The Austrian State Treaty — Occupation Ends, Neutrality Declared
The Austrian State Treaty was signed in Vienna on 15 May 1955, ending a decade of four-power occupation and restoring Austrian sovereignty — the only case in the Cold War where the Soviet Union withdrew from a country it occupied. Austria had been annexed by Germany in 1938 and was treated at Moscow in 1943 as Hitler's first victim rather than as a co-belligerent, which is the legal foundation of everything that followed. It was divided into four zones in 1945, with Vienna itself split four ways and its centre under joint patrol. Negotiations ran for eight years and 379 sessions, blocked chiefly by Soviet demands for German assets in its zone and by linkage to the German question. What unblocked it was Stalin's death and Khrushchev's calculation that a neutral Austria was worth more than an occupied one — as a demonstration to West Germany, which was joining NATO that month, that neutrality was available. The Austrian delegation under Leopold Figl and Julius Raab went to Moscow in April 1955 and agreed the terms directly. Austria undertook to declare permanent neutrality, which it did by constitutional law in October; union with Germany was prohibited; and Nazi and fascist organisations were banned. Soviet claims were settled with oil deliveries and cash. The last occupying soldier left on 25 October 1955. Figl held the signed treaty from the Belvedere balcony to a crowd below, and the phrase he used — Austria is free — is what the day is remembered by. Neutrality became a national identity rather than a concession, and Vienna took on a role as a meeting place between the blocs.
- Year: 1955 CE
- Category: Political
