The "Holding Commissioner" appointed by Ganleiter Bürckel immediately after the "Anschluss" on 18 March 1938 had nearly unlimited powers. A great many associations were dissolved and their assets confiscated. This ranged from private clubs to Church societies, the existence of which was an obstacle to the organisational monopoly sought by the Nazi government. The receivers appointed by the Nazis not infrequently used the assets of these associations to give donations to Nazi organisations. The Nazi party and government quarrelled about how these assets were to be exploited.

There can be no doubt that the policies on which the Nazis embarked right after the "Anschluss" to undermine the Roman Catholic Church's economic basis were rooted in differences of philosophical outlook between the Nazis and the Church. But financial motives are also perceptible to a considerable extent behind the policy of "deconfessionalisation". The Church Contributions Act meant that previous government cash flows to the Church (from the Religious Fund, other government commitments and the cultural budget) were stopped and fell to the charge of the membership of the Church.

The wave of expropriations, which started as early as April and May 1938 with the attempted takeover of the Archbishop of Salzburg's residence by the Nazi authorities, finally led to the confiscation of much of the Church's property.

The work of Austria's Protestant churches also suffered under the Nazi regime's hostility to religion. Their work with young people was stopped, some real property was confiscated and some of their vicars were persecuted.

In addition to seizing the property of religious associations, there was a growing tendency for the state to take over the property of monasteries and other ecclesiastical institutions. Denominational schools and kindergartens were closed and became state property.

We know little about the situation of other churches and religious communities. Smaller groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses or the Adventists refused to submit to the exigencies of the Nazi government. Their official structure had already been dismantled before 1938. Their members were arrested and some of them were executed. These persecutions must also have led to financial losses.

The ways in which assets were expropriated or people resettled for the purpose of setting up new industries or military facilities differed over time. While many of the persons affected by the first of these expropriations were paid adequate financial compensation by the Nazi government or received other pieces of land in compensation, this indemnification later took the form of the allocation of "aryanised" property or of extremely paltry payments which did not suffice to buy adequate replacements, especially as the war dragged on. In the case of these expropriations, then, one has to distinguish in relation to the scale of compensation received. One will also have to consider that many of these cases may not have involved typical Nazi acts, since expropriation