THE CITY OF SALZBURG IN 1945

End of the war

On 4 May 1945, the city of Salzburg was handed over to the invading US army without a fight. Many Salzburg residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators. They were happy that after 5 ½ years of war, peace was finally at hand – even if many saw it as a defeat. However, the US forces arrived not only as liberators but also as occupiers, who significantly regulated and determined life in Salzburg in the years to come. No important political, administrative, cultural, or economic decisions could be made without the approval of the US military government.

Housing

The housing shortage in the city of Salzburg was one of the biggest problems of the immediate post-war period, alongside food supply. After more than 1,000 houses had already been severely damaged or completely destroyed in the bombing raids of 1944/45, the US occupiers now requisitioned properties for their own purposes, thus massively worsening the housing shortage. Every second household shared their living space - voluntarily or involuntarily - with strangers. In addition, a shortage of labour and building materials made any construction activity difficult. Shacks characterised the cityscape until the 1960s.

Denazification

More than 33,000 people in the province of Salzburg, including almost 13,000 in the provincial capital, had to register as former members of the NSDAP or one of its organisations after the fall of the Nazi regime. Through the process known as denazification, the Austrian state sought to hold these people accountable and punish them, sometimes severely. However, the vast majority of those registered were considered denazified by the end of 1947 and escaped punishment. The US occupation authorities interned high-ranking functionaries of the Nazi system in Camp Marcus W. Orr, commonly known as Lager Glasenbach.

Returnees

One of the first actions of the US Army in the spring of 1945 was to disarm and arrest defeated Wehrmacht soldiers.The Western Allies released most of their prisoners of war by 1946, while senior staff, Nazi functionaries, and members of the Waffen-SS remained in custody for longer. Prisoners of war held in the Soviet Union were hit the hardest and usually waited several years to be released. The population organised warm receptions for the returnees at Salzburg‘s main railway station with music and speeches by politicians.
Many former soldiers struggled with trauma and the physical as well as psychological consequences of their experiences at the front and in captivity. After years of separation from their families, they also felt alienated. Some found it difficult to return to everyday life.

Food supply

The supply situation for the Salzburg population was extremely precarious after the end of the war. Food, clothing, and consumer goods were rationed. Queues of people trying to get food in exchange for ration cards were part of everyday life. Children particularly suffered from the persistent shortage. Without international aid, survival would have been barely possible. In 1947, more than half of the food allocated to Salzburg came from American aid agencies (Amerika-Hilfe). Private organisations such as the Red Cross distributed food parcels to children, financed school meals, and organised convalescence trips for malnourished children.

Displaced Persons

After the end of the war, over 66,000 refugees known as DPs – ‘Displaced Persons’ – were living in the city of Salzburg. They came mainly from Central and Eastern Europe and lived largely separated by national group in different camps, of which more than 15 were located in the city area. Several thousand DPs were Jews who had been liberated from the concentration camps. The US military government and UN departments were responsible for the DP camps in Salzburg. Jewish organisations such as the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) managed the Jewish DP camps. Parts of the Salzburg population showed unfriendly and even hostile behaviour towards the DPs.

Education

Schooling, which had already been irregular during the war, came to a complete standstill from 4 May 1945. Some schools had been damaged by bombing raids, while others were needed by the US occupation authorities after the end of the war for their own purposes or to accommodate refugees. In July 1945, the military government announced that all teachers at public schools were to be dismissed. Teachers without a Nazi past could be reinstated upon application. After an interruption of several months, regular teaching resumed in ten primary and secondary schools on 17 September and in grammar schools as well as in trade and technical schools on 1 October 1945.

American Way of Life

US Army soldiers, vehicles, and signage characterised the cityscape from May 1945. Although contact between the population and the GIs – the colloquial term for US soldiers – was strictly forbidden in the first few months of the occupation, a variety of opportunities for contact quickly developed, for example due to PX shops (PX = Post
Exchange). There, soldiers received imported goods from the USA, which were especially attractive to the people of Salzburg. The younger generation in particular took a liking to the American way of life and its music, as well as the relaxed informality exhibited by Americans. Last but not least, there were numerous sexual relationships between GIs
and Salzburg women – partly out of economic necessity – which led to marriages in more than 1,000 cases.

Public Transport

After the bombing of infrastructure during the war and as a result of the lack
of spare parts and fuel, public transport in the city of Salzburg was initially at
a standstill. After the tracks of the Salzburg railway and tramway company had
been repaired, local trains between Salzburg and the village of Lamprechtshausen
were able to run again from the end of May and three weeks later also between
Salzburg and the village of St. Leonhard. At the end of June, buses were once
again operating on the city‘s streets and from September, regional bus routes
also resumed service. In the first few months, railway and bus services around
the main train station district were limited due to severe bombing damage.

Free elections

On 25 November 1945, free and democratic elections for the National Council, provincial parliament, and municipal council were held again after more than 13 years. Men and women over the age of 21 who had not been required to register because of their former Nazi membership were eligible to vote. This amounted to 40,932 people in the provincial capital of Salzburg. Just under 90% made use of their right to vote. The SPÖ was the largest party with 51.1%, followed by the ÖVP with 44.9%, and the KPÖ with 3.9%. Following authorisation by the US military government, the former socialist deputy governor Anton Neumayr became the new mayor of the city of Salzburg in April 1946.

Politics and Administrations

For the central positions in politics and administration, the US military
government used the two men who had already held these positions in the
Ständestaat before 1938. It appointed Richard Hildmann as mayor of the
provincial capital and Heinrich Clessin as head of the municipal administration.
All National Socialists in the administration were dismissed and could only
apply for reinstatement after denazification. In his first official order after
the end of the war, Mayor Hildmann laid down the working procedures of the
municipal administration.

Culture

The denazification of Salzburg‘s cultural and art scene was one of the main concerns of US occupation policy. This also included the removal of over 2,000 books with National Socialist content from the holdings of the municipal library in Schloss Mirabell, which was able to resume its post-war service at the beginning of June 1945. Civilians were once again able to watch films in the cinema from July 1945. In the same month, the first public concert after the end of the war took place in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum and in September 1945 a performance was shown for the first time in the Salzburg State Theatre, which had been requisitioned by US forces.

Festival

The US occupation authorities saw the Salzburg Festival as a central element in the reconstruction of Austrian identity. They lobbied hard to ensure that the Festival could take place again just a few months after the end of the war, although a large number of artists with Nazi backgrounds were not allowed to perform. Works by Austrian authors and
composers dominated the programme of the Festival, which began on 12 August 1945 with an opening evening featuring pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss, and Franz Lehár. Concerts were performed until  1 September, including six ‘Österreichische Abende’ (‘Austrian evenings’) and two concerts of religious music.

Church

The longing for stability in a world that had fallen apart at the seams led to an
increased importance of the church, which lasted until the 1960s. Archbishop
Andreas Rohracher emerged as an undisputed authority and was even consulted
by the US occupation authorities. Rohracher intervened in favour of the restoration
of the church‘s property and legal status, was committed to the renewal of the
church‘s youth work, and campaigned for reconciliation with former National
Socialists. In the immediate post-war period, the church was particularly active
in the daily care of several thousand people in the Bahnhofsmission at the railway
station and in supporting those in need with food and medicine.

Newspapers and radio

With the end of Nazi rule, state-controlled National Socialist propaganda in newspapers, on the radio, in cinema newsreels, and in feature films came to an end. The US military government focussed on the rapid establishment of free media. The first daily newspaper, the Österreichischer Kurier, was available at the end of May and the first edition of the Salzburger Nachrichten was published on 7 June 1945. Two days earlier, the radio station Rot-Weiß-Rot had started broadcasting under US control. It provided the people of Salzburg with information and entertainment.