The public authorities of the provincial governor of Oberdonau

Helmut Fiereder

This contribution investigates the development of the organs of state administration in Upper Austria during the time of the Nazi tyranny, in other words the Reichsgau Oberdonau, the districts and local authorities.

The Reichsgaue (regions) of the Ostmark were instituted in 1940 by the Ostmark Bill. They formed the middle level of the state administration of the Reich, were self-governing bodies, and are to be seen in the context of the reform of the Reich of 1933. These regions had no sovereign rights, however, although the responsibility of fulfilling certain sovereign duties was transferred to them. The governor at the head of a Reichsgau was the Gauleiter of the local party of the NSDAP.

In December 1939, in an effort to reform the lowest level of state governance, an order was sent out regarding the administration of the districts, which was to define the duties and responsibilities of the District Councils and Regional District Leaders. This enjoyed only partial success, however. In the Nazi era it was only with the Order for German Local Authorities that the local authorities were standardised across the Reich. This order regulated all the concerns of the local authorities, and above all secured the influence of the NSDAP on local life.