Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:10:35.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transitional justice in postwar Austria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2019

Céline Braumann Open the ORCID record for Céline Braumann [Opens in a new window]
Céline Braumann*
Affiliation:
Researcher and lecturer, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: celine.braumann@univie.ac.at
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Austria's post-World War II transition from two consecutive, abusive regimes (the Austro-fascist and the Nazi regime) to a functioning democracy has not yet been thoroughly assessed through the lens of transitional justice. An evaluation of what could now be dubbed transitional-justice measures shows that Austria was reluctant in accepting its collective responsibility vis-à-vis the victims of World War II. Another defining factor of Austria's transition is that it never encouraged the surviving victims of the Nazi regime to return. An appraisal of Austria's transition in light of the two final ends of transitional justice, namely democracy and reconciliation, culminates in two conclusions: first, Austria attained the goal of democracy but failed with reconciliation; second, the current model of transitional justice is ill-equipped to assess the non-linear course of long-past transitions.

Keywords

legal historytransitional justiceAustro-fascismnational socialismreconciliation
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 390 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, N (2010) Learning to live together: transitional justice and intergroup reconciliation in Northern Ireland. International Journal of Transitional Justice 4, 166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andics, H (1962) Der Staat, den keiner wollte. Österreich 1918–1938. Freiburg: Herder.Google Scholar
Bailer-Galanda, B (2000) Die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus und die so genannte Wiedergutmachung. In Talos, E et al. (eds), NS-Herrschaft in Österreich. Vienna: ÖBV und HPT, p. 886.Google Scholar
Baum, R (1988) Holocaust: moral indifference as the form of modern evil. In Rosenberg, A and Myers, G (eds), Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a Dark Time. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, p. 53.Google Scholar
Bell, C (2009) Transitional justice, interdisciplinarity and the state of the ‘field’ or ‘non-field’. International Journal of Transitional Justice 3, 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benz, W (ed.) (1991) Dimension des Völkermords: Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. München: DTV.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, M (2006) Arbeitspflicht in postwar Vienna: punishing Nazis vs. expediting reconstruction 1945–48. Austrian History Book 37, 201.Google Scholar
Birbaumer, N and Langewiesche, D (2006) Neuropsychologie und Historie – Versuch einer empirischen Annäherung. Geschichte und Gesellschaft 32, 169–175.Google Scholar
Bischof, G (2004) Victims? Perpetrators? ‘Punching bags’ of European historical memory? The Austrians and their World War II legacies. German Studies Review 27, 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bischof, G and Leidenfrost, J (1988) Die Bevormundete Nation: Österreich und die Alliierten 1945–1949. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Forschungen zur Zeitgeschichte.Google Scholar
Bischof, G et al. (eds) (2009) New Perspectives on Austrians and World War II (Contemporary Austrian Studies). Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Botz, G (2006) The short- and long-term effects of the authoritarian regime and of Nazism in Austria: the burden of a ‘second dictatorship’. Historical Social Research Supplement 28, 191.Google Scholar
Brown, K (2012) ‘What it was like to live through a day’: transitional justice and the memory of the everyday in a divided society. International Journal of Transitional Justice 6, 444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clute, R (2002) The International Legal Status of Austria 1938–1955. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
David, R (2017) What we know about transitional justice: survey and experimental evidence. Advances in Political Psychology 38, 151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiff P, De (ed.) (2006) The Handbook of Reparations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De, Greiff P (2012) Theorizing transitional justice. In Elster, J, Nagy, R and Williams, M (eds), Transitional Justice. New York: New York University Press, p. 31.Google Scholar
Deak, I (2006) Political justice in Austria and Hungary after World War II. In Elster, J (ed.), Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 130.Google Scholar
Dimitrijević, N (2008) Serbia after the criminal past: what went wrong and what should be done. International Journal of Transitional Justice 2, 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, C and Hughes, J (2009) Contact and culture: mechanisms of reconciliation in schools of Northern Ireland and Israel. In Quinn, J (ed.), Reconciliation(s): Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, p. 147.Google Scholar
Eizenstat, S (2004) Imperfect justice. Public Affairs, 26 May, p. 281.Google Scholar
European Commission (2014) Study on How the Memory of Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes in Europe Is Dealt with in the Member States. Madrid: EU.Google Scholar
Fiala, J (2013) Die Februarkämpfe 1934 in Wien Meidling und Liesing. Hamburg: Diplomica.Google Scholar
Forbes, H (2004) Ethnic conflict and the contact hypothesis. In Lee, Y-T et al. (eds), Psychological Dimensions to War and Peace: The Psychology of Ethnic and Cultural Conflict. Westport: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 69.Google Scholar
Forster, J (2012) Geburtsort: Braunau am Inn. PhD dissertation, University of Vienna, Vienna.Google Scholar
Forum Politische Bildung (1998) Wendepunkte und Kontinuitäten. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag.Google Scholar
Freedom House (2018) Freedom in the World 2018: Austria. Available at https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/austria (accessed 30 October 2019).Google Scholar
Gaertner, S and Dovidio, J (2000) Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model. Philadelphia: The Psychology Press.Google Scholar
García-Godos, J (2017) Reparations. In Simić, O (ed.), An Introduction to Transitional Justice. New York: Routledge, p. 177.Google Scholar
Green, R (2012) Unsettling cures: exploring the limits of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 27, 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayner, P (2001) Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hewstone, M and Brown, R (eds) (1986) Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hilberg, R (1990) Die Vernichtung der Europäischen Juden. Frankfurt: Fischer.Google Scholar
Hirt, S (2012) Vom ‘Vergeltungs’- zum Verbotsgesetz. PhD dissertation, University of Vienna, Vienna.Google Scholar
Hoke, R (1996) Österreichische und Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte. Vienna: Böhlau Studienbücher.Google Scholar
International Center for Transitional Justice (2019) What is transitional justice? Available at https://www.ictj.org/about/transitional-justice (accessed 30 October 2019).Google Scholar
Knight, R (ed.) (1988) ‘ Ich bin dafür, die Sache in die Länger zu ziehen’: Wortprotokolle der österreichischen Bundesregierung von 1945–52 über die Entschädigung der Juden. Frankfurt a.M: Böhlau Verlag.Google Scholar
Lemberger, M (2002) Durch die Vergangenheit zur Gegenwart 8. Wien: Veritas.Google Scholar
Lessing, H and Azizi, F (2006) Austria confronts her past. In Bazyler, M and Alford, R (eds), Holocaust Restitution. New York: NYU Press, p. 228.Google Scholar
Lingens, P (1986) Ein Präsident, dem die Welt misstraut. Profil.Google Scholar
Lorenz, D (2006) Austrian responses to national socialism and the Holocaust. In Kohl, K and Robertson, R (eds), A History of Austrian Literature 1918–2000. New York: Boydell & Brewer, p. 187.Google Scholar
Marin, B (1979) Ein historisch neuartiger Antisemitismus ohne Antisemiten? Geschichte und Gesellschaft: Zeitschrift für historische Sozialwissenschaft 5, 549.Google Scholar
Markova, I (2010) Geschichtsklitterungen – Zäsuren – Neuverhandlungen. PhD dissertation, University of Vienna, Vienna.Google Scholar
Misztal, B (2003) Theories of Social Remembering. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Moser, J (1966) Die Judenverfolgung in Österreich 1938–1945. Wien: Europa Verlag.Google Scholar
Moser, J (1991) Österreich. In Benz, W (ed.), Dimension des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. München: DTV, p. 67.Google Scholar
Müller, F (2005) Das Verbotsgesetz im Spannungsfeld zur Meinungsfreiheit. PhD dissertation, University of Vienna, Vienna.Google Scholar
Müller, W (2009) Kalter Krieg, Neutralität und politische Kultur in Österreich. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 1–2, 11.Google Scholar
Nadler, A et al. (2008) Intergroup reconciliation: dimensions and themes. In Nadler, A et al. (eds), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation: From Violent Conflict to Peaceful Co-existence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagy, R (2014) Transitional justice as global project: critical reflections. In Buchanan, R and Zumbansen, P (eds), Law in Transition: Human Rights, Development and Transitional Justice. Portland: Hart Publishing, p. 215.Google Scholar
Nalepa, M (2013) Lustration. In Stan, L and Nedelsky, N (eds), Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 46.Google Scholar
Neugebauer, W (2008) Der österreichische Widerstand 1938–1945. Vienna: Edition Steinbauer.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, T (2011) The restitution of Holocaust looted art and transitional justice: the perfect storm or the raft of the Medusa? European Journal of International Law 22, 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelinka, A (1988) The great Austrian taboo: the repression of the civil war. New German Critique 43, 80.Google Scholar
Pelinka, A (1991) Introduction. In Gärtner, R and Rosenberger, S (eds), Kriegerdenkmäler. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag.Google Scholar
Pelinka, A (2002) Austrian exceptionalism. Austrian History Yearbook 33, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, J (ed.) (2009) Reconciliation(s): Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Radzik, l (2001) Collective responsibility and duties to respond. Social Theory and Practice 27, 455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rathkolb, O (ed.) (1985) Gesellschaft und Politik am Beginn der Zweiten Republik: Vertrauliche Berichte der US-Militäradministration aus Österreich 1945. Wien: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Reiter, A (2017) Measuring the success (or failure) of transitional justice. In Simić, O (ed.), An Introduction to Transitional Justice. New York: Routledge, p. 269.Google Scholar
Schwarz, E (2004) Austria, quite a normal nation. New German Critique 93, 177.Google Scholar
Stephan, W and Stephan, C (2001) Improving Intergroup Relations. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Stiefel, D (1981) Entnazifizierung in Österreich. München: EuropaVerlag.Google Scholar
Stuhlpfarrer, K (2002) Österreich, Ka III: Nationalsozialismus und Zweiter Weltkrieg. In Knigge, V and Frei, N (eds), Verbrechen erinnern. Munich: Beck, p. 240.Google Scholar
Sustainable Governance Indicators (2016) Austria. Available at http://www.sgi-network.org/2016/Austria/Quality_of_Democracy (accessed 30 October 2019).Google Scholar
Tálos, E and Manoschek, W (2005) Aspekte der politischen Struktur des Austrofaschismus. In Tálos, E and Neugebauer, W (eds), Austrofaschismus: Politik-Ökonomie-Kultur 1933–1938. Vienna: LIT-Verlag, p. 124.Google Scholar
Teitel, R (2000) Transitional Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Teitel, R (2014) Globalizing Transitional Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uhl, H (2001) Das ‘erste Opfer’: Der österreichische Opfermythos und seine Transformationen in der Zweiten Republik. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 30, 20.Google Scholar
Uhl, H (2003) Zeitgeschichtsforschung und ‘österreichisches Gedächtnis’. Zeitgeschichte 30, 346.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2012) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff. UN Doc. A/HRC/21/46.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2013) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff. UN Doc. A/HRC/24/42.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2014) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence. A/69/518.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2015) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff. UN Doc. A/HRC/30/42.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2017) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence on His Global Study on Transitional Justice. UN Doc. A/HRC/36/50/Add.1.Google Scholar
UNHRC (2018) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide: Joint Study on the Contribution of Transitional Justice to the Prevention of Gross Violations and Abuses of Human Rights and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, including Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity, and Their Recurrence. UN Doc. A/HRC/37/65.Google Scholar
United Nations (2004) Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies. UN Doc. S/2004/616.Google Scholar
United Nations (2005) Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. UN Doc. A/RES/60/147.Google Scholar
United Nations (2011) Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies. UN Doc. S/2011/634.Google Scholar
Vocelka, K (2002) Geschichte Österreichs. Vienna: Kultur – Gesellschaft – Politik.Google Scholar
Wassermann, H (2005) ‘Weiße Flecken’ – ‘Schwarze Löcher’? Notizen zur ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’ im Geschichtsunterricht. Medienimpulse 52, 42.Google Scholar
Werle, G and Vormbaum, M (2016) Transitional Justice. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Wilder-Okladek, F (1969) The Return Movement of Jews to Austria after the Second World War. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, S (2013) Towards a unified theory of transitional justice. International Journal of Transitional Justice 7, 224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar