!!!Polen - Österreich

Poland - Austria: Contacts between the two countries were mainly based 
on marriage between the two ruling families in the Middle Ages. 
Elisabeth, daughter of Duke Albrecht V, married Casimir IV. 
Their son Wladyslaw ascended the Bohemian throne in 1474 and became 
King of Hungary in 1490. In 1515, at the  Vienna Conference of Princes 
yet another bond between the Habsburgs and Jagiellons developed, and 
in the 17%%sup th/%  century the joint fight against the Turks 
brought new contacts, which culminated under the Polish king  Jan III 
Sobieski when he dispersed the Turks in 1683, ending the siege of 
Vienna. On the occasion of the Partitions of  Poland in 1772 and in 
1795 Austria had its share in the destruction of the Polish state and 
acquired a relatively large part of it. After 1815 Austria kept 
Galicia, and in 1846 it also received the city-state of Kraków. 
The influence of Polish people on the Habsburg Monarchy - in 1910 
around 10 % of the population was Polish - was especially strong 
after 1860, as many Polish aristocrats held high positions (e.g. Prime 
Minister Count K. F.  Badeni) and the "Polenklub" 
(Polish Club) played an important role in the Abgeordnetenhaus (House 
of Deputies). Cultural relations were also close, e.g. between the 
Wiener Secession and the "Junge Polen" (Young Polish 
Artists), who were based in Kraków. In 1916, a plan was 
developed in the course of the First World War to appoint the Habsburg 
Karl Stefan ruler of the newly created "Little Poland". With the 
dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 a territory of 
81,000 km%%sup 2/% fell to the new Polish state.

!Literature
Polen im Zeitalter der Jagiellonen, exhibition catalogue, 
Schallaburg 1986.


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