Helmut Griebl

Hitler's supporters in Austria thought that the Anschluß in 1935 would herald a glorious future where Germany and Austria went forward together as equal partners, rather like the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. It very quickly became clear that this was not the case; that Nazi Germany considered that Austria, now dubbed the 'Ostmark', had become an integral part of the Greater German Reich. Nowhere was this clearer than in the absorption of the Austrian State Railways into the German system. Instead of benefitting from the new advances in rail transport - electrification, high-speed diesel trains and advanced freight handling, Austrian railways were left to decline ungracefully. A few advanced German locomotives made their appearances, but there was no reconstruction, no gleaming new Nazi future. Then came the war, and Austria became part of the war effort, with the locomotive works at Florisdorf turning out German Kreigsloks by the hundred, all to go to the Front.

This book of photographs shows that time in Austria.… (mehr)