Ungarn - Österreich#

Hungary - Austria: Relations between the two countries have been very close since Antiquity; Huns, Ostrogoths, later Avars, Slavs, and Magyars (Hungarians) came from Pannonia to Austria. The Ural-Altaic Magyar horsemen advanced towards Vienna for the first time in 881, conquered Pannonia (according to legend) in 895 and ruled over major parts of eastern Austria after 907; the west remained Bavarian. After the Battle of Lechfeld (near Augsburg) in 955 the Hungarians lost the territories which are now part of Austria, they converted to Christianity, settled down, and, under Saint Stephen I (around 975-1038), founded a state with Gran (Esztergom) as its capital.

The Babenbergs waged many wars against Hungary; the last Babenberg, Friedrich II, was killed in battle in 1246. The Habsburg Albrecht I wanted to gain Hungary or at least Hungarian border areas; from the 15th century on west-Hungarian domains were pledged to the Habsburgs. After the Habsburgs Albrecht V (II) and his son Ladislaus Postumus, Friedrich III was crowned King of Hungary in 1459. The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus waged several wars against the Habsburgs, but he also concluded the Treaty of Oedenburg (Sopron)/Wiener Neustadt (1463), which together with the agreement of 1491 and the Vienna Congress of Princes (1515) became the basis for the Habsburg succession in Hungary.

Under Ottoman rule after 1540, the country experienced the "age of trisection": the Habsburgs claimed the west and the north, the Turks the central part, Transylvania in the east was an Ottoman satellite state. Hungary was discontented with Habsburg rule, which led to the Magnates' Conspiracy of 1670/71. After the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683 the Imperial armies conquered all Hungary in the Turkish Wars of 1683-1699 and 1716-1718. However, Hungary remained constitutionally independent; the Estates recognised the Pragmatic Sanction in 1722. Reforms by Joseph II, who abolished serfdom, introduced religious toleration, and sought to harmonise the administration, failed because of the opposition of the lesser nobles. In the 19th century the Hungarians were at first able to keep their position; they rose up against the Habsburgs in the Revolution of 1848 under L. Kossuth, but were subdued in 1849. During the time of neo-absolutism, attempts were made to integrate Hungary into the Austrian Empire; the Estates resisted and ultimately reached the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, transforming the Empire into a Dual Monarchy, in 1867. In the Hungarian part of the Empire (Transleithania), which like Cisleithania was a multinational state, the rigorous Hungarian policy intended to Magyarize the other nationalities caused them to put up resistance.

With the disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918 Hungary became a separate state, but had to cede Burgenland to Austria under the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 ( Pariser Vorortevertraege), while on the other hand, it was allowed to keep Oedenburg (Sopron) following a plebiscite ( Abstimmungsgebiete). In 1923 13,979 people stated that they belonged to the Hungarian minority in Burgenland, and in 1951 these still amounted to 5,251, in 1991 the number had risen to 6,772; since 1979 the Hungarian minority in Austria has been represented by an Ethnic Minority Council ( Hungary).

Relations between Austria and Hungary remained relatively close between the two World Wars, and both states maintained friendly relations with Italy. From 1941 on Hungary took part in World War II on the German side, in December 1944 it concluded a preliminary armistice with the Soviet Union and declared war on Germany. In 1945 the German-speaking population was expelled from Hungary. From 1947 to 1989 Hungary was a people's republic; the revolution of 1956, as a result of which many Hungarians fled to Austria ( Refugees), failed. During the following years Hungary's relations with Austria were better than those with the other European people's democracies. The opening of the Hungarian border in September 1989 considerably contributed to the breakdown of Communist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe.

Literature#