26 CultureShock! Austria
soil. The Soviets finally liberated the city, and were initially
welcomed by the hungry and distressed Viennese.Post-World War II
By 1945, Austrians had come to dislike the Nazis, but soon
the Red Army was hated even more. Soviet soldiers terrorised
society. The country and the capital were divided into four
zones (just as Germany and Berlin were), to be occupied
by each of the Allied nations (France, Great Britain, the
United States and Russia). The inner city was declared an
international sector and kept intact. Patrols consisted of one
soldier from each of the four nations, so the post-war period
came to be known by the term ‘four in a jeep’.
In November 1943, the Allies had stated in the Moscow
Declaration that Austria was a victim of the Nazis and as
such should be re-established as a free and democratic
state. Thus, international borders were re-established using
1 January 1938 maps.The Second Republic
The Second Republic was founded in 1945 by three parties
from the pre-World War II era. A fourth party, the Austrian
Nazi Party, was forbidden by the occupying forces to
participate in politics. The Christian Social Party re-emerged
as the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). The Social Democrats
became the Social Democratic Party of Austria ( SPÖ). The
first postwar elections were held in November 1945. The ÖVP
and the SPÖ won most of the seats in parliament, with the
communists (KPÖ), who had never had a strong following,
winning only four seats. The provisional government was
headed by Dr Karl Renner (SPÖ) as president and Leopold
Figl (ÖVP) as chancellor. The two main parties formed a
‘grand coalition’, which would govern Austria for most of
the rest of the century.
The 1920 constitution, amended in 1929, was reinstated in
May 1945. The federal government holds most of the political
and economic power, while the nine Länder (provinces) have
their own local governments and maintain authority over
other areas. The president is elected for a six-year term, but