West Austria and East Austria

My guess would be Innsbruck, its located in a good location.


As Vienna is located in Soviet backed People Republic of Austria, yes it will be divided like Berlin, the city is divided among all four Allies. The historical center of Vienna is declared an international zone, in which occupation forces changed every month (this might become a issues in the future because it can never last long this).

Map of the four sectors of occupation in Vienna.

I think Switzerland will remain neutral even whit a divided Austria, its not that they have any border with a East Bloc country, in fact they are now surrounded by NATO members.

Completely agreed; indeed, Switzerland didn't even join the U.N. until 2002 in our TL!

ITTL West Austria would be so small and have so little population and economic resources that its liveability would be in serious doubt. And being on the frontline of the Cold War its stability and ability to defend itself from Soviet military threats and Communit destabilization would be very important for the West. Therefore I expect sooner rather than later the Western powers (i.e. the Americans, with the British and the French following their lead) would allow West Germany and West Austria to reunify; Cold War strategic concerns would trump bad taste from a second, democratic Anschluss. Division of Austria would in all likelihood prevent post-WWII development of a separate Austrian national consciousness in the first place, and the West Austrians would welcome the increased prosperity and security the union would ensure. I expect the WG-WA union would take place sometime in the '50s, more or less at the same time West Germany recovered national sovreignty within the EU/NATO framework, rearmed, and recovered the Saar.

The WG-WA union would lessen the need to pressure Switzerland to join EU/NATO. Vienna would surely become a divided city just like Berlin, and in due time a second Wall would be built. I assume West Austria would join Germany as one Lander, to be similar in size to the other West German states. The capital of the West Austrian Lander would be Innsbruck or Salzburg. As others have pointed out, extension of the Cold War frontline to divided Austria would drive both blocs to increase the militarization of the southern portion of the Iron Curtain. Effects on Yugoslavia may vary.

Why the Wesr Austrians should ever dislike it ? Even the Nazi version of the Anschluss took place with overwhelming popular support and total lack of something like a nationalist opposition to the Nazis. All the resistance was based on ideological opposition, just like in Germany, and if anything Austria in proportion provided more support to the Nazi regime than Germany. Before WWII, the Austrians had dynastic loyalty to the Habsburg empire, while it lasted, and a regional identity within the German nation, just like Bavaria, Prussia, Hanover, Rhineland, or Saxony. The Austrians saw themselves as Germans. The rise of a separate Austrian national consciousness was a postwar, gradual process that was critically tied to Austria's Cold War status as a united neutral state, an attempt to get the Soviets off their back by embracing neutrality, and a wish to distance themselves from Nazi crimes by spreading the lie Anschluss had been an act of coercion.

Division of Austria would inevitably wreck the process of Austrian nationhood since to embrace it would only support the status quo with Soviet occupation of the East and West Austria would not look like a believable project, just like a separate Saar did not. The Austrians would reject it and vote for union with West Germany just like the Saarlanders rejected separation and voted to rejoin Germany. They would continue to think of themselves as Germans and would embrace the West German democratic project as the natural, most beneficial alternative. East Austria would become just like East Germany, a Communist puppet state with no real legitimacy or popular support, propped up by Soviet bayonets, till the fall of Communism and (Greater) German reunification. This includes the inevitable uprisings against Communist rule, a flow of refugees through the Vienna gap in the Iron Curtain, and the building of a Wall to stop it. West Vienna would become just like West Berlin. The western Austrian Lander would quickly become indistinguishable from the rest of West Germany, especially Bavaria.

Sure, the Soviets would not like a second Anschluss, but would they could ever do ? ITTL they already got as much influence in Austrian affairs as they could realistically hope for, by controlling the most popolous and valuable portion of Austria as a puppet state. To interfere in the union they would have to use military force, and that would be a suicidal disaster for them. They won't do it for the same reasons they did not invade to stop the rearmament of West Germany. Troughout the 1950s and the early 1960s the USA had an overwhelming nuclear supremacy, the West would survive WWIII with some minor damage but the USSR would cease to exist.

Yep, although just like democratic East Germany, democratic East Austria would only last the one year or so it takes to implement democratization and negotiate reunification. Nobody would want the former Communist states to exist longer than that. Just like Berlin, Vienna would most likely become a separate Lander, but otherwise eastern Austria would in all likelihood join the (western) Austria Lander. Post-Cold War Germany within the EU/NATO framework and NATO as a whole would be significantly but not radically stronger by including Austria; the EU would lack one small, formerly neutral member state; Vienna would develop the same political and cultural atmosphere as Berlin. The South Tyrol and eastern German border issues would be settled just like OTL; German-Italian economic ties would be even stronger through the (western) Austrian connection; German and Western European economic and political influence in Central Europe would be even stronger. The southern (Bavarian-Austrian-Italian) theater would get increased importance in NATO and WarPact strategic planning.

It is possible a more aggressive Soviet policy in Central Europe, as indicated by the division of Austria, might drive Yugoslavia to grow closer to the Western bloc, although probably not to the point of formally dropping non-aligned status and joining EU/NATO. I'm dubious this would significantly change the fate of Yugoslavia, however. For the same reasons, Italy might annex the whole Free Territory of Trieste, including Capodistria. Division of Austria would indicate Stalin embracing a more aggressive foreign policy that gives priority to direct territorial and sphere of influence expansion of the Soviet bloc rather than an attempt to weaken and divide the Western bloc. Unless he suffers a serious personality change, in all likelihood this would not go all the way to accepting a dire risk of WWIII. However possible butterflies might involve various early Cold War flashpoints, including Iran, the Titoist split and the Greek Civil War, the Berlin blockade (ITTL being extended to Vienna), the Korean War, Indochina, and the Suez crisis.