THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY

EVA BLIMLINGER

The special responsibility
A republican history lesson

Eva Blimlinger, Historian, Member of the National Council

Moderation
Wolfgang Maderthaner, Historian, Association for the History of the Labour Movement

The restitution to their rightful owners of assets seized and aryanised during the National Socialist era in Austria or sold in a distress sale far below their value was only tackled slowly and gradually.
After the end of the Second World War, Austria rejected any responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime. Referring to the Moscow Declaration of 1943, the Republic saw itself as the first victim of the German Reich's policy of aggression.
It was not until 1991 that Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky admitted Austria's complicity in the crimes of National Socialism, and from 1995 victims of National Socialism were granted a one-off payment by the National Fund. In the Washington Agreement of 2001, attempts were made to clarify open questions.
However, there is still no legal entitlement to the compensation; legally, it is a voluntary payment by the state.

 Eva Blimlinger
is an Austrian politician (The Greens) and historian. She has been a member of the National Council since 23 October 2019.
From 2011 to September 2019, she was Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. From January 2018 to June 2019, she was President of the Austrian University Conference.
Blimlinger was research coordinator of the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria between 1999 and 2004. She is the scientific coordinator of the Commission for Provenance Research and was a member and deputy chair of the Art Restitution Advisory Board until October 2019.