[6]: 208  Thought experiments on the German side about an Alpine Fortress would have been carried to significant parts by Ostmark forces, but Hitler's refusal to leave Berlin made these ideas superfluous.

[1]: 369 On 6 May, in the course of the Dönitz government's (Adolf Hitler had committed suicide on 30 April) desperate scramble to secure a regional armistices with the Western Allies, Albert Kesselring received instructions to oversee the regulated surrenders of the Ostmark, South East and Center army group commands to the Western Allies by disentangling them from Soviet forces.

The chaotic circumstances of surrender had cut off various German formations from their lines of communication; OKW was unable to precisely locate Army Group Ostmark and the forces of Oberbefehlshaber Südost.[8]: 475f.

This chaos was furthered by the complicated interactions between Allied interests and the nascent Austrian resistance, as well as the role of Austrian-born Wehrmacht commanders.

Southeastern supreme commander Alexander Löhr attempted to win favor (and the support of his troops) for a defensive holding action by his remnant troops against Soviet and Yugoslav forces on the Austrian frontier, to secure postwar Austria's government as non-communist.

[8]: 482 After the Dönitz government agreed at Reims to an overall German surrender on 7 May 1945 (to be effective midnight 8/9 May), the army groups still engaged with Soviet forces were instructed to fight their way westwards as far as possible to reach American lines in order to avoid Soviet captivity.