1952: “1. April 2000” (Sci-Fi Film)

In 1952, the science fiction propaganda film, 1. April 2000, was directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and commissioned by the Austrian government. Actor and director Liebeneiner had already been active as a producer of propaganda films: during the Nazi period, he not only led the Reich Professional Film Association (Reichsfachschaft Film), but also the artistic faculty of the German Film Academy Babelsberg. Liebener had been recommended as director by then Chancellor Leopold Figl.

In the year 2000 – according to the film’s narrative – the four Allies, the so-called four in the jeep, are still stationed in Austria with no independence treaty in sight. On April 1, 2000, the newly elected Prime Minister – performed by Josef Meinrad – holds his inauguration speech which is broadcast on television and publically via loudspeakers in front of the diplomatic corps and the high commissioners of the four Allies: “In front of the entire world population, I declare our country free and independent. The payment of occupation costs will be discontinued from this moment on. Our four-language ID cards, which we cannot read at all without an interpreter, lose their validity immediately. I invite the population to destroy them.” And indeed, following the prompt, pieces of paper fly through the air.

The Global Union and the World Protection Commission are tasked with the decision on how to proceed with Austria and whether an indictment against Austria is justified. Mister Robinson, the American delegate: “Our only weapon is the law.” All charges against Austria are gradually dropped by the stern president, performed by Hilde Krahl, the clichéd historical reenactments work and the delegation is awed by, for example, music and this and that. In the moment when the president is about to announce the acquittal, the Chinese delegate rushes into the courtroom with the words: “One moment Excellency, one moment. Excellency, don’t sentence Austria yet as I have just found an extremely interesting document in the State Archives. In the year one thousand nine hundred and forty-three, the three greatest statesmen of the previous century, Mr. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, promised the country of Austria freedom and independence. The occupation can thus only be a tragic error.”

Hilde Krahl responds: “Yes, if that is true Mr. Weid?

Yes, please, here, here!” – the Chinese delegate shows the document – it is the Moscow Declaration.

Austria is thus free, however, it remains a secret how Mr. Weid was able to find the original Moscow Declaration in the State Archives, since it is not there.