1c. The mdw* during National Socialism from 1938 to 1945

12. - 13. March 1938

'Anschluss' of Austria to Nazi Germany.

In the former main building of mdw* in Lothringerstraße, an SS news department was quartered, with classes cancelled until the end of the month.

15. March 1938

Karl Kobald (1876–1957), President of the State Academy, was forced to stand down, and Alfred Orel (1889–1967) assumed the interim leadership of the institution.

Teachers who, due to their Jewish ancestry, were not ‘authorised’ to take the oath of allegiance to Hitler were relieved of their duties.

1938

As a result of the National Socialist seizure of power, approximately half of the teaching staff was dismissed for ‘racial’, political, or personal reasons. Almost 13 per cent of the students had to leave the Academy.

The Seminar, which had been directed by Max Reinhardt (1931–1873) as a private institute since 1943, was expropriated and incorporated into the State Academy as the Schönbrunn Acting and Directing Seminar.

Music Education was removed from the Department of Church and School Music and transferred to the newly founded Music School of the City of Vienna.

The number of students fell from about 1,000 before the seizure of power to 730 (summer semester 1939), 622 (summer semester 1941) and 562 (summer semester 1943).

1. September 1938

Franz Schütz (1892–1962) took over as the interim director of the State Academy.

April 1939

The State Academy was granted university status.

May 1940

The Schönbrunn Acting and Directing Seminar was relocated to Palais Cumberland in Penzing, and the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre continued to be used as a performance venue.

November 1941

Elevation to Reich University. After having been removed in 1938, Music Education returned to the mdw*.

1944 to 1945

Despite the prescribed closure of the art colleges, some classes were still held up until the final weeks of the war.