Anton Reinthaller

Anton Reinthaller (14 April 1895 – 6 March 1958) was an Austrian politician active before and after the Second World War. After a career in Nazi Germany as an SS-Brigadeführer and member of the Nazi Reichstag, he was the inaugural leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).

Early life Born in Mettmach (Upper Austria), Reinthaller served in World War I. He was taken prisoner of war by Russian Army in 1916 before being exchanged in June 1918. He held the rank of Leutnant der Reserve. He served as Minister for Agriculture in the cabinet of Arthur Seyss-Inquart from 12 March 1938 to 30 April 1939.

In April 1938, the Donau-Zeitung reported that Reinthaller took the Austrian Wotan steamer to Passau, where he welcomed German transport minister Julius Dorpmüller to Austria. Two days later, the newspaper stated that Reinthaller was still inspecting facilities along the Danube.

Post-war activism In August 1945, Reinthaller was arrested by U.S. occupation authorities and sent to an internment camp in Salzburg. He was transferred to Nuremberg, then to an internment camp in Dachau in July 1947. He was later sent back to Nuremberg, and released from custody on 8 November 1948. He was ordered to wait in Bavaria to await the ruling of a denazification tribunal in his case. However, on 1 July 1949 the Counterintelligence Corps arrested Reinthaller at the request of Austrian police in Vienna, and extradited him to Austria to await trial.

Along with Rudolf Neumayer (Finance Minister) and Guido Schmidt (Foreign Minister under Schuschnigg), Reinthaller was brought before the Austrian People's Court and accused of "high treason against the Austrian people", with the three labelled as being those most responsible for the Anschluss. Reinthaller was acquitted of high treason, but found guilty of being an active member of the Nazi Party before the Anchluss. He was sentenced to three years in prison and had part of his assets confiscated.

After the war, Reinthaller became an advocate of the 'Third force' in Austrian politics. Before long Reinthaller once again became an important figure in Austrian politics as, despite his Nazi origins, Julius Raab made a deal with Reinthaller in 1957 that he would ensure that the FPÖ did not nominate a candidate for the Presidency. As a result, Raab was thus nominated as a joint Austrian People's Party-FPÖ candidate.

According to the historian Lothar Höbelt, Reinthaller was the "ideal Nazi" for the first generation of the FPÖ. There were no signs of insight or regret in Reinthaller's diary entries. He saw himself as a "victim" of "victor's justice". Reinthaller, who had not known about the gassings, rejected the attempted extermination of the Jews, labelling it Hitler's "madness" and "monstrous". However, he continued to hold a milder version of the Nazi racial ideology. Reinthaller believed that the Jews had "declared [themselves] a belligerent power" in 1934 and had "called for a fight against Germany." This, he said, was why "there was stricter police treatment of German Jews." Reinthaller claimed that the yellow badge was introduced to protect against enemy propaganda and espionage. As for the Holocaust, he rejected collective responsibility against the German people, Austrian people, and Nazi Party, instead blaming individual perpetrators.