!!!Vorderösterreich

Vorderoesterreich (also referred to as "Vorlande"; Austrian 
Forelands), name for the Habsburg domains in the west of their empire: 
in Switzerland (Aargau, Thurgau, Zuerichgau, etc.), in Swabia, and in 
Alsace (Sundgau). In 1368 the city of Freiburg im Breisgau submitted 
to the Habsburgs and became the political and intellectual centre of 
Vorderoesterrreich. The Landvogteien (administrative subdivisions 
headed by a Landvogt) in the Lower Alsace region and in the Ortenau 
and from 1572 onwards also the Swabian domains (Burgau, Hohenberg, 
Nellenburg, Tettnang and the Upper Swabian Landvogtei) were only 
loosely connected with Vorderoesterreich; from 1752 until 1782 
Vorarlberg also belonged to Vorderoesterreich. The family domains of 
the Habsburgs in Switzerland ("Vorlande") were lost early 
on, after the Habsburg dukes were defeated at Morgarten 
(Leopold I, 1315), at Sempach (Leopold III, 1386) and near 
Naefels (Albrecht III, 1388). In 1415 they lost Aargau when Duke 
Friedrich IV was outlawed, while Rapperswil was lost in 1458, 
Thurgau in 1460 and Winterthur in 1467. With the acquisition of Tirol 
and the whole area of Vorarlberg the Habsburgs were able to establish 
the territorial connection between Austria and Vorderoesterreich. The 
true founder of Vorderoesterreich is considered to have been  
Leopold III, who concluded the  Neuberger Teilungsvertrag in 
1379. In 1490 the government of the Vorlande domiciled in Ensisheim 
(Alsace) was placed under the central administration for Tirol and the 
Vorlande (domiciled in Innsbruck), which had been established by 
Maximilian I; from 1651 onwards Freiburg im Breisgau became the 
seat of government of Vorderoesterreich. In the Peace of Westphalia of 
1648 the Habsburgs lost their possessions in Alsace to France, in the 
Treaty of Pressburg of 1805 (definitive as from 1815) all the other 
areas of Vorderoesterreich to Baden, Wuerttemberg and Bavaria. At the 
1815 Congress of Vienna the negotiating parties discussed whether 
Austria was to receive the Breisgau region ("according to the 
wishes of the people living in this area") if it abandoned its 
rights to Salzburg. However, these plans failed; eventually Breisgau 
was ceded to Baden, and the Palatinate left of the river Rhine to 
Bavaria; in return, Austria received the principal parts of Salzburg.

!Literature
P. Stadler, Vorderoesterreich, 1932; O. Stolz, 
Geschichtliche Beschreibung der ober- und vorderoesterreichischen 
Laender, 1943; Vorderoesterreich, ed. by F. Metz, 2 vols., 1959.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Vorderösterreich|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]