GAUK Kukan

The railway upheaval and its impact on social and economic structures in Austria as a case study on the history of transport in the context of Nazi expansion in Central Europe.

The project will focus on the changes in economic and social structures on the railways in the time of the Anschluss of Austria in 1938. The project wants to watch the changes of the Austrian railways before and after the Anschluss, when the Austrian railways (BBÖ) became a part of German railways (DR). The project will watch the changes in the organization of railways and the changes of its role in the time, when Austria became a part of Nazi Germany. The project will study the political plans and the role of the railways in the plans of Nazi politicians. The relationship between the political power and transport management institutions will also be analysed. The project will follow the question, how the transport management institutions changed after the coup d´état and in which German institutions they were incorporated. The author would like to study the archive materials of these institutions and German and Austrians railways, and to enrich the history of Anschluss and Nazi Germany in context of history of transport and institutions.