Quote:
Originally Posted by edwest
The Allies partitioned Austria into occupation zones. Why did they do this?
Ed
|
I'd imagine that it was because the whole of Austria (or the Ostmark after annexation) was part of the pre-war
Reich and so the four powers treated it as they had Germany. I have read however that there was debate in the West as to whether Austria should be regarded as a conquered or a liberated country. The other difference is that the USSR agreed to withdraw by a specific date from areas it had conquered, and actually did so - not Stalin's usual approach.
Graham Greene's novel
The Third Man is set in occupied Vienna and describes some of the mehanics of the four-power system. I'm sure that there will be factual books somewhere about the politics of all this.