Aspects of administrative de-nazification in Vorarlberg

This article shows how the administrative alternatives for carrying out the diverse Nazi-related laws were applied in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg between 1945 and 1948, and which aims the authorities themselves pursued by them. The socio-political and structural starting point in Vorarlberg at the end of the war in 1945 and in the following months of the democratic reconstruction is described first. An acquaintance with the socio-political and structural starting point is essential for an understanding of the historical processes of administrative de-nazification.

It forms a framework within which Austrian post-war society resumed the debate on its National Socialist past. The summary results of de-nazification after the legal ban and the law to cleanse the economy are examined in two further points. The factual course of the administrative attempt to cleanse post-war society in Vorarlberg of erstwhile National Socialists is shown in detail using cross-sections to examine de-nazification in the private sector, in health sector and in the public sector.

The case studies show that the public authorities had an interest in making the process of de-nazification as painless as possible for the people involved, given the high professional qualification and the prominent position in social elites of the National Socialists thus affected. The number of affected people in Vorarlberg, compared to the rest of Austria, is in the top 1/3. The positioning of erstwhile Nazi supporters in regard to their professional and social status is also comparatively high. This made it easy for registered Nazis in Vorarlberg to avoid the professional and material consequences of their Nazi past in 1947, particularly as all administrative doors opened for them in this regard in the wake of the amnesty which began in 1948. The political parties of the province of Vorarlberg assumed the central roles of bouncers at this opening.

The study is concluded by a survey of the sources relating to the history of de-nazification in Vorarlberg, especially those located in the provincial archives of Vorarlberg.