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The Imperial Heritage |
The
Habsburg Dynasty -- following the Babenberger Dynasty who had controlled Austria for nearly 300 years until Duke Friedrich
(Frederic) died childless in 1246
-- had gained control of Austria by 1278 and ruled her (and the
countries and counties acquired from 1526 onwards, such as Bohemia and
Hungary, Moravia, Slovakia, Croatia, parts of what is nowadays
Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, etc.) as a (multi-ethnic) Dynastic Empire right up until
the end of WW I. Since 1438 (with a few exceptions, and
continuously since 1745) members of the Habsburg Dynasty were the
Emperors of the "Holy Roman Empire of German Nation" until its
expiry in 1806. In 1804 the Austrian Empire was founded, only to
be transformed in 1867 into the "Dual Monarchy" of
Austria-Hungary. Francis Joseph I (1830 - 1916)
Most of the architectural highlights of Vienna -- e.g. almost all of the stately buildings lining the "Ring" -- stem from the francisco-josephinean era. [Link opens a new window.]
Modernizations in technical areas like cars and aircrafts were introduced during Franz Joseph's reign which also saw the upcoming of the "Modernism" at the turn of last century (Fin de siècle). (See the section on Art Nouveau, partly also the section on Music re the "modern" composers Mahler, Schönberg, Alban Berg, Zemlinsky. Sigmund Freud, too, spent the first 60 of the 83 years of his life under the Emperor Francis Joseph.) Modernism in Vienna View/download
"Vienna Modernism 1890 - 1910",
an excellent
document on this cultural movement containing many illustrations
A Counterpoint to the
Imperial Era -
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Hundertwasser-Building |