The politics of denazification: parliamentary debates in Austria, 1945–57

Abstract

SUMMARYThe hegemonic Austrian post-Second World War narrative up to the 1980s was the victim theory (Opferthese), which presented Austria and the Austrians as victims of Nazi Germany with reference to a part of the Moscow Declaration signed in 1943, thus marginalizing the involvement of Austrians in Nazi crimes. In its formative period during the first decade of the Second Republic (since 1945), this narrative underwent a universalization, aiming to integrate former National Socialists (i.e. as victims of false promises, misled idealism, denazification). Shifting patterns of the political and public discourses on denazification were central in this transformation, which had a lasting impact on the Austrian politics of memory. This article intends to identify strategies and narratives integral to this hegemonic shift, as used in parliamentary debates. These debates are representations of the contemporary linguistic usage and part of the implementation of legislative initiatives coping with fascist legacies in the process of democratization. The changes in the rhetorical framing of denazification can be interpreted as an indication for shifting necessities in legitimating its repercussions. This becomes apparent in narratives used to accommodate the swing from punishment and exclusion to the reintegration of former National Socialists and in relations drawn between denazification/reintegration and democracy in Austria.