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92-697: The Hinteres Sonnwendjoch in the Austrian state of Tyrol is a mountain, 1,986  m (AA) , and the highest peak of the Mangfall range , a subdivision of the Bavarian Prealps . Because the Brandenberg Alps to the south are lower, its summit offers outstanding views of the Central Alps despite its low elevation. The Hinterer Sonnwendjoch drops away steeply to the north into

184-604: A duchy in 1156, and was made an Archduchy in 1453. Being the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy since the late 13th century, Austria was a major imperial power in Central Europe for centuries and from the 16th century, Vienna was also serving as the Holy Roman Empire's administrative capital. Before the dissolution of the empire two years later, in 1804, Austria established its own empire , which became

276-459: A great power and one of the largest states in Europe. The empire's defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia , which ultimately escalated into World War I . The empire's defeat and subsequent collapse led to

368-423: A decade of Allied occupation , the country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955. Austria is a federal parliamentary republic and representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and a chancellor as head of government and chief executive. Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living. The country has been

460-800: A member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995. It hosts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Interpol . It also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted

552-581: A problem with their national identity and prompted the Social Democratic Leader Otto Bauer to state that it was "the conflict between our Austrian and German character". The Austro-Hungarian Empire caused ethnic tension between the German Austrians and the other ethnic groups. Many Austrians, especially those involved with the pan-German movements, desired a reinforcement of an ethnic German identity and hoped that

644-720: A referendum which confirmed the union with Germany in April 1938. Parliamentary elections were held in Germany (including recently annexed Austria) on 10 April 1938. They were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule, and they took the form of a single-question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single Nazi-party list for the 813-member Reichstag, as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the Anschluss ). Jews, Roma and Sinti were not allowed to vote. Turnout in

736-521: A result, ruling Austria-Hungary became increasingly difficult in an age of emerging nationalist movements, requiring considerable reliance on an expanded secret police. Yet, the government of Austria tried its best to be accommodating in some respects: for example, the Reichsgesetzblatt , publishing the laws and ordinances of Cisleithania , was issued in eight languages; and all national groups were entitled to schools in their own language and to

828-676: A vehement opponent of the Nazis, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, an honorary citizen of hundreds of places in Austria and partly envisaged by Schuschnigg as a monarchical option, was in Belgium at the time. He spoke out against the Anschluss and was then wanted by the Nazi regime and his property would have been expropriated and he would have been shot immediately if he were caught. In 1938,

920-510: A year, henceforth every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception. The Habsburgs began also to accumulate territory far from the hereditary lands. In 1477, Archduke Maximilian , only son of Emperor Frederick III , married the heiress Maria of Burgundy , thus acquiring most of the Netherlands for the family. In 1496, his son Philip the Fair married Joanna

1012-593: Is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. At the time, the Danube basin of Austria ( Upper and Lower Austria ) was the easternmost extent of Bavaria. The area that is now Austria was settled in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, having been the core of the Hallstatt culture by the 6th century BC . The city of Hallstatt , in fact, has the oldest archaeological evidence of

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1104-484: Is an integral part of the German reich" (Article 2). The Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Versailles explicitly forbade union between Austria and Germany. The treaties also forced German-Austria to rename itself as "Republic of Austria" which consequently led to the first Austrian Republic . Over three million German-speaking Austrians found themselves living outside the new Austrian Republic as minorities in

1196-553: Is now Austria's National Day , a public holiday. The status of Tyrol was a lingering problem between Austria and Italy . To this day, there are 20 different squares in Austrian cities called "Südtiroler Platz" (South Tyrolean Square) in memory of the supposed loss of the Austrian territories. Terrorist acts by the South Tyrolean independence movement have been documented in the 1950s and 1960s. A great degree of autonomy

1288-622: The Annexation crisis ) erupted into public view when on October 5, 1908, the Kingdom of Bulgaria declared its complete independence from Ottoman Empire and on October 6, 1908, when Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which was populated mainly by South Slavs . Austria-Hungary had ambitions of imperialistic expansion and saw the Balkans in the same way that other colonial powers saw Africa or Asia. This idea

1380-601: The Austrofascists imposed a new constitution ("Maiverfassung") which cemented Dollfuss's power, but on 25 July he was assassinated in an Austrian Nazi coup attempt . His successor Kurt Schuschnigg acknowledged the fact that Austria was a "German state" and he also believed that Austrians were "better Germans" but he wished that Austria would remain independent. He announced a referendum on 9 March 1938, to be held on 13 March, concerning Austria's independence from Germany. On 12 March 1938, Austrian Nazis took over

1472-911: The Battle of Königgrätz , Austria had to leave the German Confederation and no longer took part in German politics. After the defeated Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 , the Ausgleich , provided for a dual sovereignty, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary , under Franz Joseph I . The Austrian-Hungarian rule of this diverse empire included various groups, including Germans , Hungarians , Croats, Czechs, Poles , Rusyns , Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, as well as large Italian and Romanian communities. As

1564-661: The Congress of Berlin . After the 1877–1878 expansion, in the new areas (present-day Jablanica , Toplica and parts of Nišava District ) an estimated 49,000–130,000 Albanians were expelled ( Expulsion of the Albanians 1877–1878 ), settling mainly in Kosovo. These events marked the beginning of the Serbian-Albanian conflict . The Serbo-Bulgarian War erupted on November 14, 1885, and lasted until November 28 of

1656-706: The Empire of Austria was founded. From 1792 to 1801, the Austrians had suffered 754,700 casualties. In 1814, Austria was part of the Allied forces that invaded France and brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars . 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 ( Deutscher Bund )

1748-648: The European Union  (green)  –  [ Legend ] Austria , formally the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe , lying in the Eastern Alps . It is a federation of nine states , one of which is the capital, Vienna , the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to

1840-527: The Federal Constitutional Law of 1920, which had been terminated by dictator Dollfuss on 1 May 1934, was declared valid again. The total number of Austrian military deaths from 1939 to 1945 was 260,000. 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

1932-471: The Franks , conquered the area in 788, encouraged colonisation, and introduced Christianity. As part of Eastern Francia , the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the house of Babenberg . The area was known as the marchia Orientalis and was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976. The first record showing the name Austria is from 996, where it is written as Ostarrîchi , referring to

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2024-645: The German Empire of 1848 , the crown of the newly formed empire was offered to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . In 1864, Austria and Prussia fought together against Denmark and secured the independence from Denmark of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . As they could not agree on how the two duchies should be administered, though, they fought the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. Defeated by Prussia in

2116-714: The Grund . The summit is made of main dolomite and, on the south side, of plattenkalk . A long, but easy mountain hike from Valepp (890 m) in Bavaria leads up to the Bärenbadalm (1,590 m) and on to the summit. Considerably shorter, but also easy is the climb from Ackernalm (1,383 m) south of the massif, which is easily reached on the toll road from Bayrischzell or Kufstein . Austria – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in

2208-523: The Habsburg monarchy . As a result, from 1830 to 1876, it has been estimated that up to 150,000 Albanians that lived in the territories of the Principality of Serbia emigrated or were expelled . In 1867 the Ottoman army garrisons retreated from the Principality, securing its de facto independence. Serbia expanded further to the south-east in 1878, when it won full international recognition at

2300-671: The House of Habsburg . Charles VI was willing to offer concrete advantages in territory and authority in exchange for recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 . Therefore, his daughter Maria Theresa was recognized as his heir. With the rise of Prussia , the Austria–Prussia rivalry began in Germany. Austria participated, together with Prussia and Russia, in the first and the third of the three Partitions of Poland in 1772 and 1795 respectively. From that time, Austria became

2392-692: The Kingdom of Montenegro , and in December 1918 it merged with the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) under the continued rule of the Karađorđević dynasty . The Principality of Serbia was a state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian revolution which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Despite brutal oppression and retaliation by

2484-582: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The new country continued to be ruled by the Serbian monarchy when in August 1921 Prince Alexandar I became king. In 1888 People's Radical Party led by Sava Grujić and Nikola Pašić came to power and a new constitution , based on the liberal Constitution of Belgium was introduced. The lost war and the Radical Party's total electoral victory were some of

2576-554: The Long War of 1593 to 1606. The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are cited as "burning, pillaging, and taking thousands of slaves". In late September 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent launched the first siege of Vienna , which unsuccessfully ended, according to Ottoman historians, with the snowfalls of an early beginning winter. During the long reign of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor following

2668-832: The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp alone), a fact which was officially acknowledged by Chancellor Franz Vranitzky in 1992. Allied-occupied Austria was after World War II divided into military occupation zones. Austria was governed by the Allied Commission for Austria . As stipulated in the Moscow Declaration of 1943 a subtle difference was seen in the treatment of Austria by the Allies. The Austrian government, consisting of Social Democrats, Conservatives, and Communists resided in Vienna , which

2760-511: The Ottoman authorities, the revolutionary leaders, first Karađorđe and then Miloš Obrenović , succeeded in their goal to liberate Serbia after centuries of Turkish rule. At first, the principality included only the territory of the former Pashaluk of Belgrade , but in 1831–1833 it expanded to the east, south, and west. In the first decades of the principality, the population was about 85% Serb and 15% non-Serb. Of those, most were Vlachs, and there were some Turkicized Muslim Albanians, which were

2852-536: The Republic of North Macedonia but land-locked Serbia was prevented from gaining access to the Adriatic Sea by the newly established Principality of Albania . As the result of these wars, Serbia's population increased from 2.9 million to 4.5 million and territory increased by 81%. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo (then part of Austria-Hungary ) brought

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2944-677: The Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Roman period , followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period . Austria, as a unified state, emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium , first as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire , it then developed into

3036-538: The euro currency in 1999. The native name for Austria, Österreich , derives from the Old High German Ostarrîchi , which meant "eastern realm" and which first appeared in the "Ostarrîchi document" of 996. This word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local (Bavarian) dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976. The word "Austria"

3128-650: The Americans, planned for the supposed "Alpine Fortress Operation" of a national redoubt, that was largely to have taken place on Austrian soil in the mountains of the Eastern Alps . However, it never materialised because of the rapid collapse of the Reich. 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

3220-623: The Celts in Europe. The Celtic Kingdom of Noricum that included most of modern Austria and parts of modern Slovenia was conquered by the Roman Empire in 16 BC and made a province called Noricum which lasted until the year of 476. The regions of today's Austria which were not located within the province of Noricum were divided between the Roman provinces of Pannonia , which encompassed parts of eastern Austria, and Raetia , which encompassed

3312-446: The German Austrians from Germany, many Austrian pan-Germans idolised him and wore blue cornflowers, known to be the favourite flower of German Emperor William I , in their buttonholes, along with cockades in the German national colours (black, red, and yellow), although they were both temporarily banned in Austrian schools, as a way to show discontent towards the multi-ethnic empire. Austria's exclusion from Germany caused many Austrians

3404-569: The Greek army. Populations of ethnic Serbs and Albanians tended to shift following territorial conquests. As a result of the multi-ethnic composition of Kosovo, the new administrations provoked a mixed response from the local population. Serbs considered this a liberation. On November 29, 1913, the Drač County of the Kingdom of Serbia was established on the part of the territory of Albania taken from

3496-399: The Mad , the heiress of Castile and Aragon , thus acquiring Spain and its Italian, African, Asian , and New World appendages for the Habsburgs. In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács , Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two empires, particularly evident in

3588-458: The Nazis renamed Austria the " Ostmark ", a name which it had until 1942, when it was renamed the "Alpine and Danubian Gaue" (Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue). Though Austrians made up only 8% of the population of the Third Reich, some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians, including Adolf Hitler , Ernst Kaltenbrunner , Arthur Seyss-Inquart , Franz Stangl , Alois Brunner , Friedrich Rainer , and Odilo Globocnik , as were over 13% of

3680-439: The Obrenović family were shot as well. This act resulted in the extinction of the House of Obrenović , which had been ruling Serbia since 1817. After the May Coup the Serbian Skupština invited Peter Karađorđević to assume the Serbian crown as Peter I of Serbia . A constitutional monarchy was created with the military Black Hand society operating behind the scenes. The traditionally good relations with Austria-Hungary ended, as

3772-534: The Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War. Serbian Drač County had four districts ( Serbian : срез ): Drač (Durrës), Lješ (Lezhë), Elbasan and Tirana . After the First Balkan War of 1912, territories of Kosovo and north-western Macedonia were internationally recognised as a part of Serbia and northern Metohija as a part of Montenegro at the Treaty of London of May 1913. In a report to Rome , Lazër Mjeda , Archbishop of Skopje, estimated that 25,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian forces during and after

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3864-480: The Ottoman held Macedonia. In May, a Serbian-Greek alliance was reached and in October 1912, a Serbia-Montenegro alliance was signed. After the war started, Serbia, together with Montenegro, conquered Pristina and Novi Pazar . At the Battle of Kumanovo Serbs defeated the Ottoman army and proceeded to conquer Skopje and the whole of Kosovo vilayet . The region of Metohija was taken by Montenegro. At Bitola and Ohrid Serbian army units established contact with

3956-411: The Provisional National Assembly for German Austria ( Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich ). On 30 October the assembly founded the Republic of German-Austria by appointing a government, called Staatsrat . This new government was invited by the Emperor to take part in the decision on the planned armistice with Italy but refrained from this business. This left the responsibility for

4048-416: The Serbo-Bulgarian border precisely where it had been prior to the war. The peace treaty was signed on February 19, 1886, in Bucharest . As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act of Unification of Bulgaria which happened on September 6, 1885. Negotiations between Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria led to the Serbian-Bulgarian Treaty of Alliance of March 1912, which aimed to conquer and to divide

4140-420: The Social Democrats and the Conservatives, had paramilitary armies; the Social Democrats' Republikanischer Schutzbund was now declared illegal, but was still operative as the 12–15 February 1934 Austrian Civil War broke out. In February 1934, several members of the Schutzbund were executed, the Social Democratic party was outlawed, and many of its members were imprisoned or emigrated. On 1 May 1934,

4232-407: 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 were still under Nazi rule. On 1 May 1945,

4324-436: The areas of present-day Vorarlberg and Tyrol . Present-day Petronell- Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Pannonia Superior . Carnuntum was home to 50,000 people for nearly 400 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire , the area was first invaded by the Germanic Rugii which made this region part of their " Rugiland ". In 487, most of modern Austria

4416-475: The assassination, the conspirators were arrested in Bosnia-Herzegovina and tried in Sarajevo in October 1914. The political objective of the assassination was to break the southern Slav provinces off from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered a chain of international events that embroiled Russia and the major European powers in the conflict. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. In 1915 Serbia

4508-427: The birthplace of classical music and played host to different composers including Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , and Franz Schubert . Austria later became engaged in a war with Revolutionary France , which was highly unsuccessful in the beginning, with successive defeats at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte , meaning the end of the old Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Two years earlier,

4600-400: The collapse of Austria-Hungary , Serbia experienced a loss of 28 percent of its pre-war population and went through radical changes after the liberation, all within days. On November 28, 1918, it absorbed the Kingdom of Montenegro at the Podgorica Assembly . On December 1, 1918, Serbia united with the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs to form a new southern Slav state,

4692-464: The conflict. The old disagreements regarding the territory of Macedonia among the members of the Balkan League and primarily Serbia and Bulgaria, led to the Second Balkan War . Here, Serbia, Greece, Romania, the Ottoman Empire, and Montenegro fought against Bulgaria in 1913. The final borders were ratified at the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913 . Serbia came to control the land which became known as Vardar Macedonia , and today stands independent as

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4784-738: The crisis to an end. The crisis permanently damaged relations between Austria-Hungary on the one hand and Russia and Serbia on the other. The annexation and reactions to the annexation were some of the contributing causes of World War I. In 1890, it was divided into 15 districts ( okruzi ) which were further divided into counties ( srezovi ). Cities of Belgrade and Niš had special administrative status. The districts were: Valjevo , Vranje , Kragujevac , Krajina , Kruševac , Morava , Pirot , Podrinje , Podunavlje , Požarevac , Rudnik , Timok , Toplica , Užice and Crna Reka . In 1912 and 1913 Serbia enlarged its territory after victorious First Balkan War . In August 1913, 11 new districts were formed in

4876-682: The currency, and improve Austria's general economic condition. The loan meant that Austria passed from an independent state to the control exercised by the League of Nations. In 1925, the Austrian schilling was introduced, replacing the Krone at a rate of 10,000:1. Later, it was nicknamed the "Alpine dollar" due to its stability. From 1925 to 1929 the economy enjoyed a short high before nearly crashing after Black Tuesday . The First Austrian Republic lasted until 1933, when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , using what he called "self-switch-off of Parliament" , established an autocratic regime tending towards Italian fascism . The two big parties at this time,

4968-458: The election was officially 99.5%, with 98.9% voting "yes". In the case of Austria, Adolf Hitler's native soil, 99.71% of an electorate of 4,484,475 officially went to the ballots, with a positive tally of 99.73 percent. Although most Austrians favored the Anschluss , in certain parts of Austria, the German soldiers were not always welcomed with flowers and joy, especially in Vienna, which had Austria's largest Jewish population. Nevertheless, despite

5060-496: The empire would collapse, which would allow an annexation of Austria by Germany . A lot of Austrian pan-German nationalists protested passionately against minister-president Kasimir Count Badeni 's language decree of 1897, which made German and Czech co-official languages in Bohemia and required new government officials to be fluent in both languages. This meant in practice that the civil service would almost exclusively hire Czechs because most middle-class Czechs spoke German but not

5152-495: 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)

5244-442: The government, while German troops occupied the country, which prevented Schuschnigg's referendum from taking place. On 13 March 1938, the Anschluss ( lit.   ' joining ' or ' connection ' ) of Austria was officially declared. Two days later, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler announced what he called the "reunification" of his home country with the "rest of the German Reich " on Vienna's Heldenplatz . He established

5336-426: The hands of Rudolph I of Germany in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling dynasty, the Habsburgs . In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund . Although Albert himself only reigned for

5428-453: The members of the SS and 40% of the staff at the Nazi extermination camps . In the Reichsgau , besides the main camp KZ-Mauthausen , there were numerous sub-camps in all provinces where Jews and other prisoners were killed, tortured and exploited. At this time, because the territory was outside the operational radius of Allied aircraft, the armaments industry was greatly expanded through the forced labor of concentration camp prisoners, this

5520-501: The new dynasty relied on the support of the Russian Empire and closer cooperation with Kingdom of Bulgaria . In April 1904 the Friendship treaty and in June 1905 the customs union with Bulgaria were signed. In response Austria-Hungary imposed a Tariff War ( Pig war ) of 1906–1909. After the 1906 elections the People's Radical Party came to power. In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, where Serbia had hoped to expand its territory. The Bosnian Crisis of 1908–1909 (also referred to as

5612-401: The newly formed or enlarged states of Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia , Hungary , and Italy. These included the provinces of South Tyrol , and German Bohemia . The status of German Bohemia and Sudetenland later played a role in World War II. The border between Austria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was settled with the Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920 and allocated the major part of

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5704-486: The newly liberated areas: Bitola , Debar , Kavadarci , Novi Pazar , Kumanovo , Pljevlja , Prizren , Priština , Skopje , Tetovo and Štip . During its existence, the Kingdom was ruled by two competing dynasties: the House of Obrenović and the House of Karađorđević . King Milan Obrenović ruled from 6 March 1882 to 6 March 1889, when he abdicated the throne. He was succeeded by his son, Aleksandar Obrenović , who ruled from 6 March 1889 to 11 June 1903, when he

5796-413: The northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The landlocked country occupies an area of 83,879 km (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of around 9 million. The area of today's Austria has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic period . Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by

5888-440: The obligation to sign commercial contracts was imposed on Serbia, as well as a claim to carry out regulation works in Đerdap . Serbian Government approved this treaty by adopting the Law on Proclamation of the convention. Consequently, Serbian Railways were formed in 1881. The regular traffic on the railway line Belgrade–Niš started in 1884. The Kingdom of Serbia participated in the International Exhibition of Art of 1911 , with

5980-528: The other way around. The support of ultramontane Catholic politicians and clergy for this reform triggered the launch of the Away from Rome movement, which was initiated by supporters of Schönerer and called on "German" Christians to leave the Roman Catholic Church. As the Second Constitutional Era began in the Ottoman Empire , Austria-Hungary took the opportunity to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip

6072-428: The overwhelming majority of the Muslims that lived in Smederevo , Kladovo and Ćuprija . The new state aimed to homogenize its population, especially after two Great Migrations of the Serbs also known as the Great Exoduses of the Serbs , in 1690 and in 18th century, between 1718 and 1739, from various territories under the rule of the Ottoman Empire , particularly the Kosovo Vilayet, to the Kingdom of Hungary under

6164-452: The predominantly German-speaking South Tyrol . The desire for the annexation of Austria to Germany was a popular opinion shared by all social circles in both Austria and Germany. On 12 November, German-Austria was declared 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

6256-449: The proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic in 1919. During the interwar period , anti-parliamentarian sentiments culminated in the formation of an Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. A year before the outbreak of World War II , Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler , and it became a sub-national division . After its liberation in 1945 and

6348-444: The propaganda and the manipulation and rigging which surrounded the ballot box result, there was massive genuine support for Hitler for fulfilling the Anschluss , since many Germans from both Austria and Germany saw it as completing the long overdue unification of all Germans into one state. On 13 March 1938, Austria was annexed by the Third Reich and ceased to exist as an independent country (the Anschluss ). The Aryanisation of

6440-435: The reasons why King Milan I abdicated in 1889. His son Alexander I assumed the throne in 1893 and in 1894 dismissed the constitution. Jews from modern-day North Macedonia got their citizen rights after the region became a part of Kingdom of Serbia. King Alexander I of Serbia and his unpopular wife Queen Draga were assassinated inside the Royal Palace in Belgrade on the night of 28–29 May 1903. Other representatives of

6532-437: The same year. The war ended in defeat for Serbia, as it had failed to capture the Slivnitsa region which it had set out to achieve. Bulgarians successfully repelled the Serbs after the decisive victory at the Battle of Slivnitsa and advanced into Serbian territory taking Pirot and clearing the way to Niš . When Austria-Hungary declared that it would join the war on the side of Serbia, Bulgaria withdrew from Serbia leaving

6624-587: The successful defence of Vienna against the Turks in 1683, under the command of the King of Poland John III Sobieski , the Great Turkish War resulted in most of Hungary being controlled by Austria. This arrangement was formalized in the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor relinquished many of the gains the empire made in the previous years. He enjoyed the imminent extinction of

6716-484: The tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to a head. Behind the assassination in Sarajevo was the secret Serbian officers organization Black Hand . The assassins were supported by an "underground railroad" of Serbian civilians and military officers that provided transportation and hid them; members of the Serbian military that trained them, encouraged them, and provided weapons, maps, and other information. After

6808-684: The territory of the Babenberg March. In 1156, the Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy. In 1192, the Babenbergs also acquired the Duchy of Styria . With the death of Frederick II in 1246, the line of the Babenbergs was extinguished. As a result, Ottokar II of Bohemia effectively assumed control of the duchies of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia . His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut at

6900-592: The territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Crownland of Carinthia to Austria. This set the border on the Karavanke mountain range, with many Slovenes remaining in Austria. After the war, inflation began to devalue the Krone, which was still Austria's currency. In the autumn of 1922, Austria was granted an international loan supervised by the League of Nations . The purpose of the loan was to avert bankruptcy, stabilise

6992-433: The use of their mother tongue at state offices. Many Austrians of all different social circles such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer promoted strong pan-Germanism in the hope of reinforcing an ethnic German identity and the annexation of Austria to Germany. Some Austrians such as Karl Lueger also used pan-Germanism as a form of populism to further their own political goals. Although Bismarck's policies excluded Austria and

7084-845: The wealth of Jewish Austrians started immediately in mid-March, with a so-called "wild" (i.e. extra-legal) phase, but it was soon structured legally and bureaucratically so the assets which Jewish citizens possessed could be stripped from them. At that time, Adolf Eichmann , who grew up in Austria, was transferred to Vienna and ordered to persecute the Jews. During the November pogrom in 1938 ("Reichskristallnacht"), Jews and Jewish institutions such as synagogues were subjected to violent attacks in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Linz, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and several cities in Lower Austria. Otto von Habsburg ,

7176-420: Was able to send the Allies information about armaments factories where V-1 flying bombs , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , and aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.) were manufactured, information which was important to the success of Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra , both of which were preliminary missions before the launch of Operation Overlord . This resistance group, which

7268-437: Was by the coup d'état . However, he finally did accept and was the Kingdom's sovereign from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918, the day that the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed. The largest cities in the Kingdom of Serbia were (with population figures from c. 1910–1912): Serbia was geographically located in the path of several trade routes linking Western and Central Europe with Middle East. Morava Valley

7360-664: Was conquered by Odoacer , a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube , which incorporated most of today's Austria in his Kingdom of Italy . By 493, it was conquered by the Germanic Ostrogoths which created their own kingdom, the Ostrogothic Kingdom . Following the Kingdom's fall the area was invaded by the Alemanni , Baiuvarii , Slavs , and Avars . Charlemagne , King of

7452-580: Was especially the case with regard to the manufacture of fighter planes, tanks and missiles. Most of the resistance groups were soon crushed by the Gestapo . While the plans of the group around Karl Burian to blow up the Gestapo's headquarters in Vienna were uncovered, the important group around the later executed priest Heinrich Maier managed to contact the Allies . This so-called Maier-Messner group

7544-459: Was founded under the presidency of Austria. Because of unsolved social, political, and national conflicts, the German lands were shaken by the 1848 revolutions aiming to create a unified Germany. The various different possibilities for a united Germany were: a Greater Germany , or a Greater Austria or just the German Confederation without Austria at all. As Austria was not willing to relinquish its German-speaking territories to what would become

7636-568: Was granted to Tyrol by the Italian national government. Kingdom of Serbia In 1882, Serbia was elevated to the status of a kingdom, maintaining a foreign policy friendly to Austria-Hungary . Between 1912 and 1913, Serbia greatly enlarged its territory through engagement in the First and Second Balkan Wars – Sandžak-Raška , Kosovo Vilayet and Vardar Macedonia were annexed. At the end of World War I in 1918 it united with Vojvodina and

7728-619: Was in contact with the American secret service ( OSS ), soon provided information about mass executions and concentration camps such as Auschwitz . The group's aim was to cause Nazi Germany to lose the war as quickly as possible and re-establish an independent Austria. Vienna fell on 13 April 1945, during the Soviet Vienna offensive , just before the total collapse of the Third Reich. The invading Allied powers, in particular

7820-500: Was in the strategically important terrestrial route that linked Central Europe with Greece and Constantinople. During the 19th century major efforts were made to improve the transport in this connections. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Austria-Hungary helped Serbia to gain new territories, conditioning Serbia, however, to sign a new convention. The convention obliged Serbia to construct the railway line from Belgrade to Vranje and Turkish and Bulgarian borders in three years. In addition,

7912-511: Was killed by a group of officers. The slaughter of the royal couple (the king and Queen Draga ) by the Black Hand shocked Europe. This opened the way for the descendants of Karađorđe (Karageorge), regarded by Serbs throughout the Balkans as the man who threw off the Turkish yoke, to return to the throne. Petar Karađorđević was initially reluctant to accept the crown, disgusted as he

8004-467: Was occupied by foreign troops after a combined invasion by Austro-Hungarian , German , and Bulgarian troops. The 135,000 soldiers of the Serbian Army retreated through Albania and were evacuated to the Greek island of Corfu , and in spring, 1916, they became part of a newly formed Salonika front . In 1916, the Kingdom of Montenegro was conquered by Austria-Hungary. At the end of the war and

8096-536: Was passed on 10 November 1920. The Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 (for Hungary the Treaty of Trianon of 1920) confirmed and consolidated the new order of Central Europe which to a great extent had been established in November 1918, creating new states and altering others. The German-speaking parts of Austria which had been part of Austria-Hungary were reduced to a rump state named the Republic of German-Austria (German: Republik Deutschösterreich ), though excluding

8188-596: Was responsible for directing the nationalized industries under the directorship of Minister Peter Krauland (party ÖVP). 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 allies of World War II. On 26 October 1955, all occupation troops had left and Austria declared its permanent neutrality by an act of parliament. This day

8280-534: Was severely opposed by the Serbian public and intelligentsia , mainly gathered around Serbian Literary Herald ( Srpski književni glasnik ). Russia , the Ottoman Empire , Britain, the Kingdom of Italy , Serbia, the Principality of Montenegro , German Empire and France took an interest in these events. In April 1909, the 1878 Treaty of Berlin was amended to accept the new status quo and bringing

8372-654: Was surrounded by the Soviet zone. This Austrian government was recognised by the allies of World War II in October 1945 despite concerns that Karl Renner could be Stalin's puppet. On 26 July 1946 the Austrian Parliament passed its first nationalization law and approximately 70 mining and manufacturing companies were seized by the Austrian state. The Ministry of Property Protection and Economic Planning ( Ministerium für Vermögenssicherung und Wirtschaftsplanung )

8464-606: Was used by leading Austrian politicians and generals to persuade the emperor to declare war on Serbia, thereby risking and prompting the outbreak of World War I, which eventually led to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Over one million Austro-Hungarian soldiers died in World War I. On 21 October 1918, the elected German members of the Reichsrat (parliament of Imperial Austria) met in Vienna as

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