[3] VdU saw itself as representing the interests of former members of the Nazi Party, expellees from Central and Eastern Europe, returning prisoners of war and other discontent portions of the Austrian population.

[1] While Kraus and Reimann (who himself had been active in the resistance against the Nazis) envisioned a liberal and moderately nationalist party, an alternative to the dominant SPÖ and ÖVP, appealing to the educated middle- and upper middle-class, VdU in fact became a rallying point for former National Socialists.

The party drew most of its support in areas where in pre-war times the rural Landbund had been rooted and in cities with a high percentage of former Nazis.

Beginning soon after its foundation, the party saw the start of heavy internal strife between the more liberal approach of the founders Kraus and Reimann and the German nationalist faction centering on the former Luftwaffe colonel Gordon Gollob.

VdU founders Reimann and Kraus left the FPÖ shortly thereafter and the latter lamented over a "long-prepared seizure of power by a small circle of right-wing extremists and Nazi leaders".