Over 45,000 members of the former German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) of German and Austrian descent died on Austrian soil during the Second World War. Most of them fell during the fierce retreat battles in the last months of the war.
Since the late 1960s, the Commission has increasingly taken on the task of securing and maintaining the graves of the fallen of the former German armed forces in Austria and has provided sustainable support for the work of the Austrian Black Cross in the form of material and personnel assistance. Two laws regulate the issue of war graves in Austria. These are the Federal Law of July 7, 1948, BGB l 175, concerning the care of war graves from the First and Second World Wars, and the Federal Law of July 7, 1948, BGB l 176, concerning the care and protection of war graves and war memorials from the Second World War for members of the Allied, United Nations and for victims of the fight for a free, democratic Austria and victims of political persecution.
The Volksbund was able to build or redesign ten military cemeteries in Austria, beginning in 1965, in cooperation with the Austrian Black Cross/War Graves Commission and with the approval of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The overall planning of the war graves commission was based on the idea of creating collective cemeteries for the federal states in which the war dead were mostly still buried in scattered graves, in order to ensure the long-term protection and preservation of the graves. However, more than 200 smaller sites and cemeteries in municipal cemeteries, maintained by the Austrian Black Cross, remained in place.
The Volksbund's reburial service worked in Austria for many years. In Burgenland, reburials were carried out in Mattersburg, and in Upper Austria a collection point was set up in Freistadt/Jaunitzbachtal. The war dead in Carinthia were transferred to St. Veit. Feldbach and Graz as well as Retz, Allentsteig, Oberwölbing and Blurnau form the central collection facilities in Styria and Lower Austria. In the federal capital Vienna, there are several gravesites with war dead from various nations in the Central Cemetery. The German war dead of World War II rest in the newly designed large war cemetery of Group 97. The cemetery of the Austro-Hungarian war dead of World War I is located in Group 91. Under the terms of the above-mentioned agreement, the German war cemetery at the Vienna Central Cemetery, Group 97, remained in the care of the Volksbund.
The construction of the collective cemeteries was carried out by the Commission in close coordination with the Austrian Black Cross, the state governments, the municipalities and with the approval of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The necessary land was provided by the Austrian government and various municipalities.
As part of the extensive research that preceded the reburials, a large number of previously unknown graves, in particular field graves, were identified. During the reburials themselves, the fates of many individuals were clarified through subsequent identification.