Bemerkungen zur Österreichischen Widerstandsbewegung 1938–1945

Friedrich Engel-Janosi’s essay is a single-author historical article: a deliberately provisional survey of Austrian resistance from the Anschluss to liberation. Its main thesis is that Austrian resistance must be analyzed separately from German opposition to Hitler, even while acknowledging shared language, history, and culture.

Die österreichische Widerstandsbewegung gegen Hitler und den Nationalsozialismus soll, so scheint mir, nicht als Teil der deutschen Widerstandsbewegung angesehen werden.

English translation: The Austrian resistance movement against Hitler and National Socialism should not, it seems to me, be regarded as part of the German resistance movement.

The opening conceptual move is to treat nationality historically rather than biologically. Engel-Janosi rejects any simple formula of “one nation in two states” and places Austrian identity between Habsburg “übernational” traditions and post-1866 German-national currents.

Ich möchte nicht bedingungslos die Theorie der einen Nation in zwei Staaten unterschreiben.

English translation: I would not unconditionally subscribe to the theory of one nation in two states.

This distinction structures his explanation of motive. Austrian resistance, for him, was rooted less in a new ideology than in the will “to remain what one had been”: monarchists, Catholics, socialists, communists, and anti-Prussian conservatives could converge against Nazi absorption.

Die Entschlossenheit, den »Preußen« Widerstand zu leisten, 1866 ungeschehen zu machen, dort fortzusetzen, wo Beust 1869 oder 1870 versagt hatte, beseelte den österreichischen Widerstand in all den Jahren von 1938 bis 1945.

English translation: The determination to resist the "Prussians," to undo 1866, to continue where Beust had failed in 1869 or 1870—this animated the Austrian resistance throughout all the years from 1938 to 1945.

The essay then proceeds chronologically and functionally, while repeatedly stressing the fragmentary source base. Against the charge that resistance appeared only when German defeat was obvious, Engel-Janosi foregrounds the immediate formation of cells after March 1938—student, socialist, Catholic, Tyrolean, Upper Austrian, and Viennese networks.

Es gibt Belege dafür, dass die Bildung österreichischer Widerstandsgruppen unmittelbar nach dem März 1938 begann.

English translation: There is evidence that the formation of Austrian resistance groups began immediately after March 1938.

His sociology of resistance emphasizes breadth and improvisation. The wound of February 1934 remained real, but in the underground older divisions were often suspended; small-cell organization protected members while limiting central coordination.

Parteiunterschiede spielten damals keine Rolle.

English translation: Party differences played no role at that time.

Much of the article’s force lies in redefining resistance as cumulative and practical rather than only spectacular: aid to prisoners’ families, propaganda, intelligence, military cells, doctors keeping men from the front, cooperation with foreign laborers and prisoners, and sabotage. He treats economic sabotage as especially important, illustrating it through “clever” disruption rather than grand insurrection.

Dr. Beckers Bericht zählt einige Beispiele einer wahrhaft »geistreichen« Sabotage auf; so wurde etwa das ungeeignetste Maschinenöl zu einer Zeit verschickt, als es nicht mehr geprüft werden konnte und mit Sicherheit schweren Schaden anrichten mußte.

English translation: Dr. Becker's report lists several examples of truly "ingenious" sabotage; thus, for instance, the most unsuitable machine oil was shipped out at a time when it could no longer be tested and was certain to cause severe damage.

Politically, Engel-Janosi distinguishes Austrian aims from the German resistance’s dilemmas of loyalty and guilt. Contacts with German conspirators and the shock of 20 July 1944 matter, but Austrian resistance is defined by national liberation and restored independence, not by reform of the Reich.

Es gibt keinen Beweis dafür, daß die Österreicher andere Ziele als die Freiheit ihres Landes zu erreichen suchten.

English translation: There is no evidence that the Austrians sought to attain any goals other than the freedom of their country.

The final sections turn to 1944–45: “05,” preparations for provisional authority, the prevention of demolitions, sabotage of the Südostwall and Alpine Fortress, the battle for Vienna, preservation of infrastructure and art treasures, and efforts to shorten Nazi last-ditch resistance. Engel-Janosi’s relevance is historiographical and political: he contests both German subsumption and Austrian self-exculpation by presenting a costly, early, decentralized, socially broad resistance whose practical contribution deserves investigation.

Auch in Österreich wurde die Saat der politischen und geistigen Erneuerung mit Blut getränkt; wir hoffen, daß sie in diesem Boden umso kräftiger gedeihen werde.

English translation: In Austria too the seed of political and spiritual renewal was watered with blood; we hope that in this soil it will flourish all the more vigorously.