Bregenz: Nazi law book for Austria

In 1920 the insurance company Vorarlberger Landes-Feuerversicherung was founded. After overcoming an initial lack of capital, in 1929 the company moved into new premises in Bahnhofstrasse, Bregenz, a building designed by the renowned architect Willibald Braun. After the “Anschluss” of Austria to Nazi Germany, the company’s management board was dismissed. Although Vorarlberger Landes-Feuerversicherung took over several smaller regional insurance associations, it was itself in danger of being merged with the Tiroler Landesversicherung, as Vorarlberg was now part of the Nazi administrative district “Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg”. When Bregenz came under fire from the French army on 1 May 1945, the company’s building was badly damaged. Shortly afterwards, its director, who had been appointed in 1938, was dismissed.

The company’s library held copies of all relevant legal literature, including Austrian law from 1918 to 1938, published in the form of official gazettes. After the “Anschluss” in 1938, a new law book was published: the Nazi Gesetzblätter für das Land Österreich (1938–1940). This copy was damaged by shrapnel in 1945, but nevertheless kept within the library.