History

A little bit of history repeating ...

Austria’s history dates back a long time, Celts, Teutons and the Romans all found Austria to be a nice little place to settle down. Slavs and Bavarians joined in later on, the Huns and Goths only occasionally dropped by.

From the end of the 10th century AD the House of Babenberg ruled the country for almost 300 years. The best known Babenberg duke maybe is Leopold V. who captured the English king Richard I. Lionheart – you probably know him from the legend of Robin Hood.

The name “Austria” was mentioned for the first time as “Ostarrîchi” in 996 AD.

After being under the rule of Bohemia for a short while, the Habsburg dynasty came to power. The Habsburgs then ruled Austria until the beginning of the 20th century – imagine, it was the same family for 640 years!

During their rule, the Habsburgs
- defeated the Turks twice,
- extended their empire preferredly through marriage,
- introduced compulsory schooling for their people,
- survived wars and revolutions,
- fathered and bore lots and lots of children (Empress Maria Theresia alone had 16!),
- supported fine arts and music and hosted famous artists like W.A. Mozart.

World War I finally brought an end to monarchy but not an end to trouble. The newly introduced First Republic couldn’t stabilize the bad economic situation and so a lot of Austrians actually welcomed the integration (Anschluss) of the country into Hitler’s Third Reich on 13 March 1938.

World War II marks one of the darkest chapters in Austrian history. Approximately 65.000 Austrian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, Roma and Sinti (gypsies), homosexuals, political dissidents, criminals, disabled persons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so-called “anti-social elements” were also systematically persecuted and killed.

After the end of the war Austria was divided into four occupation zones, one for each of the Allied forces. Finally in 1955 the Austrian State Treaty was signed, the foreign troops moved out and on 26 October 1955 permanent neutrality was declared by the Austrian parliament. Since then 26 October is celebrated as the Austrian National Day.

The Second Republic has brought a peaceful and prosperous era for Austria. It’s been member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995 and introduced the Euro in 2002. After the fall of the Iron Curtain Austria now really is again (in) the heart of Europe.

Photo: Kaiserin Maria Theresia (1717-1780) im Alter von elf Jahren (Empress Maria Theresia at the age of eleven), detail. Painting by Andreas Möller. Current location: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, source: http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=2413