When did Austria become a republic?
Austria
The status of South Tyrol was a lingering problem between Austria and Italy until it was officially settled by the 1980s with a great degree of autonomy being granted to it by the Italian national government. Between 1918 and 1919, Austria was known as the State of German Austria (). Not only did the Entente powers forbid German Austria to unite with Germany, but they also rejected the name German Austria in the peace treaty to be signed; it was, therefore, changed to Republic of Austria in late 1919.
Austria – the Nazis' first victim
For the Second Republic to survive meant to make Austrians realize their own national identity, that only was to create. As far back as the 1940s, a new, own history of Austria had been urgently composed to satisfy this purpose: it introduced into existence a special Austrian nation that differed from the German one. Hero's pantheon of this history was made of people that had no connection with Germany within the 20th century, i.e. Leopold the Glorious or Andreas Hofer. In 1946 the 950-year anniversary of the ancient name of Austria () was right on the button. As Austrians formed from a set of ancient nations then, according to Austrian historians, they were not Germans genetically Religion was also different: Austrians are mainly Catholics, Germans – Protestants. The consensual opinion of Austrian scientists stated that a common language could not be the determining factor.
President of Austria
On 11 November, Emperor Charles I announced "I relinquish every participation in the administration of the State. Likewise I have released the members of the Austrian Government from their offices". The next day, parliament proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria. The assembly presidents (Seitz, Franz Dinghofer and Johann Nepomuk Hauser) continued to serve as acting heads of state until 4 March 1919, when the Constituent National Assembly collectively assumed these functions. Seitz (5 March 1919 – 10 November 1920) was the only President of the Constituent National Assembly.
History of Austria
Austria joined the European Union in 1995.
Austria-Hungary
The new Austrian state was, at least on paper, on shakier ground than Hungary. While what was left of Austria had been a single unit for over 700 years, it was united only by loyalty to the Habsburgs. With the loss of 60% of the Austrian Empire's prewar territory, Vienna was now an imperial capital without an empire to support it. By comparison, Hungary had been a nation and a state for over 900 years. However, after a brief period of upheaval and the Allies' foreclosure of union with Germany, Austria established itself as a federal republic. Despite the temporary "Anschluss" with Nazi Germany, it still survives today. Adolf Hitler cited that all "Germans" – such as him and the others from Austria, etc. – should be united with Germany.
Name of Austria
The contemporary state was created in 1955, with the Austrian State Treaty, and is officially called the "Republic of Austria" ("Republik Österreich").
Austrians
The end of World War II in 1945 saw the re-establishment of an independent Austria, although the Allied Powers remained in occupation until 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty between Austria and them was signed to end occupation and to regain Austrian sovereignty.
Immediately after 1945 the majority of Austrians still saw themselves as Germans, as a broader Austrian national identity took time to develop. In a 1956 survey, 46% of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans. Another survey carried out in 1964 revealed that only 15% of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans.
Austrians
On October 21, the German members of the Austrian parliament, elected in 1911, met in Vienna to found the Provisional National Assembly of German Austria ("Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich"). On October 30, 1918 they installed the first German Austrian government, leaving the question "monarchy or republic" open. (German nationalists and social democrats favoured the republic, the Christian Socialists wanted to keep the monarchy.) This government in the first days of November took over the duties of the last imperial-royal government in a peaceful way. Initially the new state adopted the name "German Austria", reflecting the republic being the German part of the old Austria and showing the popular desire to unite with the new German republic. On November 12, 1918, the provisional national assembly voted for the republic and for unification with Germany with a large majority.
Austrians
The Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of a German Empire in 1871, headed by Prussia and pointedly excluding any of the Austrian lands, let the state turn away from Germany and turn its gaze towards the Balkan Peninsula. Thereby the influence of pan-Germanism was diminished in the Habsburg territories, but as the term "Austrians" still was used supra-national, German-speaking Austrians considered themselves Germans (and were counted as such in the censuses). After Bismarck had excluded Austria from Germany, many Austrians faced a dilemma about their identity which prompted the Social Democratic Leader Otto Bauer to state that the dilemma was "the conflict between our Austrian and German character." The state as a whole tried to work out a sense of a distinctively Austrian identity.
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.
Austria – the Nazis' first victim
On April 13, 1945 the Soviet troops captured Vienna. Two weeks later, on April 27, the Provisional Government, formed by the Soviet forces under Karl Renner, promulgated the "Proclamation of the Second Republic of Austria", which literally reprinted the text of the Moscow Declaration. Renner, who had previously been an active supporter of Anschluss, still considered it a historical necessity, and expressed his regret over the forced separation of Austria and Germany under the pressure of the Allies in his address to the nation. The majority of Austrians agreed with him. But the proclamation of April 27, which was addressed not so much to the nationals as to victory states, stated the opposite: events of 1938 were not the result of agreement between equal parties or expression of the popular will, but the result of "an uncovered external pressure, a terrorist plot by own national socialist minority, deception and blackmail during talks, and then – an open military occupation … The Adolf Hitler's Third Reich deprived people of Austria of their power and freedom to express their will, led them to a senseless and pointless massacre, which no one Austrian has not wanted to take part in."
Austria
It emerged from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as one of the continent's four dominant powers and a recognised great power. The same year, the German Confederation () was founded under the presidency of Austria. Because of unsolved social, political, and national conflicts, the German lands were shaken by the 1848 revolution aiming to create a unified Germany.
History of Austria
Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich. Engelbert Dollfuss accepted that most Austrians were German and Austrian, but wanted Austria to remain independent from Germany. In 1938, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to the German Reich with the Anschluss, which was supported by a large majority of the Austrian people. Ten years after the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Republic in 1955.
Emperor of Austria
The Emperor of Austria (German: "Kaiser von Österreich") was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A hereditary imperial title and office proclaimed in 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Charles I relinquished power in 1918.
Federal State of Austria
Hitler had originally intended to retain Austria as a puppet state headed by Seyss-Inquart. However, the enthusiastic support for Hitler led him to change his stance and support a full "Anschluss" between Austria and Nazi Germany. On 13 March Seyss-Inquart formally decreed the "Anschluss", though President Miklas avoided signing the law by resigning immediately. Seyss-Inquart then took over most of Miklas' duties and signed the Anschluss bill into law. Two days later in his speech at the Vienna Heldenplatz, Hitler proclaimed the "accession of my homeland to the German Reich" (see Austria in the time of National Socialism).
Austria
On 15 May 1955, after talks which lasted for years and were influenced by the Cold War, Austria regained full independence by concluding the Austrian State Treaty with the Four Occupying Powers. On 26 October 1955, after all occupation troops had left, Austria declared its "permanent neutrality" by an act of parliament. This day is now Austria's National Day, a public holiday.
History of Austria
Since the territory understood by the term 'Austria' underwent drastic changes over time, dealing with a "History of Austria" raises a number of questions, eg., whether it is confined to the current or former Republic of Austria, or extends also to all lands formerly ruled by the rulers of Austria. Furthermore, should an Austrian history include the period 1938–1945, when it nominally did not exist? Of the lands now part of the second Republic of Austria, many were added over time – only two of the nine provinces or "Bundesländer" (Lower Austria and Upper Austria) are strictly 'Austria', while other parts of its former sovereign territory are now part of countries like e.g., Italy, Hungary or the Czech Republic. Accordingly, within Austria there are also regionally and temporally varying affinities to adjacent countries.
Austria – the Nazis' first victim
After Austria's exclusion from Germany in 1866, the following year Austria sided with Hungary and formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. During its existence, the German-speaking Austrians hoped for the empire to dissolve and advocated an "Anschluss" with Germany. Following the dissolution of the empire in 1918, the rump state of German-Austria, was created. Immediately following the publication of humiliating terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) a drive for unification with Germany appeared, but its practical actions were strictly suppressed by victory states. The name "German-Austria" and union with Germany was strictly forbidden and gave way to the First Austrian Republic. An independent Austrian Republic turned out to be non-viable.
Politics of Austria
The ethnically and culturally heterogeneous nation state of Austria is one of the many remnant states of Austria-Hungary, a vast multinational empire that ceased to exist in 1918. The Austrian Republic was preceded by a constitutional monarchy, whose legislative body was elected by, as "The New York Times" put it, "quasi-universal (male) suffrage" for the first time in 1897.
Republic of German-Austria
The next day, 12 November, the National Assembly officially declared German-Austria a republic, and named Social Democrat Karl Renner as provisional chancellor. On the same day it drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria is an integral part of the German republic" (Article 2). The latter provision reflected the deputies' view that felt that Austria would lose so much territory in any peace settlement that it would no longer be economically and politically viable as a separate state, and the only course was union with Germany. This was enforced by the refusal of Hungary to sell grain and of Czechoslovakia to sell coal to Austria-Germany.
History of Austria
On 19 February elections were held for what was now called the Constituent National Assembly ("Konstituierende Nationalversammlung"). Although the Social Democrats won the most seats (41%) they did not have an absolute majority and formed a grand coalition with the second-largest party, the Christian Socialists. On 12 March the National Assembly declared "German Austria" to the part of the "German Republic".
Viscount Taaffe
Independent of the legal situation in Britain, the monarchy was abolished in Austria in November 1918, and on 28 April 1919 the newly established socialist Republic of German Austria abolished all noble titles. This meant that Heinrich Graf Taaffe was no longer recognised as such by the Austrian State, although in society circles and private newspapers he still appeared as Count.
History of Austria
The Provisional National Assembly ("Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich") met in Vienna from 21 October 1918 to 19 February 1919, as the first parliament of the new Austria, in the Lower Austria parliamentary buildings ("Niederösterreichische Landhaus"). It consisted of those members of the "Reichsrat" (Imperial Council) elected in 1911 from German speaking territories with three presidents, Franz Dinghofer (German National Movement, GDVP), Jodok Fink (Christian Social Party, CS) and Karl Seitz (Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, SDAPÖ). The National Assembly continued its work till 16 February 1919 when elections were held. On 30 October it adopted a provisional constitution and on 12 November it adopted German Austria ("Deutschösterreich") as the name of the new state. Since the Emperor, Charles I (Karl I) had stated on 11 November that he no longer had ""auf jeden Anteil an den Staatsgeschäften"" (any share in the affairs of state), although he always said that he never abdicated. Austria was now a republic.
However the provisional constitution stated that it was to be part of the new German Republic proclaimed three days earlier. Article 2 stated: "Deutschösterreich ist ein Bestandteil der Deutschen Republik" (German Austria is part of the German Republic).
Anschluss
Austria remained part of Germany until the end of World War II. A provisional Austrian government declared the "Anschluss" "null und nichtig" (null and void) on 27 April 1945. Henceforth, Austria was recognized as a separate country, although it remained divided into occupation zones and controlled by the Allied Commission until 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty restored its sovereignty.
History of Austria
The non-German ethnic groups broke away leaving Austria's current boundaries as German Austria, which was proclaimed an independent republic. Persistent global economic crisis and domestic political tensions led to civil strife in February 1934, with the May Constitution of 1934 resulting in an authoritarian corporate state. Just two months later the Austrian Nazis staged the July coup, wanting to annex the country to the German Third Reich, resulting in the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. While the coup failed, Adolf Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria on 12 March 1938 as "Ostmark", until 1945. Austria was partitioned after the Second World War and then in 1955 became the independent sovereign state (Second Republic) that has existed to the present day. In 1995, Austria joined the European Union.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
Article 88 of the treaty required Austria to refrain from directly or indirectly compromising its independence, which meant that Austria could not enter into political or economic union with the German Reich without the agreement of the council of the League of Nations. Accordingly, the new republic's initial self-chosen name of German-Austria () had to be changed to Austria. Many Austrians would come to find this term harsh (especially among the Austrian Germans who were German nationalists of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire), due to Austria's later economic weakness, which was caused by loss of land. The economic weakness of Austria would later lead to support for the idea of "Anschluss" (political union) with Nazi Germany.
Habsburg Law
On 11 November 1918, Emperor Charles I, counseled by ministers of his last Imperial Royal government as well as by ministers of German Austria, issued a proclamation relinquishing his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. On the following day, the Provisional National Assembly (Provisorische Nationalversammlung) of German Austria, which claimed authority over the German-speaking portions of the western half of the Habsburg realm (mostly the Danubian and Alpine provinces) proclaimed Deutschösterreich a republic (and a part of the new German republic).
Aftermath of World War II
The Federal State of Austria had been annexed by Germany in 1938 (Anschluss, this union was banned by the Treaty of Versailles). Austria (called Ostmark by the Germans) was separated from Germany and divided into four zones of occupation. With the Austrian State Treaty, these zones reunited in 1955 to become the Republic of Austria.
Republic of German-Austria
On 13 November 1918, German-Austria asked Germany to start negotiations of union and on 15 November sent a telegram to President Wilson to support union of Germany and Austria. This was grounded in the view that Austria had never been a nation in the true sense. While the Austrian state had existed in one form or another for over 700 years (dating to the Holy Roman Empire), its only unifying force had been the Habsburgs. Apart from being German-inhabited, these Lands had no common "Austrian" identity. They were Habsburg-ruled lands that had not joined the Prussian-dominated German Empire after the Austrian Empire lost the Austro-Prussian War.
History of Austria
Although the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germain had explicitly forbidden the unification of Austria and Germany, the native Austrian Hitler was vastly striving to annex Austria during the late 1930s, which was fiercely resisted by the Austrian Schuschnigg dictatorship. When the conflict was escalating in early 1938, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on the issue on 9 March, which was to take place on 13 March. On 12 March, "German troops entered Austria", who met celebrating crowds, in order to install Nazi puppet Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. With a Nazi administration already in place the country was now integrated into the Third Reich and renamed as "Ostmark" until 1942, when it was renamed again as "Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue" ("Alpine and Danubian Gaue"). A rigged referendum on 10 April was used to demonstrate the alleged approval of the annexation with a majority of 99.73% for the annexation.
German nationalism in Austria
After the end of the First World War, which saw the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German-speaking parts of the former Empire established a new republic under the name "German Austria" (). The republic was proclaimed on the principle of self-determination, which had been enshrined within American president Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points". A provisional national assembly was convened on 11 November, at which the Republic of German Austria was proclaimed. The assembly drafted a constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic" (Article 2). This phrase referenced the establishment of the Weimar Republic in the former lands of the German Empire, and intended to unite German-speaking Austrians with the German nation-state, completing the Greater Germany plan. Plebiscites held in Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% respectively in favour of unification with Germany.
Austrians
Though the Allied forces treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation, they accepted the Declaration of Independence which Austrian politicians had signed at Vienna's city hall on April 27, 1945, and they made the first national elections possible in the autumn of that year. By the end of 1945, Austria, under the supervision of the Allied Council in Vienna, had a democratic parliament and government again, acknowledged by all four allied occupation zones.
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The SDAPÖ played an important role in the establishment of the First Republic. On November 11, 1918, Emperor Charles I relinquished his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. The following day Karl Renner was declared Chancellor of the Republic of German-Austria.
Austria under National Socialism
SDAP, GVP, and DNSAP were clearly, although for different reasons, in favour a union of German Austria with the German state, which was also a republic by that time (Weimar Republic). The CS also tended to favour the union, but differed at first on a different subject - they were split on the idea of continuing the monarchy instead of a republic. Whereas only the KPÖ decidedly spoke against the annexation in the course of the 1920s and 1930s, the monarchists originally spoke up against the annexation and later turned to favor it, after the Bavarian Soviet Republic had failed, and Germany had a conservative government. The Treaty of Saint-Germain, signed 10 September 1919 by Karl Renner (SDAP), first chancellor of the republic, clearly forbade any union with Germany, abolished the monarchy, and clearly stated the First Austrian Republic as an independent country.
List of rulers of Austria
In 1918, following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the [[First Austrian Republic|Republic of Austria]] was established, but ended with "[[Anschluß]]" into the Third Reich from 1938–1945. Following World War II, the current [[Austria|Republic of Austria]] was established in 1945, even though Austria remained under the control and protection of Allied and Soviet Forces between 1945–1955.
Social Democratic Party of Austria
If Renner convinced Stalin, or if it was out of pure necessity, is not entirely clear, but the Soviets tentatively decided to support Renner, maybe in order to win more influence over the government in time. With Soviet support Karl Renner and Leopold Kunschak proclaimed a provisional Austrian state government on 27 April 1945 in the parliament building in Vienna. The proclamation aimed to re-establish an independent Austria. Historic photographs show Renner reading out the proclamation in the old imperial Chamber of the House of Representatives ("Abgeordnetenhaus"), with Soviet officers sitting in the back benches. This alarmed the western allies, who feared a plot by the Soviets to establish a people's republic, a tactic that worked in Hungary and East Germany, where the social democrats there were forcibly integrated with the communist party. However, for the moment, the Austrian socialists were allowed to re-establish their party and operate relatively freely. The new party also established their own newspaper, the ""Arbeiter-Zeitung"" on 4 August of the same year.
Austrian Civil War
Though small in scale in an international comparison (and small in scale indeed in the light of the events of the Second World War which soon followed), the Austrian Civil War nevertheless proved a decisive moment in the history of the Republic. After the Second World War, when Austria re-emerged on the political landscape as a sovereign nation, politics again fell under the domination of the Social Democrats and the conservatives, who now formed a party called the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). However, so as to avoid a repeat of the bitter divisions of the First Republic, the leaders of the Second Republic were determined to put the idea of broad consensus at the heart of the new political system. The concept of the 'Grand Coalition' was introduced, in which the two major parties (Social Democrats and People's Party) shared in the government and avoided open confrontation. This system brought with it stability and continuity, but ultimately led to other political repercussions (also see "Proporz"). But the events of the Austrian Civil War had persuaded many in the political establishment (and, indeed, the population at large) that a slow pace of political reform was a small price to pay for social calm.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
With the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918, the fate of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was sealed. On 11 November 1918 Emperor Charles I of Austria officially declared to "relinquish every participation in the administration", one day later the provisional assembly declared German-Austria a democratic republic and part of the German Republic. However, on the territory of the Cisleithanian ("Austrian") half of the former empire, the newly established states of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Yugoslav Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the "successor states") had been proclaimed. Moreover, South Tyrol and Trentino were occupied by Italian forces and Yugoslav troops entered the former Duchy of Carinthia, leading to violent fights.
Karl Seitz
Seitz entered history in 1918, when Austria-Hungary was breaking down, and its disintegration into smaller independent nation states was becoming manifest. On October 21, the Imperial Council members representing the empire's ethnically-German provinces moved to form a Provisional National Assembly for their paralyzed rump state. In its constituent session, the Provisional National Assembly appointed Seitz as one of its three chairmen. Barely more than a week later, by October 30, Seitz had informally emerged as an acting head of state. By November 12, Emperor Karl had abdicated, and the Republic of German Austria had been proclaimed. Seitz had thus turned from acting head of state to provisional president.
Allied-occupied Austria
On 20 April 1945, the Soviets, without asking their Western allies, instructed Renner to form a provisional government. Seven days later Renner's cabinet took office, declared the independence of Austria from Nazi Germany and called for the creation of a democratic state along the lines of the First Austrian Republic. Soviet acceptance of Renner was not an isolated episode; their officers re-established district administrations and appointed local mayors, frequently following the advice of the locals, even before the battle was over.
Renner and his ministers were guarded and watched by NKVD bodyguards. One-third of State Chancellor Renner's cabinet, including crucial seats of the Secretary of State of the Interior and the Secretary of State for Education, was staffed by Austrian Communists. The Western allies suspected the establishment of a puppet state and did not recognize Renner. The British were particularly hostile; even Harry Truman, who believed that Renner was a trustworthy politician rather than a token front for the Kremlin, denied him recognition. But Renner had secured inter-party control by designating two Under-Secretaries of State in each of the ministries, appointed by the two parties not placing the Secretary of State.
Austrians
The creation of the Czecho-Slovak and South Slav states, the dissolution of the real union with Hungary, and the post-war treaties imposed by the victorious Allies combined to see the newly established Austrian republic both with the boundaries it has today, and a largely homogeneous German-speaking population. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, in September 1919 the union with Germany was prohibited, and the new republic's name "Deutschösterreich" was prohibited by the treaty; instead the term "Republic of Austria" was used. The westernmost province Vorarlberg's wish to unite with Switzerland was also ignored. On October 21, 1919, the state changed its name accordingly. Many German Austrian communities were left scattered throughout the other new states, especially in Czechoslovakia, where more than 3 million German Bohemians had not been allowed to become part of the new Austrian state, as well as in the southern part of Tyrol which now found itself part of Italy. In total, more than 3.5 million German-speaking Austrians were forced to remain outside the Austrian state.
Austria – the Nazis' first victim
"Austria – the Nazis' first victim" was a political slogan first used at the Moscow Conference in 1943 which went on to become the ideological basis for Austria and the national self-consciousness of Austrians during the periods of the allied occupation of 1945-1955 and the sovereign state of the Second Austrian Republic (1955–1980s). According to the interpretation of this slogan by the founders of the Second Austrian Republic, the "Anschluss" in 1938 was an act of military aggression by the Third Reich. Austrian statehood had been interrupted and therefore the newly revived Austria of 1945 could not and should not be responsible in any way for the Nazis' crimes. The "victim theory" formed by 1949 () insisted that all the Austrians, including those who strongly supported Hitler, had been unwilling victims of a Nazi regime and therefore were not responsible for its crimes.
Germany
In 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states (most notably excluding Switzerland and Austria) unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the revolution of 1918–19, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, the annexation of Austria, World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, Austria was re-established as an independent country and two new German states were founded: West Germany, formed from the American, British, and French occupation zones, and East Germany, formed from the Soviet occupation zone. Following the Revolutions of 1989 that ended communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.
History of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
If Renner convinced Stalin, or if it was out of pure necessity, is not entirely clear, but the Soviets tentatively decided to support Renner, maybe in order to win more influence over the government in time. With Soviet support Karl Renner and Leopold Kunschak proclaimed a provisional Austrian state government on 27 April 1945 in the parliament building in Vienna. The proclamation aimed to re-establish an independent Austria. Historic photographs show Renner reading out the proclamation in the old imperial Chamber of the House of Representatives ("Abgeordnetenhaus"), with Soviet officers sitting in the back benches. This alarmed the western allies, who feared a plot by the Soviets to establish a people's republic, a tactic that worked in Hungary and East Germany, where the social democrats there were forcibly integrated with the communist party. However, for the moment, the Austrian socialists were allowed to re-establish their party and operate relatively freely. The new party also established their own newspaper, the ""Arbeiter-Zeitung"" on 4 August of the same year.
Austrians
After the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, the emperor Franz II formally founded the Austrian Empire in 1804 and became as "Franz I" the first Austrian emperor. For the first time the citizens of the various territories were now subjects of the one same state, while most of the German states, Prussia excluded, still cultivated their Kleinstaaterei and didn't succeed in forming a homogenous empire. Following Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian war in 1866, Otto von Bismarck successfully unified the German Empire in 1871, which was Prussian-dominated, without the inclusion of Austria and the German Austrians.
Austria under National Socialism
After Schuschnigg left office, the federal president Wilhelm Miklas asked Arthur Seyß-Inquart to form a new government as the Germans demanded. From 11 to 13 March he led the Austrian Government and completed the Anschluss. On the morning of 12 March heavily armed German troops and police crossed the Austrian frontier, in total about 25000. Large sections of the Austrian population were very pleased to see them. In Vienna, Aspern met Heinrich Himmler of the SS accompanied by many police and SS officials to take over the Austrian police. Supporters of the Austrian Nazi Party together with members of the SS and SA occupied public buildings and offices throughout Austria without a previously planned transition period. The formation of the Greater German Reich was announced from the balcony of the Council House in Linz. On the following day, 13 March 1938, the second session of the Government passed the “Reunification with Germany Law”. Federal President Miklas refused to endorse it and resigned. Seyß-Inquart was now functioning Head of State. He could make his own laws and publish them. Before the evening was over, Hitler signed a law which made Austria a German province.
History of Austria
The two major parties strove towards ending allied occupation and restoring a fully independent Austria. The Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15 May 1955. Upon the termination of allied occupation, Austria was proclaimed a neutral country, and everlasting neutrality was incorporated into the Constitution on 26 October 1955.
Austria
Much like Germany, Austria was divided into American, British, French, and Soviet zones and governed by the Allied Commission for Austria. As forecast in the Moscow Declaration in 1943, a subtle difference was seen in the treatment of Austria by the Allies. The Austrian government, consisting of Social Democrats, Conservatives, and Communists (until 1947), and residing in Vienna, which was surrounded by the Soviet zone, was recognised by the Western Allies in October 1945 after some doubts that Renner could be Stalin's puppet. Thus, the creation of a separate Western Austrian government and the division of the country was avoidable. Austria, in general, was treated as though it had been originally invaded by Germany and liberated by the Allies.
Chancellor of Austria
With the consequent dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and founding of the Austrian Empire, Francis II abdicated the former Imperial Throne, but remained Emperor Francis I of Austria in 1806. He had replaced Cobenzl with Johan Philip Charles Stadion (1805–1809) the previous year, but his career was in turn cut short in 1809 following yet another Austrian defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram and subsequent humiliation at the Treaty of Schönbrunn. Prince Klemens von Metternich was appointed by Francis I to the positions of "Hofkanzler" and "Staatskanzler" (1821–1848). However, there is some opinion that the Chancellor title was not used between Prince Kaunitz-Rietberg's resignation in 1792 and 1821. 
As the Metternich system had become a synonym for his reactionary politics, the title of a State Chancellor was abolished upon the 1848 revolutions. The position became that of a Minister-President of Austria, equivalent to Prime Minister, with the exception of Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust (1867–1871)
the title only re-emerging at the birth of German Austria after World War I in 1918, when Karl Renner was appointed "Staatskanzler". With the enactment of the Constitution of Austria on 10 November 1920, the actual term "Bundeskanzler" was implemented as head of the executive branch of the First Austrian Republic.
Government of Austria
After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, on 30 October 1918 the provisional national assembly of German Austria elected a State Council ("Staatsrat") executive, which itself appointed a state government with the Social Democratic politician Karl Renner as head of the State Chancellery. The Renner ministry was composed of representatives of the three main political parties—Social Democrats, the Christian Social Party (CS) and German Nationalists (Greater Germans)—according to the "Proporz" doctrine. As acting executive body it remained in office until the Constitutional Assembly of the Austrian First Republic on 15 March 1919 elected Renner's second cabinet, a coalition government of Social Democratic and Christian Social ministers.
Anschluss
The idea of an "Anschluss" (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "Greater Germany") began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in 1871. Following the end of World War I with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1918, the newly formed Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Saint Germain (10 September 1919) and the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919) forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria" ("Deutschösterreich"); and stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the Sudetenland.
States of Austria
In terms of boundaries, the present-day states arose from the crown lands of Austria-Hungary, an extensive multiethnic realm whose German-speaking nucleus emerged as the Republic of Austria after the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy at the end of World War I.
History of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
The SDAPÖ played an important role in the establishment of the First Republic. On November 11, 1918, Emperor Charles I relinquished his right to take part in Austrian affairs of state. The following day Karl Renner was declared Chancellor of the Republic of German-Austria.
History of Austria
The fledgling Republic of German-Austria was to prove short lived. The proposed merger with the German Empire (Weimar Republic) was vetoed by the Allied victors in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (10 September 1919) under Article 88 which prohibited economic or political union. The allies were fearful of the long-held "Mitteleuropa" dream—a union of all German-speaking populations. The treaty was ratified by parliament on 21 October 1919. Austria was to remain independent, and was obliged to be so for at least 20 years.
Austria
This left the responsibility for the end of the war, on 3 November 1918, solely to the emperor and his government. On 11 November, the emperor, advised by ministers of the old and the new governments, declared he would not take part in state business any more; on 12 November, German Austria, by law, declared itself to be a democratic republic and part of the new German republic. The constitution, renaming the "Staatsrat" as "Bundesregierung" (federal government) and "Nationalversammlung" as "Nationalrat" (national council) was passed on 10 November 1920.
Republic of German-Austria
On October 16 1918, Emperor Charles I published a manifesto which offered to change Austria-Hungary into a federation of nationalities. This came too late as Czechs and Southern Slavs were well on their way to creating independent states. However, this gave an impulse to the Reichsrat of German inhabited areas to meet.
1. April 2000
The world court hovers in with its space rocket into Vienna and lands in front of Schönbrunn Palace. The Austrians now have to prove that they are a lovely nation, and that they would never break the world peace. Subsequently, everything which is supposed to make Austria lovely is presented, starting with Mozart, going over Prince Eugene of Savoy, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Viennese wine, the Viennese waltz, the mountains, the classic bands, etc. Despite the presented evidence, Austria will be found guilty. Just before the conviction is made, the Moscow Declaration of 1943 is discovered. The declaration clearly states that Austria is to be freed, which happens at the end of the film. Back in the current time of 1952, and in reality, it is bemoaned that those actions and the independence of Austria will not take place until the year 2000.
Austrians
After Austria was excluded from Germany in 1866, the following year Austria joined Hungary as a dual empire known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A further major change resulted from a reorganisation of the Austrian Empire in 1867 into a dual monarchy, acknowledging the Kingdom of Hungary as an independent state bound to the remaining part of the empire, as well independent, by a personal and real union, the Emperor of Austria being the Apostolic King of Hungary (with both titles on the same level). The Austrian half, a patchwork of crown-lands, broadly coterminous with the modern-day Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and parts of Poland, Ukraine, Italy, and Croatia, was bound together by the common constitution of 1867, stating that all subjects now would carry "uniform Austrian citizenship" and have the same fundamental rights. These non-Hungarian lands were not officially called the Austrian Empire. Until 1915, they were officially called "the Kingdoms and States Represented in the Imperial Council" and politicians used the technical term Cisleithania (labelling the Hungarian lands as Transleithania). The general public called them Austria, and in 1915, the non-parliamentary Cisleithanian government decreed to use this term officially, too.
History of Austria
On 20 October 1920, a plebiscite in the Austrian state of Carinthia was held in which the population chose to remain a part of Austria, rejecting the territorial claims of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the state. The German-speaking parts of western Hungary, now christened Burgenland, joined Austria as a new state in 1921, with the exception of the city of Sopron, whose population decided in a referendum (which is sometimes considered by Austrians to have been rigged) to remain with Hungary. The area had been discussed as the site of a Slavic corridor uniting Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. This made Austria the only defeated country to acquire additional territory as part of border adjustments.
Despite the absence of reparations, Austria under the coalition suffered hyperinflation similar to that of Germany, destroying some of the financial assets of the middle and upper classes, and disrupting the economy. Adam Ferguson attributes hyperinflation to the existence of far too many people on the government payroll, failure to tax the working class, and numerous money losing government enterprises. The fascists blamed the left for the hyperinflation; Ferguson blames policies associated with the left. Massive riots ensued in Vienna in which the rioters demanded higher taxes on the rich and reduced subsidies to the poor. In response to the riots, the government increased taxes but failed to reduce subsidies.
Austria under National Socialism
On 12 February 1934 there was a violent confrontation in Linz with serious consequences. Members of a paramilitary group acting to assist the police wanted to enter a building belonging to the Social Democrats or a party member's home. They wanted to find any weapons belonging to the Social Democrat paramilitary which had by then been banned. Violence spread to the whole country and developed into civil war. The police and their paramilitary supporters together with the army won the confrontation by the 14 February. There were many arrests. Constitutional courts were abolished, trade unions and the Social Democrat Party were banned, and the death penalty was reintroduced. After political opposition had been suppressed the Austrian Republic was transformed into the Austrofacist "Ständestaat". The authoritarian "Maiverfassung" (May Constitution) was proclaimed on 1 May.
History of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
By October, a provisional national assembly ("Provisorische Nationalversammlung") was convened under the Social Democrat Karl Renner, which tried to work out a provisional constitution ("Provisorische Verfassung") under the leadership of a new state council led by the new state chancellor Renner. The Social Democrats wanted a new form of government and, on 12 November 1918, the republic was proclaimed by Renner. Renner's government introduced an eight-hour workday and paid holidays.
History of Austria
Unlike the First Republic, which had been characterized by sometimes violent conflict between the different political groups, the Second Republic became a stable democracy. The two largest leading parties, the Christian-democratic Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), remained in a coalition led by the ÖVP until 1966. The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), who had hardly any support in the Austrian electorate, remained in the coalition until 1950 and in parliament until the 1959 election. For much of the Second Republic, the only opposition party was the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which included German nationalist and liberal political currents. It was founded in 1955 as a successor organisation to the short-lived Federation of Independents (VdU).
Austria–Czech Republic relations
Both countries established diplomatic relations on January 20, 1920. When Austria entered dictatorial rule in 1934, Austrian Social Democrats like Otto Bauer and Julius Deutsch found refuge in the Czechoslovak Republic and founded the "ALÖS (Auslandsbüro der österreichischen Sozialdemokraten)," the foreign bureau of Austrian Social Democrats, in Brno. There until 1938 they published the "Arbeiter-Zeitung" (literally the workers' newspaper), which had been the daily organ of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and been prohibited by the Austrofascists, to be "illegally" exported to Austria. In March, 1938, when Austria was annexed to Germany, again some politicians flew to the neighboring country, at this time together with Switzerland the only democracy in Central Europe.
Carinthia
In late 1918, it became obvious that the breakup of the crumbling Habsburg monarchy was imminent, and on 21 October 1918 the members of the Reichsrat for the German-speaking territories of Austria met in Vienna to constitute a "Provisional National Council for German-Austria". Prior to the meeting the delegates agreed that German-Austria should not include "Yugoslav areas of settlement", which referred to Lower Styria and the two Slovene-speaking Carinthian valleys south of the Karawanken range, Seeland (Slovenian: Jezersko) and "Mießtal" (the valley of the Meža River). On 12 Nov. 1918, when the Act concerning the foundation of the State of German-Austria was formally passed by the Provisional National Assembly in Vienna this was worded by the State Chancellor, Karl Renner, "...to encounter the prejudices of the world as though we wanted to annex alien national property" The day before, on 11 Nov. 1918 the Provisional Diet of Carinthia had formally declared Carinthia's accession to the State of German-Austria. The Federal Act concerning the Extent, the Borders and the Relations of the State Territories of 22 Nov. 1918 then clearly stated in article 1: "...the duchies of Styria and Carinthia with the exclusion of the homogenous Yugoslav areas of settlement". Apart from one Social-Democrat, Florian Gröger, all the other delegates from Carinthia—Hans Hofer, Jakob Lutschounig, Josef Nagele, Alois Pirker, Leopold Pongratz, Otto Steinwender, Viktor Waldner—were members of German national parties and organizations.
Germans
During the 1920s, the constitutions of both the First Austrian Republic and the Weimar Republic included the goal of union between the two countries which was supported by all different political parties. In the early 1930s, before the Nazis seized power, popularity for union between Austria and Germany remained strong and the Austrian government looked at the possibility of a customs union with Germany in 1931 but this was stopped by French opposition. In 1933, after Austrian-born Hitler came to power, support for an "Anschluss" grew. The Austrofascism era of Dollfuss/Schuschnigg between 1934-1938 accepted that Austrians were Germans and that Austria was a "German state" but was strongly opposed to Hitler's desire to annex Austria to the Third Reich and wished for Austria to remain independent.
Republic of German-Austria
Likewise, the Treaty of Versailles, dictating the terms of peace for Germany, forbade any union between Austria and Germany. With these changes and the settling of Austria's frontiers, the era of the First Republic of Austria began.
History of Austria
The First World War effectively ended for Austria on 3 November 1918, when the defeated army signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti at Padua following the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. (Technically this applied to Austria-Hungary, but Hungary had withdrawn from the conflict on 31 October 1918, and most other states within the empire, such as Czechoslovakia and the South Slavs, had also done so.) Austria was forced to cede all territory occupied since 1914, plus a considerable amount of other territory, and the allies were given access to Austria. The empire was thus dissolved.
German nationalism in Austria
One of the foundational problems of the First Republic was that those who had supported the concept of a democratic republic from the German Austria period onward, such as the Social Democrats, did not consider themselves "Austrian", but instead were German nationalists. Those who supported an Austrian national identity, an Austria without the word "German" attached, were conservative and largely undemocratic in persuasion: former Imperial bureaucrats, army officers, priests, aristocrats, and affiliated with the Christian Social Party. In the words of historian A. J. P. Taylor, "The democrats were not 'Austrian'; the 'Austrians' were not democrats." These two groups, the German nationalist democrats, and the Austrian nationalist conservatives, would squabble throughout the first decade of the First Republic. Ultimately, the Austrian nationalist faction would overthrow the democratic republic in 1934 and establish a regime rooted in "Austrofascism" under the protection of Fascist Italy.
Austrians
In contrast, the Austrian political elite referred to their experiences in concentration camps and in prison, which had brought out a desire for the lost independence of the Austrian state. Kreissler (1993) writes: “It was not until after the (long dark) night of the Third Reich that Austrian identity was brought back to consciousness by resistance and exile”.
Austrians developed a self-image unambiguously separate from their German neighbour. It was based on cultural achievements of the past, the Moscow Declaration, geopolitical neutrality, language variation, the Habsburg legacy, and the separation of the two empires in the late 19th century. The German Empire was formed without Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the arrangement known as the Kleindeutsche Lösung or "the Little Germany Solution". It proved favourable for Austrians not to be held guilty for World War II, genocide and war crimes, since Austria was considered a "victim" of Nazi Germany, although some historians call this a "big lie" and have challenged this statement.
Republic of German-Austria
With the impending collapse of the empire the 208 ethnic German deputies to the Cisleithanian Austrian parliament ("Reichsrat") elected in 1911 met on 21 October 1918 and proclaimed itself to be a "Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria" representing the ethnic Germans in all Cisleithanian lands. It elected Franz Dinghofer of the German National Movement, Jodok Fink of the Christian Social Party, and Karl Seitz of the Social Democratic Workers' Party as assembly presidents. The assembly included representatives from Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia who refused to submit to the new state of Czechoslovakia which had been declared on 28 October 1918. It also proclaimed that "the German people in Austria are resolved to determine their own future political organization to form an independent German-Austrian state, and to regulate their relations with other nations through free agreements with them". On October 25 Provisional Assembly called on all German inhabited Lands to form their own provisional assemblies.
History of Vienna
The end of the war was also the end of Austria-Hungary. On November 12, 1918, the Republic of "Deutsch-Österreich", or German-Austria, was proclaimed in front of the parliament. The population was concentrated in the capital, which was often called a hydrocephalus because of this; articles in the international press had doubts about the viability of Vienna as a major European metropolis after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.
Austria–Germany relations
Modern-day Austria and Germany were united until 1866: their predecessors were part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation until the unification of German states under Prussia in 1871, which excluded Austria. In 1918 after the end of World War I, Austria renamed itself the Republic of German-Austria in an attempt for union with Germany but this was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). In 1938, the Third Reich, led by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler, annexed Austria in the "Anschluss".
Austria
The 1955 Austrian State Treaty ended the occupation of Austria following World War II and recognised Austria as an independent and sovereign state. On 26 October 1955, the Federal Assembly passed a constitutional article in which "Austria declares of her own free will her perpetual neutrality". The second section of this law stated that "in all future times Austria will not join any military alliances and will not permit the establishment of any foreign military bases on her territory". Since then, Austria has shaped its foreign policy on the basis of neutrality, but rather different from the neutrality of Switzerland.
First Austrian Republic
Political violence escalated into the Austrian Civil War of February 1934, between Nazis, Social Democrats and government forces. On 1 May 1934, Dollfuss created a one-party state, to be led by the Fatherland Front (), with the proclamation of the authoritarian "May Constitution". Name of the country was changed from the "Republic of Austria" to the "Federal State of Austria". The flag, coat of arms and anthem were changed, too.
List of Major League Baseball players from Europe
The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919. In the 1938 Anschluss, Austria was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Austria was occupied by the Allies and its former democratic constitution was restored. In 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation.
Vienna
During the latter half of the 19th century, the city developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in 1919 of the First Republic of Austria.
Red Vienna
After World War I had ended with the collapse and dismemberment of the Habsburg dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, "Deutschösterreich" (Republic of German-Austria) was proclaimed a republic on November 12, 1918. At the "Gemeinderat" (city parliament) elections of May 4, 1919, for the first time ever all adult citizens of both sexes had voting rights. The Social Democratic Party gained an absolute majority; Jakob Reumann was elected first social democratic mayor, to be succeeded in 1923 by Karl Seitz.
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (, modern spelling "") was a Central European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous empire after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom in Europe. Along with Prussia, it was one of the two major powers of the German Confederation. Geographically, it was the third largest empire in Europe after the Russian Empire and the First French Empire (621,538 square kilometres; 239,977 sq mi). Proclaimed in response to the First French Empire, it partially overlapped with the Holy Roman Empire until the latter's dissolution in 1806.
Republic of German-Austria
The Republic of German-Austria ( or "") was a country created following World War I as the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Federal Constitutional Law (Austrian act)
When the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain prohibited the union of Germany and Austria, Austria had to go to work on a permanent constitution in earnest, but was deeply divided on numerous issues. General elections on February 16, 1919 replaced the Provisional Assembly with a Constitutional Assembly ("Konstituierende Nationalversammlung"). The new parliament was dominated by Social Democrats, who favored a unitary state with a strong central government, and the Christian Social Party, who fought for a federation devolving significant authority to regional governments. Unable to reach consensus, the parties chose to defer the decision. The new constitution, passed on October 1 and formally published on October 5, 1920, stipulated that Austria was to be a parliamentary federal republic consisting of eight (at the time) federal states, but did not state which powers and duties would lie with the national government and which ones with the states.
Austria
The Parliament of Austria is located in Vienna, the country's largest city and capital. Austria became a federal, representative democratic republic through the Federal Constitution of 1920. The political system of the Second Republic with its nine states is based on the constitution of 1920, amended in 1929, which was reenacted on 1 May 1945.
Bavaria
When Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806 due, in part, to the Confederation of the Rhine. Its area doubled after the Duchy of Jülich was ceded to France, as the Electoral Palatinate was divided between France and the Grand Duchy of Baden. The Duchy of Berg was given to Jerome Bonaparte. The Tyrol and Salzburg were temporarily reunited with Bavaria but finally ceded to Austria by the Congress of Vienna. In return Bavaria was allowed to annex the modern-day region of Palatinate to the west of the Rhine and Franconia in 1815. Between 1799 and 1817, the leading minister, Count Montgelas, followed a strict policy of modernisation; he laid the foundations of administrative structures that survived the monarchy and retain core validity in the 21st century. In May 1808 a first constitution was passed by Maximilian I, being modernized in 1818. This second version established a bicameral Parliament with a House of Lords ("Kammer der Reichsräte") and a House of Commons ("Kammer der Abgeordneten"). That constitution was followed until the collapse of the monarchy at the end of World War I.
After the rise of Prussia to power, Bavaria preserved its independence by playing off the rivalries of Prussia and Austria. Allied to Austria, it was defeated in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and did not belong to the North German Federation of 1867, but the question of German unity was still alive. When France declared war on Prussia in 1870, the south German states Baden, Württemberg, Hessen-Darmstadt and Bavaria joined the Prussian forces (whereas Austria did not) and ultimately joined the Federation, which was renamed "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire) in 1871. Bavaria continued as a monarchy, and it had some special rights within the federation (such as an army, railways, postal service and a diplomatic body of its own).
Austria–Switzerland border
The current border is a product of the creation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798. During the 19th century it was part of the western border of the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary, and in the 20th century of the First Austrian Republic, the Federal State of Austria, Nazi Germany and Allied-occupied Austria, and eventually of modern Austria since its formation in 1955. 
Liechtenstein was created as an independent principality under the Peace of Pressburg (1805), although it remained nominally a member of the Confederation of the Rhine until 1866).
Federal Constitutional Law (Austrian act)
The question was resolved by November 11: the German Emperor had been ousted, Germany had declared itself a republic, the Austrian Emperor had abdicated. On November 12, the Assembly passed a proclamation establishing Austria as a republic, de facto sovereign for the time being but de jure part of Germany.
Since Austria was going to join Germany, promulgating a comprehensive new constitution was not a priority.
History of Austria
The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states, from the early Stone Age to the present state. The name "Ostarrîchi" (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent duchy (later archduchy) of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ("Heiliges Römisches Reich" 962–1806).
First Austrian Republic
The First Austrian Republic () was created after the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end of World War I which ended the Habsburg rump state of Republic of German-Austria—and ended with the establishment of the Austrofascist Federal State of Austria based upon a dictatorship of Engelbert Dollfuss and the Fatherland's Front in 1934. The Republic's constitution was enacted in 1 October 1920 and amended on 7 December 1929. The republican period was increasingly marked by violent strife between those with left-wing and right-wing views, leading to the July Revolt of 1927 and the Austrian Civil War of 1934.
Austria under National Socialism
In 1918, at the end of World War I, with the breakup of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire, and with the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy, there were three major political groups competing with one another in the young republic of Austria: the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SDAP), Christian Social Party (CS), and the nationalist Great German Union ("Großdeutsche Vereinigung"), which became the Greater German People's Party ("Großdeutsche Volkspartei", or GVP) in 1920. At the time, smaller parties such as the Communist Party of Austria ("Kommunistische Partei Österreichs", or KPÖ) and the Austrian National Socialists ("Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei", or DNSAP) were neither present in the Reichsrat (Imperial Council) nor the Nationalrat (National Council).
German revolutions of 1848–49
In 1848, Austria was the predominant German state. It was considered the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved by Napoleon in 1806, and was not resurrected by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. German Austrian chancellor Klemens von Metternich had dominated Austrian politics from 1815 until 1848.
On March 13, 1848 university students mounted a large street demonstration in Vienna, and it was covered by the press across the German-speaking states. Following the important, but relatively minor, demonstrations against Lola Montez in Bavaria on February 9, 1848 (see below), the first major revolt of 1848 in German lands occurred in Vienna on March 13, 1848. The demonstrating students in Vienna had been restive and were encouraged by a sermon of Anton Füster, a liberal priest, on Sunday, March 12, 1848 in their university chapel. The student demonstrators demanded a constitution and a constituent assembly elected by universal male suffrage.
President of Austria
Prior to the collapse of the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire towards the end of World War I, what now is the Republic of Austria had been part of a monarchy with an emperor as its head of state and chief executive. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a number of independent states over the course of the following year.
Statutory city (Austria)
From the middle ages until the mid-eighteenth century, the Austrian Empire was an absolute monarchy with no written constitution and no modern concept of the rule of law. Regional administration had no overarching legal framework; customs were different from province to province. A first step towards a systematic footing was taking by Empress Maria Theresa, who in 1753 partitioned the country into districts ("Kreise") ruled by district offices ("Kreisämter") staffed by professional administrators and operating under empire-wide consistent rules.
The scheme was unpopular at first and met with resistance. Most notably, it was never fully implemented in the Kingdom of Hungary.
Following the first wave of the revolutions of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I enacted Austria's first formal constitution. The constitution abolished the estates and called for a separation of executive and judicial authority, crippling most existing regional institutions and leaving district offices as the backbone of the empire's administration. 
An 1849 Imperial Resolution consolidated and reaffirmed and revised the system.
The law was implemented in 1850, many districts now already in their present-day borders. Small to medium towns and villages were arranged into districts of ten to thirty municipalities each. Larger cities were made districts of their own; these cities would from now on be referred to as statutory cities. The first statutory cities in regions that are still part of Austria today were Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, and Klagenfurt.
Austria–Czech Republic relations
Both countries have a long common history. For the first time united from 1253 until 1276 under the reign of Přemysl Otakar II, they later joined again and, together with Hungary, formed a major European power under the Habsburg dynasty which lasted from 1526 until 1918. Initially only a personal union, the ever more centralized monarchy ruled mostly from Vienna (Prague was the capital only from 1583 until 1611) was increasingly seen as an obstacle of the Czech and German national interests during the uprising of nationalism in Central Europe from the second half of the 19th century. The Czechs demanded to be ruled by a government in Prague, the capital city of their kingdom, not in Vienna, and as part of their main party strategy of passive resistance did not participate for years in the political discussions and decisions of the Austrian "Reichsrat", the parliament in Vienna representing all nations of the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarían Monarchy. Ethnic Germans at the same time wanted to participate in the ongoing German unification process.
States of the Weimar Republic
After the "Anschluss" ("union") with Germany, Austria , renamed Ostmark, became the first of a new type of administrative subdivision called a "Reichsgau" (not to be confused with Nazi Party "Gaue"). Austria's last pre-war chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart became its first "Reichsstatthalter". However, with the promulgation of the "Ostmarkgesetz" on 1 May 1939, the former States of Austria were reorganized into seven new "Reichsgaue", each under the rule of a government official holding the dual offices of "Reichsstatthalter" (governor) and "Gauleiter" (Nazi Party leader). Generally, these positions were occupied by the last state premier.
History of Austria
Emerging from the war, Austria had two main political parties on the right and one on the left. The right was split between clericalism and nationalism. The Christian Social Party, ("Christlichsoziale Partei", CS), had been founded in 1891 and achieved plurality from 1907–1911 before losing it to the socialists. Their influence had been waning in the capital, even before 1914, but became the dominant party of the First Republic, and the party of government from 1920 onwards. The CS had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church and was headed by a Catholic priest named Ignaz Seipel (1876–1932), who served twice as Chancellor (1922–1924 and 1926–1929). While in power, Seipel was working for an alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. The CS drew its political support from conservative rural Catholics. In 1920 the Greater German People's Party ("Großdeutsche Volkspartei", GDVP) was founded from the bulk of liberal and national groups and became the junior partner of the CS.
Austrian nationalism
German nationalism began to rise rapidly within the German Confederation, in 1866 the feud between the two most powerful German states Austria and Prussia finally came to a head in the German war in 1866. The Austrians favoured the Greater Germany unification but were not willing to give up any of the non-German-speaking land inside of the Austrian Empire and take second place to Prussia. The Prussians however wanted to unify Germany as Little Germany primarily by the Kingdom of Prussia, whilst excluding Austria. In the final battle of the German war ("Battle of Königgrätz") the Prussians successfully defeated the Austrians and succeeded in creating the North German Confederation. In 1871, Germany was unified as a nation-state as the German Empire that was Prussian-led and without Austria. Nevertheless, the integration of the Austrians remained a strong desire for many people of both Austria and Germany, especially among the liberals, the social democrats and also the Catholics who were a minority within the Protestant Germany.
Marburg's Bloody Sunday
The Republic of German Austria was created following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War and claimed areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within the bounds of the former empire. In addition to the current area of the Republic of Austria, these included parts of South Tyrol and the town of Tarvisio, both now in Italy; southern Carinthia and southern Styria, now in Slovenia; and Sudetenland proper and German Bohemia (later also part of Sudetenland), now in the Czech Republic.
Constituent National Assembly (Austria)
The Constituent National Assembly (), elected on 16 February 1919, was the first parliament in Austria's history to be elected by women and men in free and equal elections. On 4 March 1919 it replaced the Provisional National Assembly based on the 1911 Imperial Council elections. The National Assembly adopted the Habsburg Act, ratified the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which sealed the collapse of Cisleithania and demanded Austria's independence from Germany. In its last meeting on 1 October 1920, the assembly created the until-now lasting Constitution of Austria.
Anschluss
Elite and popular opinion in Austria after 1918 largely favored some sort of union with Germany, but it was explicitly forbidden by the peace treaties. The Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up in 1918, and on 12 November that year German Austria was declared a republic. The provisional national assembly drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic" (Article 2). Later plebiscites in the German border provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favor of a unification with the German (i.e. Weimar) Republic.
History of Austria
On 1 May 1934, the Dollfuss cabinet approved a new constitution that abolished freedom of the press, established one party system and created a total state monopoly on employer-employee relations. This system remained in force until Austria became part of the Third Reich in 1938. The Patriotic Front government frustrated the ambitions of pro-Hitlerite sympathizers in Austria who wished both political influence and unification with Germany, leading to the assassination of Dollfuss on 25 July 1934.
Austrian Empire
The French victories encouraged rulers of certain imperial territories to ally themselves with the French and assert their formal independence from the Empire. On 10 December 1805, Maximilian IV Joseph, the prince-elector and Duke of Bavaria, proclaimed himself King, followed by the Duke of Württemberg Frederick III on 11 December. Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden, was given the title of Grand Duke on 12 December. Each of these new states became French allies. The Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria, signed in Pressburg (today Bratislava, Slovakia) on 26 December, enlarged the territory of Napoleon's German allies at the expense of defeated Austria.
Privilegium Minus
Frederick prevailed, settling the long-time conflict, keeping the Welfs covered and securing support by the House of Babenberg.
Only much later, the document turned out to be the founding act for what was to become a nation. 1156 is therefore sometimes given as Austria's date of independence, which it gained from Bavaria.
1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum
After the end of World War I, the newly founded Austria, which claimed sovereignty over the majority-German territory of the former Habsburg empire. According to its provisional constitution it declared to be part of the also newly founded German Republic. Later plebiscites in Tyrol and Salzburg in 1921, where majorities of 98,77% and 99,11% voted for a unification with Germany, showed that it was also backed by the population.