The Republic of German Austria (German German (Deutsch, [ˈdɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Globally, German is spoken by approximately 120 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers: Republik Deutschösterreich or Deutsch-Österreich) was created following World War I World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were as the initial rump state A rump state is the remnant of a once-larger government, left with limited powers or authority after a disaster, invasion, military occupation, secession or partial overthrowing of a government. In the last case, a government stops short of going in exile because it still controls part of its previous territory. For example, after the Qing for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867, under which the Austrian House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government,, without the Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary , emerged in 1000, when the Principality of Hungary, founded in 896, was recognized as a Kingdom. The form of government was changed from monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary. During most of its history, it was a considerable state in Central Europe,, which in 1918 had become the Hungarian Democratic Republic.
German Austria claimed an area of 118,311 km² Square kilometre, symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km2 is equal to:, with 10.4 million inhabitants including the current area of the Republic of Austria and other German-speaking areas of the former Austrian Imperial lands (Cisleithania Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status. The Cisleithanian lands continued to constitute the Empire of Austria, but the latter term was rarely used after 1867, to avoid confusion with the) of Austria-Hungary. These included the province of Bolzano-Bozen The Province of Bolzano-Bozen, also referred to as Alto Adige or South Tyrol, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two provinces that make up the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which is itself an autonomous region. The province has an area of 7,400 square kilometres and a total population of more than 500,000 and the town of Tarvisio, both now in Italy; southern Carinthia Slovenian Carinthia or Slovene Carinthia, most commonly simply Carinthia (Koroška) is a traditional region in the north of Slovenia. It has no official status as an administrative unit within Slovenia, although the association with an informal province (Slovene: pokrajina) is still quite common and southern Styria Styria is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federal-states, covering 16,388 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. The population (as of 2006) was 1,203,986. The capital city, now in Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on, and Sudetenland Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia proper and German Bohemia (later also part of Sudetenland), now in the Czech Republic. At the time all areas were German majority speaking regions.
History
Map showing Austrian German-inhabited areas (in rose) in western Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1911 10-heller The Heller or Häller was a German coin valued at half a Pfennig named after the city of Hall am Kocher . The coin was produced from the beginning of the 13th century on as silver pfennig (Häller Pfennig) German Austrian postage stamps A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for postal services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery. Postage stamps are the most popular way of paying for retail mail; alternatives include postal stationery such as prepaid-postage envelopes, from 1920 20-heller The Heller or Häller was a German coin valued at half a Pfennig named after the city of Hall am Kocher . The coin was produced from the beginning of the 13th century on as silver pfennig (Häller Pfennig) German Austrian newspaper stamps from 1920In Habsburg The House of Habsburg, often Anglicised as Hapsburg and sometimes referred to as the House of Austria, was one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empires and several other countries Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867, under which the Austrian House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government,, "German Austria" was an unofficial term used to describe areas of the empire inhabited by ethnic Germans. With the impending collapse of the empire in late 1918, ethnic German deputies to the Cisleithanian Austrian parliament (Reichsrat) last elected in 1911 sought to form a new rump state of German Austria. It declared a "provisional national assembly of the independent German Austrian state" and 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. Karl Renner Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz (Dolní Dunajovice) (Moravia) and died in Vienna. He is called the Father of the Republic because he headed the first government in republican Austria in 1918 and was once again decisive in establishing the present Second Republic in 1945, becoming its first President was chosen as chancellor of Austria The Chancellor of Austria is the head of government in Austria. The chancellor's deputy is the Vice Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The assembly included representatives from Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: Čechy; German: Böhmen ; Polish: Czechy; French: Bohême; Latin: Bohemia) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague. In a broader meaning, it often refers to the entire Czech territory,, Moravia Moravia (Czech: Morava; German: Mähren ; Silesian: Morawijo; Polish: Morawy) is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, together with Bohemia and Silesia one of the former Czech lands. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region, and Austrian Silesia The Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Empire and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria–Hungary. It is also known as Austrian Silesia (German: Österreichisch Schlesien; Czech: Rakouské Slezsko; Polish: Śląsk Austriacki), and despite the official name it only included parts of who refused to adhere to the new state of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992. From 1939 to 1945 the state did not have de facto existence, due to its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, but the Czechoslovak which had been declared on October 28, 1918.
On November 11, 1918, Emperor Charles I Charles I (17 August 1887 – 1 April 1922) was (among other titles) the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the last Emperor of Austria, the last King of Hungary, the last King of Bohemia, Croatia and the last King of Galicia and Lodomeria and the last monarch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He reigned as Charles I as Emperor of relinquished power and, on November 12, German Austria was officially declared a republic. The provisional national assembly drafted provisional constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic The Weimar Republic ( Weimarer Republik , IPA: [ˈvaɪmaʁɐ ʁepuˈbliːk]) is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government. It was named after Weimar, the city where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was Deutsches Reich (sometimes" (Article 2). Later plebiscites A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of direct democracy. The measure put to a vote is in the provinces of Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98 and 99% in favor of a unification with Germany. On November 22, the national assembly officially laid claim to all ethnic German areas of Cisleithania. However, the Allies of World War I Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The key members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire. Many other countries later joined the Entente side in the war: Belgium, Serbia, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and Portugal, which were also drawn into the war.[citation opposed such a move and German Austria was largely powerless to resist the forces of Italy, Czechoslovakia, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a kingdom stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941. It was formed in 1918 when merging the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, formed from territories of the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the formerly independent from seizing territory.
On September 10, 1919, Chancellor Karl Renner Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz (Dolní Dunajovice) (Moravia) and died in Vienna. He is called the Father of the Republic because he headed the first government in republican Austria in 1918 and was once again decisive in establishing the present Second Republic in 1945, becoming its first President signed the Treaty of Saint Germain The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new Republic of Austria on the other. Like the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, it contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and as a result was not ratified by the United States and it was ratified by the national assembly on October 21. According to its provisions, the name of the republic was changed from "German Austria" to "Austria" and any efforts for the country to unify with Germany were banned. Article 88 of the treaty, sometimes called the Anschluss The Anschluss ( [ˈʔanʃlʊs] (help·info); German for "link-up"), also known as the Anschluss Österreichs (help·info), was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime prohibition, states that "the independence of Austria is inalienable otherwise than with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920, and the precursor to the United Nations. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The League's primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing war through collective." [1] Likewise, in the Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties dictating the terms of peace for Germany, there was a prohibition of unification. With these changes and the settling of Austria's frontiers, the era of the Federal State of Austria, sometimes called the First Austrian Republic, began.
Subdivisions
German Austria originally consisted of nine provinces (Provinzen) including:
- Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), all of the current Austrian state of Upper Austria plus the Bohemian Forest region (Böhmerwaldgau) now in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic
- Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), all of the current Austrian state of Lower Austria plus German South Moravia (Deutschsüdmähren), now divided between the Czech regions of South Bohemia, Vysočina, and South Moravia
- German Bohemia (Deutschböhmen), areas of western Bohemia that were later part of Sudetenland from 1938–45, now part of the Czech Republic
- Sudetenland proper, i.e. the historical Czech regions of northern Moravia and Czech Silesia (Austrian Silesia)
- Styria (Steiermark), most of historical Styria including the current Austrian state of Styria and the north-eastern part of the Slovenian informal region of Lower Styria.
- Salzburg, all of the current Austrian state of Salzburg
- Carinthia (Kärnten), all of historical Carinthia including the current Austrian state of Carinthia, the Slovenian unofficial region of Carinthia, the Slovenian municipality of Jezersko and the now Italian communes of Tarvisio, Malborghetto Valbruna and Pontebba
- German Tyrol (Deutschtirol), most of historical Tyrol including the current Austrian state of Tyrol and the present day Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen, but not Trento
- Vorarlberg, all of the current Austrian state of Vorarlberg
Several German minority populations in Moravia, including German populations in Brünn (Brno), Iglau (Jihlava), and Olmütz (Olomouc) also attempted to proclaim their union with German Austria but failed. The areas now outside of the current Republic of Austria often had significant non-German minorities and occasionally non-German majorities and were quickly taken by troops of the respective countries they were to eventually join. On the other hand, ethnic Germans in the western part of the Kingdom of Hungary that formed a majority in the area known as German West Hungary and agitated to join to Austria were successful and the area became the state of Burgenland.
Trivia
Despite the prohibition on the use of the term German Austria, the republic's unofficial national anthem from 1920–29 was "German Austria, you wonderful country" ("Deutschösterreich, du herrliches Land") with words penned by then Chancellor Karl Renner, signer of the Treaty of Saint Germain.
See also
Categories: Former countries in Europe | Former republics | Short-lived states | States and territories established in 1918 | 1919 disestablishments | German Austria
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