ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the developments before 1955, the often-cited “annus mirabilis.’ It presents an overview of political arguments, demands, concepts, strategies, patterns of behavior, and actions which the Austrian government employed to try to uncouple itself from the Nazi problem Germany had in order to find its own path in the European community of nations. The “victim status” and “occupation theory” offered—not exactly to the joy of the Germans—the possibility of maneuvering the country away from the wake of the Third Reich. The founding of the Federal Republic of Germany did not simplify the linkage of the Austrian and German questions in regards to the policies of occupation and sovereignty. The reattainment of Austrian independence in 1955 during the very days when the Paris Treaties were ratified meant emancipation from Germany not only on official and national levels, but also a far-reaching emancipation of Austrian foreign policy.
