Early Period
Much of the region south of the Danube River was known as Noricum. The western uplands region between the upper Rhine River, the lower course of the Inn River, and the Bavarian and subalpine plateau was known as Rhaetia. The plains region in the east and southeast was known as Pannonia. The Romans invaded all three regions about 15 BC and made them provinces of the empire. Under Roman control, the provinces eventually became outposts for offensive and defensive action against various barbarian tribes. To a large extent Roman strategy was based on the fact that the region contains important passes through the eastern Alps and thus commands vital transportation arteries between northern, southern, western, and eastern Europe. One of the first Roman military posts in the region was Vindobona (now Vienna), which was located on the site of a Celtic settlement on the edge of the eastern Alps and on an arm of the Danube. Vindobona became an important strategic crossroad for two main trade routes and for numerous roads leading into the fertile basin of Lower Austria. Carnuntum (now Petronell), built in AD 73, was another important Roman center in the area.
As a result of periodic overpopulation and land hunger, combined with pressure from remote peoples and the attraction of the wealth of the peaceful Roman provinces, tribes of the Germanic peoples attacked the provincial frontiers at various times starting in AD 166. The frontiers completely broke down during the 4th century AD. Goths, Rugians, Lombards, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Huns at one time or another crossed the Vienna Basin. The Alamanni advanced into Rhaetia, the Herulians captured Juvavum (now Salzburg), and the Goths advanced along the Drau River.
The Slavs and the Avars moved into Pannonia from the east and southeast at about the same time the Germans invaded the northwest. By the mid-6th century the Bavarians had occupied Tirol, and the Alamanni had settled to the west. The Slavic peoples were split into northern and southern groups by Avars and Bavarians contending for control of the Danube River valley. The Avars left only superficial traces in the country, but the Slovenes built settlements in the depopulated valleys of the eastern Alps. The Germans finally overwhelmed the Slovene settlements, which could not depend on a continuous stream of new settlers. In a few areas of what are now Carinthia and Styria the Slovenes managed to establish permanent settlements.
Medieval Era
During the 8th century, after fratricidal strife among the Germans, the Franks secured the throne of Bavaria. Fighting continued during that century between the Avars and the Bavarians in the Danube River valley. At the end of the century Charlemagne devastated the territory of the Avars and established a series of outposts (military districts) of the empire in the country between the Enns and Raab rivers to serve as buffer territories against further encroachment from the east. One of these outposts was the Ostmark (Eastern March), which later became known as Ost Reich (Eastern Country) or Österreich (Austria). Other marches in the east and southeast were Carantania and Carniola, later Styria. These marches, however, were too weak to hold back intrusions from the east.
The Magyars, a nomadic people migrating slowly from the east, advanced easily along the Danube River valley until they were finally defeated by the German king Otto I at Augsburg in 955 in the Battle of the Lechfeld. Otto I revived the Eastern March and gave the more influential title of margrave to its administrator; these moves marked the emergence of Austria as a political entity. The boundary of the Eastern March was slowly extended eastward until in the early 11th century it reached what is now called Moravia. The margrave of Austria was subordinate to the duke of Bavaria, whose domain included this march. The main function of the margrave was the defense of the march and the outlying areas, and for that purpose the margraves enjoyed exceptional power. Between 976 and 1230 the Babenberg rulers of Austria contributed much to the growth of the march. They built cities and roads, encouraged trade, and enhanced their prestige by participation in the Crusades.
The death of the last Babenberg was followed by a period of trial and unrest. King Ottokar II of Bohemia occupied Austria, Styria, and Carniola during his reign from 1230 to 1278. His power was opposed by Rudolf von Habsburg (Rudolf I), who was crowned Holy Roman emperor in 1273. In 1278 Ottokar was defeated in battle by Rudolf's forces and was slain. By 1283 most of the former domain of Ottokar had come under the rule of Rudolf's son Albert I.
Austria Under the Habsburgs
The rise of Austria is closely linked to the house of Habsburg. During the 14th and 15th centuries the Habsburgs increased their holdings in the eastern part of the Holy Roman Empire. Archduke Rudolf IV proclaimed the indivisibility of Habsburg hereditary possessions, which corresponded roughly to the modern republic of Austria. From 1438 until 1806 (except for 1742-1745), the archdukes of Austria held the title of Holy Roman emperor.
During the reign of Emperor Maximilian I from 1486 to 1519, the Habsburg empire became a great power, as its territory expanded because of several advantageous marriages. His own marriage to Mary of Burgundy brought a large part of that territory into the empire. He also arranged the marriage of his son Philip (later Philip I of Castile) to Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand V and Isabella I, thus establishing the Habsburg claim to Spain and its possessions in Italy and the Americas. Philip's son Ferdinand I married into the ruling house of Bohemia and Hungary and became king of Bohemia in 1524. Ferdinand's brother Charles had become Holy Roman emperor as Charles V after the death of Maximilian in 1519.
Charles combined under his rule the inheritances of his grandparents; Habsburg hereditary lands in Austria; the Low Countries; and Spain and its possessions. The extent of the Habsburg empire proved impossible for one monarch to rule. In 1521-1522 Charles gave Ferdinand lands in Austria and part of Germany. Division of the Habsburg dynasty into Spanish and Austrian branches was completed when Charles abdicated in 1556 as king of Spain in favor of his son Philip II and, in 1558, as Holy Roman emperor in favor of his brother Ferdinand.
Civil and Foreign Wars
The Reformation quickly gained ground in the Holy Roman Empire, including Austria. Charles V had fought Reformation on religious and political grounds. His struggle to preserve religious unity as a basis for Habsburg power led to war within the empire, which then became entwined with wars against France and the Ottoman Empire. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) brought some respite by establishing limited religious toleration in Germany for Lutherans and Roman Catholics based on the principle that each ruler had the right to determine his religion and that of his subjects. This settlement was respected by the Habsburgs until Ferdinand II, an uncompromising champion of the Counter Reformation, attempted to reimpose Catholicism on his subjects. The Protestants in Bohemia rebelled in 1618, thus beginning the first phase of the Thirty Years' War. After the rebels deposed Ferdinand in 1619, this internal Austrian conflict grew into a European war, fought mainly on German soil. The Habsburgs were defeated in battle, and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) weakened their control over the Holy Roman Empire by reducing it to a loose union of independent states.
A serious conflict arose in the 1680s when Turkey agreed to help Hungarian rebels against Habsburg rule. The climax came in 1683, when Vienna was besieged by the Turkish grand vizier Kara Mustapha Pasha. The city was rescued by an army of Poles and Germans under the Polish king John III Sobieski. The imperial armies won major victories near the end of the century, led by Prince Eugene of Savoy, who drove the Turks out of Hungary.
In 1700 Charles II of Spain died without an heir. He left Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and his possessions in Italy to Philip, duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV, king of France. The Holy Roman emperor Leopold I, a Habsburg from the Austrian line, claimed these lands for his son Joseph I; this led to war. At the end of the war Philip was recognized as Philip IV, king of Spain, but Austria gained control of the Spanish Netherlands and Spanish possessions in northern Italy.
In 1713 the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI promulgated a so-called Pragmatic Sanction, which declared his possessions indivisible and hereditary in both the male and female line of the House of Austria. This was the first fundamental law common to all Habsburg lands, and was intended as a foundation for their gradual integration. Its unifying character was weakened in Hungary, which accepted it only after Charles confirmed the Hungarian constitution and autonomy, in effect strengthening Hungarian separatism. Most European monarchs pledged to accept the Pragmatic Sanction in return for various concessions, but repudiated their pledges in 1740 when Charles died, leaving no male heirs.
Enlightened Despotism
In accordance with the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles's eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, who in 1736 had married Francis, duke of Lorraine, ascended the Habsburg throne. (In 1745 Francis became Holy Roman emperor Francis I, but his wife remained the power on the throne.) Maria Theresa's ascension and rival claims to Habsburg dominions led to war and culminated in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). As a result Austria lost most of Silesia, economically the best developed province of Bohemia, to Prussia. This spurred reforms in imperial administration and education and in the legal system; lightened the burdens of the serfs; and reduced the authority of the nobility.
Maria Theresa's son, Joseph II, motivated by the ideas of the Enlightenment, abolished serfdom altogether; improved civil and criminal procedures; decreed religious toleration and freedom of the press; reformed the Roman Catholic church by removing its control over secular matters; and tried to centralize imperial administration. His reforms aroused widespread opposition. At the time of his death, Hungary and Belgium were in full revolt, and there was unrest in the Austrian hereditary lands and Bohemia. Joseph's brother and successor, Leopold II, revoked most of the reforms and was forced to recognize Hungary as a separate unit of the Habsburg lands. Even so, Joseph's reign had regenerated the monarchy and opened it up to European trends. During the era of enlightened despotism, Austria acquired part of Poland by joining with Russia and Prussia in the partition of that country.
Warfare with France
From 1792 to 1815 the Habsburg Empire was involved almost continuously in warfare, first in the French Revolution and then in the Napoleonic Wars. The French rebels' democratic and nationalistic ideas were a threat to the absolutist Habsburgs, who were drawn into the conflict after Leopold II was succeeded by his reactionary son, Francis II, in 1792. Austrian military involvement began with a successful Austro-Prussian invasion of France, then faltered when the French forces drove the invaders back across the border and, during the winter of 1794-1795, conquered the Austrian Netherlands. In 1806, after Napoleon's conquest of most of Germany, Francis dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. In anticipation of this move, in 1804 the monarch had declared himself Francis I, hereditary emperor of Austria. It was not long before Napoleon's fortunes turned, however, and Austria was part of the coalition that drove him into exile in 1814. Francis's power and territory were to some extent restored by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Although Austria lost some territories in Belgium and southwest Germany, it gained Lombardy, Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia. The diplomatic skill of Austrian chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich made the Habsburg Empire the center of the new European order. Austrian influence in both the German Confederation, which replaced the Holy Roman Empire, and the Holy Alliance, was at a peak.
Revolution of 1848
From 1815 to 1848 the course of the Austrian Empire, directed by Metternich, was essentially dedicated to preserving the status quo. The empire was still basically rural, through significant industrial growth had taken place since the late 1820s. Nationalism became entwined with the problems of social change; the pressures were heightened by peasant discontent. In March 1848 a rebel movement in Vienna forced Metternich to resign. The revolution quickly spread as Germans, Magyars, Slavs, Italians, and others turned against the imperial regime. Ferdinand I abdicated in December, and his 18-year-old nephew, Francis Joseph I, began a reign that would last until 1916. The new emperor promulgated a constitution for Austria that set up a parliamentary government and emancipated the peasants from feudal burdens. Italian rebels took over the government in Milan, and Hungary declared itself all but independent, bound to the empire only through its Habsburg monarch. In addition, a constitutional assembly drew up a plan for the administrative organization of the empire along national lines.
The revolutionary forces soon were weakened as the goals of different social classes and nationalities clashed. The Habsburg armies defeated the Italian rebels and, with the help of conservative Russia, crushed the Hungarian rebellion. Francis Joseph dropped all liberal pretensions. He abolished constitutional government and rejected the plan for imperial reorganization along national lines. The only reform that survived was the abolition of serfdom.
Austrian Losses
In the 1850s Austria faced the problems of protecting the empire from nationalism, especially in Italy and Prussia, and from Russian advances into the Balkan Peninsula. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) Austria threatened to intervene on the side of England and France if Russia did not evacuate the Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia. After the Russians complied in 1854, Austria occupied the territories until the end of the war. The prolonged conflict ruined Austria's finances, however, and its long-time ally Russia became an enemy, supporting the anti-Austrian policies of France and Prussia.
After a war that broke out in 1859, the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia expelled Austria from the Italian Peninsula, gained Lombardy, and created the kingdom of Italy. After this defeat, the emperor tried to strengthen his government by promulgating a limited constitutional system, which satisfied none of the opposition groups.
Austria fared no better in its struggle with Prussia for supremacy in Germany. The Prussian chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck, was determined to eliminate Austria from German affairs and bring about the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership. The climax was reached on the battlefield of Sadowa (1866) with a Prussian victory. The German Confederation was dissolved and Prussia took the lead in the reorganization and eventual unification of Germany. In addition, Austria lost Venetia to Prussia's ally, Italy (see SEVEN WEEKS' WAR).
The Dual Monarchy
After the war, in 1867, Emperor Francis Joseph was forced to come to a compromise (German Ausgleich) with the Hungarian nation, represented by the nobility. The compromise gave Hungary its own constitution and a nearly independent status. After 1867 the empire was known as Austria-Hungary, and popularly referred to as the dual monarchy. Austria and Hungary were separate states, each with its own constitution, government, parliament, and language. The Magyars predominated in Hungary while the Germans had a privileged position in Austria. The two states were linked by a single monarch, who was emperor in Austria and king in Hungary, and by common ministers of foreign affairs, war, and finance.
The 1867 compromise inspired movements for autonomy among other national groups within the empire. Besides Magyars and Germans (about 10 million each), the empire as a whole was also home to 9 major nationalities: Czechs, Poles, Ruthenes (Ukrainians), Slovaks, Serbs, Romanians, Croats, Slovenes, and Italians. About 6.5 million Czechs living in Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia made up the largest, most advanced, and most restless minority. All efforts of the national groups to achieve autonomy were stymied by Hungarian determination never to alter the political structure created by the compromise.
The constitution of 1867 regulated the political system in the Austrian half of the dual monarchy until 1918, but its liberal provisions were restricted in practice. Voting was tied to property qualifications, for example, and the aristocracy retained considerable influence. The ministers were responsible to the emperor, who had emergency powers to govern without parliament. As Austria experienced significant economic growth, there was increased social conflict, stronger national movements, the rise of mass political parties, and virulent anti-Semitism. From the 1880s political life was dominated by conflicts among the various nationalities.
Alongside the negative features of Austrian political life there were some solid achievements. Under Vienna's mayor, Karl Lueger, a program of “municipal socialism,” including the building of hospitals, schools, and parks, made the city among the most progressive in Europe. Vienna was also the scene of extraordinary artistic and intellectual innovation.
Alliance with Germany
The establishment of the German Empire in 1871 led to reorientation of Habsburg foreign policy toward the Balkan Peninsula. The intention of the foreign minister, Hungarian Count Gyula Andrassy, was to preserve the status quo. Adopting a policy of friendship with Germany, Andrássy promised that Austria-Hungary would not interfere in German internal affairs; in return, Germany backed Austro-Hungarian attempts to limit Russian influence in southeastern Europe. When Russia defeated the Turks in 1878, Austria-Hungary, supported by Germany and Great Britain, intervened to prevent the Russians from seizing all of European Turkey. The Congress of Berlin (1878) restricted Russian acquisitions; it also permitted Austria-Hungary to administer the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1879 Germany and Austria-Hungary signed a formal alliance; with the addition of Italy in 1882 it became known as the Triple Alliance. From its inception, this alliance—the mainstay of Austria-Hungary's international position—was dominated by Germany, which subordinated Austria-Hungary's foreign policy interests to its own.
Serbia, made independent of Turkey by the Congress of Berlin, was a satellite of Austria-Hungary until 1903, when new leaders came to power intent on unifying all the southern Slavs in the Habsburg monarchy, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, into an enlarged Serbian state. In 1908, after a revolution in Turkey, Austria-Hungary annexed the two provinces. The Serbs, backed by Russia, protested vehemently. Only Germany's support of Austria-Hungary prevented war. By the time Serbia emerged from the Balkan Wars victorious and territorially enlarged, Austro-Hungarian leaders were convinced that war with Serbia was inevitable.
World War I
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb nationalist. After receiving German assurances of support, the Austro-Hungarian foreign office sent a harsh ultimatum to the Serbian government, holding it responsible for the assassination and requiring its total acceptance of Austria-Hungary's demands within three days. Despite a conciliatory reply that accepted all but two of the demands, and mediation efforts by the European powers, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28. Germany's declaration of war on Russia and France in early August transformed the conflict into World War I.
Austro-Hungarian military activity during the first year of the war was concentrated against Russia and Serbia. In May 1915 Italy, which had declared its neutrality in 1914, left the Triple Alliance and entered the war on the side of the Allies. The Austro-Hungarian army suffered many setbacks, and the monarchy, weakened by decades of internal dissension, began to disintegrate after the death in 1916 of Francis Joseph I. He was succeeded by his grandnephew, Charles I of Austria. In 1917 the new emperor failed in several secret attempts to achieve a separate peace with the Allies, angering the Germans in the process. At the same time representatives of the Czechs, Poles, and Southern Slavs set up organizations in the Allied countries to gain sympathy and recognition. By late 1917 nationalist activities made the monarchy increasingly untenable.
During the spring and summer of 1918 Austro-Hungarian forces were defeated on every military front; shortages of food and other necessities triggered strikes and demonstrations at home and mutinies in the army and navy. Recognizing that the collapse of the monarchy was inevitable, the nationalist groups within the empire organized national councils that acted like separate governments. The Southern Slavs, meeting in Zagreb on October 7, 1918, advocated union with Serbia, and on October 28 the Czechs proclaimed an independent republic in Prague. The Hungarian government announced its complete separation from Austria on November 3. That same day Austria and Hungary each signed an armistice with the Allies. On November 12 Charles relinquished all part in the administration of the state and left Austria. Within days Austria and Hungary declared themselves republics.
The First Austrian Republic
The Austrian Republic came into being as a disorganized and impoverished state of some seven million people. The dissolution of the monarchy deprived Austria of the industrial areas of Bohemia and Moravia and ended the large internal market created by the union between Austria and Hungary. German-Austrians desired union with the new German Republic, but this was forbidden by the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain. The new constitution (1920) created a federal state, with a bicameral legislature and a democratic suffrage.
Economic reconstruction took place with the aid of outside agencies. In 1919-1920 United States, British, and Swedish organizations provided food to relieve the desperate situation. Rising inflation heightened the country's distress, and in 1922 Austria appealed for help to the League of Nations. The league arranged for a large loan to prevent economic collapse. In return, Austria pledged to remain independent for at least 20 years. The deflationary policies that were a condition of the loan caused much economic hardship and unemployment, but Austrian finances slowly stabilized.
The internal political situation remained uneasy because of antagonisms between Socialist-dominated Vienna and the conservative provinces. On July 15, 1927, the Socialists organized mass demonstrations in Vienna to protest the acquittal of three members of a right-wing group, who were on trial for killing two people during a clash with the Socialist Schutzbund (Defense League). The Palace of Justice was burned, and about 100 people were killed when police fired on the demonstrators.
Fascism and Anschluss
A succession of federal governments, dominated by the conservative Christian Social party, could not overcome either the continuous unrest or the economic misery of the Great Depression. The rise of Austrian Nazism became a new destabilizing factor. Faced with his party's declining electoral strength and growing opposition from the left and the extreme right, the Christian Social chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, dissolved parliament in 1933 and ruled by decree. Backed by the army and the Heimwehr (Home Defense League), a Fascist paramilitary organization, in February 1934 the government crushed the Socialist opposition. Later all political parties were abolished except the Fatherland Front, which Dollfuss had created to unite the conservative forces. In April he introduced a constitution that did away with parliamentary government and vested control in the executive. Dollfuss was killed in July during an attempted Nazi putsch (takeover). Under the new chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, the regime drifted on, weakened by internal rivalries but sustained by promises of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to maintain the status quo. His guarantee lasted only until the Rome-Berlin Axis was established in 1936. Schuschnigg soon reached an agreement with Adolph Hitler that acknowledged Austria as “a German state.”
When Schuschnigg called for a plebiscite on Austrian independence in 1938, Hitler demanded and received his resignation. The Anschluss (annexation) was accomplished when German troops entered Austria on March 12, and a Nazi government was formed, headed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Austria, now called the Ostmark (Eastern March), was divided into seven administrative districts under the central authority of the German Third Reich.
World War II
In October 1943 the chiefs of state of the United States, Great Britain, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) signed the Moscow Declaration, which proclaimed the reestablishment of an independent Austria as one of the Allied war aims. Soviet troops liberated the eastern part of Austria, including Vienna, in April 1945. A provisional government headed by the Socialist leader Karl Renner was recognized by the Western occupation powers in October. National parliamentary elections were held in November, with ten parties participating. The Austrian People's party (similar to the prewar Christian Social party) won 85 of a total of 165 seats in the National Assembly, the Socialists won 76 seats, and the Communists won four seats. In December both houses of parliament elected Renner president of the republic. A coalition government, with the People's party leader Leopold Figl as chancellor, was then formed.
Allied Occupation
In the meantime Austria had been divided into four zones of occupation controlled, respectively, by the United States, France, Great Britain, and the USSR. Vienna was similarly divided. By the terms of a June 1946 agreement, the Austrian government received qualified authority over the entire country, including the right to legislate and to administer the laws. The occupation powers retained authority on such matters as demilitarization and the disposal of German-owned property. German economic assets in each zone were assigned to the respective occupying power. Laws passed in 1946 and 1947 eliminated Nazi influence from public life, but former Nazis without criminal records were allowed to participate in general elections in 1949.
The Austrian government faced immediate problems that severely taxed its limited powers. The war had shattered industry and disrupted transportation and communication systems. The people had suffered much, including starvation. The first task of the Figl government was to institute a relief program. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) made major contributions, and by mid-1947 the danger of starvation had ended. The economic recovery was greatly facilitated after 1948 by United States aid given under the European Recovery Program. By 1951 industrial production had exceeded prewar peaks; it continued to rise in the succeeding years.
Restoration of Sovereignty
The most significant event in the postwar era was the restoration of Austrian sovereignty in May 1955, after long negotiations that had begun in 1947. The main issue between the USSR, on the one side, and the United States, Great Britain, and France, on the other, was the future of Germany. The Soviets would not give up their strategic position in Austria unless Germany was “neutralized.” Among other issues were Soviet claims to German-owned property in Austria and Yugoslav territorial claims. Finally, in exchange for Soviet concessions Austria promised “…not to join any military alliances or permit any military bases on its territory.” The four Allies and Austria signed the State Treaty on May 15, 1955, formally reestablishing the Austrian republic. The treaty prohibited Anschluss between Austria and Germany, denied Austria the right to own or manufacture nuclear weapons or guided missiles, and obligated Austria to give the USSR part of its crude oil output for years to come. The United States, Great Britain, and France gave up any claims on German assets, and in August the USSR relinquished control of the Austrian oil fields, of 300 formerly German-owned enterprises, and of 97,200 hectares (240,000 acres) of land. All occupation troops were withdrawn by October, and the legislature adopted a constitutional provision pledging Austrian military neutrality. In December Austria became a United Nations member. Six years later, in 1961, Austria completed payment to the USSR of $150 million for former German businesses.
The Second Republic
From 1945 until 1966 Austria was governed by a coalition of the Socialist and People's parties. The number of positions each party received depended on its share of votes in parliamentary elections. This framework was extended to the economic sphere, as the state, industry, labor, and agricultural interests developed a partnership and created a modified market economy. Prosperity rested in part on nationalized industries, such as electric power plants and oil refineries; the government also controlled the banks. A new Austrian national consciousness developed based on shared experiences of wartime devastation, reestablishment of national sovereignty, successful reconstruction of the country, and the international prestige gained from Austria's unique position as a bridge between East and West.
The coalition weathered occasional differences and the loss of prewar and wartime leaders. President Renner died in December 1950 and was succeeded by the Socialist party leader, Theodore Koerner. While Socialist candidates were elected to the presidency (until 1986), the People's party supplied all the federal chancellors until 1970. Elections to the National Assembly in 1956, 1959, and 1962 resulted in little change in the relative strength of the two main parties. In 1957 Austria became embroiled in a dispute with Italy over the status of Austrians in the South Tirol, which had been under Italian rule since 1919. The settlement finally reached in 1970 called for implementation of a 1946 agreement guaranteeing the linguistic and cultural rights of the German-speaking Austrian population.
In 1960 Austria became a signatory to the pact establishing the European Free Trade Association. The government announced in July 1961 that it would seek an association with the European Economic Community (EEC; now the European Union) that was compatible with its military neutrality. The initial Socialist party opposition to participation gradually waned, and in 1972 Austria signed a bilateral free-trade agreement with the EEC.
The coalition government broke down in October 1965 because of a budget dispute that eventually forced the resignation of Chancellor Joseph Klaus. However, his party gained a small majority in the National Assembly elections of March 1966, allowing Klaus to form the first People's party government in the Second Republic.
The Kreisky Chancellorship
The Socialists won a narrow electoral victory in March 1970, which for the first time made them the largest party in the National Assembly. Lacking a majority, however, Socialist leader Bruno Kreisky tried, but failed, to form a coalition with the People's party. In May he was appointed chancellor and formed the first Austrian all-Socialist cabinet, supported in the National Assembly by the smaller Freedom party. In the 1971 elections the Socialists received an absolute majority of 93 seats and were able to govern alone. The Kreisky era was marked by modernization and a dramatic increase in the standard of living for people in all social classes. Many social and labor reforms were introduced. Kreisky's foreign policy initiatives gave Austria a position in international affairs far beyond its size. Despite his popularity and achievements, opposition developed around environmental issues, financial scandals, proposed tax increases, and especially the building of a nuclear power plant near Vienna. When antinuclear forces won a narrow victory in a 1978 referendum, the government was forced to abandon the nearly completed plant. Kreisky resigned in 1983, after the Socialists lost their absolute majority in the National Assembly.
New Problems and Opportunities
The new chancellor, Fred Sinowatz, a Socialist, formed a coalition with the Freedom party, but the alliance collapsed in 1986 when the Freedom party took a sharp turn to the right. Mismanagement and layoffs in the public sector coupled with controversy over privatization fueled discontent with the government, the Socialists, and the political patronage system. The presidential election in 1986 was won by the People's party candidate, Kurt Waldheim, former secretary-general of the United Nations, despite allegations that he had lied about his actions in the German army during World War II. The vote reflected the ambiguous attitude of many Austrians toward their country's Nazi past.
After parliamentary elections in November Chancellor Sinowatz resigned and Franz Vranitzky, another Socialist, took office, forming a coalition with the People's party. His government had to deal with continuing cutbacks in the public sector, high budget deficits, and international unease over Waldheim's election. The coalition survived the elections of October 1990, in which the Socialists won 80 seats in the National Assembly. The People's party lost 17 of its 77 seats, however, and the right-wing Freedom party gained 15 seats for a total of 33. The electorate, especially the new middle class, seemed to be shifting. Yet, in 1992 the candidate of the People's party, Thomas Klestil, a career diplomat and former ambassador to the United States, was elected president. He promised to press Austria's application to join the European Union (EU), which had been submitted in 1989. Membership negotiations in 1993 were stalled over Austria's insistence that heavy truck traffic on its Alpine roads remain restricted through 2004. The EU agreed to limits until 2001, with an option to extend them for three more years. The European Parliament endorsed EU membership for Austria in May 1994.
"Austria," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.
