Original version by Gerhard Hafner September 2009; update by Gerhard Hafner November 2024.

A.  Historical Background and Political Context

1  The origin of the Austrian State Treaty (Staatsvertrag betreffend die Wiederherstellung eines unabhängigen und demokratischen Österreich) of 15 May 1955 can be traced back to the Moscow Declaration of 1943 (Secret Protocol of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Secretaries 1943) between the United States of America (‘US’), the United Kingdom (‘UK’), and the Soviet Union, to which France later aligned itself, where the ‘annexation imposed on Austria by Germany’ in 1938 was declared as ‘null and void’ and where these states expressed their wish for the re-establishment of a free and independent Austria (Annexation; Nullity in International Law). However, Austria was also reminded of its participation in World War II on the side of Hitler and that the final settlement would reflect Austria’s contribution to its liberation. The occupation regime of Austria after its liberation from the Nazi-regime in 1945 was governed by the first ‘Control Agreement’ (Agreement (with Annexed Maps) on Zones of Occupation in Austria and the Administration of the City of Vienna (1945)) and, after 1946, by the second ‘Control Agreement’ (Agreement (with Annex) on the Machinery of Control in Austria (1946)) concluded by the four occupying Allied Powers (the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union). Immediately after the end of the war, Austria’s government developed ideas concerning a future state treaty based on the recognition of the boundaries of 1937, a democratic constitution, admission to the United Nations (UN), withdrawal of foreign troops, claims against Germany, return of prisoners of war, and economic questions. First ideas were also discussed by the US in 1946. The Yugoslav demands for parts of the Austrian territory with Slovene minorities, and for reparations, raised after 1945 were, however, no longer supported by the Soviet Union after the deterioration of the relations between these two States around 1949.

2  It was clear from the beginning that the treaty with Austria would not be a peace treaty since Austria had not been a belligerent country during the war (Belligerency). Whereas the original draft discussed among the Allied Powers was mainly modelled upon the peace treaties concluded with Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Italy, a particular issue that marked the negotiations until their successful end in 1955 was the question of German property situated in Austria: according to the Potsdam agreements of 1945 (see Protocol of Proceedings of the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference (1945); Potsdam Conference (1945)) the Allied Powers were entitled to take German property in the territories occupied by them also situated outside Germany as compensation for the damages caused by World War II. Since Austria did not take part in the war in its capacity as a state, it was not required to make reparations (Reparations after World War II).

3  Further negotiations on the Austrian State Treaty were impeded by the political changes in Europe and the beginning of the Cold War (1947–91), for example the changes in Czechoslovakia, which divided Europe with the ‘iron curtain’, moving Austria to the rim of non-communist Europe. A further obstacle resulted from the dependency of the Austrian question on the German question, as well as from the problems concerning Trieste. In view of the protracted negotiations, an abbreviated version of a state treaty was ventured by the US in 1952, relating only to the status of Austria as an independent state and the withdrawal of foreign troops, but was rejected by the other Allied Powers. However, with the assistance of Brazil the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the conclusion of the state treaty (UNGA, ‘Resolution 613 [VII]: Question of an Appeal to the Powers Signatories to the Moscow Declaration of 1 November 1943 for the Early Fulfilment of Their Pledges towards Austria’ (1952)). The general political situation still prevented an agreement, although Austria had consistently declared its willingness to abstain from any military alliance.

4  It was only after the death of Stalin and the beginning détente between the East and West, and with the good offices of India, that a breakthrough could be achieved after the separation of the Austrian question from the German question; and on the condition of an Austrian commitment not to join foreign military alliances as proposed by Austria at the Conference of the Foreign Ministers in 1954. At this Conference, the US and the Soviet Union, the latter in view of the Federal Republic of Germany becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1954, exchanged signals to accept this status of neutrality or non-alignment of Austria instead of keeping foreign troops in Austria even after the entry into force of a state treaty (Neutrality, Concept and General Rules). The final initiative was set by the invitation of the Soviet Union to the Austrian Government to send a delegation to Moscow in April 1955. This meeting resulted in the ‘Moscow Memorandum’ (über die Ergebnisse der Besprechungen zwischen der Regierungsdelegation der Republik Österreich und der Regierungsdelegation der Sowjetunion’ [15 April 1955]), a legally non-binding commitment of the two delegations, where the Austrian delegation committed itself to take the necessary steps for the acceptance of the status of permanent neutrality by Austria; and the Soviet side declared its readiness to sign the Austrian State Treaty, supplemented by further agreements mainly regarding German property situated in the parts of Austria occupied by Soviet troops, in particular the assets of the Danube Shipping Company and the oil fields in Lower Austria.

5  Since, at that moment, all parties were interested in the rapid conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty, last steps for its final drafting were made during ambassadorial conferences in Vienna at the beginning of May 1955 and, finally, by the conference of the Foreign Ministers of the four Allied Powers and Austria on 14 May 1955, the day of the signature of the Warsaw Pact (Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (1955); Warsaw Treaty Organization). At these conferences, agreement was reached on the question of the German property in the Soviet zones as well as on the elimination of the preambular paragraph relating to Austria’s responsibility for contributing to World War II on the side of Hitler’s Germany, so that the Austrian State Treaty could be signed by the Foreign Ministers of the four Allied Powers and Austria on 15 May 1955 in the Belvedere Palace.

B.  The Content of the Austrian State Treaty

6  The main political objectives of the Austrian State Treaty were ensuring the dissociation of Austria from Germany in political, military, and economic regard, ending—and compensating for—the injuries caused by the Nazi-regime, and removing the consequences of the war.

7  The Austrian State Treaty consists of a preamble, 38 articles, and two annexes. The provisions can be divided into four categories: provisions on the state and its main political orientation, the military and military-political provisions, those on economic and property questions, as well as a fourth category which regulates the settlement of disputes and final clauses.

8  The first group concerns the territory, people, and government: it confirms the boundaries of 1 January 1938 and Austria’s independence, prohibits a union with Germany (Anschlußverbot), obliges Austria to have a democratic government (connected with the obligation to maintain the law on deprivation of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine), requires Austria to respect and endorse human rights, and mandates the liquidation of leftover Nazi ideas. As one of the compensations for the original Yugoslav territorial claims, Article 7 Austrian State Treaty stipulates minority rights in favour of the Slovene and Croatian minorities (Minorities, International Protection; Minorities, European Protection) in Carinthia, Styria, and the Burgenland consisting in school education in Slovene and Croatian language, the use of topographical inscriptions in Slovene and Croatian language in the region of mixed Slovene or Croatian and German speaking population, the use of these languages by official administrative and judicial authorities in these regions, and the prohibition of organizations depriving these minorities of their rights. As a further compensation, Yugoslavia became entitled to nationalize Austrian property, and compensation to Austrian nationals was to be paid by Austria (Art. 27(2) Austrian State Treaty; Expropriation and Nationalization).

9  The second group consists of the military and air clauses prohibiting Austria from using aircrafts of Japanese or German design, and from possessing certain special weapons including nuclear weapons, or guided or self-propelled missiles.

10  As to the third category consisting of provisions regarding economic and property issues, the major problem was the right of the Allied Powers to dispose of German property situated in Austria for reparations. By Article 22 Austrian State Treaty in connection with Annex II Austrian State Treaty, the Allied Powers transferred German property to Austria without payment, with the exception of certain oil fields and assets of the Danube Shipping Company for which Austria had to pay compensation to the Soviet Union. Austria was obliged not to return such assets with the exception of minor values to German individuals; it was also prohibited from passing properties and rights transferred from the Soviet Union to any other foreign ownership; it was further obliged to waive all claims against Germany, with the exception of those originating from the time before 1938. This right of the Allied Powers was already recognized in Chapter VI Convention (with Annex) on the Settlement of Matters Arising out of the War and the Occupation (1952), signed at Bonn by the Federal Republic of Germany, the US, the UK, and France (Bonn and Paris Agreements on Germany (1952 and 1954)). Other economic provisions regulated the re-establishment of property of the Allied Powers in Austria, and the obligation to re-establish the rights of individuals deprived of their property and persecuted by the Nazi regime on account of racial origin or religion. Several other provisions regulated general economic issues, for example most-favoured-nation treatment for a certain period, transit facilities, and navigation on the Danube River (Most-Favoured-Nation Clause).

11  The mechanism for the settlement of disputes, appertaining to the fourth category of provisions, does not only include arbitration, but also the right of the Ambassadors of the four Allied Powers to make proposals to the Austrian Government, a provision that, however, has never been invoked. The parties to the Austrian State Treaty are the four Allied Powers and Austria; other states that were at war with Germany on 1 May 1945 acceded as Associated Powers (Australia, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, and Czechoslovakia). The Austrian State Treaty was deposited with the Government of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Federation). The authentic languages are English, French, German, and Russian. It entered into force on 27 June 1955.

C.  Implementation of the Treaty

12  According to Article 20 Austrian State Treaty, the armed forces of the four Allied Powers were withdrawn from Austrian territory by 25 October 1955 and the Soviet Union transferred the relevant assets in August 1955; Austria paid compensation—partly in cash, partly in kind (oil products)—to the Soviet Union for the return of oil fields, rights and interests in oil production, and assets of the Danube Shipping Company until 1964. The provisions concerning restitution and compensation for property of the UN had already been settled by the two memoranda with regard to the Western Allied Powers: the Austro-British-American ‘Vienna Memorandum’ (Memorandum [with Annexed Declarations of the Austrian Government of 21 September and 29 November 1949 and 31 July 1951] relating to the Transfer of Property, Rights and Interests (1955)) and the Austro-French Memorandum (Österreichisch-Französische Memorandum (1955)), both of 10 May 1955. Austria enacted certain legislative acts implementing the property provisions of the Austrian State Treaty such as ten laws for implementation of the Austrian State Treaty (the most important being the second: Bundesgesetz vom 23. Jänner 1957).

D.  Particular Problems of Implementation

E.  Present Significance

18  Presently, a substantial number of provisions of the Austrian State Treaty have already lost significance either because the required result has been achieved, for example withdrawal of troops, they were fully implemented, for example the clause on human rights, they became obsolete, they became derogated by new treaties, or they elapsed by reason of time, for example certain economic provisions. Several States Parties have disappeared due to their dismemberment. Nevertheless, certain provisions of the Austrian State Treaty are still effective and frequently invoked, such as Article 7 on national minorities. Together with Austria’s status of permanent neutrality, the Austrian State Treaty still serves as one of the important international legal instruments on which Austria’s international legal position after 1955 is built.