conductor Herbert von Karajan are particularly noteworthy. National Socialism, Alpine Fortress, Nazi Treasure in Toplitzsee After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, the entire Ausseerland was incorporated into the administrative unit Oberdonau (Upper Austria). The autonomy of the communities Bad Aussee, Grundlsee and Altaussee was dissolved and a mayor was established in Bad Aussee. The municipal offices Grundlsee and Altaussees were henceforth field offices of Bad Aussee. The Ausseerland subsequently attracted numerous Nazi personalities. For example, three National Socialist Gauleiters regularly spent their holidays in the neighboring town of Altaussee: August Eigruber, Konrad Henlein and Hugo Jury. The Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his family resided in the castle Grundlsee. In 1943, they had begun to set up a depot for art goods in the nearby salt mine Altaussee. In August of the same year began the storage of art treasures from Austrian churches, monasteries and museums to protect them from bombing. As of February 1944, the stock of about 4700 works of art was stored. It was this stolen art goods throughout Europe, which was accumulated under the code name Special Order Linz by Adolf Hitler and was intended for the planned Führer Museum in Linz. At the end of the war, the entire depot contained about 6,500 paintings as well as numerous statues, furniture, weapons, coins and libraries in eleven decommissioned factories. Including a part of the planned so-called guide library. The largest collection of this library was deposited at Villa Castiglioni in Grundlsee. (Salvage Salzbergwerk Altaussee ) Between 1943 and 1945 numerous weapons-technical experiments of the German Navy were carried out on Toplitzsee. At the end of the war, boxes of fake British banknotes from Operation Bernhard were sunk in the lake, which should have weakened the British economy. There are rumors that gold reserves of the Third Reich, notes for numbered accounts and works of art were sunk in the lake. These rumors of the "gold treasure in Toplitzsee" have not been confirmed to date. The Ausseerland was part of the so-called Alpine fortress and 1944/45 a last retreat for National Socialist party and government agencies and Wehrmacht staffs. However, entire governments, which had been used by the National Socialists in the Balkan states, also sought refuge. In the neighboring Altaussee, for example, there were nine secessionist exile governments from Eastern Europe. The Americans reached the Ausseerland on May 8, 1945.