400,000 ethnic German refugees faced a difficult start in Austria

About 400,000 members of German-speaking communities from eastern and southeastern Europe sought refuge in Austria after the Second World War, but many faced rejection in their new home. ORF reports that they were expelled in retaliation for Nazi crimes, often because German was their mother tongue.

Known as Sudeten Germans, Danube Swabians, Transylvanian Saxons and Carpathian Germans, many had lived in the region for centuries. Their communities had originally been established for political reasons and were encouraged during the Habsburg monarchy.

After the war, German-speaking families were often collectively blamed for the occupation policies and crimes of the Nazi regime, whether or not they had been involved. Thousands died during expulsions from violence, hunger and exhaustion. Around three million Sudeten Germans were expelled from what was then Czechoslovakia.

Some refugees arrived with almost nothing. In her memoirs, one mother recalled standing with two young children and no luggage, wearing only the clothes they had on. Many in Austria were met with hostility; some were insulted with the slur “Gypsies.” Historian Pauli Aro of the University of Vienna’s Institute of Contemporary History said some Austrians questioned their national belonging because of their origins, as well as small differences in dialect.

Many Austrians wanted the refugees sent on to Germany, and citizenship was often delayed, in some cases for as long as ten years. Aro said Austria was reluctant to associate itself with the crimes of the German Reich or with German identity. The 1954 Options Act made naturalisation significantly easier. From the 1950s, political parties paid greater attention to the refugees, partly because of lobbying by expellee organisations and the expectation that many would remain in Austria.

The term “Volksdeutsche” was widely used for refugees from German-speaking communities in eastern and southeastern Europe after the war, including by Allied troops.