AEIOU: A Podcast about Austria

Kurt Schuschnigg, successor to the assassinated Engelbert Dollfuss, was given a thankless job in trying to maintain Austrian independence, and he ultimately failed. Could it have been avoided? And just how fascist was Austrofascism really? We'll explore these issues in this episode.

We saw in the last episode how Engelbert Dollfuss began the transformation of Austria into an authoritarian dictatorship. In this episode, we'll learn about the heavy price he paid for doing so. Austria's Nazis will attempt a coup and fail, but Dollfuss will die as a consequence.

If the last episode saw Austrian democracy, then this episode has Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss pulling the plug. However, threats persist, particularly from history's most famous German. Thanks to the Presidencies of the United States podcast for the recent plug; here's one in return: https://www.presidenciespodcast.com/

In the late '20s and early '30s, democracy in the Austrian First Republic was increasingly anemic and the politics increasingly extreme. In this episode, we'll try to understand why democracy had such a rough go of it during this period, leading to the emergence of a figure many believed would save the country, if not its democracy. No, not that guy.

Our title for this episode is German for "the roaring twenties," which is what we call the decade following the Great War in the United States. We call it that because of all the partying and wealth that proliferated in that decade for Americans. For Austrians, however, things were slightly different.

The war is over, but we still have some things to talk about, including how the Austrians occupied Serbia (badly), how the Austrian army lent itself to generating Habsburg loyalty (pretty well), and how the last Habsburg emperor abdicated (incompletely). It's the final episode of the year, so what better way to celebrate than with the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy.

We’ve finally made it to the Great War. In this episode, we consider how Austria fared in World War I. Spoiler alert: They lost. That said, the campaigns led by Austria-Hungary are among the least discussed in a war that included the Battle of the Somme and Gallipoli. Here, Vittorio Veneto gets its (his?) due.

Shots fired in the Balkans! Shots fired in the Reichsrat!! Shots fired in Sarajevo!!! It's an action-packed episode this time around as we cover the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the outbreak of World War One. Plus, we consider the question of why Franz Ferdinand was the crown prince to begin with.

In this episode, we work our way into the 20th century, with new election laws, new political parties, new leaders of the government, but the same old emperor. He's lost some steam over his more than fifty years in power, to say nothing of territory and political power, but he still has some tricks up his sleeve. Can you say "Jus exclusivae"? Franz Joseph sure can.

We saw how Austria was a neoabsolutist hellscape before the Compromise of 1867. But with Franz Joseph losing wars and territory, he quickly transformed his remaining dominions into a democracy, although not necessarily a functioning one. In this episode, we take a quick overview of Austrian politics between 1867 and 1890, when new parties arose to challenge the liberal consensus.

ALL NEW EPISODE The title of this episode comes from an old saying about compromise, chosen because the topic this week is the Compromise of 1867, which created Austria-Hungary. It's also said a good compromise is one by which no one is happy. Unfortunately for Austria, it ends up a little unhappier than Hungary.

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! This episode covers the end of the revolutions of 1848, finishing late in 1849, with both a new emperor (Franz Joseph) and a new war in Italy. The emperor will serve for much longer, and the war in Italy will be much shorter. In the meantime, forget...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In this episode, we're faced with the same problem as before but in different form -- how can this be a podcast about Austria but have an episode set largely in a totally different country? Well, when you're a Great Power in the center of Europe, thi...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! This episode details the reign of Emperor Ferdinand, who gives old Charles II of Spain a run for his money on the award for most inbred Habsburg monarch. That the final year of his reign is also the most revolutionary year in all of Europe's history...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In this episode, we'll wrap up the Napoleonic Wars and learn how Austrian Chancellor and Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich helped establish the Concert of Europe and ushered in an era of peace. Kind of. There was some peace. There was also a st...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! Well, not really Belgium so much as the Austrian Netherlands, Liege, and a few other places. In this episode, we'll discuss how the French Revolution influenced events in Austria, and we'll learn a little bit about how ultimatums can backfire.

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In this episode, we talk about the monumental reforms undertaken during the reign of Joseph II, and we learn that, where Poland loses, Austria gains -- both territory and new ethnic groups!

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In this episode, we discuss the reign over Austria of Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the Habsburg Monarchy. We'll learn why she named all her daughters Maria, how she felt about religion and politics, and some of the permanent changes with whi...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! No, it's not another installment in the ongoing saga of the Roy family! It's the story of two wars of succession, one in Spain and one in Austria. Learn why the so-called Habsburg jaw indicated a bigger problem than just your chin arriving in any giv...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! I'm back after an extended absence and ready for more abuse! This week's podcast covers the rest of the Thirty Years War and its aftermath. War with the Empire's fellow Germans ultimately gives way to war with Denmark, war with Sweden, war with Franc...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! This week, we learn a new word -- defenestration -- and we learn why that word has been associated with the city of Prague. We also talk begin a discussion of the Thirty Years War and why it happened despite our previously discussed efforts to settle...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In this week's episode, perhaps one of the most momentous series of events in the history of humankind and certainly among the most momentous in European history: Luther launches the Reformation and faces off against the most powerful man in the worl...

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! The third episode of this podcast introduces a familiar name to our growing lexicon: Habsburg. And what is an interregnum anyway? And why do we care? And finally, another Latin motto for Austria.

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! In our second episode, we look at some of the more prominent members of the Babenberg dynasty, learn a little about Austrian vexillology, and find out more about why the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, or really an empire.

NEW AUDIO. I'm going through and (slowly) re-recording the first several episodes, permanently dumping the robotic voice. Please give me another try! Our first episode gives some background on what Austria is and how it's changed over a millennium. Then we jump right in with the history, providing some detail about the area's first dynasty, the House of Babenberg.