AHC: Austria included in Post WW2 Germany

Basically the challenge is for the Allies to allow Austria to remain apart of the German nation following Germany's defeat in the Second World War. If this happens, would Austria still be under separate occupation zones, and if so, would the Soviet zone of occupation in Austria be added to the future GDR?
 
I don't think that any of the Allies during World War II wanted to see a unified Germany retaining Austria. Some favored some sort of Danubian federation of Austria, Hungary, and southern Germany, as part of a partition of Germany. Others, like Stalin, wanted to see the restoration of Austria as an independent state--a view which ultimately prevailed. But to allow Germany to keep Austria would simply look like a legitimation of the Anschluss, and would strengthen Germany in a way that nobody wanted.

What I could see is that if Stalin insisted on the Sovietization of his zone of Austria, the Allies reluctantly concluding that western Austria was not strong enough for an independent existence and allowing it to merge into what would become the FRG. But I think even this is very unlikely.
 
Plus, the Austrians were all too eager to distance itself with Germany and, in the process, Nazism. There was practically no will to maintain the union after the catastrophe.
What I could see is that if Stalin insisted on the Sovietization of his zone of Austria, the Allies reluctantly concluding that western Austria was not strong enough for an independent existence and allowing it to merge into what would become the FRG. But I think even this is very unlikely.

Here's a fun alternative: A communist Austria is formed from the Soviet zone. Tyrol and Vorarlberg (again, as it happened in 1918) vote to join Switzerland. That leaves the US and British zones out, though, so unless the Soviet zone is bigger somehow (doubt that's possible with a '45 PoD), an alternative to the alternative is that West Austria is formed and to improve its viability, it forms an econonic union with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. That might be a bit too silly, however.

To go back to the OP, though, the other problem is that the [second] Republic of Austria was already founded in 1945 and Karl Renner was quite the able politician, managing the post-war situation formidably well and ensuring a restored, albeit neutral Austria.

I think the best you'll get, and it's ironically an alternative to the alternative's alternative (I'm so sorry), is an independent West Austria in an economic union with West Germany. You could have Stalin propping up an independent Austria since I doubt he was interested in leaving it to the DDR. That still leaves the issue of Renner, and I don't think you could butterfly him that easily.
 
Here's a fun alternative: A communist Austria is formed from the Soviet zone. Tyrol and Vorarlberg (again, as it happened in 1918) vote to join Switzerland. That leaves the US and British zones out, though, so unless the Soviet zone is bigger somehow (doubt that's possible with a '45 PoD), an alternative to the alternative is that West Austria is formed and to improve its viability, it forms an econonic union with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. That might be a bit too silly, however.
The Swiss dont want them though.

Here's how it goes.
The Soviets set up East-Austria, which has the vast majority of the population and most of the industry.
West Austria consists of a few larger towns and hill side farmers, it gets included into what becomes West Germany later on.
Cue 1989 reuinification with the DDR and the ADR.

This is not that unlikely to happen - it took until 1955, 10 years after the war, for Austria to regain independence despite not being one of the principal agitators of the war (Germany, Italy and Japan).
 
If you are allowed a POD before 1945, then Austria is incorporated into Germany in 1919, and no one cares to separate them later.

I guess you could have some sort of negotiated settlement in which Germany is still regarded to have lost, but keeps its 1938 borders, maybe after the removal of Hitler, though that would still involve a POD before 1945.
 

Anderman

Donor
An Austrian was the principal instigator of the War.

An Austrian-born that didn't consider himself Austrian and absolutely hated Austria and pretty much everything it stood for.

Besides, completely irrelevant.

No if the allies and the amercans in particular see it this way and not Austria as Hitlers/Germanys first victim. Of course the Americans must occupy all of germany that they conquered otl plus the whole of Austria in the best case. And then run their Zone including Austria as one piece maybe from Munich instead of Frankfurt.
The second best case is that Austria is split like Germany and the parts joines west and east Germany.
In anyway France will not like it.
 
I don't think that any of the Allies during World War II wanted to see a unified Germany retaining Austria. Some favored some sort of Danubian federation of Austria, Hungary, and southern Germany, as part of a partition of Germany. Others, like Stalin, wanted to see the restoration of Austria as an independent state--a view which ultimately prevailed. But to allow Germany to keep Austria would simply look like a legitimation of the Anschluss, and would strengthen Germany in a way that nobody wanted.

What I could see is that if Stalin insisted on the Sovietization of his zone of Austria, the Allies reluctantly concluding that western Austria was not strong enough for an independent existence and allowing it to merge into what would become the FRG. But I think even this is very unlikely.

This is by the easiest and most likely solution. For a PoD, I would recommend Stalin's 1945 heart attack leaving him a bit addled on this issue.
 
Note that the creation of an FRG including West Austria will mean the FRG borders Italy--two fairly strong countries allied with the West (and controlled by Christian Democrats) standing to the west of the Soviet bloc from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. This has to be a very unwelcome prospect for Stalin--which is one reason he is unlikely to provoke its creation, when a neutral, even if capitalist, Austria is clearly a preferable outcome from the Soviet viewpoint.
 
No if the allies and the amercans in particular see it this way and not Austria as Hitlers/Germanys first victim. Of course the Americans must occupy all of germany that they conquered otl plus the whole of Austria in the best case. And then run their Zone including Austria as one piece maybe from Munich instead of Frankfurt.
The second best case is that Austria is split like Germany and the parts joines west and east Germany.
In anyway France will not like it.
More importantly, you need to butterfly away the Austrian lobby in the USA somehow.

Then again, the whole thing requires serious butterflies to change the fundamental ideas that those in charge had when redrawing the map.
 
I think the only way it works given the political conditions of 1945 is as part of some federal South German State (preferably not called "Germany") - Bad, Wurtemburg, Bavaria, Austria.

If the Soviets were to withdraw from the Danube basin or otherwise collapse, there's an outside change that that Danubian federation gets a look in, though I still think the odds are against it.
 
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