Questions tagged [austria]
Questions about the history of the central European country of Austria, the Austrian Empire, or the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (for questions pertaining to Austria-Hungary as a whole, please use the tag austria-hungary).
67 questions
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What are the key differences in the demographics and support base of DNSAP in Austria compared to Germany before Anschluss?
During the interwar years, the DNSAP in Czechoslovakia comprised a more varied group of members compared to their German counterparts. This was due to the party's nationalistic stance in ...
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Where to find Austrian statutes from 1778 and 1787 related to obligatory road services?
In a newspaper from mid-XIX c. (printed in Lemberg/Lviv) I've found an article describing the road network of Galicia under Austrian rule. It said that Austria issued (at least) two acts related to ...
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How did the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867) solve Austria's insolvency and economic issues?
After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria faced debt/financial issues, and they resorted to unification with Hungary. I do not understand how unification with another kingdom (Hungary) could solve the ...
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Is there evidence that Mauthausen Concentration Camp commander Franz Ziereis’s son shot prisoners of the camp?
In the Spanish film the photographer of Mauthausen there is a scene of a party held to celebrate the birthday of the son of Mauthausen Concentration Camp commander (Franz Ziereis).
In the scene the ...
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In the coat of arms of Georg von Frundsberg, where does the ostrich come from?
Georg von Frundsberg (24 September 1473 – 20 August 1528) and all his successors had a dual coat of arms - one part with a black mountain, the other with a white or silver ostrich.
Some heraldry ...
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Can anyone identify these uniforms (stated to be "Austrian")?
I recently purchased these uniforms, in which I was told that they were "Austro-Hungarian/Austrian." Upon looking further at the lighter-green one, I noticed that it had a trim pattern ...
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Why did the delgates show up on different balconies after they signed the Austrian State Treaty?
One of the most famous pictures in Austria is foreign minister Leopold Figl presenting the Austrian State Treaty at the center balcony of the Belvedere after it has been signed. Among the delegates in ...
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How has the slogan "Bis in den Tod, Rot-Weiss-Rot" been used before and after the Anschluss, and in modern times?
I am curious about Austrian slogan "Bis in den Tod! Rot-Weiss-Rot! Österreich!", usually rendered in English as "Red-White-Red until we are dead!", where "Red-White-Red" ...
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Why didn't the Austrian Empire have Household troops?
In Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket the historian Richard Holmes writes on p. 103:
Most European armies maintained bodies of Household troops - Austria
was a notable ...
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Why were so many female members of Hapsburg family named Maria something?
Recently, I have noticed that Empress Maria Theresa’s daughters’ names all begin with Maria.
Archduchess Maria Elisabeth
Archduchess Maria Anna
Archduchess Maria Carolina
Maria Christina, Duchess of ...
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Why were Austrian forces ineffective during the war of 1787 against Ottomans?
In the French Wikipedia article about Roger de Damas d'Antigny, it is said that this French officer was not satisfied by Austrian armies in the war against Ottoman empire, so he joined the Russian ...
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What acts of violence happened during the Nazi German annexation of Austria in 1938? [closed]
There is a memorial stone on Mexikoplatz in Vienna which looks like shown below.
The text on the stone means the following (my emphasis):
In March 1938 Mexico was the only country that officially ...
user2247
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Were there any Austrians in Nazi Germany's government before the Anschluss? [closed]
Apart from Adolf Hitler himself, who was born in Braunau am Inn in what is now Upper Austria, were there any Austrians in the upper echelons of the German Nazi party or Germany's Nazi government ...
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Why was Austria given the best chunk in the First Partition of Poland, even while protesting it?
In the First Partition of Poland, Austria was given 2.7 million people, versus 1.3 million for Russia, and almost 1 million for Prussia. Austria got more than twice as much land as Prussia, and only ...
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Are there churches that belong to the German Armed Forces?
Yesterday, while walking through Graz, in southern Austria, I noticed an old church. I noticed it because it had a big symbol painted over its entrance door. You might have seen this symbol in WWI and ...
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What did Russia do in 1848 that could make the Austrians seek "brutal revanche" towards the Russians?
In the first volume of the Thalerhof Concentration Camp Almanacs (Russian title: Талергофсiй альманахъ, пропамятная книга австрiйскихъ жестокостей, изуверстствъ и насилий надъ карпато - русскимъ ...
user2247
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Did Austrian chief of staff Franz Riml say that the only way to correct the Russophile Ukrainians is to exterminate them?
Several Russian pages claim that Austrian general Franz Riml von Altrosenburg said the following:
Galician Russians can be divided in two groups:
a) Russophiles and
b) Ukrainophiles.
If ...
user23839
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What was special in interwar Austria-Hungary?
I recently spoke with someone claiming that the tail end of the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was especially a fertile breeding ground for inventors and entrepreneurs, especially in the 1920s ...
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Was the internment camp Thalerhof the first concentration camp in Europe?
During World War I, Austrohungarian authorities ran a so-called internment camp in Thalerhof (close to Graz in modern Austria). According to Encyclopedia of Ukraine
The first 2,000 prisoners at ...
user23839
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What is the spiral-looking device shown in this wall painting?
A colleague found this wall painting. We are sure about the elements related to mining and the divining rods. But we've got no clue for the spiral element that seems to be operated/carried by two ...
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What exactly is the "revolution from the bourgeois" referred to in flow?
I was reading the book Flow by Mihaly Csizkszentmihalyi, wherein the following quote is made on page 67:
“The much more subtle but equally coercive social controls of bourgeois Vienna made Freud’s ...
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Was Emperor Francis II & I present at the Battle of Austerlitz?
The Battle of Austerlitz between France, Austria, and Russia on 2 December 1805 is also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, because of the presence of Napoleon I, Alexander I, and Francis II &...
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How could a theatre be heated in 1808 Vienna?
Beethoven's concert of 22 December 1808 was held in an extremely cold theatre. How could it have been heated at the time?
The date is too early for central heating to have been commonplace. Braziers ...
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Is it true that Austrians who refused to help SS in catching Soviet POWs would not face any negative consequences?
According to the Viennese government, civilians who refused to assist the SS in catching Soviet prisoners of war (during the Mühlviertler Hasenjagd) did not face any negative consequences (my emphasis)...
user23839
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How did Austrian paramilitary organisations amass weapons during the interwar period?
According to Wikipedia, the Austrian Social Democrats and their allies had
over 2,500 rifles,
250 revolvers,
1,500 hand grenades, and
10,000 rounds of ammunition
in February 1934.
How did they (and ...
user23839
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Was it customary for young upper-middle class women to chew gum in public in German-speaking Europe?
I'm writing a fiction work and there is a scene about a young, well-educated, but stormy woman, willing to stretch the boundaries of what's allowed. I'm thinking about making her chew gum in public. ...
user23839
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Could a person get from the outer districts of Vienna into the city center via the sewage system?
I'm writing a novel that plays in 1945 Vienna. There are characters who want to get from Währing (A in the image below) to the city center (B) undetected.
Is this realistic/believable for them to ...
user23839
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Why did the Austrofascists fight with the National Socialists and vice versa?
In another question I mentioned that the Austrofascists fought the National Socialists. Why? Did they have any important ideological differences?
user23839
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Were there revolts in or escapes from the Austrofascist camps?
During Austrofascism there were
internment camps (Anhaltelager, see German Wikipedia), in which
political prisoners were kept (National Socialists, Socialists, Communists).
Have there been any
...
user23839
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Was it common for unmarried couples to live in the same hotel room in Europe of the 1930es?
Imagine an unmarried couple in their mid-twenties, both educated (teachers).
They live in Vienna of the early 1930es (before the Anschluss).
Was it acceptable for them to book one hotel room and ...
user23839
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German 10 zehn heller
This 10 zehn heller , which I believe at the top on the reverse says "Notgeld" but it is really hard to make out.
The date looks like "1827" but is probably 1923 and it seems to have a wood grain ...
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What is the meaning of Verte! at the end of Sisi’s autopsy report?
The following document is a picture of a copy of the autopsy report of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, on display in the Sisi Museum in Vienna. It describes, in French, the wounds and the cause of death ...
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Did the Soviets cooperate with the Americans in catching criminals in post-war Vienna?
I'm writing a novel that is set in Vienna during the
period when it was occupied by, among others, the
Americans and the Soviets (1945-1955). The central
district (grey in the image below) belonged to ...
user23839
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Why did many Hungarians support Maria Theresa?
In the first decade of the 18th century, Hungarians fought a very exhausting and, in the end, unsuccessful war to secede from the Habsburg Empire and re-establish their old kingdom.
That time, the ...
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Why did the expelled Sudeten Germans and Danube Germans go to Germany, as opposed to Austria?
After the second world war, Germans that used to live in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary, part of long-existent minorities there fled and/were expelled, mostly to Germany. Before 1918, they ...
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Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ever called “Wolfi” or “Wolfie” by his wife?
In the 1984 film Amadeus based on Wolfgang Mozart's life, Wolfgang is commonly referred to as "Wolfi", especially by his wife (as spelled in the scripts I could find online).
Amadeus also takes ...
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Why did Paul von Hindenburg wrongly call Adolf Hitler "Bohemian corporal"?
Paul von Hindenburg didn't like Adolf Hitler because he was a low-ranked individual from the poor/low class. He called him mockingly "Bohemian corporal".
However in reality Adolf Hitler was not ...
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How do present-day Austrians look back at the 1938 Anschluss?
When in Salzburg, I was surprised to learn that actually not too many Austrian people know about "The Sound of Music". Some Austrian colleagues never heard the song "Edelweiss". In fact, Wikipedia ...
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Why did Bavaria join Prussia/Germany instead of Austria?
I am curious about why kingdom of Bavaria was assimilated by Prussia instead of Austria-Hungary
If I consider following facts in 1854
Bavaria is Catholic country (same as majority of Austria-Hungary)...
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Why do central European nations use the color black as their national colors?
We all know that national colors exists, often associated directly with the flag of a nation. Red and white for example are one of the most frequently used colors world wide by many nations (Austria, ...
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Early 20th Century Vienna - memoirs of Travelers
I am searching for memoirs of travelers who went to Vienna in 1900-1913. What they saw and did, where they ate etc and am having a hard time finding anything.
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Military Strategy of Carnot
I'm listening to Mike Duncan's podcast, Revolutions, episode 3.44, and in it, he details the misfortunes of the French bumbling about the wrong side of the Rhine.
According to Duncan, Carnot, now a ...
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How did "de-Nazification" efforts by Austria's occupiers proceed after WW2?
In his book, At Memory's Edge by James E. Young, the author states:
In fact, unlike Germany’s near obsession with its Nazi-past, Austria’s relationship to its wartime history has remained ...
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Did French ever have any special status in Austria?
Did French ever have any special status in Austria or the Austrian empire, akin to it being the language of royalty in England (and possibly Russia, I'm not sure) (as opposed to it being just another ...
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What stood behind Maria Theresa's forestry policy?
Maria Theresa of Austria established laws that determined how many trees you have to plant for every cut-down tree. Why?
Did the industry need so many trees because of the industrial revolution?
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Where did Metternich say the Balkans began?
Statesman and politician of Austrian Empire, Klemens von Metternich made somewhere his famous remark that "Balkan already begins on some road south from Vienna". Does anybody knows where was that road,...
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Why are Vorarlberg and Tirol part of Austria, when they are only connected to it by high mountains?
The western lands of Vorarlberg and Tirol are part of Austria, but they are only connected to Austria by mountainous pass which is not very practicable (Tirol and Vorarlberg among themselves are also ...
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What made early 20th-century Vienna such an incubator for various intellectual activities?
There are almost too many examples to cite(the Austrian school of economics, Sigmund Freud, modernist figures in culture, Joseph Schumpeter, etc.). Here's a quote from Wikipedia's Vienna entry:
...
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Given Hitler's Austrian ancestry, why did he develop German nationalism rather than Austrian nationalism?
Hitler's parents were Austrians, and Hitler had spent his childhood in Austria. However, Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany but not Austria.
This seems strange to me. Why did Hitler develop ...
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Who owned Franz Josef islands between 1918-1926?
Franz Josef land was discovered and claimed by Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1873. Previously Norway discovered it, but they never reported the discovery.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire dissoluted in 1918. ...
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