Database on motor vehicles in Austria in the 1930s and 1940s

Within the scope of a research project at the Technical Museum Vienna (2009–2012), important sources concerning motor vehicle ownership in Austria were accessed and evaluated. After the Anschluss in March 1938, the National Socialists confiscated over 3,000 motor vehicles which were either used as company cars, e.g. for the Nazi Party or were auctioned by the Vienna auction house Dorotheum in summer 1938 on the instruction of the GESTAPO. Around 20 % of all registered vehicles were stolen by the National Socialists – the largest theft of automobiles in the history of Austria. The database NS-KFZ Raub (“National Socialist motor vehicle seizure”) comprises the motor vehicles seized by the National Socialists in Austria and is, as such an aid for identifying goods seized by the Nazis in public and private collections and in the vintage car trade.

back