Austrians
Historically, Austrians were regarded as ethnic Germans and viewed themselves as such. Austria was part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian war in 1866 which resulted in Prussia expelling Austria from the Confederation. Thus, when Germany was founded as a nation-state in 1871, Austria was not a part of it. In 1867, Austria was reformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austria was reduced to a rump state and adopted and briefly used the name the Republic of German-Austria ("Republik Deutschösterreich") in an attempt for union with the Republic of Germany, but was forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The First Austrian Republic was founded in 1919. The Third Reich annexed Austria with the "Anschluss" in 1938.
Federal Constitutional Law (Austrian act)
In April 1945, the German Reich in the final stages of collapse and Fascism in both its German and its Austrian incarnation thoroughly discredited, Austria's pre-1933 political parties began reconstituting themselves. On April 27, leaders of the three major factions issued a Proclamation on the Independence of Austria. In Article 1, the Proclamation stated that Austria was to be rebuilt "in the spirit of the constitution of 1920."
On the same day, the parties formed a Provisional Government ("Provisorische Staatsregierung"), a committee that would act as both cabinet and legislature until constitutional structures would haven been reestablished and elections could be held.
On May 1, the Provisional Government enacted the Constitution Transition Act ("Verfassungs-Überleitungsgesetz") reestablishing the Federal Constitutional Law in its 1929 revision. The Act explicitly rescinded all constitutional law proclaimed by both the Austrofascist and the Nazi regime.