ABSTRACT
Allied armies liberated Austria from National Socialism. The Austrian resistance was also active on both fronts. In Vienna, for example, the group led by Major Carl Szokoll was able to feed information to the Red Army on Wehrmacht strength and troop concentrations in that theater of battle. The Americans, however, initially did not differentiate between Austrians and Germans, and the Austrians' painful realization that the American authorities regarded them as a vanquished and not as a liberated nation was long a source of disappointment. Austria in 1945 actually did display a "double character"—it was liberated and occupied. The members of the Austrian government regarded the First Control Agreement of 4 July as the turning point in occupation policy. Although the Second Control Agreement had meant considerably increased autonomy for Austria, this did not bring independence and sovereignty, which could only result from the withdrawal of the occupation troops and the conclusion of a State Treaty.
