What happened in history in Austria

Wind power first appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages. The first historical records of their use in England date to the 11th or 12th centuries, there are reports of German crusaders taking their windmill-making skills to Syria around 1190.

In 1282, Rudolf I thus lent Austria and Styria to his own sons.

Albert was assassinated in 1308.

During an outbreak, doctors learn how to help the patient recover by bursting the buboes.

The Austrian National Library was founded in Vienna.

The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century and was found in parts of England, Flanders, Germany and Austria. Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. Soul cakes would also be offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives. As with the Lenten tradition of hot cross buns, Allhallowtide soul cakes were often marked with a cross, indicating that they were baked as alms.

When Frederick III needed the dukes to finance a war against Hungary in 1486, and at the same time had his son (later Maximilian I) elected king, he faced a demand from the united dukes for their participation in an Imperial Court. The Austrian–Hungarian War was a military conflict between the Kingdom of Hungary under Mathias Corvinus and the Habsburg Archduchy of Austria under Frederick V (also Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III). The war lasted from 1477 to 1488 and resulted in significant gains for Matthias, which humiliated Frederick, but which were reversed upon Matthias' sudden death in 1490.

Suleiman the Magnificent then laid siege to Vienna in 1529 but failed to take the city.

In 1532, Suleiman the Magnificent made another attack on Vienna but was repulsed in the Siege of Güns.

The Great Plague of Vienna kills at least 76,000 people.

At the Battle of Vienna (1683), the Army of the Holy Roman Empire, led by the Polish King John III Sobieski, decisively defeated a large Turkish army, stopping the western Ottoman advance and leading to the eventual dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. The army was half forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, mostly cavalry, and half forces of the Holy Roman Empire (German/Austrian), mostly infantry.

This period of renewed assertiveness came to a calamitous end in 1683 when Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha led a huge army to attempt a second Ottoman siege of Vienna in the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699. The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) and Anna Maria, née Pertl (1720–1778), at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg.

At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down, these early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the Nannerl Notenbuch. There is some scholarly debate about whether Mozart was four or five years old when he created his first musical compositions, though there is little doubt that Mozart composed his first three pieces of music within a few weeks of each other: K. 1a, 1b, and 1c.

The same year in October Leopold brought both kids off to Vienna. This great city, just as it is today, was the beating heart of music in Austrian lands. The youngsters were once again heard by the powers that were and invited to play at the Viennese court, which they did on 13 October.

Leopold attempted to set his son up as an opera composer. He was working on a proposed order from Emperor Joseph II that the young boy should write an opera, rival musicians were not eager for a preteen composer to upstage himself. There were reports that the opera was a sham — that the work was really composed by Leopold, not Wolfgang. The premiere was repeatedly postponed. Finally, Leopold gave up and took his son back to Salzburg, and the opera, where the score was first performed the following year.

The world of Mozart was evolving, very dramatically. He was assigned the Konzertmeister post to court in Salzburg. Though the position came without pay, it's hard to overestimate the importance of this opportunity. This was a 13-year-old boy given the job as a composer and conductor to the archbishop-prince of one of the Holy Roman Empire 's main principalities.

Mozart paired with the grand old man of the world of libretto, the 74-year-old poet Metastasio. This wasn't an opera, this wasn't an oratorio, it was a 'dramatic serenade' that was performed successfully on May 1 of that year at the enthronement. Sadly, while it was definitely of high quality and certainly significant at the period, it has not survived the test of time to claim a place in the general repertoire.

Mozart wrote the bassoon concerto at the age of 18, and it was his first concerto for a wind instrument. In this piece, Mozart gave his bassoon soloist a real run-out on the instrument, with fast, florid passages that are still something of a challenge today, never mind the much more unfavourable 1770s instrument.

Siegmund Haffner, approached them with a request for music for his sister’s wedding, Mozart happily obliged. Hard as we might imagine today, the resulting Haffner Serenade was planned to be played at Marie Elisabeth Haffner 's wedding on July 21, 1776 for talking, cooking, drinking guests. Once again, the Haffner Serenade is one of Mozart 's early achievements — a brilliant work, full of complexity and imagination, despite receiving little attention from the audience at its first performance.

1777 marked the beginning of a very long departure from Salzburg life. Mozart became deeply dissatisfied with his hometown and again requested leave. He became so irritated by yet another offer for leave that he dismissed both Mozart and Leopold, while Mozart agreed to leave in a pointedly laconic manner anyway. As a result, a carriage was hired and he set off — without his father but this time with his mother — on 23 September and left first for Munich and then for Augsburg.

A 16-year-old composer arrived at Vienna on 7 April 1787 newly. He was already acquainted with Mozart 's music by all accounts, and was excited to meet him. It's said he was playing music with him and he also had some lessons from him, probably. the name of the young composer was Ludwig van Beethoven.

Leopold Mozart died. When all his affairs were taken care of, Mozart received 1000 gulden from his father’s estate. It was a much-needed financial boost.

The composer was called to Vienna the following March, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, participated in the festivities for Joseph II 's accession to the Austrian throne. Mozart, fresh from his adulation in Munich, was offended when Colloredo regarded him as a mere servant, and particularly when the archbishop forbade him to perform at Countess Thun's before the Emperor for a fee equal to half of his annual Salzburg salary. In May, the ensuing quarrel reached a head, Mozart attempted to withdraw and was rejected. Permission was granted the following month but the composer was dismissed in a grossly insulting manner, administered by the steward of the archbishop, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and a composer.

The only thing that brightened up for Mozart in 1779 had been a commission for a new opera from Munich. He was now 24. Idomeneo, who was now resident in Munich, had come as a commission from the Bavarian elector. Mozart had probably finished the recitations before he left home. Then he would have traveled to Munich to complete the arias only after meeting with the singers and practicing. Mozart was always keen to hear how a person would sing before he wrote them an aria.

Mozart was infamous enough to be challenged to a duel by December. Another pianist had arrived in town, Clementi himself was a supremely respected pianist, and was invited to court on this occasion as part of the general merrymaking surrounding the presence of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Russia. Mozart and Clementi were asked to become musical gladiators for the amusement of the court, and participated in a piano virtuosity contest, Mozart got off best and this certainly made his name the power of good.

By 16 July 1782, the new opera, The Abduction from the Harem, was ready and it was premiered at the Burgtheater, in the presence of the emperor, netting Mozart a much-needed 100 ducats.

The wedding day of Mozart was on 4th August 1782. He and Constanze were married at the magnificent St Stephen's Cathedral, a very large building which was their local church in turn.

In 1783 Mozart and his wife were in Salzburg visiting his family. His father and sister were kind to Constanze, however the visit inspired one of Mozart 's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor, to be written. It was premiered in Salzburg, though incomplete, with Constanze singing a solo role.

Constanze gave birth to a baby boy named Raimund Leopold, but the Mozarts took a trip to Salzburg to see Leopold, leaving Raimund Leopold in Vienna as a young infant. Their son died when they were away, so the Mozarts left for Vienna.

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785.

Constanze delivered their second child, Karl Thomas, on September 21. Karl Thomas will live to the ripe old age of 74, unlike his brother Raimund. His parents moved house very early in his childhood, again. This time it was to the Domgasse which was much more salubrious. And salubriousness brought expense with it, with the flat costing a staggering 450 gilder a year for the Mozarts.

On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence"). Freemasonry played an essential role in the remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were Masons, and on various occasions, he composed Masonic music, e.g. the Maurerische Trauermusik.

Mozart stepped away from keyboard writing around the end of 1785, and started his famous operatic partnership with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. In 1786 the popular premiere of The Marriage of Figaro was celebrated in Vienna. Later in the year its reception in Prague was even warmer.

In January 1786, Mozart had taken on a new commission for opera. Without doubt his decision was motivated by the appeal that came from the emperor himself, in memory of the sister of the emperor. The welcome sum of 50 ducats was given him by Emperor Joseph II itself. In addition, Mozart produced an opera, called The Impresario.

He had been given a new job: Kammermusicus to the Emperor’s court. The job did not require much from one so great as Mozart but it did guarantee him 800 gulden as a regular income.

The Magic Flute was the last opera Mozart composed, it was premiered on 30th September 1791 - roughly three months before he died. Mozart himself conducted the orchestra, while the librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, sang the role of Papageno.

Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna in November 1792, amid rumors of war spilling out of France; he learned shortly after his arrival that his father had died. Over the next few years, Beethoven responded to the widespread feeling that he was a successor to the recently deceased Mozart by studying that master's work and writing works with a distinctly Mozartean flavour.

With Haydn's departure for England in 1794, Beethoven was expected by the Elector to return home to Bonn. He chose instead to remain in Vienna, continuing his instruction in counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger and other teachers. In any case, by this time it must have seemed clear to his employer that Bonn would fall to the French, as it did in October 1794, effectively leaving Beethoven without a stipend or the necessity to return. However, a number of Viennese noblemen had already recognised his ability and offered him financial support, among them Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten.

His first public performance in Vienna was in March 1795, where he first performed one of his piano concertos. Shortly after this performance, he arranged for the publication of the first of his compositions to which he assigned an opus number, the three piano trios, Opus 1. These works were dedicated to his patron Prince Lichnowsky, and were a financial success; Beethoven's profits were nearly sufficient to cover his living expenses for a year.

The next phase of the campaign featured the French invasion of the Habsburg heartlands. French forces in Southern Germany had been defeated by the Archduke Charles in 1796, but the Archduke withdrew his forces to protect Vienna after learning about Napoleon's assault.

The Austrians were alarmed by the French thrust that reached all the way to Leoben, about 100 km from Vienna, and finally decided to sue for peace. The Treaty of Leoben, followed by the more comprehensive Treaty of Campo Formio, gave France control of most of northern Italy and the Low Countries, and a secret clause promised the Republic of Venice to Austria. Bonaparte marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending 1,100 years of independence. He also authorized the French to loot treasures such as the Horses of Saint Mark.

Beethoven told the English pianist Charles Neate (in 1815) that he dated his hearing loss from a fit he suffered in 1798 induced by a quarrel with a singer. During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of tinnitus. As early as 1801, he wrote to Wegeler and another friend Karl Amenda, describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his close friends were already aware of the problems). The cause was probably otosclerosis, perhaps accompanied by degeneration of the auditory nerve.

In 1799 Beethoven participated in (and won) a notorious piano 'duel' at the home of Baron Raimund Wetzlar (a former patron of Mozart) against the virtuoso Joseph Wölfl, and in the following year, he similarly triumphed against Daniel Steibelt at the salon of Count Moritz von Fries.

In May 1799, he taught piano to the daughters of Hungarian Countess Anna Brunsvik. During this time, he fell in love with the younger daughter Josephine.

Beethoven's eighth piano sonata the "Pathétique" (Op. 13), published in 1799 is described by the musicologist Barry Cooper as "surpassing any of his previous compositions, in the strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation."

He did not immediately set out to establish himself as a composer, but rather devoted himself to study and performance. Working under Haydn's direction, he sought to master counterpoint. He also studied violin under Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Early in this period, he also began receiving occasional instruction from Antonio Salieri, primarily in Italian vocal composition style; this relationship persisted until at least 1802, and possibly as late as 1809.

In the spring of 1801, he completed The Creatures of Prometheus, a ballet. The work received numerous performances in 1801 and 1802, and he rushed to publish a piano arrangement to capitalize on its early popularity.

In the spring of 1802, he completed the Second Symphony, intended for performance at a concert that was canceled. The symphony received its premiere instead at a subscription concert in April 1803 at the Theater an der Wien, where he had been appointed composer in residence. In addition to the Second Symphony, the concert also featured the First Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. Reviews were mixed, but the concert was a financial success; he was able to charge three times the cost of a typical concert ticket.

On the advice of his doctor, he moved to the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote the document now known as the “Heiligenstadt Testament”, a letter to his brothers which records his thoughts of suicide due to his growing deafness and records his resolution to continue living for and through his art. The letter was never actually sent and was discovered in the composer’s papers after his death. The letters to Wegeler and Amenda were not so despairing; in them, Beethoven commented also on his ongoing professional and financial success at this period, and his determination, as he expressed it to Wegeler, to “seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me completely.” In 1806, Beethoven noted on his musical sketches "Let your deafness no longer be a secret – even in art."

During the early 1800s his income came from publishing his works, from performances of them, and from his patrons, for whom he gave private performances and copies of works they commissioned for an exclusive period prior to their publication. Some of his early patrons, including Prince Lobkowitz and Prince Lichnowsky, gave him annual stipends in addition to commissioning works and purchasing published works. Perhaps his most important aristocratic patron was Archduke Rudolf of Austria, Archbishop of Olomouc and Cardinal-Priest, and the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, who is 1803 or 1804 began to study piano and composition with him. They became friends, and their meetings continued until 1824. Beethoven was to dedicate 14 compositions to Rudolph, including the Archduke Trio Op. 97 (1811) and Missa Solemnis Op. 123 (1823).

Beethoven’s return to Vienna from Heiligenstadt was marked by a change in musical style and is now often designated as the start of his middle or "heroic" period characterized by many original works composed on a grand scale. According to Carl Czerny, Beethoven said, "I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way." An early major work employing this new style was the Third Symphony in E flat Op. 55, known as the Eroica, written in 1803-4. The idea of creating a symphony based on the career of Napoleon may have been suggested to Beethoven by Count Bernadotte in 1798.

Beethoven, sympathetic to the ideal of the heroic revolutionary leader, originally gave the symphony the title "Bonaparte", but disillusioned by Napoleon declaring himself Emperor in 1804, he scratched Napoleon's name from the manuscript's title page, and the symphony was published in 1806 with its present title and the subtitle "to celebrate the memory of a great man." The Eroica was longer and larger in scope than any previous symphony. When it premiered in early 1805 it received a mixed reception. Some listeners objected to its length or misunderstood its structure, while others viewed it as a masterpiece.

Beethoven continued to attract recognition. In 1807 the musician and publisher Muzio Clementi secured the rights for publishing his works in England, and Haydn's former patron Prince Esterházy commissioned a mass (the Mass in C, Op. 86) for his wife's name-day. But he could not count on such recognition alone. A colossal benefit concert which he organized in December 1808, and was widely advertised, including the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth (Pastoral) symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, extracts from the Mass in C, the scena and aria Ah! perfido Op. 65 and the Choral Fantasy op. 80. There was a large audience, (including Czerny and the young Ignaz Moscheles). But it was under-rehearsed, involved many stops and starts, and during the Fantasia Beethoven was noted shouting at the musicians "badly played, wrong, again!" The financial outcome is unknown.

The imminence of war reaching Vienna itself was felt in early 1809. In April Beethoven had completed writing his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73, which the musicologist Alfred Einstein has described as “the apotheosis of the military concept” in Beethoven’s music. Archduke Rudolf left the capital with the Imperial family in early May, prompting Beethoven’s piano sonata ‘’Les Adieux’’, (Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a), actually entitled by Beethoven in German “Das Lebewohl”(“ The Farewell”), of which the final movement, ’’Das Wiedersehen” (‘’The Return’’), is dated in the manuscript with the date of Rudolf’s homecoming of 30 January 1810.

After four years on the sidelines, Austria sought another war with France to avenge its recent defeats. Austria could not count on Russian support because the latter was at war with Britain, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire in 1809. Although Archduke Charles warned that the Austrians were not ready for another showdown with Napoleon, a stance that landed him in the so-called "peace party", he did not want to see the army demobilized either. On 8 February 1809, the advocates for war finally succeeded when the Imperial Government secretly decided on another confrontation against the French.

On 13 May, Vienna fell for the second time in four years, although the war continued since most of the Austrian army had survived the initial engagements in Southern Germany.

By 17 May, the main Austrian army under Charles had arrived on the Marchfeld. Charles kept the bulk of his troops several kilometres away from the river bank in hopes of concentrating them at the point where Napoleon decided to cross.

On 21 May, the French made their first major effort to cross the Danube, precipitating the Battle of Aspern-Essling. The Austrians enjoyed a comfortable numerical superiority over the French throughout the battle. On the first day, Charles disposed of 110,000 soldiers against only 31,000 commanded by Napoleon. By the second day, reinforcements had boosted French numbers up to 70,000. It was the first defeat Napoleon suffered in a major set-piece battle, and it caused excitement throughout many parts of Europe because it proved that he could be beaten on the battlefield.

From 30 June to the early days of July, the French recrossed the Danube in strength, with more than 180,000 troops marching across the Marchfeld towards the Austrians. Charles received the French with 150,000 of his own men.

In the ensuing Battle of Wagram, which also lasted two days, Napoleon commanded his forces in what was the largest battle of his career up until then. Napoleon finished off the battle with a concentrated central thrust that punctured a hole in the Austrian army and forced Charles to retreat.

At the end of 1809, Beethoven was commissioned to write incidental music for Goethe's play Egmont.

The resulting Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809 was the harshest that France had imposed on Austria in recent memory.

Malfatti was the niece of Beethoven's doctor, and he had proposed to her in 1810. He was 40, she was 19. The proposal was rejected. She is now remembered as the recipient of the piano bagatelle Für Elise.

Napoleon married the Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, daughter of Francis II on March 11, 1810 at the Augustinian Church, Vienna, who was 18 years old at the time.

In early 1813 Beethoven apparently went through a difficult emotional period, and his compositional output dropped. His personal appearance degraded—it had generally been neat—as did his manners in public, notably when dining.

Beethoven was finally motivated to begin significant composition again in June 1813, when news arrived of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Vitoria by a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington. The inventor Mälzel persuaded him to write a work commemorating the event for his mechanical instrument the Panharmonicon.

Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent him from composing music, but it made playing at concerts—an important source of income at this phase of his life—increasingly difficult. (It also contributed substantially to his social withdrawal.) Czerny remarked that Beethoven could still hear speech and music normally until 1812. But in April and May 1814, playing in his Piano Trio, Op. 97 (known as the ’’Archduke’’), he made his last public appearances as a soloist. The composer Louis Spohr noted: “the piano was badly out of tune, which Beethoven minded little since he did not hear it there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist I was deeply saddened.” From 1814 onwards Beethoven used for conversation ear-trumpets designed by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, and a number of these are on display at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.

The Congress of Vienna was an international diplomatic conference to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I. It was a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and held in Vienna.

On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw. Four days later, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia each pledged to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.

After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, as they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of Italy and were, together, the most powerful force against unification.

Between 1815 and 1819 Beethoven's output dropped again to a level unique in his mature life. He attributed part of this to a lengthy illness (he called it an "inflammatory fever") that he had for more than a year, starting in October 1816.

In 1819 Beethoven began work on the Diabelli Variations and the Missa Solemnis, composing over the next few years piano sonatas and bagatelles to satisfy the demands of publishers and the need for income. He was ill again for an extended time in 1821 and completed the Missa in 1823, three years after its original due date. Around 1822 his brother Johann began to assist him in his business affairs, including him lending him money against ownership of some of his compositions.

Two commissions in 1822 improved Beethoven's financial prospects. The Philharmonic Society of London offered a commission for a symphony, and Prince Nikolas Golitsin of Saint Petersburg offered to pay Beethoven's price for three string quartets. The first of these commissions spurred him to finish the Ninth Symphony, which was first performed, along with the Missa Solemnis, on 7 May 1824, to great acclaim at the Kärntnertortheater.

He wrote the last quartets amidst failing health. In April 1825 he was bedridden and remained ill for about a month. The illness—or more precisely, his recovery from it—is remembered for having given rise to the deeply felt slow movement of the Fifteenth Quartet, which he called "Holy song of thanks ('Heiliger Dankgesang') to the divinity, from one, made well." He went on to complete the quartets now numbered Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Sixteenth. The last work completed by Beethoven was the substitute final movement of the Thirteenth Quartet, which replaced the difficult Große Fuge. Shortly thereafter, in December 1826, illness struck again, with episodes of vomiting and diarrhea that nearly ended his life.

Beethoven was bedridden for most of his remaining months, and many friends came to visit. He died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56 during a thunderstorm. His friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner, who was present at the time, said that there was a peal of thunder at the moment of death. An autopsy revealed significant liver damage, which may have been due to heavy alcohol consumption. It also revealed considerable dilation of the auditory and other related nerves.

Beethoven's funeral procession on 29 March 1827 was attended by an estimated 20,000 people. Franz Schubert, who died the following year and was buried next to him, was one of the torchbearers. He was buried in a dedicated grave in the Währing cemetery, north-west of Vienna, after a requiem mass at the church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche). His remains were exhumed for study in 1862 and moved in 1888 to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof. In 2012, his crypt was checked to see if his teeth had been stolen during a series of grave robberies of other famous Viennese composers.

Beethoven then turned to write the string quartets for Golitsin. Of these "Late Quartets", Beethoven's favorite was the Fourteenth Quartet, op. 131 in C♯ minor, which he rated as his most perfect single work. The last musical wish of Schubert was to hear the Op. 131 quartet, which he did on 14 November 1828, five days before his death.

The statue to Mozart had been unveiled in Salzburg, Austria, in 1842.

In 1848, Austria was the predominant German state. After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved by Napoleon in 1806, it was succeeded by a similarly loose coalition of states known as the German Confederation at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

The events of 1848 were the product of mounting social and political tensions after the Congress of Vienna of 1815. During the "pre-March" period, the already conservative Austrian Empire moved further away from ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, restricted freedom of the press, limited many university activities, and banned fraternities.

Vienna had been restive and was encouraged by a sermon of Anton Füster, a liberal priest, on Sunday, March 12, 1848 in their university chapel. The student demonstrators demanded a constitution and a constituent assembly elected by universal male suffrage.

The Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire were a set of revolutions that took place in the Austrian Empire from March 1848 to November 1849.

On March 13, 1848 university students mounted a large street demonstration in Vienna, and it was covered by the press across the German-speaking states. Following the important, but relatively minor, demonstrations against royal mistress Lola Montez in Bavaria on February 9, 1848, the first major revolt of 1848 in German lands occurred in Vienna on March 13, 1848.

Emperor Ferdinand and his chief advisor Metternich directed troops to crush the demonstration. When demonstrators moved to the streets near the palace, the troops fired on the students, killing several. The new working class of Vienna joined the student demonstrations, developing an armed insurrection.

The March Revolution in Vienna was a catalyst to revolution throughout the German states. Popular demands were made for an elected representative government and for the unification of Germany.

Ferdinand appointed new, nominally liberal, ministers. The Austrian government drafted a constitution in late April 1848. The people rejected this, as the majority was denied the right to vote.

The citizens of Vienna returned to the streets from May 26 through 27, 1848, erecting barricades to prepare for an army attack. Ferdinand and his family fled to Innsbruck, where they spent the next few months surrounded by the loyal peasantry of the Tyrol.

Ferdinand issued two manifestos on May 16, 1848, and June 3, 1848, which gave concessions to the people. He converted the Imperial Diet into a Constituent Assembly to be elected by the people. Other concessions were less substantial, and generally addressed the reorganizing and unification of Germany.

Ferdinand returned to Vienna from Innsbruck on August 12, 1848. Soon after his return, the working-class populace hit the streets again on August 21, 1848, to protest high unemployment and the government's decree to reduce wages.

On August 23, 1848, Austrian troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and shot several.

On October 6 through 7, 1848, the citizens of Vienna had demonstrated against the emperor's actions against forces in Hungary.

In 1867, the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph accepted a settlement (the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867) in which he gave his Hungarian holdings equal status with his Austrian domains, creating the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria, on a Military Frontier scholarship.

During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo, when Tesla suggested that commutators were not necessary.

At the end of his second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and became addicted to gambling. During his third year, Tesla gambled away his allowance and his tuition money, later gambling back his initial losses and returning the balance to his family.

Vienna did not honor Beethoven with a statue until 1880.

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire.

In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.

In 1907 Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother.