Bevölkerungsstatistik in Österreich 1938 - 1955

The study which emerged from the project P 16291-G04 (project leader: Univ.-Doz. Dr. Peter Schimany, project coworker: Dr. Gudrun Exner) with the title "Population Statistics and Population Science in Austria 1938 to 1955" investigates for the NS-time (1938-1945) and for the post-war period (1945-1955) how these both narrowly related scienitifc disciplines developed. Following the requirements of a modern historiography of science, this study investigates leading decision-makers, the most important institutions, the discourse and special issues. One of the main targets of the project was to answer the question, whether the census of May 17, 1939 in Germany a part of which was at the time also Austria as "Ostmark" contributed to the Holocaust. Götz Aly and Karl Heinz Roth as well as Jutta Wietog have examined this question for Germany. Especially Aly/ Roth assumed that data of the census on which also the "racial" origin according to the Anti-semitic criteria of the Nuremberg Laws was registered, were used to set up the deportation lists into the concentration camps. Aly/Roth from the side of the opponents of official statistics and Jutta Wietog who tried to relieve the official statistics both came to the result that a direct contribution of the official statistics to the Holocaust is most unlikely. It is possible that there were single informations but for this no proves from the sources could be discovered until now. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the census data provided an overview over the dimension of the "Final Solution". Neither Aly/Rot nor Wietog investigated the topic for Austria. This project aimed at closing this research gap. It could be shown that the data for deportation lists in Vienna, where 1939 more than 90 per cent of the Austrian Jews lived, came from two special counts. They took place in September and October 1939 and were conducted be the Jewish Community in Vienna and the Gildemeester-Auswanderungshilfsaktion. Both counts were most probably ordered by Adolf Eichmann. Also for Austria it is most unlikely that the official statistics contributed directly to the Holocaust. The 1939 census was carried out by the Austrian Statistical Land Office. At the time its leader was Felix Klezl. The responsible census leader and head of the department of populations statistics was Oskar Gelinek who was killed at the Western front in autumn 1944.