Austria History Allied occupation, 1945-1955

Austria was occupied by the Allies and declared independent from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offensive. The occupation ended when the Austrian State Treaty came into force on 27 July 1955. After the Anschluss in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In November 1943, however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression—without denying Austria's role in Nazi crimes—and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four occupation zones and jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council. Whereas Germany was divided into East and West Germany in 1949, Austria remained under joint occupation of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union until 1955; its status became a controversial subject in the Cold War until the warming of relations known as the Khrushchev Thaw. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full independence on 15 May 1955 and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year.