to delay a first, partial amnesty until 1947. The changes, deemed the beginning of the end of denazification, abolished objective criteria such as early party membership in the assessment of individual guilt and instead called for a more subjective assessment of one's commitment to Nazi ideology. The assessments were also shifted to the local agencies wishing to hire the person in question, opening the process to conflicts of interest and favoritism. A total amnesty was passed by parliament in 1952 but vetoed by the allied powers. When, in 1957, they relinquished this power, all efforts at denazification on the individual level were eliminated from the law. The following decades saw a return to power of many eager participants of the Nazi regime and its crimes in public office, industry, and culture. Thus, it did not surprise when the 1970 Kreisky cabinet included a total of six former Nazis as ministers. While Johann Öllinger, minister of agriculture, SS-, and SA member from 1933 resigned after being exposed by West Germany's , Nazi party member no. 1,089,867 from 1932, Oskar Weihs, was immediately appointed to little public opposition. Application In 1985 the Austrian Constitutional Court ruled that the remaining regulations are directly applicable in the country's legal system, binding every court and every administrative agency of Austria. Upon the 1992 amendment, the Austrian Supreme Court stated that any reasoning or argumentation concerning the Nazi genocide and the Nazi crimes against humanity is not admissible in evidence. The National Democratic Party (Austria) was banned by a verdict of the Constitutional Court of Austria on the basis of the Verbotsgesetz 1947 in 1988. Up to today numerous verdicts are handed down by Austrian courts based on the , most notably the conviction of David Irving at the Vienna on 20 February 2006. See also Constitution of Austria Strafgesetzbuch section 86a in Germany Volksverhetzung References External links Verbotsgesetz 1947 , current version of the legal text, offered by the Rechtsinformationssystem (Legal Information System) of the Austrian Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery) Verbotsgesetz 1947 (Prohibition Act 1947) , English translation of the legal text, offered by the Rechtsinformationssystem (Legal Information System) of the Austrian Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery) Christian Anderle, Learning from Sophie Scholl, Why Austria’s anti-Nazi Legislation Ought to Be Amended, June 16, 2014. Brief History and Legal Critique of the Prohibition Act 1947. Published on October 4, 2015. Law of Austria 1947 in Austria Laws criminalizing Holocaust