Early history and
La Tène cultures: The territories of some major
Celtic tribes of the late La Tène period are labelled. The territory of what is today Austria in the
Roman era was divided into
Raetia,
Noricum, and
Pannonia. Noricum was a
Celtic kingdom, while the
Pannonii were of
Illyrian stock. The
Raetians were an ancient
alpine people, probably akin to the
Etruscans. During the
Migration period (), these territories were settled by the
Bavarians and other
Germanic groups in the west (
Alemanni in
Vorarlberg,
Lombards in
Tyrol), and by
Slavic groups (principality
Carantania),
Huns and
Avars in the east. In the 8th century, the former territories of Raetia and Noricum fell under
Carolingian rule, and were divided into the duchies of
Swabia,
Bavaria, and the principality
Carantania. Pannonia, until the end of the 8th century, was part of the
Avar Khaganate. The "
East March" (
Ostmark) during the 9th century was the boundary region separating
East Francia from the Avars and the
Magyars. The site of
Vienna had been settled since Celtic times (as
Vindobona), but the city only rose to importance in the
High Middle Ages as the chief settlement of the March of Austria (the
March river just east of Vienna marks the ancient border between Francia and the Avars). After the defeat of the Magyars at the
Battle of Lechfeld in 955, the East March or
March of Austria came to be the easternmost portion of the
Holy Roman Empire, bordering on
Moravia to the north and on the
Kingdom of Hungary to the east. As a consequence, the national character of the
Austro-Bavarian speaking majority population of Austria throughout their early modern and modern history remained characterized by their neighbourhood to the
West Slavs (
Czechs,
Slovaks) to the north, the
South Slavs (
Slovenes,
Carinthian Slovenes,
Burgenland Croats) to the south, and the
Hungarians to the east. The unification of the various territories of Austria outside of the March of Austria proper (i.e., parts of Bavaria, Swabia, and Carinthia) was a gradual process of
feudal politics during the High and Late Middle Ages, at first in the
Archduchy of Austria under the
House of Babenberg during the 12th to 13th centuries, and under the
House of Habsburg after 1278 and throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The various populations of these territories were not unified under the single name of "Austrians" before the
early modern period.
Early modern period The
Habsburg, who had ruled the territory of Austria since the
Late Middle Ages, greatly increased their political prestige and power with the acquisition of the lands of the crowns of
Hungary and
Bohemia in 1526. The Hungarian aristocracy was more successful at retaining the
Magyars' cultural and political preponderance in multi-ethnic Hungary than Bohemia, on three sides surrounded by German neighbours, which underwent a period of intense German colonisation,
germanizing the leading classes of the
Czech people as well. The common German identity of lands such as Carinthia, Styria, or Tyrol, and the ruling dynasty made it easier for these lands to accept the central government set up in Vienna in the mid-18th century. The term Austrian in these times was used for identifying subjects of the Domus Austriae, the House of Austria, as the dynasty was called in Europe, regardless of their ethnic ancestry. Although not formally a united state, the lands ruled by the Habsburgs would sometimes be known by the name "Austria". In reality, they remained a disparate range of semi-autonomous states, most of which were part of the complex network of states that was the
Holy Roman Empire (the imperial institutions of which were themselves controlled for much of their later existence by the Habsburgs). However, the second half of the 18th century saw an increasingly centralised state begin to develop under the reign of
Maria Theresa of Austria and her son
Joseph II. 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 same state, while most of the German states,
Prussia excluded, still cultivated their
Kleinstaaterei and did not 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. 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, and parts of
Slovenia,
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.
19th-century nationalism () showing the
Kingdom of Prussia (blue), the
Austrian Empire (yellow), and other independent German states (grey). The red line marks the border of the German Confederation; both Prussia and Austria controlled lands outside the Confederation. The idea of grouping all
Germans into one nation-state gave way to a rapid rise of German nationalism within the
German Confederation, especially in the two most powerful German states, Austria and Prussia. The question of how a unified Germany was to be formed was a matter of debate. The
German Question was to be solved by either unifying all German-speaking peoples under one state as the "Greater German solution" (
Großdeutsche Lösung), which was promoted by the Austrian Empire and its supporters. On the other hand, the "Lesser German solution" (
Kleindeutsche Lösung) advocated only to unify the northern German states and exclude Austria; this proposal was favored by the
Kingdom of Prussia and its supporters. This debate became known as
German dualism. The lands later called Cisleithania (except
Galicia and
Dalmatia) were members of the German Confederation since 1815, as they had been part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1806. Until 1848, Austria and its chancellor, Prince
Metternich, unanimously dominated the confederation. The developing sense of a German nationality had been accelerated massively as a consequence of the political turmoil and wars that engulfed
Central Europe following the
French Revolution and the rise to power of
Napoleon Bonaparte. Although the years of peace after Napoleon's fall quickly saw German nationalism largely pushed out of the public political arena by reactionary absolutism, the
Revolutions of 1848 established it as a significant political issue for a period of nearly a hundred years. Political debate now centred on the nature of a possible future German state to replace the Confederation, and part of that debate concerned the issue of whether or not the Austrian lands had a place in the German polity. When Emperor Franz Joseph I ordered to build a monument in Vienna in 1860 to
Archduke Charles, victor over Napoleon in the
Battle of Aspern-Essling in 1809, it carried the dedication "To the persistent fighter for Germany's honour", to underline the German mission of the House of Austria. The idea of uniting all ethnic Germans into one nation-state began to be challenged in Austria by the rise of
Austrian nationalism, especially within the
Christian Social Party that identified Austrians based on their predominantly Catholic religious identity as opposed to the predominantly Protestant religious identity of the Prussians. Habsburg influence over the German Confederation, which was strongest in the southern member states, was rivalled by the increasingly powerful
Prussian state. Political manoeuvering by the Prussian
chancellor Otto von Bismarck resulted in the military defeat of the Austrians in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the collapse of the Confederation, both effectively ending any future Austrian influence on German political events. When asked by Edward VII to abandon Austria-Hungary's alliance with Germany for co-operation with England, Franz Joseph replied "I am a German prince." The
Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of a
German Empire in 1871, headed by
Prussia and pointedly excluding any of the Austrian lands, led the state to 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. The Austro-Hungarian Empire created ethnic conflict between the German Austrians and the other ethnic groups of the empire. Many pan-German movements in the empire desired the reinforcement of an ethnic German identity, and that the empire would collapse and allow for a quick annexation of Austria to Germany. Although it was precisely because of Bismarck's policies that Austria and the German Austrians were excluded from Germany, many Austrian pan-Germans idolized him. While the high bureaucracy of Austria and many Austrian army officers considered themselves "black-yellow" (the Habsburg colours), i.e., loyal to the dynasty, the term "German Austria" (Deutschösterreich) was a term used in the press to mean all the Austrian districts with an ethnic German majority among the inhabitants. Austrian pan-Germans such as
Georg Ritter von Schönerer and his followers agitated against the "multi-national" Austro-Hungarian Empire and advocated for German Austria to join the German Empire. Although many Austrians shared the same views, a lot of them still showed allegiance to the
Habsburg monarchy and hoped for Austria to remain an independent country. Although not as radical as Schönerer and his followers, populists such as
Karl Lueger used anti-semitism and pan-Germanism as a form of populism to further their own political purposes.
First Austrian Republic outlined in red The last year of
World War I saw the collapse of Habsburg authority throughout an increasingly greater part of its empire. On October 16, 1918, Emperor Karl I invited the nations of Austria to create national councils, to instigate a restructuring of the state under Habsburg rule. The nations followed the invitation (the Czechs had founded their national council already before the invitation), but ignored the will of the emperor to keep them in a restructured Austrian state. Their goal was total independence. 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. movement at the Stephansdom in Vienna The creation of the
Czechoslovak 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. was an Austrian German by birth who was known as the
Führer in Germany and annexed his birth country, Austria, to Germany in 1938 during the
Anschluss. The collapse of the empire caused an apparent struggle for some German Austrians between an "Austrian" and a "German" character. The idea of unifying Austria with Germany was motivated both by a sense of a common German
national identity, and also by a fear that the new state, stripped of its one-time imperial possessions, and surrounded by potentially hostile nation-states, would not be economically viable. An Austrian identity emerged to some degree during the First Republic, and although Austria was still considered part of the
"German nation" by most,
Austrian patriotism was encouraged by the anti-Nazi/anti-Socialist clerico-authoritarianist state ideology known as
Austrofascism from 1934 to 1938. The
Engelbert Dollfuss/
Kurt von Schuschnigg government accepted that Austria was a "German state" and believed Austrians were "better Germans", but strongly opposed the annexing of Austria to Nazi Germany.
Under Nazi Germany By March 1938, with
Nazi government in control of both Berlin and Vienna, the country was annexed to Germany (
Anschluss) as
Ostmark. The total number of Jewish
Austrian Holocaust victims was 65,000. About 140,000 Jewish Austrians had fled from the country in 1938–39. Thousands of Austrians had taken part in serious Nazi crimes (hundreds of thousands of people died in the
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp alone), a fact which was officially acknowledged by Chancellor
Franz Vranitzky in 1992. Some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians, including
Adolf Hitler,
Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
Arthur Seyss-Inquart,
Franz Stangl,
Otto Skorzeny, and
Odilo Globocnik, as were 40% of the staff at Nazi
extermination camps.
Romani people were also racially targeted in Austria by the Nazis. The total number of
Austrian military deaths from 1939 to 1945 was 260,000. The
Austrian resistance to the Nazi rule started with the Anschluss in 1938. Historians estimate that there were about 100,000 members of the resistance facing 700,000
NSDAP members in Austria.
Second Austrian Republic Karl Renner and
Adolf Schärf (Socialist Party of Austria [Social Democrats and Revolutionary Socialists]), Leopold Kunschak (Austria's People's Party [former Christian Social People's Party]), and Johann Koplenig (Communist Party of Austria) declared Austria's secession from the Third Reich by the Declaration of Independence on 27 April 1945 and set up a
provisional government in Vienna under state Chancellor Renner the same day, with the approval of the victorious
Red Army and backed by
Joseph Stalin. (The date is officially named the birthday of the second republic.) At the end of April, most of western and southern Austria was still under Nazi rule. On 1 May 1945, the
Federal Constitutional Law of 1920, which had been terminated by dictator Dollfuss on 1 May 1934, was declared valid again. Though the
Allied Powers treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation, they accepted the Declaration of Independence and 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. Allied occupation ended in 1955, when the
Austrian State Treaty between Austria and the Allies was signed. 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. 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. Unlike earlier in the 20th century, in 1987 only 6% of Austrians identified themselves as "Germans". Today, over 90% of the Austrians see themselves as an independent nation. The logic of the existence of an independent Austrian state is no longer questioned as it was in the inter-war period. Proponents who recognize Austrians as a nation claim that Austrians have
Celtic heritage, as Austria is the location of the first characteristically
Celtic culture to exist. It is said that Celtic Austria became culturally Romanized under Roman rule and later culturally Germanized after Germanic invasions. Austria's multicultural history and geographical location have resulted in post-Soviet era immigration from
Slovenia, the
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Slovakia,
Romania, and
Poland. As with neighbouring Germany, there has also been heavy immigration from
Turkey and former
Yugoslav states such as
Croatia and
Serbia. ==Language==