!!!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.

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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 15%%sup th/%  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.

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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 19%%sup th/%  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.

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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).

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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
H. Haselsteiner, Das Nationalitaetenproblem in den 
Laendern der ungarischen Krone, in: E. Zoellner (ed.), Volk, Land und 
Staat in der Geschichte Oesterreichs, 1984; P. Hanák (ed.), Die 
Geschichte Ungarns, 1988; T. v. Bogyay, Grundzuege der Geschichte 
Ungarns, %%sup 4/%1990; F. Pesendorfer, Ungarn und Oesterreich, 1998.


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