1938–1945: Austrian Patriotism and Resistance

Resistance against National Socialism had various facets. It was quantitatively strongest in communist camps, the group with the highest number of victims. But resistance also fed on bourgeois, even legitimist positions, had religious or social democratic roots and was motivated by the rejection of the Nuremberg race law or euthanasia.

Austrian patriotism was of minimal significance at the beginning. Only the communists tried to expand their base by “inventing” the Austrian nation, and the Legitimists dreamed of the vanished Monarchy. Not until the Moscow Declaration was the path opened for a broader patriotic resistance, since a re-establishment of Austria was now a positive war objective. The sign “O5” for “Austria” is a symbolic expression of the resistance, which was based on the new patriotism.