Vienna: Armband with Cyrillic lettering and the Austrian colours

In April 1945, Vienna was liberated by Soviet troops from Nazi rule. This was the third political upheaval the city has gone through in eleven years: first, democracy had been replaced by the Austro-fascist dictatorship and secondly by the Nazi regime, which was now ended by the Allies. Once more the future was uncertain. Initial relief was tainted by fear of the Soviet army, itself fueled by Nazi propaganda. People started wearing red-white-red striped armbands to show their support for a “new” Austria. However, critical voices in the media noted: “Some Nazis remained and put on red-white-red armbands to pretend they have never been anything but good, democratic Austrians”.

Initially, this armband was all white and used by the “Reichsgau”, the local government under Nazi rule. Later, the word “Reichsgau” was crossed out and two red stripes were added to the fabric. The Cyrillic lettering indicates that the wearer was a “worker at a cultural institution”.