Neues Österreich

   / New Austria

   The first newspaper to be established in Austria after World War II, Neues Österreich appeared for the first time on 23 April 1945, even as the Soviet armies were rounding up suspected Nazis in Vienna and Lower Austria. Envisioned as a voice for democratic unity, its editorial board, was made up of conservatives, socialists, and communists. The editor was Ernst Fischer (1899–1972), a leading figure in the Communist Party of Austria. The communists formally left the editorial board of the paper in 1947, when they resigned from the coalition regime then governing the country. They retained their financial stake in Neues Österreich, however, until much later.

   Speaking for a large bloc of Austrians who supported the idea of an independent Austria, and who disliked both Germans and exploitative capitalism, Neues Österreich was at first very successful. It was editorially nonpartisan, a position that was especially popular during the occupation, when high ideological profiles were undesirable. With the return of more divided political debate following the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955, its readership declined. Neues Österreich ceased publication in 1967.

   See also Press.