Austrian State Treaty in the context of "French Fourth Republic"

At the end of World War II in Europe, Austria was occupied by the Allies and declared independence from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offensive. The occupation ended when the Austrian State Treaty came into force on 27 July 1955.

After the Anschluss in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In November 1943, however, the Allies agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that Austria would instead be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression—without denying Austria's role in Nazi crimes—and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war.

The Federal State of Austria (Austrian German: Bundesstaat Österreich; colloquially known as the "Ständestaat") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative, nationalist, corporatist, clerical fascist and Catholic Fatherland Front. The Ständestaat concept, derived from the notion of Stände ("estates" or "corporations"), was advocated by leading regime politicians such as Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. The result was a authoritarian government based on a mix of Italian Fascist and conservative Catholic influences.

It ended in March 1938 with the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria. Austria would not become an independent country again until 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty ended the Allied occupation of Austria.