30 CultureShock! Austria
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, located
its permanent secretariat in the capital as well. The city
also hosted two key East-West summit meetings: between
President John F Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev
in 1961, and between President Jimmy Carter and Premier
Leonid Brezhnev in 1979.Cold War Refugees
Austria’s geographical location and neutrality also made
it a transit point for many immigrants from the East.
Hungarians were welcomed following the Soviet invasion
in 1956, as were Czechoslovakians after the 1968 uprising.
Poles made their way to Austria when the Solidarity
movement was banned in 1981. Hundreds of thousands of
Soviet Jews passed through Vienna on their way to Israel, the
bulk coming during the 1970s. When relations between the
two superpowers were good, a great many refugees flooded
into Vienna. When tensions were high, few would arrive at
the train station.Bruno Kreisky
Between 1945 and 1966, the SPÖ and ÖVP jointly ran the
Austrian government. In 1966, however, the Socialists were
forced into opposition when the ÖVP won an absolute
majority and formed a one-party government. The Socialists,
under Bruno Kreisky, made a strong comeback and governed
Austria alone from 1970 until 1983. During his term as federal
chancellor, Austria prospered amidst political and social stability,
and he became affectionately known as Emperor Bruno.
Kreisky strove hard to strengthen Austria’s role in
international affairs. He argued that Vienna should be home
to as many international organisations as possible because
this would help prevent it from ever again falling victim to
aggression by a larger country, as it had to Hitler’s Germany.
In 1979, Austria was chosen as the site of the third major
United Nations headquarters, following New York and
Geneva. In addition to the IAEA and the United Nations
Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which had
been established in Vienna in 1967, the city continued to