After the Reich (8 page)

Schöner and the other Viennese were prepared to give the Russians the benefit of the doubt: ‘The fear of rape repeatedly promised by the propaganda seems to be not so great in the case of the Viennese.’ Schöner tried to make it into the centre of the city - the 1st Bezirk - but, at the sight of the inner Ring at the bottom of the Burggasse littered with the detritus of war, he decided not to attempt it. Russians were already stealing bicycles. He was stopped by some Red Army men outside the Exhibition Centre (the former royal stables and riding school) and was forced with others to dig a grave for one of their dead comrades. They had found a German corporal in the complex of buildings and shot him. One of his fellow gravediggers complained that the soldiers had stolen his gold watch and leather coat.
²³
Work details of this sort had become a hazard. Johann Böhm was appointed state secretary for social administration in the heady days after the Russian arrival. Detained in the street by a soldier, he showed him a paper attesting to his new dignity. ‘Papier nix gut!’ said the Russian (Your papers are worthless). He was then set to work. The wiser citizens found means of deterring the Russians. Some put their arms in slings, while others went to the extremes of having a plaster cast put on a good arm.
²⁴

Nazism had become a solely German commodity and Nazis were therefore Germans, or honorary ones. Threatened with plunder, the Viennese had directed the soldiers to the homes of the Pgs.
^k
It was open season on the Nazis, and many of them who remained in the city tried to cast out the evidence as best they could. Large numbers committed suicide, like the coal merchant whose business was in the same building as Margarétha’s aunt, or the banker Josef Joham’s friends, the Böhm-Bawerks. The husband had fled. His wife, sister and daughter all took their own lives. The Russians shot a neighbour, Christoph Bauer, son of a well-known architect, presumably because they believed him to be a Nazi. His mother had to bury him in the garden. The Soviet secret police or GPU flushed out another called Hackmüller from the house next door. He was alleged to have been the Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach’s secretary.
²⁵
Schöner prudently left his watch at home and went out in a curious combination of clothes that was meant to remove any suspicion of bourgeoisie: skiing trousers, hobnail mountain boots and a Styrian hat. Later he added an old coat made in the 1920s and was careful to leave his tie at home. Wearing spectacles was also risky. The Russians saw all men in glasses as fascists or ‘burschuj’, and picked on them.
²⁶

The Styrian hat was an informal symbol of resistance among the Austrians, or rather an emblem of resurgent national pride. When Schöner went to the Palais Auersperg he found that many if not most of the men present were wearing such hats. The Palais Auersperg was owned by Princess Agathe Croy, and it was thronged with members of the old nobility. The resistance leader Willy Prince Thurn und Taxis was a cousin, and Nikolaus von Maasburg was related to the Croys by marriage. There were many
G’schaftlhuber
and
Adabeis
in the building which served as a refuge for well-heeled women during the wild days of the liberation.
^l
It was also the HQ of O
₅
,
^m
which had become the most important resistance group. There was an air of unreality about the place. O
₅
’s chief Raoul Bumballa was handing out ministerial portfolios to various noblemen and receiving the Russians as if he were already head of state.
²⁷

The real aristocracy of the resistance in the palace were the ‘Dachauer’, members of the pre-1938 governing elite who had been shipped out to Dachau
en masse
. Many of them were still there, if they had not died as a result of their treatment. Schöner met Major Stillfried at the Auersperg. He had been the camp commandant at Wöllersdorf. His job had been to punish both leftwingers and Nazis, and for this last reason he was despatched to Dachau as well, the gamekeeper had become a poacher.
²⁸
He must also have been uncomfortable to see the many communists and socialists who were coming out of the woodwork. A Russian officer was incredulous at the sight of the princes and barons of the resistance: ‘I had imagined the anti-fascists somewhat differently.’ Later the men acknowledged their mistake: they should have chosen more plausible leaders. Maasburg was subsequently arrested when he tried to make contact with some mild Nazis. He managed to escape to the West.
²⁹

If middle-class Austrians wore curious clothing, that was nothing to the garb the Russians were wearing. The rare officer possessing operatic epaulettes reminded Schöner of the Serbians in the First War. Many were sporting trophies too, such as SA or SS daggers. The rest could not be described as wearing uniform. ‘Handsome human material,’ wrote Schöner, ‘many tall and blond (“Teutonic”!), and among them lots of Mongolian faces.’ Margarétha also noted their blondness and blue eyes. They were powerful people, aged between eighteen and twenty, with a number of fourteen- to fifteen-year-old boys in their train. He, on the other hand, estimated the Mongol element to be a mere 2 per cent.
³⁰

The Viennese were still enjoying a honeymoon with the Red Army. Schöner’s father gave a soldier a bottle of wine from the restaurant’s cellars. The soldier offered to pay. That night Schöner went to bed full of optimism: ‘God give us a peaceful night and a better future.’ The night passed comfortably, but Schöner’s father had made a fatal mistake in giving the soldier drink. Now his comrades came back for more. In Hietzing some female neighbours of Eugen Margarétha expressed concern about what might happen to their ‘innocence’ should the soldiers drink wine.
³¹
Adolf Schärf had the same thought: ‘The great provision of wine and schnapps in Vienna, above all in the vineyard areas, possibly provided a foundation for the raping of the women when it took place.’ It is true that some of the most aggravated instances were in the great cellars of Döbling, where Austrian sparkling wine or
Sekt
is made, and the wine ‘village’ of Grinzing.
³²

At midday the Schöners sat down to a lunch of goulash, potatoes and red cabbage, and Josef tried to console his mother. In the Mariahilferstrasse the Hotel Windsor was burning. There was no water to put out the flames. Schöner made another attempt to reach the centre. On the Ring he saw that the dealer Kasimir (who had robbed the Jews of their art collections in 1938) had been looted himself. Schöner’s objective was the cavernous Hotel Astoria on the Kärntner Strasse, where the restaurant was franchised to his sixty-seven-year-old aunt. In the foyer a Russian offered him wine: ‘Austria karascho!’ (Austria will be all right).
³³
The hotel was still functioning, although a shell had hit the third floor. His aunt seemed in control. She was feeding the Russians, while the officers practised old-world manners. So far they had left the chambermaids in peace, but Aunt Mili had been propositioned by a first lieutenant who had asked her up to his room.
³⁴

The fighting continued in the areas of the city that bordered the Danube. The Russians were across the canal in the Leopoldstadt - the 2nd Bezirk - which explained the terrible damage done to the quay as the two sides continued the shelling. On the 10th the Russians moved into the Prater Park and occupied the race-track at the Freudenau without a fight. The Germans were only cleared from the Leopoldstadt on the 13th. A day later they were flushed out of Brigittenau, and the city was finally at peace.
³⁵
Schöner was free, however, to wander on towards the cathedral. On the corner of the Stock-im-Eisen Platz the Haas Haus was burning. No one attempted to put out the flames. Soldiers stood around watching. It was not known who had started the fire: German shells or Viennese looters. A third possibility was the Russians.
ⁿ
At the time it was common to blame Werewolves: the wicked Nazis were destroying the Austrian capital from motives of revenge. Later Schöner thought it might have been plunderers with candles. The looters had broken into the premises of the up-market grocer Wild on the Neue Markt. Margarétha heard that a Russian general had threatened to shoot anyone caught looting, but that seemed not to deter them. Schöner was offered schnapps by a soldier on the Marco-d’Aviano-Gasse. The soldier told him that Stalin had ordered that ‘Austria should not be treated as an enemy but as a liberated land. It will be much better for us than for the Hungarians or the Germans, no one is going to be shot.’ When Schöner returned to his house he found a cart outside. Russian soldiers were emptying the restaurant cellars of schnapps and
Sekt
. Two Viennese stood by, watching with ‘malicious pleasure’.
³⁶

It was the time to settle scores. In the factory where Margarétha had been working, the foreign workers were demanding the head of the boss, who had prudently disappeared. One of the Schöner cooks had returned from suburban Oberlaa. He reported that the women there had been repeatedly raped. ‘The rape chapter that we had previously - and even at the beginning of the occupation - lightly placed on the German propaganda ledger, had become stark reality.’ The victims were now reporting to the doctors. Neither age nor social status provided any protection. The Russians are reported to have raped women as old as eighty. Schöner heard a story from Ober St Veit that one woman had complained to the Russian commandant, who had laughed in her face. In general officers excused their men on the grounds of ‘long abstinence’. Even the ‘first victims’ were not immune: the Austrians were not going to enjoy the taste of liberation.
³⁷

The Russians had located the rich stocks of alcohol in the Schöner cellars and the banging on their door never ceased. They thanked their God for the massive door on their old Viennese house. The women were naturally terrified. ‘Sleep was out of the question.’ On 12 April, Schöner found that the Russians had plundered their Café Fenstergucker, opposite the famous Hotel Sacher. Before setting it alight they had removed all the wine and schnapps. There were reports of plunder and rape on all sides, so much so that they were forced to admit that Goebbels had ill prepared them for the truth. The most awful revelation, however, was even harder to swallow: in almost every case of rape or plunder, the Russians had been guided to their quarry by foreign workers or by the Viennese themselves. The chosen victims were the middle classes. There were the predictable consequences too: women committed suicide after the event; many contracted venereal diseases; others became pregnant and had to seek abortions. Doctors who had refused to terminate pregnancies in the past were now prepared to waive their moral objections. The only women who would not hear of it were the nuns, who stolidly awaited their fate in a Viennese hospital. Women responded to the danger by dressing down: ‘all the women are inelegant; most forgo hats or stockings. It is a lot safer on the streets than it is in the houses at night . . .’
³⁸

Vienna’s famous gawping
Adabeis
had assembled before the Schöners’ house in the Siebensterngasse to watch the spectacle. ‘The scene of our looting attracts hundreds of spectators, who are constantly trying to push their way into the house to lend a hand.’ They were hoping to receive a few scraps from the Russians’ table. ‘In the hall lie the fragments of a few dozen bottles of Veuve Cliquot and Lanson.’ One Croat tried to steal Josef ’s watch, but he was so drunk he could not stand up and had to support himself by clasping Schöner round the neck. The Russians were accompanied by some women, who guided them towards the older vintages. Their advice was rewarded with some bars of ‘couverture’ or cooking chocolate. The raiders found 200 more bottles. ‘Another group is sitting around a table in the courtyard knocking back our old bordeaux from coffee cups.’ Josef ’s parents complained to a first lieutenant, who responded by distributing some of the bottles to the waiting crowd. The Schöners joined the queue and were rewarded with a few bottles of their own wine. To add insult to injury, a member of the resistance came to see Schöner’s father and accused him of making the Russians drunk, thereby placing the city’s women in jeopardy.
³⁹

The Margaréthas in Hietzing were luckier. The gourmand economist was trading ‘liberation wine’ for endive salads. They hung up a sign in German and ‘Cyrillic’ saying ‘Unarmed civilians’. Russians came up the garden path to demand drink. Margarétha’s wife gave them water. Later Franek set up a buffet to distribute water to any Russian with a thirst, although that was certainly not what he wanted. They camped in the garden and when it was time to eat they supped from their helmets, which doubled as mess tins. The helmets were unlined, and the soldiers wore woollen or fur hats underneath. They cut their meat up with their bayonets. Margarétha still found them friendly, even if they tended to keep their distance from the Austrians.
⁴⁰

He was plundered for all that, if not badly. He returned from doing his deal with the gardener to find the door wide open. Franek had been put up against a wall. All three of the servant’s watches were gone. The Russians had been upstairs where they had created a wild disorder. They had filched a bottle of German brandy, but left the Dreher-cognac from Hungary. They had nabbed his wife’s wedding ring, two cameras (one was then rejected - he found it in the neighbour’s garden) and a brooch, which they had subsequently returned. More Russians came for his car, but he was able to tell them that it had been requisitioned by the Wehrmacht a year before. ‘You are powerless in the face of such attacks,’ he reflected. A notice had appeared outside the Café Gröpl in Hietzing telling all Germans aged between sixteen and sixty to report to the Russians.
⁴¹