past see Ritter, “Recent Writing on Interwar Austria,” pp. 306–11 and Katzenstein, Disjoined Partners, pp. 163–76. Also see the conflicting articles by Bernbaum, “The New Elite” and Maurice Williams, “The Aftermath of Anschluss: Disillusioned Germans or Budding Austrian Patriots?” as well as the comments by Peter Burian, Herbert Steiner, Ernst Hanisch, and Gerhard Botz—all published as “The Nazi Interlude” in Austrian History Yearbook 14 (1978): 127–86.Google Scholar

15. Fredborg, Avrid, Behind the Steel Wall: A Swedish Journalist in Berlin (New York, 1944), p. 187Google Scholar; Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 281–82 and passim; DÖW, Vienna, doc. 4081: Gestapo Linz to RSHA, 3 Dec. 1940; Mitteilungsblatt des Gaupropagandaamtes, Folge 6 (6 July 1941); Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv (OÖLA), Linz, Pol. Akten, Box 69: doc. 12/20, Bericht des SD Linz, 27 June 1941; and Lukacs, John, The Last European War: September 1939/December 1941 (New York, 1976), p. 176.Google Scholar

16. At the time of the Anschluss, some 37,120 people were out of work in Upper Austria and approximately 12,000 in Linz. By October 1938, the provincial figure had dropped to 3,195 and that in Hitler's hometown to 1,098. During the early spring of 1939 local unemployment rose briefly, but by summer it was clear that a labor shortage had developed. Völkischer Beobachter (Wiener Ausgabe), 16 09 1938; Meixner, Erich Maria, Männer, Mächte, Betriebe: Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Landes Oberösterreich (Salzburg, 1952), p. 383Google Scholar; and Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, p. 160.

17. DÖW, Vienna, doc. 1449: Gestapo Linz to RSHA, 30 Dec. 1940.

18. Bernbaum, “Nazi Control in Austria,” pp. 151–55; Hautmann, Hans and Kropf, Ernst, Die österreichische Arbeiterbewegung vom Vormärz bis 1945: Sozialökonomische Ursprünge ihrer Ideologic und Politik (Vienna, 1974), pp. 176–90Google Scholar; DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Wien, vols. 2 and 3; Stadler, Österreich 1938–1945, pp. 53–59Google Scholar and passim; Fredborg, Behind the Steel Wall, p. 187; and Stadler, Karl R., Austria (New York, 1971), p. 175.Google Scholar In light of Kater's quantitative discovery of increasing blue-collar identification with Hitler's regime during World War II, the question of working-class attitudes toward National Socialism remains far from settled. For conflicting conclusions see Kater, The Nazi Party, pp. 117–19, 160, 346–47 and Mason, Timothy W., Arbeiterklasse und Volksgemeinschaft: Dokumente und Materialen zur deutschen Arbeiterpolitik 1936–1939 (Opladen, 1975), esp. pp. 171–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also see Kershaw, Ian, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich: Bavaria 1933–1945 (Oxford, 1983), pp. 303–15.Google Scholar In Upper Danube blue-collar opinion was usually rooted in specific geographical and historical circumstances. Dissent was most evident on the floor of the Steyr armaments plant where the once highly organized workers had access to Communist counterpropaganda; it was also widespread among miners and railwaymen of the Salzkammergut. In Linz, on the other hand, even the Nazis were struck by the absence of blue-collar discontent. When in 1944 dissent did emerge in the town's vast Hermann Göring works, it was confined to Italian, Czech, and French, rather than Austrian, wage earners. DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich, 1: 183–335. especially doc. 15 on p. 239.

19. Kershaw, Ian, “The Persecution of the Jews and German Popular Opinion in the Third Reich,” in Leo Baeck Institute, Yearbook XXVI (London, 1981), pp. 261–89.Google Scholar

20. Tweraser, Kurt, “Carl Beurle and the Triumph of German Nationalism in Austria,” German Studies Review 4 (10 1981): 403–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. On the Jews and their tormentors in Linz see Schwager, Karl, “Geschichte der Juden in Linz,” in Gold, Hugo, Geschichte der Juden in Österreich: Ein Gedenkbuch (Tel Aviv, 1971), pp. 53–67Google Scholar; Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1971), 11: 262Google Scholar; Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 177–93; and DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich, 2: 372–405.

22. DÖW, Vienna, doc. 3522: Herbert Sperling an den SD Führer des Oberabschnittes Donau, Nov., 1938. From neighboring Steyr the SD report of 30 Nov. 1938 noted “the entire population approves the measures of the government against Jewry without exception and without reservation.” DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich, 2, doc. 5, p. 387.

23. Evidence of popular support of the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Linz and its hinterland can be found in Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 177–93; Weinzierl, Erika, Zu Wenig Gerechte: Österreicher und Judenverfolgung 1938–1945 (Graz, 1969), pp. 39, 62, 158Google Scholar; NA, T 175, 261, 755761: “Meldungen aus dem Reich,” 2 Feb. 1942; and OÖLA, Linz, Pol. Akten, Box 29: Gendarmerieposten Kommando Hörsching Nr. 913 an die Bezirkshauptmannschaft in Linz, 30 Apr. 1938. Despite the presence of nearby Mauthausen, few people in Linz appear to have had any inkling of the ultimate fate of the Jews, at least until the very last days of the war. For evidence of persisting anti-Semitism in the Danubian city, see Karl Stuhlpfarrer, “Antisemitismus, Rassenpolitik und Judenverfolgung in Österreich nach dem ersten Weltkrieg” in Drabek, Anna et al. , Das Österreichische Judentum: Voraussetzungen und Geschichte (Vienna, 1974), p. 143.Google Scholar

24. Quoted in Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, p. 281.

25. Evidence of agricultural discontent in Upper Danube is amply and convincingly documented in DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich, 2: 293–317.

26. OÖLA, Linz, Pol. Akten, Box 69, doc. O Oe 12/24: SD Abschnitt Linz, 7 Mar. 1941.

27. Luža, “Nazi Control of the Austrian Catholic Church,” pp. 538–39.

28. Luža, Austro-German Relations, p. 182; Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 194–200; idem, “Die Kirche Oberösterreichs zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus,” in Zinnhobler, Rudolf, ed., Das Bistum Linz im Dritten Reich (Linz, 1979), pp. 1–12Google Scholar; Kutschera, Richard, Johannes Maria Gföllner: Bischof dreier Zeitenwenden (Linz, 1972), pp. 108–9Google Scholar; Linzer Volksstimme, 26 Aug. 1938; and Völkischer Beobachter (Wiener Ausgabe), 8 Nov. and 13 Dec. 1938.

29. Even before the signing of the Reich Concordat of 1933, Gföllner's unbending resistance to Nazism had provoked the resentment of Cardinals Buchberger of Regensburg and Faulhaber of Munich-Freising. In a letter to Cardinal State Secretary Pacelli on 10 April 1933, Faulhaber complained that Gföllner's hostility was causing “great damage to clerical authority.” Rudolf Zinnhobler, “Die Haltung Bischof Gföllners gegenüber dem Nationalsozialismus,” in Zinnhobler, Das Bistum Linz im Dritten Reich, pp. 61–73.

30. Kutschera, Johannes Maria Gföllner, p. 106 and passim.

31. For example, see the statement of Gauleiter Eigruber on the role of the Church in the Nazi state, ibid., p. 113, and in the Linzer Volksstimme, 17 Oct. 1938.

32. Luža, “Nazi Control of the Austrian Catholic Church,” p. 547; Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess; Kutschera, Johannes Maria Gföllner, pp. 108–9; Linzer Volksblatt, 5 Nov. and 23 Dec. 1946; and Zinnhobler, Rudolf, “Die Katholische Kirche,” in DÖW, Widerstand und Verfolgung in Oberösterreich, 2: 14–15.Google Scholar

33. Luža, “Nazi Control of the Austrian Catholic Church,” p. 559 and idem, Austro-German Relations, p. 190.

34. Naderer, Anton, “Dr. Josef Cal. Fliesser: Bischof von Linz” (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Vienna, 1972), p. 89 and passimGoogle Scholar; idem, “Bischof Fliesser und der Nationalsozialismus,” in Zinnhobler, Das Bistum Linz im Dritten Reich, pp. 87–90; and Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 223–24.

35. Lewy, Guenter, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (New York, 1964)Google Scholar; Helmreich, Ernst Christian, The German Churches under Hitler: Background, Struggle and Epilogue (Detroit, 1979), pp. 237–301, 347–67Google Scholar; Conway, John S., The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933–45 (New York, 1968), pp. 61–71, 91–92, 125Google Scholar and passim; and Rhodes, Anthony, The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators 1922–1945 (New York, 1973), pp. 141–53, 161–209Google Scholar and passim. That the Catholic Church endured greater hardship in Austria, the Sudetenland, and other incorporated areas of Greater Germany than in the Old Reich is mentioned but not thoroughly explored by both Helmreich, pp. 350–52 and Conway, pp. 224–26. Also see Luža, “Nazi Control of the Austrian Catholic Church,” pp. 537–72.

36. This was the conclusion reached by the Upper Austrian peasant-pacifist, Franz Jägerstätter, who chose death over service in the German armed forces. Zahn, Gordon C., In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter (New York, 1964), p. 165.Google Scholar

37. On Hitler's grandiose plans for Linz see: Dülfer, Jost et al. , Hitler's Städte: Baupolitik im Dritten Reich (Cologne, 1978), pp. 254–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, Robert R., The Word in Stone: The Role of Architecture in the National Socialist Ideology (Berkeley, 1974), pp. 49–52Google Scholar; Giessler, Herman, Ein Anderer Hitler: Bericht seines Architect: Erlebnisse, Gespräche, Reflexionen (Leoni am Starmberger See, 1978), pp. 90–99Google Scholar and passim; Speer, Albert, Inside the Third Reich (New York, 1970), pp. 79, 99, 143Google Scholar and passim; and Brenner, Hildegard, Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialismus (Hamburg, 1963), p. 154Google Scholar and passim.

38. This is not to suggest that the rapid industrialization of Linz stood apart from the overall process of economic modernization that occurred in Austria as a result of the revaluation of the Austrian schilling, the shortage of available labor in the Old Reich, and the demands of the German war machine. The original site chosen for industrial development in Upper Danube, however, was not Linz but Asten-St. Florian at the mouth of the Enns River. Since the estimated costs of a new town to support the complex were prohibitively expensive, Hitler personally ordered that the location be shifted to his hometown. Here, he stressed, an industrial plant would generate the necessary tax revenue to underwrite his monumental schemes. Meixner, Männer, Mächte, Betriebe, pp. 388–90; idem, Linz 1945–1960: Industrie, Gewerbe, Handel, Verkehr, Fremdenverkehr, Geldwesen (Linz, 1962), pp. 9–19Google Scholar; and Speer, Albert, Spandau: The Secret Diaries (New York, 1976), pp. 174–75.Google Scholar On the Nazi economic integration of the Ostmark see Luža, Austro-German Relations, pp. 192–214, and Butschek, Felix, Die Östereichische Wirtschaft 1938 bis 1945 (Stuttgart, 1978)Google Scholar. Also see Mason, Arbeiterklasse und Volksgemeinschaft, pp. 101–19.

39. Speer, Spandau, p. 174, and Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 130–34. The University of Salzburg denied my request to examine the unpublished dissertation by Helmut Fiereder, “Die Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Österreich 1938 bis 1945: Zur Gründungsgeschichte der Vereinigten Österreichischen Eisen und Stahwerke (VÖEST)” (Salzburg, 1979).

40. Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 170–74; Meixner, Männer, Mächte, Betriebe, p. 396, and idem, Linz 1945–1960, pp. 28–31, 59.

41. Meixner, Linz 1945–1960, pp. 281–31, 59.

42. Duverger, Maurice, Modern Democracies: Economic Power versus Political Power (Hillsdale, 1974), p. 110.Google Scholar

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44. Luža, Austro-German Relations, pp. 343–66. For evidence of these trends in Linz and Upper Austria see Slapnicka, Oberösterreich als es “Oberdonau” hiess, pp. 261–320.

45. Craig, Gordon A., Germany 1866–1945 (New York, 1978), pp. 763–64.Google Scholar