After the war was over / After the break of morn;
After the victors left us / After the stars were gone;
Many a heart was aching / If you could read them all;
Many the hopes that vanished / After the war.
(With apologies to Charles K. Harris)
This historical and political (or maybe political and historical) introduction is intended to explain the conventional understanding, not to right or rewrite ancient wrongs. It is an honest attempt to present a balanced introduction to Austria's history - not a tourist or cultural guidebook! There will be parts with which you the reader may disagree, especially if your ancestors came from the former Austrian Empire. If you feel that generally-accepted fact has been mispresented, let us know.
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Austria, its government web site tells us, "looks back on a long and eventful history and is today a wealthy, stable and prosperous nation. Because of its rich cultural past and present, for its beautiful landscape as well as a dynamic and innovative economy, Austria is being appreciated throughout the world as a cultural nation, travel destination and business partner, and the inhabitants are proud of their country."
Austria is a small (84,000 km²) landlocked country in southern Central Europe. It contains most of the Alps east of Switzerland, and the Danube region. In the north, east, and south-east the terrain is flatter and permits extensive agriculture. Although settled by Celtic and Germanic tribes in prehistoric times, Austrian lands and their inhabitants first enter historical records in the writings of the Romans. The Roman encampment named Vindobona, built on the Danube in roughly A.D. 100, eventually became the city of Vienna.
Because of its location, Austria has always been a crossroads between the great economic and cultural regions of Europe. Today, Austria has common borders with eight countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Austria is a federal republic comprising nine independent Federal Provinces (Länder): Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Vienna. The population in the 2017 census was 8.7 million, mostly German-speaking. There are an increasing number of recognised ethnic minorities in today’s Austria. And of course there’s the Austrian way of life in which rules and regulations are issued centrally, interpreted locally, and ignored anyway.
The boundaries of the Austrian Republic have been essentially unchanged since it was established at the close of the First World War. In 1921, the easternmost province of Burgenland – part of the old Kingdom of Hungary and hotly contested by Hungary but solidly German-speaking – was awarded to the fledgling country. From 1938 to 1945 Austria was part of the Third German Reich of Hitler.
The Danube, the most important river in central Europe, traverses the country from the German border in the west to the boundary with Slovakia in the east, before proceeding through the Balkans to the Black Sea. Ever since Roman times, the flat land east of the mountains has been an important passage way for commerce and for migration from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and the Balkans. Additionally, the land around the Danube was a frequent point of entry for marauding nomadic tribes and hostile nations from the east. At the intersection of these routes lies Austria’s capital, Vienna, a city of about 1.7 million inhabitants, and for centuries the historical, cultural, and artistic centre of Central Europe.
Austria has produced some of the most sublime achievements in the fine arts, the theatre, literature, architecture, medicine, and science. Twenty-two Austrians have been awarded Nobel prizes! The culture is part of the mainstream of Germanic culture shared with Germany and Switzerland. But what has shaped it and dominated it, what has made it essentially Austrian, are the Habsburg empire and the Roman Catholic church. The Habsburg dynasty’s tradition of patronage of the arts has carried over to the modern republic of today; for example in 2005 the total expenditure on ‘culture’ by public bodies at all levels was 2 billion Euro, 0.94% of GDP. The church was a powerful influence in Austrian architecture, drama, and music. The great Romanesque monasteries and the Gothic St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna awe the beholder, and we owe to the Counter-Reformation the gilded wedding-cake splendours of the Austrian Baroque and Rococo even in the smallest village church. Many feature on Austrian stamps, especially the Christmas issues.
Austria is especially famed for its contributions to music, notably during the Classical and Romantic periods. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and Bruckner spring to mind - and there were many many more. The Viennese operetta, drawing heavily from the Slavic and Magyar regions of the empire, reached its peak about 1900. We think of the Strauss family, Franz Lehár and Zierer; and of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera. The Vienna Boys Choir, founded by the emperor Maximilian in 1498, still sings at Sunday masses in the chapel of the Hofburg in Vienna. In the cultural context, as elsewhere, it is important to remember that there is more to Austria than Vienna! Some of the world’s greatest folk music traditions had a marked influence on such composers as Janacek, Kodaly and Bartok; and the "Viennese School" of Schönberg, Berg and Webern still excites admiration or detestation amongst musicologists! "The Third Man", filmed mostly in Vienna in 1949, brought the zither to a wide audience (Sissi was an excellent performer on it!), and today’s tourists can scarcely avoid the traditional Village Wind’n’Brass Band. Austria has issued over 200 stamps on classical, folk, modern, pop and other musical topics, and over 650 special cancellations – extensive thematic collections can be assembled.
Many authors and playwrights of previous centuries are still read and performed, such as Grillparzer, Raimund, Nestroy and Stifter; the 20th century brought Kafka, Roth, Musil, Bertha von Suttner, and many more. Their philatelic representation is rather sparse, especially for recent writers. And the notorious insularity of English speakers means that much superb work is unknown outside the German-speaking countries.
In the visual arts, Jugendstil – the Austrian Art Nouveau – is perhaps best known in other countries. Amongst its many artists Klimt, famed for his use of gold in his paintings, tried and partly succeeded in shocking Viennese society out of bureaucratic stagnation into a freer modernity. Other artists, from Waldmüller to Kokoschka, are less known abroad. Architecture has a long tradition, from Fisher von Erlach and Lukas von Hildebrand to Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. Many architects, and their buildings, have received philatelic commemoration. Austria’s museums and historic monuments are notable both on the ground and on the stamps. Film has a more prominent place than in many other countries, although the Cold War "cultural offensive" from the USA may have helped.
Before the First World War, Austria was part of a much larger state, the Habsburg Empire, of which Vienna was the capital city. At the time the Empire becomes of interest from a philatelic standpoint it included, besides the present area of Austria, all of Hungary, Bohemia and Moravia (now the Czech Republic), Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia, and also parts of present-day Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, and Italy. In addition, the Austrian Netherlands consisted of most of today’s Belgium, and Vorderösterreich comprised various pockets in southern Germany. These were lost by the Habsburgs in 1797 and 1805 respectively; philatelic items are rare and expensive.
The Habsburg family, originally Germans with a castle in Switzerland, appeared in Austria in 1276. Mainly through marriages, they acquired the territories mentioned above (and others strewn throughout Europe which later they lost again). They were Holy Roman Emperor, the nominally-elected Emperor of what is now Germany and some other territories: a title which in time became in name only. In the 16th century the Habsburgs held the dominating position in Europe when, as a result of dynastic marriage, they brought together the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire in the person of the Emperor Charles V. Following his abdication in 1555 they were separated again but different branches of the family ruled both empires and, had things turned out differently, Philip II (husband of Queen Mary) might well have been King of England too. This led to constant war in the 16th and 17th centuries between the Habsburgs and France, which saw itself as encircled - and with good reason! It also drove the Habsburgs to have a natural focus on Western Europe, accentuated by the dominant position of the Turks in the East. Ultimately the position changed because the Habsburgs eventually lost their dominance to France, starting in 1648 at Westphalia and culminating in the reign of Louis XIV.
It is also useful to note the catastrophic position of Hungary as a result of Turkish invasion and occupation in the 1520s-1540s. The formerly strong kingdom was annihilated and only the northern and western parts remained outside Turkish control. The Hungarian nobility, defeated at Mohacs, invited the Habsburgs to assume the Hungarian crown which they did. The Habsburgs only began to extend their area of control after the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, which coinciding with the rising French power in the West caused the Habsburgs to look to compensate with gains in the East for their losses, e.g. in Alsace. Incidentally that logic continued to prevail later in Bosnia-Herzegovina which Franz Josef saw as a compensation for his loss of Italy. It was only in 1718 that the Turks were finally expelled from Hungary, by which time the country was largely desolated.
Following the French revolution of 1789-99, the military adventures of Napoleon I shook all of Europe for some 15 years. In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French; and Francis II of Habsburg at once declared himself Francis I, Emperor of Austria, foreseeing that in 1805 under the Peace of Pressburg he would be forced to renounce the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
Napoleon defeated the Austrian army four times and occupied Vienna twice. As he came and went, many parts of Austria fell under his control for varying periods. Austria’s lowest ebb was in 1809 when it lost everything in today’s Italy, and Tirol, and Vorarlberg, and Salzburg, and several districts adjoining Bavaria, and most of the former Yugoslavia. Venetia only came under Habsburg control in 1797; but it, Lombardy, and Manuta were lost, regained, lost again, and finally restored only in 1815. Interesting philatelic items can be found, even more so in the field of documentary revenues where both sides were anxious that the other should not profit from the use of captured material (such as pre-stamped legal paper).
The miniature sheet issued in 1996 to commemorate "A thousand years of Austria"
Much of the old conservative and monarchic order was restored at the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) which danced its way to a Europe-wide settlement, orchestrated by Metternich. The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, embodying all the separate treaties, was signed on 9 June 1815, a few days before the Battle of Waterloo. Its provisions included:
The Final Act was signed by representatives of Austria, France, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Sweden-Norway, and Britain. Spain did not sign the treaty (because of a disagreement with Portugal), but ratified it in 1817. In Austria, there followed 30 years of authoritarian government under Chancellor Metternich. During this time (sometimes referred to as the Biedermeier Period), the aspirations of the middle and working classes grew, and the calm of the era abruptly finished with a turbulent revolution in 1848. Internal peace was re-established but Metternich was forced to resign and the emperor abdicated in favour of his 18-year-old nephew Franz Joseph.
The Austrian-Hungarian Empire and today’s national boundaries
Western Europe in the Middle Ages did not possess a pub1ic post. Private individuals gave their letters to casual travellers whilst the Kings, the Monastic Orders, the Universities, and the great Corporations had their own postal systems. Establishments of permanent messengers were maintained by cities, bishops, and lay orders of Knights. However, nearly all these posts had died out by the fifteenth century.
In Austria in 1490 the first public post, available for business and commerce, was founded by the Italian family of Thurn and Taxis during the reign of Maximilian I. It extended its activities to connect the Imperial Dominions in Lombardy with those in Austria. Maximilian’s son Philip-le-Bel, Duke of Burgundy, created Franz von Taxis "Hauptpostmeister" on 1st March 1500, and in 1504 made an agreement with him to provide a postal connection between the courts of Philip in the Netherlands and of those of Maximilian in today’s Austria and Germany, and to link these with the courts of France and Spain.
The position of Imperial Postmaster carried two chief responsibilities: transferring the mail of the Emperor and court around the Empire and to other states of Europe; and facilitating the movement of the Emperor and court around the Empire, personally escorting them on ceremonial occasions. It was thus of great importance, and it could make its holder very rich. Unsurprisingly, two families sought to monopolise it: the House of Thurn & Taxis, and the House of Paar. Both were successful in different areas, and a Compromise of 1661 tried to settle the conflict between the Houses by allocating Court mail and persons to the House of Paar, and all the rest to the House of Thurn & Taxis. The House of Paar were bought out in 1722, and the House of Thurn & Taxis activities shrank and eventually ceased. So from 1722 the history of the Austrian Postal Administration was separate from any of the princely houses; being entirely a department of the Crown.
In 1722, the Crown appointed a "Court Postal Commission" (Hofpostkommission) and ordered that the two functions of transporting people and forwarding mail should be administered separately. Two bodies were set up in Vienna: the "General Mail Coach Administration" (Hauptpostwagendirektion) and the "General Postal Administration" (Generalpostdirektorium). The Court Postal Commission was abolished in 1783, and the two departments were then run completely independently. At the same time the General Postal Administration was renamed the General Post Office Administration (Oberste Hofpostamtverwaltung). This policy of separation was maintained until 1830, when it underwent a complete reversal, the two departments being then coalesced into a General Postal Administration (Oberste Hofpostverwaltung).
In 1850 the Austrian Empire had a population of over 36 million and an area of 260,087 square miles. At the same date the United Kingdom plus Ireland had a total population of 27.4 million in an area of 120,625 square miles, and the U.S.A. a population of 23 million in an area of 3,580,270 square miles. At the head of this vast Austrian Empire stood its absolute ruler, the young Kaiser Franz Josef I. The government of the absolute monarchy was under the Presidency of Feldmarschalleutnant Felix, Prinz von und zu Schwarzenberg. There were at least fourteen official languages, and a frequently changing set of rules on which had supremacy where.
Franz Joseph reigned from 1848 (two years before the first Austrian postal stamps were issued) until 1916 (two years before the Habsburg Empire collapsed). For the philatelist, the period is in effect the era of Franz Joseph, and a closer look at this Emperor is therefore warranted.
Franz Joseph was a simple and unsophisticated man, with no interest in music, art, or literature (except the military code). Although he lived in sumptuous palaces, he led an unpretentious, austere life and loved the type of food eaten by the Viennese bourgeoisie. He was a stickler for court ceremony and procedures, to the exasperation of most of his family, and he tended to be an authoritarian ruler. He reserved for himself administrative decisions of the greatest triviality; the result was a constipation in the machinery of government as piles of files accumulated untouched in his office.
His personal life was filled with tragedy: a brother, who had established himself as the Emperor of Mexico, was executed there in 1867; another died of typhoid after drinking water from the Jordan; his son committed suicide in 1889 at the hunting lodge of Mayerling because of a love affair disapproved of by court; his wife, the beautiful Empress Elizabeth, was assassinated by an anarchist in 1898; and his Heir Apparent, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo in 1914, an event that was the initial spark leading to the First World War. Because the common people could well understand this simple man, he was enormously popular (at least in the German speaking and in the less trenchantly nationalistic other provinces!), which certainly helped to maintain the unity of the Empire until it collapsed at the end of the First World War.
Franz Joseph saw his mission in a single task that filled his life to the exclusion of anything else: the preservation of the Habsburg dynasty and wherever possible his Empire. To this purpose, during all his reign he fought losing battles against the three forces that menaced the stability and security of the Empire: the growing liberal tendencies among middle and working classes; the demands for autonomy or independence for the non-German peoples in his Empire (especially the Hungarians, Czechs and Italians); and the growing power of Prussia.
On the 1st February 1849 the General Postal Administration was made the third section of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Public Works. It was, therefore, the Minister of Commerce who was responsible to the Emperor for all postal matters.
The organisation of the posts beneath the central administrators was mainly in accordance with the territorial division of the Empire into provinces. Some provinces had systems inherited from their pre-Habsburg rulers: eg Galicia had a well-developed Polish system, and Venice had had a postal system (the Compagnia fra Corriere di Veneti) since 1200! Each province had its own postal administration, from February 1849 termed a "Postal Directorate". These controlled all the offices in their province, either directly or through intermediate Post Offices called "Postal Inspectorates" with a Postal Inspector in charge. Beneath them came the post offices; the official name of which depended upon whether they dealt primarily with stagecoaches or mail, although most offices handled both. Those which collected only mail were originally subordinated as "Letter Collections" to the other post offices, but later became independent of them. It would have been a great aid to philately if comprehensive and authoritative lists of all offices at all dates were to be available: regrettably, they are not although many offices are well documented
Between November 1848 and May 1851 the Minister of Commerce was Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von Bruck. The Section Councillor for the Directorate of Communications was Franz Maximilian Freiherr von Löwenthal; he presided energetically over the development and consolidation of the Austrian Postal and Telegraphic Affairs and concluded postal treaties with Russia (1843), Germany (1850), Switzerland (1852) and France (1852, 1857). In January 1849 he advised his Minister that the example of Britain and many other countries be followed and adhesive postage stamps be issued for the pre-payment of mail. Dr. Herz, the Postal Inspector for Lower Austria, was sent to Munich, Brussels and London to study the production and use of postage stamps.
Based on the Herz report, the Minister compiled a long "Memorandum on the Reform of the Letter and Stage Coach Tariffs", and submitted it to the Emperor for approval. Postage for a single letter of 1 Viennese Loth (17.5 grams), would be fixed at 3 kreuzer up to ten meile (of 7.586 km), 6 kreuzer from 10 to 20 meile, and 9 kreuzer if farther; the Vienna city post would remain at 2 kreuzer. A 2-Loth letter would cost double these amounts, and so on. All letters should be franked by means of adhesive postage stamps. On 25th September 1849, the Emperor Franz Josef I agreed, writing "These proposals on the reform of the letter and stage coach tariffs receive my approval". The stamps were first used on 1 June 1850, and the rest is history!
The regions of northern Italy under Habsburg control – Lombardy and Venetia – used their own Italian currency. [See here for an extensive historical background.] Therefore, special postage stamps had to be issued for use in these regions until in 1859 and 1866 respectively, when they became parts of Italy. Special stamps were also prepared for the postal service that Austria maintained in Crete and in various places in the Balkans and in the Levant. The region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while formally still part of the Ottoman Empire, was occupied in 1878 by Austria and required separate postal services as well; it was annexed to the Austrian Empire in October 1908, an event which contributed to the outbreak of war in 1914.
While the revolution of 1848 had been suppressed by armed might, the consequences were far more serious in Hungary which had declared independence under Kossuth and was ultimately brought back under Austrian control only with Russian help. Ever since then, the Imperial Dominions had been ruled from Vienna as a unitary state under an absolute monarchy. A series of reverses both military and diplomatic made the maintenance of this very difficult. The first reverse was diplomatic, when Austria sided with England and France in the Crimean War without actually taking up arms and thus lost the friendship of Russia. The second reverse was military when Austria lost the battles of Magenta and Solferino to France in 1859 and had to relinquish Lombardy to the House of Savoy. The final reverse was also military when Austria was defeated by the Prussians at the battle of Königgrätz (Sadowa) on 3rd July 1866. By the terms of the subsequent Treaty of Prague, Austria lost Venetia, and was excluded from the Germanic Confederation. Prussia thus displaced Austria from its leading role among the German states.
Thus finally ejected from both Italy and Germany, Austria began to turn to the various nationalities within her borders and to re-organise her internal structure. The conflict between the Government of Vienna and the Hungarian nationalists was of long standing, including aspects concerning parliamentary representation, administration, and the official use of the Hungarian language. The work of reorganisation was entrusted to Friedrich Ferdinand Graf Beust who decided to placate the Hungarians and to make the Empire governable by dividing it into its two historic halves. In one of these the Germans would be the dominant people; in the other the Hungarians. The Slavs and the Rumanians would be subservient to both. This was the concept of "The Dual Monarchy" with two completely dominant peoples in two separate parts united only in the person of the Emperor-King, who controlled a joint Army and Navy and conducted a joint foreign policy. This separate administration was defined with great care in the "Ausgleich" which was concluded with Hungary, and the Dual monarchy was created. Unsurprisingly, this arrangement did not satisfy anybody except the German- and Hungarian-speaking parts of the population.
Some historians hold a very interesting view, namely that the ultimate failure of the Habsburgs to transform the Monarchy into a multilateral organisation containing a number of states of different nationalities (a sort of Commonwealth) can be attributed to the Hungarians above all who, having gained a position of independence, then pulled up the ladder behind them. In this view it was Hungarian intransigence that defeated the Czechs and others. (Note that the Hungarians were very concerned that any compromise would inevitably lead to their losing direct control especially of Croatia and Slovakia and perhaps subsequently Romanian Transylvania as well. They were certainly intransingent but their reasoning can easily be seen!).
The treaty of 1867 on the relationship between Austria and Hungary has entered into history under the name "Compromise (Ausgleich)". The official designation for the combined state was "The Austrian-Hungarian monarchy". The parts had complicated formal names: Cisleithania was called officially "The kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrat"; while Transleithania carried the official designation "The countries of the Holy Hungarian Crown". Designations of such kind failed to establish themselves, and Cisleithania was called "Austria" and Transleithania "Hungary"; from 1915 this became official. Both parts were equal, independent States, joined through the person of the sovereign as well as through certain common "pragmatic" affairs – notably the War Ministry.
Austria comprised the archduchies of Austria under and over the Enns (alias Lower and Upper Austria), the dukedoms of Styria, Salzburg, Carinthia and Krain (Carniola), the princely county of Tirol, Vorarlberg, the kingdom of Bohemia, the Margraviate of Moravia, the dukedom of Silesia, the kingdom of Galizia, the dukedom of Bukowina, the princely counties of Gradisca and Görz and the kingdom of Dalmatien. In 1867 the combined population was about 20 million. You may find the full German designations in works written in that language. They are: Erzherzogtüm Österreich unter der Enns, Erzherzogtüm Österreich ober der Enns, Herzogtüm Steiermark, Herzogtüm Salzburg, Herzogtüm Kärnten, Herzogtüm Krain, Gefürsteten Grafschaft Tirol, Land Vorarlberg, Königreich Böhmen, Markgrafschaft Mähren, Herzogtum Schlesien, Königreich Galizien, Herzogtum Bukowina, Gefürstete Grafschaft Gradisca, Gefürstete Grafschaft Görz, and Königreich Dalmatien. The ruler’s titles are printed, usually in a florid typeface, at the beginning of many pre-1918 laws.
The sovereign of all of these was the same person: that is, Franz Josef was Archduke of Austria under the Enns; and was Duke of Salzburg; and Princely Count of Tirol; and King of Bohemia; and Margrave of Moravia; and so forth. Indeed in earlier times the linkage between the component parts of ‘Austria’ was solely the person of the sovereign, and laws had to be reissued in each part under the corresponding name of the sovereign. When in 1804 Francis II of Habsburg declared himself Francis I, Emperor of Austria, there was in reality no Austria for him to be Emperor of!
"Hungary" was somewhat simpler; it comprised Hungary proper (which included Slovakia, Carpatho-Ukraine, the Batschka and the Banat), the Great Princedom of Transylvania, the kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, and the port of Fiume. In 1867 about 15 million people lived there. [In German these are: Königreich Ungarn (with Slowakei, Karpato-Ukraine, Batschka, & Banat), Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen, Königreich Kroatien und Slawonien & Adriahafen Fiume.] Franz Josef was King of Hungary, and Great Prince of Transylvania, and etc.
On the 11th February 1867 Julius Graf Andrássy was appointed as the first prime minister of the new parliamentary regime in Hungary, and on the 8th June 1867 Franz Josef I was crowned as Apostolic King of Hungary in the great cathedral of St. Matthias in Buda. Transylvania was united with Hungary, and in 1868 a further Ausgleich between Croatia-Slavonia and Hungary joined the former to the latter under a law guaranteeing the equal rights of nationalities. The Hungarian Ministry of Commerce took over from the Austrians the administration of the posts in Hungary, Transylvania, the Temeser-Banat, Croatia-Slavonia and the military Border Region. Austrian stamps were no longer used in the Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy after June 1867 (the joint issue of that year, first appearing in Hungary, was adopted in Austria as stocks of the previous issue ran out: separation of earlier printings is possible if the stamp is legibly cancelled).
Thus neither Austria nor Hungary (anticipating the modern terms) alone could declare a war or pursue their own foreign policy. Certain financial resources benefitted both parts, and counted among the common affairs were the War Ministry (Reichskriegsministeriums; the Hungarians objecting to the prefix "Reich" on the grounds that they did not recognise any entity that came between them and their King) and the Foreign Ministry (Außenministeriums) as well as the common Treasury (Finanzverwaltung). When Bosnia and the Herzogowina were annexed in 1878 the administration was declared as common. It was not until 1883 that the words "Österreichische Post" (Austrian Post) first appeared on the stamps of the western part of the Empire. Both halves contained much territory besides present-day Austria and Hungary: Cisleithania included Bohemia and Moravia, Slovenia, Dalmatia, and parts of southern Poland, western Ukraine, and northern Italy; Transleithania also comprised Slovakia, most of Croatia, and parts of Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine.
Above is the start of the Imperial Patent in which Franz Josef announces to his subjects that he is now their ruler.
For the rest of it, follow this link to the ALEX site
Commonly-met expressions such as "A k.u.k. Postmaster in full-dress uniform" or "The opening of the k.u.k. Post office" are wrong: the "u." is superfluous. However "k.u.k. Feldpost" is right! The following explanation may assist. For a fuller explanation see here.
K.u.K.: The authorities responsible for common affairs acted "imperially and royally". All agencies of the Foreign and the War Ministries thus carried the abbreviation "k.u.k.", whereby the first k stood for the Kaiser (Emperor) of Austria, the u is ‘und’, and the second k is for the King of Hungary.
K. k.: The autonomous authorities and offices of Austria received the addition "imperially-royally", as there were also kingdoms in Cisleithanien – for example Bohemia.
K. or Kgl.: These abbreviations were used in German-language texts for "Hungarian-royally". In the Hungarian language it became "magyar kiraly" generally shortened to "mag.kir." or "m.kir."
In contrast to the events at the end of the Second World War, the end of the 1914-18 war and the disintegration of the Empire into independent countries brought no great interruptions in the Austrian postal system. The organisation remained intact, the instructions remained initially unchanged, and the available stamps went on sale again and were cancelled just as before.
Kaiser Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, during the First World War, and was succeeded by his great-nephew Karl as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. However, the war on the battlefields steadily went against Kaiser Karl. Hoping for a change of heart amongst his subjects, he issued a Manifesto on 17 October 1918 proposing the division of Austria-Hungary into THREE parts, with the Austrian part becoming a Federation "in accordance with the Will of its People". Exactly how he had ascertained the Will of the People was undisclosed: there hadn't been a general election since 1911! Hungary would be left as it was, and the Polish territories would be permitted to join the nascent independent Polish state. The Manifesto was published in several newspapers; the Wiener Zeitung's version is translated below. Other papers also ran it, eg the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, as far as I can see with the same text.
No. 240 Thursday October 17, 1918. His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty has graciously deigned to issue the following Most High Manifesto:
Ever since I ascended the throne, it has been my constant endeavor to achieve the longed-for peace for all my peoples, as well as to show the peoples of Austria the paths along which they can bring the strength of their people, unhindered by obstacles and friction, to a beneficial development and can successfully utilize for their intellectual and economic well-being.
The terrible struggles of the world war have so far hampered the work of peace. Heroic courage and loyalty - the willingness to make sacrifices to endure misery and deprivation gloriously defended the fatherland in these difficult times. The hard victims of the war had to secure the honourable peace for us, on the threshold of which we stand today, with God's help.
Now the reconstruction of the fatherland must be tackled without delay on its natural and therefore most reliable foundations. The wishes of the Austrian peoples are to be carefully reconciled and fulfilled. I am resolved to carry out this work with the free cooperation of My peoples in the spirit of those principles which the allied monarchs have adopted in their peace offer. According to the will of its people, Austria is to become a federal state (Bundestaat) in which each tribe forms its own state community in its settlement areas. This in no way prejudges the unification of the Polish territories of Austria with the independent Polish state. The town of Triest and its area are given a special status in accordance with the wishes of their population.
This reorganization, which in no way affects the integrity of the lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown, is intended to guarantee the independence of each national state; but it will also effectively protect common interests and bring them to bear wherever common ground is a vital need of the individual state. In particular, it will be necessary to unite all forces in order to successfully solve the major tasks arising from the repercussions of the war in a just and equitable manner.
Until this transformation is completed by law, the existing facilities to protect the general interest remain unchanged from right. My government has been commissioned to prepare all work for the rebuilding of Austria without delay. My call goes out to the peoples, on whose self-determination the new kingdom will be based, to participate in the great work through national councils, which - formed from the Reichsrat deputies of each nation - are to bring the interests of the peoples to one another and in dealings with my government to bear.
So may our fatherland, strengthened by the unity of the nations that surround it, emerge from the storms of war as a union of free peoples. May the blessings of the Almighty be upon our work, so that the great work of peace that we are building may mean the happiness of all My peoples.
The general view of the Manifesto, especially in Bohemia, Moravia and similar areas was "too little, too late, and overtaken by events". The Manifesto went down like the proverbial lead balloon.
Meanwhile.... On 21 October 1918, the 210 former members of the Abgeordnetenhaus (the Lower House of the old Imperial parliament) who had represented the German-speaking regions and enclaves (see Appendix II) met in Vienna. Some would have by then been citizens of other countries, which doesn't seem to have mattered. The other former members, representing non-German areas, appear not to have been invited. The Assembly proclaimed that they were the new Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria; and that "the German people in Austria are resolved to determine their own future political organization to form an independent German-Austrian state, and to regulate their relations with other nations through free agreements with them". They called on all German-inhabited lands to form their own provisional assemblies.
It's interesting to note that the old and the new governments were both functioning at this time. The first law of the Provisional National Assembly (1918 SGB001) was passed on 30 October 1918 (although not printed until 15 November). It created the independent state of Deutschösterreich, usually translated as German-Austria, which would seek union with Germany. This was an independent state under the direction of a State Council (Staatsrat) composed of the leaders of the three main parties and other elected members; the law listed its duties, responsibilities and departmental arrangements. Revolutionary disturbances in Vienna and the news of the German revolution forced the State Council down the republican path: the Will of the People was now quite clear. Meanwhile, the last law of the Empire (1918 RGB390) was jointly issued by the Ministries of The Interior and of Trade; it concerned typos in a Decree of 1 August about construction Trades Unions, and was published on 12 November!
Negotiations with Italy on an armistice were begun on 29 October 1918, and Italy's conditions reached Schönbrunn late on 1 November. The Emperor summoned his Imperial Government (led by Prof Lammasch) along with representatives of the Provisional National Assembly to meet on 2 November. After much discussion, the latter helpfully declared that they hadn't begun the war so wouldn't share any responsibility for ending it. They were probably anxious that the "new Austria" should not inherit any legal liabilities for the debts, deeds and misdeeds of the Empire. This had Unforeseen Consequences, as the new state didn't inherit membership of the Universal Postal Union!
This left the responsibility solely with the Emperor and his Imperial Government. During that evening the Austro-Hungarian Army's disintegration accelerated (one source suggests the soldiers were hurrying back to their homes to defend them from the Russian Army). The Emperor had no choice but to authorise his Hungarian soldiers to stop fighting at 9pm and the Austrians at 1am next day, 3 November 1918. The Italian conditions were accepted. It then emerged that while the Austrians would cease fire and stay put at 3pm on the 3rd, the Italians would cease 24 hours later. During the intervening day they sent flying columns into all the now-undefended previously-Austrian territory they had coveted. Austria was "that which was left", a quip attributed to several people including Georges Clemenceau in 1918.
Soon after noon on 11 November 1918 the Emperor "withdrew" but did not abdicate, much to the irritation of the new Chancellor Renner! Karl's renunciation document is shown in Appendix III. His carefully-chosen wording was "I renounce all participation in the affairs of state". That afternoon, the Imperial Government formally resigned; Heinrich Lammasch, the outgoing Prime Minister, received the Great Cross of the Order of St Stephen while lesser ministers consoled themselves with lesser awards. Karl's letter to Lammasch as Google-translated concludes, like Karl's reign, with a wonderful banality: "Dear Dr. Lammasch! With selfless willingness to make sacrifices, you have taken over the management of my Austrian ministry in extremely difficult times, following my call. If I now, in compliance with your request, relieve you of the post of my Austrian Prime Minister, I feel compelled to express my sincere gratitude for the tireless work you have done in the interest of initiating international peace and for the excellent service you have rendered to me, with your loyal patriotic devotion special thanks and my fullest appreciation. As a visible sign of my courtesy, I award you the Grand Cross of my Order of St. Stephen, tax-free." [Als sichtbares Zeichen Meiner Gewogenheit verleihe Ich Ihnen taxfrei das Grosskreuz Meines St.Stephanus-Ordens.]
On November 12 1918, the day after Karl stepped aside, the National Assembly resolved unanimously that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" and that "German-Austria is a component part of the German republic." (1918 SGB005). Karl Renner, a leading socialist, became head of a coalition government, with Otto Bauer, the acknowledged spokesman of the left wing of the Social Democrats, as foreign secretary.
On November 13 a telegram was sent to the German Government requesting support for German-Austria in its attempt to join Germany. Austria appealed to U.S. President Wilson to allow the union with her sister nation. Conveniently for historians, the National Assembly defined what they meant by "Deutschösterreich" in a law of 22 November, 1918 SGB040. On paper, but not in reality, Deutschösterreich included all the German-speaking areas: today's Austria, plus Sudtirol and substantial parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Carinthia, plus various German-speaking enclaves, but excluding Italian and Yugoslavian enclaves.
Die Länder Österreich unter der Enns einschließlich des Kreises Deutsch-Südmähren und des deutschen Gebeits um Neubistritz, Österreich ob der Enns einschließlich des Kreises Deutsch-Südböhmen, Salzburg, Steiermark und Kärntnen mit Ausschluß der geschlossenen jugoslawischen Siedlungsgebeite, die Grafschaft Tirol mit Ausschluß des geschlossenen italienischen Siedlungsgebeites, Vorarlberg, Deutsch-böhmen und Sudetenland, sowie die deutschen Siedlungsgebeite von Brünn, Iglau und Olmütz.
That is, the provinces of Austria-below-the-Enns (Lower Austria) including the district of German South Moravia and the German area around Neubistritz; Austria-above-the-Enns (Upper Austria) including the district of German South Bohemia; Salzburg; Styria and Carinthia excluding the self-contained Yugoslav settlement areas; the County of Tirol excluding the self-contained Italian settlement areas; Vorarlberg; German Bohemia and Sudetenland; as well as the German settlement areas within Brünn/Brno, Iglau/Jihlava, and Olmütz/Olomouc. These claims soon became untenable, not least because of the opposition of the Allies and of the now-independent states especially Czechoslovakia! See Appendix II for the map of the claimed areas, and details of the then German-speaking areas of what is now the Czech Republic.
In extensive but in reality pointless detail, the National Assembly's next decree, 1918 SGB041 also of 22 November, discusses areas such as industrial Bielitz-Biala and the German-speech-enclaves in Pressburg. Of course, existing countries such as Russia, Italy and France, and newly-emerging countries such as Czechoslovakia and Romania, not to mention President Wilson of the USA, had a different approach to carving up the Austro-Hungarian Empire! Many maps can be found in history books and on Wikipedia claiming to show the distribution of ethnic groups in 1911, ie after the census of 31 December 1910. However they are implausible - eg Vienna with no groups other than Germans. See Appendix V for an extensive discussion of the diversity within the Empire, based partly on the actual census returns.
Elections for the National Assembly were held on 16 February 1919; for the first time women were allowed to vote. So were German citizens living in Austria and Sudeten Germans living in the newly-formed Czechoslovakia, despite objections from the Czechoslovak government. The Social Democratic Workers Party won 72 of the 170 seats with 41% of the votes; the Christian Social Party (supported by farmers and the middle classes) gained 36% of the votes and 69 seats. They formed a coalition government.
The state and its composition were reaffirmed on 12 March 1919 by the newly-elected National Assembly; see 1919 SGB174 and SGB175. The Assembly re-elected Karl Renner as state chancellor, and enacted the Habsburg Law (1919 SGB209) concerning the banishment of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Nobility and titles were abolished by 1919 SGB211. A Coat-of-Arms for Deutschösterreich was chosen - a single-headed eagle, described in 1919 SGB257 and illustrated on the second page of 1919 SGB264.
These changes had interesting side-effects for Karl’s son Otto. While in his heart Otto remained Emperor and King until his death, he pragmatically renounced his claim to the Austrian throne in 1961, and was finally permitted to cross the border in 1966. Since Article 149(1) of the Austrian Constitution had abolished all titles, he set off as "Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg by the grace of God Emperor of Austria; King of Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria; Archduke of Austria; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Würzburg, Franconia, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; Grand Duke of Cracow; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Sandomir, Mazovia, Lublin, Upper and Lower Silesia, Auschwitz and Zator, Teschen, and Friule; Prince of Berchtesgaden and Mergentheim; Princely Count of Habsburg, Gorizia, and Gradisca and of the Tirol; and Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg etc.; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and the Windic March, Grand Voivod of the Voivodeship of Serbia etc etc" but on crossing the border changed into "Doktor Otto Habsburg-Lothringen", reversing the process on leaving. (The precise ordering of these titles is flexible!)
France was bitterly opposed to the expansion of Germany, and with the mutiny of the German sailors and civil unrest in Germany it became impossible. Austria was forced to go it alone but with its government facing increased popular demands for an Anschluss. The government of German was uneasy with the Austrian desires for unity whilst remaining an equal partner (becoming a self-governing federal unit). Indeed, the German negotiators felt that Austria wanted to be more than equal, having all the benefits but none of the responsibilities, and the Allied prohibition on Anschluss probably came as a relief! It was mainly the left-wing in Austria who sought Anschluss, as it would unite them with the much larger group of like-minded colleagues in Germany and lead towards Socialism sooner than in a small landlocked country.
The Western forces were officially supposed to occupy the old Empire, but rarely had enough troops to do so effectively. They had to deal with local authorities who had their own agendas. At the peace conference in Paris the diplomats had to reconcile these authorities with the competing demands of the nationalists who had turned to them for help during the war, the strategic or political desires of the Western allies themselves, and other agendas such as a desire to implement the spirit of USA President Wilson's 14 Points. A long but interesting Wikipedia article about the Points is here; most of it discusses Germany rather than Austria-Hungary. For example, in order to live up to the ideal of self-determination laid out in the Fourteen Points, Germans, whether Austrian or German, should be able to decide their own future and government. The French, as mentioned above, disagreed vehemently. Further complicating the situation, delegations such as the Czechs and Slovenians made strong claims on some German-speaking territories.
The result was treaties that compromised many ideals, offended many allies, and set up an entirely new order in the area. Many people hoped that the new nation states would allow for a new era of prosperity and peace in the region, free from the bitter quarrelling between nationalities that had marked the preceding fifty years. This hope proved far too optimistic.
As WWI was ending, a provisional state was formed called the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (SHS for short). Its components were (a) territories of the former Austria, encompassing today's Bosnia and Herzegovina plus most of today's Croatia and Slovenia; and (b) territories of the Kingdom of Hungary (parts of Bács-Bodrog, Banat, Baranya, Torontál and Temes Counties). It constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and then Austria-Hungary.
Montenegro was an independent kingdom until 1918, allied with Serbia in WWI. A few days before the burgeoning SHS allied with Serbia, the Montenegran Assembly deposed King Nicholas (who was in exile) and agreed to unify with Serbia. The Kingdom of Serbia in 1918 also included most of modern-day Macedonia, which had been annexed to Serbia in 1912 following the first Balkan War.
In 1918, this provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs joined with the independent Kingdom of Serbia to form a Kingdom, officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The term "Yugoslavia" (literally "Land of the South Slavs") was its colloquial name due to its origins; and had the advantage of avoiding disagreement on the ordering of the three nationalities!
The peace delegation of the SHS convened in Paris in early 1919 in order to lobby the Conference of Ambassadors taking place there. Its major opponent was Italy who did not recognise the SHS delegation. By the time the SHS delegation left Paris in July 1920 it had secured international recognition of the SHS and most of the territories it originally claimed. See here for a Yugoslavian perspective on these events.
The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929.
The Treaty of St Germain, which ended WWI as far as Austria was concerned, is available on line in several different language versions. A parallel-text French and German version is in the Austrian Staatsgesetzblatt for 1920, pp 995-1245, beginning here. Note that it's images of pages, not text. The navigation arrows are in the top right corner. The Australian Treaties database has a plain-text version here. You lose the layout but it's searchable, and a much smaller file. A plain-text version (origin unclear; 137 pages long!) exists as a PDF file, here. A much-reduced version of the accompanying map is below.
Here is the cover of the Official British Printing of the Treaty:
and here a much-reduced version of the accompanying map (the original is about 1x0.8m!)
The Deutschösterreich state lasted until 21 October 1919, when the Austrian National Assembly by passing 1919 SGB484 reluctantly accepted that under the Treaty of St Germain (signed 10 Sept 1919) the name had to be just Republik Österreich. Interestingly, the name of Deutschösterreich remained in use on Austrian stamps until 1922. Efforts to unite with Germany (the Anschluss) were banned under Article 88 of the Treaty: The independence of Austria is inalienable otherwise than with the consent of the Council of the League of Nations. Consequently Austria undertakes in the absence of the consent of the said Council to abstain from any act which might directly or indirectly or by any means whatever compromise her independence, particularly, and until her admission to membership of the League of Nations, by participation in the affairs of another Power.
[The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. Its Covenant is the first chapter of the Treaty of St Germain, although most versions replace it with a note that it can be found in the Treaty of Versailles. Although the USA's Plenipotentiary had signed the Treaty of St Germain, the USA Senate refused to ratify it because of opposition to joining the League of Nations whose provisions for mutual support might embroil American troops in a foreign war not of their choosing. Instead, a separate peace treaty between the United States and Austria was signed in Vienna on August 24, 1921, and ratified in Vienna on November 8, 1921, becoming effective on the same day. Austria joined the League on 16 December 1920. The main organization became inactive when WWII began, and ceased operations on 20 April 1946. The full text of the Covenant is rather elusive! It can be read here.]
Other Articles transferred the Sudetenland and German Bohemia to Czechoslovakia, South Tirol to Italy, and southern Carinthia and Styria to what became Yugoslavia. The Treaty of Versailles, dictating the terms of peace for Germany, similarly forbade Germany from uniting with Austria; and the Treaty of Trianon dictated Hungary's boundaries irrespective of the wishes of native Hungarians. The aspirations of the newly-created land-locked First Republic of Austria received equally little attention.The First Republic, which lasted from 1918 until 1938, was a state nobody really expected to last at all. As a result of the war, Austria had lost much of its heavy industry and raw materials in Bohemia, its food from Hungary (which was itself in turmoil), its access to the Mediterranean, the southern part of Tirol, and for a while its attraction for tourism. To this was added a disproportionately large capital city, a crippling shortage of food and no money to buy more even if a seller could be found, the deadly (so-called Spanish) flu epidemic of 1918-1919, high unemployment, a hopeless political split between the conservative countryside and the socialists in the major towns, black markets, and marauding armed ex-soldiers who started forming paramilitary organisations on the political left and right. Various political parties, ranging from ardent nationalists to social democrats to communists, attempted to set up governments in the names of the different nationalities. In other areas, existing nation states such as Romania expanded into regions that they considered to be rightfully theirs. These moves created de facto governments that complicated life for diplomats, idealists, and the Western allies.
There was rampant inflation (see here) although a continued flow of Charity Stamps appeared, heavily surcharged and now difficult to collect (as Bedarfsbelege**, impossible). In addition, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy had imposed a trade blockade and refused to sell food and coal to Austria, which eventually was saved by aid and support from the Western Allies. One side effect of the lack of coal was that generation of electricity in Vienna was severely reduced, and the pneumatic post system's services were disrupted. By 1922 one USA dollar was worth 19,000 kronen and half the population was unemployed. (** Bedarfsbelege are items of mail correctly franked using stamps that were valid and had not been superceded.)
The treaties of Versailles, Saint Germain, and Trianon generally included guarantees of minority rights, but there was no enforcement mechanism. The new states of eastern Europe mostly all had large ethnic minorities, who felt little affiliation to their new state - whose other inhabitants resented their presence. Millions of Germans found themselves in the newly created countries as minorities. More than two million ethnic Hungarians found themselves living outside of Hungary in Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Many of these national minorities found themselves in hostile situations because the modern governments were intent on defining the national character of the countries, often at the expense of the other nationalities. The interwar years were hard for religious minorities in the new states built around ethnic nationalism. The Jews were especially distrusted because of their minority religion and distinct subculture. This was a dramatic come-down from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; although antisemitism had been widespread during Habsburg rule, Jews faced no official discrimination because they were for the most part ardent supporters of the multi-national state and the monarchy.
The economic disruption of the war and the end of the Austro-Hungarian customs union created great hardship in many areas. Although many states were set up as democracies after the war, one by one, with the exception of Czechoslovakia, they reverted to some form of authoritarian rule. Many quarrelled amongst themselves but were too weak to compete effectively. In the 1930s, when Germany rearmed, the nation states of south-central Europe were unable to resist its attacks, and fell under German domination to a much greater extent than had ever existed in Austria-Hungary.
On 1 October 1920 a new constitution was enacted - a progressive document, although Christian Social influence, and Social Democratic compromise, were evident. It defined the Austrian Republic as a federal state with the provinces represented in the Bundesrat (Federal Chamber) to partner the Nationalrat (National Chamber), where deputies were elected in national elections in a reasonably sophisticated system of proportional representation. The current official version, with an English translation, is here (scroll down to reach the words!)
The Austrian Federal Constitutional Law celebrated its centenary in 2020. To this day it is the core of the Austrian Constitution. Even if he wasn't the sole author of the law, Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) is often referred to as its "father". After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, the lawyer was commissioned by State Chancellor Karl Renner to draft a constitution for the young republic. On October 1, 1920 the Constituent National Assembly approved the Federal Constitutional Law. Hans Kelsen was one of the most important legal scholars of the 20th century. He dealt with constitutional law, international law and Legal theory. Kelsen held a professorship for state and Administrative law at the University of Vienna and was a member of the Constitutional Court. He left Austria when the National Socialists came to power and taught in Cologne, Geneva and Prague before emigrating to the USA in 1940, where he studied at Harvard Law School and taught at the University of California. He died in California in 1973. As part of a series for the 100th anniversary of the VÖPh, the 2020 stamp was dedicated to the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act (Bundesverfassungsgesetz), passed in 1920. The special stamp block (the surcharge of 0.50 euro was for the 100th anniversary of the Österreichischer Philatelistenvereine (VÖPh)) shows the first articles of the Federal Constitution behind a portrait of Hans Kelsen. The parliament building in Vienna, in which the Federal Constitutional Law was passed in 1920, as well as the statue in front of Pallas Athena with the goddess of victory Nike standing in her hand, form the distant background.
Also on 1 October 1920, the Constituent National Assembly passed a motion calling for the Government to hold a plebiscite on the union of Austria and Germany. Germany was apprehensive as it was due to hold negotiations regarding a loan from the League of Nations and feared the Allies might terminate the aid programme. Nevertheless, in April and May 1921 the provinces of Tirol and Salzburg each held a plebiscite on the question 'Is union with the German Reich required?'. The result was an overwhelming majority in favour of a union. Although it had no political consequences it showed the feelings of the population. As a result of threats by the Allies, the un-concluded negotiations regarding the border of Burgenland, and the lack of food, it was decided there would be no more referenda. Nevertheless, the idea of a union with Germany never disappeared from the political debate. Despite all the international agreeing, many groups of people in Austria continued to demand union with Germany. Many plebiscites were held in various parts of Austria to resolve border disputes, express political aspirations (especially to unite with Germany), and so on. See Appendix IV especially for the philatelic consequences.
In the Tirol, the plebiscite was called by the Land government for Sunday 24 April 1921, according to the "Salzburger Chronik für Stadt und Land" of 12 April 2021 (left column, ½ way down). The actual wording of the voting paper was given as "Wird der Anschluss an das Deutsche Reich gefordert?" which means "Is the connection to the German Reich demanded?"
The "Allgemeine Tiroler Anzieger" began its Saturday coverage with the actual wording of the voting paper, and on Monday reported at the bottom of the page the result as 107,234 'Ja' versus 1,454 'Nein' which is 98.66% in favour.
The "Innsbrucker Nachrichten" of Saturday 23 April carried numerous pages of exhortations-to-vote-YES from the great and the good. The Monday issue reported the result: 73,347 votes cast; 72,213 'Ja'; 1,134 'Nein'; percentage in favour 98.45%. The turnout was 80%.
The result was reported in the "Wiener Zeitung" for Monday 25 April (left hand column, at the bottom).
Other sources and textbooks give different numbers, but they all agree that the result was overwhelmingly in favour of an Anschluss with Germany.
The Salzburg plebiscite was supposed to have been held on 24 April 1921, according to a Kundmachung in the "Volksfreund" newspaper (right-hand column) and with the wording "Ich bin dafür, daß dem Völkerbund der Antrag vorgelegt wird: Der Anschluß Oesterreichs an Deutschland wolle ehestens vollzogen werden!". This translates as "I am in favour of submitting the motion to the League of Nations [that] Austria should be annexed to Germany as soon as possible!". This may have been rejected as far too complex; and may also have been blocked by the French who were anxious that Germany should not be allowed to grow in size.
The plebicite in Salzburg was actually held on 29 May 1921. According to the "Salzburger Chronik für Stadt und Land" for 29 April 1921 (middle column at the top), the question was "Wird der Anschluss an Deutschland gefordert?" which means "Is the connection to Germany demanded?", the same question as asked in Tirol.
The result also was reported in the "Wiener Zeitung" for Monday 25 April (left hand column, at the bottom). There were 90,587 'Ja', 797 'Nein', and 378 spoilt.
The traditional periods of Austrian letter-mail inflation are defined as:
Period | Began on | Period | Began on | |
1 | 12.11.1918 | 8 | 21.8.1922 | |
2 | 15.1.1920 | 9 | 18.9.1922 | |
3 | 15.4.1920 | 10 | 1.11.1922 | |
4 | 1.2.1921 | 11 | 1.8.1923 | |
5 | 1.8.1921 | 12 | 1.12.1923 | |
6 | 1.12.1921 | 13 | 1.12.1924 | |
7 | 1.5.1922 | MF | 1.6.1925 |
The start date for Period 1 is chosen because it is the date the Republic of Deutschösterreich was proclaimed; the rates didn't change. "MF" means mixed-franking.
The exchange rate of Kronen to the £1 sterling is tabulated next:
23.1.1920 | 11.11.1920 | 25.10.1921 | 1.1.1922 | 31.4.1922 | 15.6.1922 |
1,000Kr | 2,000Kr | 8,000Kr | 45,000Kr | 93,000Kr | 84,000Kr |
Austria's worst month was August 1922, with an inflation rate of 129% which means that prices double every 25 days. For comparison, Hungary's first inflation's worst month was July 1923, prices doubling every 31 days. Both these are trivial compared with Hungary's post-WWII inflation, peaking in July 1946 at 42,000,000,000,000,000% with prices doubling every 15 hours. After World War I, essentially all State enterprises ran at a loss, and the number of state employees in the capital, Vienna, was greater than in the earlier monarchy, even though the new republic was scarcely one-eighth of the size.
Inflation shows directly in the progressive increase in the postal rates. New higher face values were steadily introduced, and old smaller or unuseable values withdrawn, sometimes with a brief period when they could be exchanged. After February 1921 all Fahrpost (parcels etc) charges had to be paid in cash, not by applying adhesives: the opportunities for genuine use of high-value stamps were greatly diminished!
Date | LL | IL | FL | IPC | FPC | IRg | FRg |
1 December 1921 | 7½ | 10 | 25 | 5 | 15 | 10 | 25 |
1 May 1922 | 20 | 25 | 75 | 12½ | 45 | 40 | 75 |
21 Aug 1922 | 80 | 100 | 300 | 50 | 180 | 160 | 300 |
18 September 1922 | 160 | 200 | 600 | 100 | 360 | 320 | 600 |
1 November 1922 | 320 | 400 | 1500 | 200 | 900 | 640 | 1500 |
1 August 1922 | --- | 600 | 2000 | 300 | 1200 | 1000 | 2000 |
1 December 1923 | --- | 1000 | 3000 | 500 | 1800 | 2000 | 3000 |
1 December 1924 | --- | 1500 | 4000 | 700 | 2400 | 3000 | 4000 |
LL, IL, FL = local, inland, foreign letter, at lowest weight step (ignoring any reduced-rate eg for Hungary);
IPC, FPC = inland, foreign postcard (ditto); and IRg, FRg = inland, foreign registration fee.
Inflation hit the newspaper post just as for everything else. However, the changes made to cope with it were at different dates from the 'ordinary post' changes, and were often notified in different decrees. Karasek, Kroiss and others refer to Inflation Period 1 etc BUT these are quite different from the letter mail inflation periods and there are only 5 of them - because from 1 March 1922, publishers had to pay in cash for posting their newspapers.
The newspaper period start dates are: 1st: 12 Nov 1918; 2nd: 1 July 1920; 3rd: 1 April 1921; 4th: 1 Oct 1921; 5th: 1 Jan 1922.
In December 1921 the Treaty of Lana between Austria and Czechoslovakia was signed in which Austria recognized the new state borders and relinquished claims to represent ethnic Germans living on the territory of the newly created Czechoslovakia. In return Czechoslovakia provided a loan of 500 million Kronen to Austria. Nevertheless, the people of Austria sank into hopeless despair, and especially in Vienna there were hunger riots and looting. Speculators and profiteers flaunted their wealth.
The "treaty of Lana" is mentioned in several history books, but doesn't seem to exist with that name! It's a convenient shorthand for at least two treaties, in several languages, which in 1921-22 settled the borders between what had become the Republic of Austria and the Czechoslovak Republic and finally dealt with the Sudetenland Question. Well, finally until the 1930s...
The settlement of Lana has had numerous name variations, eg Lahna Böhmen in 1869, Lahna-Lana in 1878, and Lány v Cechách in 1918. By 1920 it was Lány (according to the Czech Monografie volume 20). It's about 20 miles from Prag, and boasts the official summer residence of the Czech President. We have found two treaties: the heads-of-state agreement, and the senior civil servants' detailed text. Two confusing contemporary but irrelevant-here treaties are The Treaty of Brno (deals with stateless and/or orphan children) and the Treaty of Venice (13 Oct 1921) which is the detailed arrangements for the West Hungarian Plebiscite.
The details came first, negotiated between senior civil servants. The Austrian edition, in parallel German and Czech, is 1922 BGB396. There's also a League of Nations Treaty Series version, with useful translations into English]. The River Thaya and its proposed hydroelectric scheme are followed by details of where the border is to be; provisions to regulate cross-border traffic in goods, animals and people; railways which to get from A to C in one country have to pass through B in the other; and how disputes would be resolved. This was signed in Prag on 10 March 1921; ratified on 11 August 1921; final documents exchanged in Prag on 30 March 1922; and published on 8 July 1922.
Austrian Chancellor Schober and Czechoslovak President Benes after negotiating in Lana agreed: to recognise the Treaties of St Germain and Trianon; to accept the boundaries fixed therein; and to share copies of all treaties each had made with neighbouring states. Signed (2 copies) by both at Prag on 16 Dec 1921; ratifications exchanged 14 February 1922; effective 15 March 1922; published 30 March 1922. The Austrian edition, in parallel French and German, is 1922 BGB173 [and in English].
After the collapse of the Monarchy, local armed defence corps, called "Heimwehr" had formed to protect homes and farms from roving bands of demobilised soldiers, hungry refugees and common criminals. By the mid 1920s these were grouped into provincial associations led by right-wing politicians, and frequently influenced and funded by Fascists in Germany, Italy and Hungary. The Christian Socialists, led by Msgr Seipel, a believer in strong government, were convinced that they had to protect the existing social order against a Marxist revolution.
Meanwhile, the Social Democrats had created a centrally-controlled opposing force, also with access to arms, descended from the People's Guard of 1918 and called the "Republikänischer Schutzbund". The Social Democrats felt that their social-reform program was endangered by reactionary elements. The working classes especially in Vienna felt hopeless and despairing, while speculators and profiteers both Austrian and foreign flaunted their wealth. Inflation gripped the country. The Socialists demanded a policy of self-help, windfall taxes on the profits created by inflation, a capital levy on banks and individuals, strict currency control, and a reorientation of the industrial structure.
Seipel's Christian Socialists did not believe that Austria could save herself by her own efforts: the country would not stand for stringent economic controls; nor could the banks be compelled to make sacrifices. Seipel did the rounds of European capitals, exploiting the rivalries and fears among the Allied Powers, and finally delivered a powerful speech to the League of Nations on 6 September 1922. By the Geneva Protocols of October 1922, Austria's independence and territorial integrity were reaffirmed; she would be lent 650 million gold crowns; she would begin a programme of financial reforms; and would extend for 20 years the effective ban on union with Germany (Treaty of St Germain, Article 88). Parliament was to vote the government special powers to impose stringent economies and to balance the budget within two years.
When this was announced, the resulting uproar hardened the political divisions in the country. Almost 85,000 civil servants and employees of public services were dismissed, indirect taxation increased compared with direct taxes, and pensions and similar benefits were not increased when the currency devalued. The number unemployed kept on rising. The Socialists were particularly incensed because they knew that in an independent Austria they were most unlikely to regain political power.
On 15 December 1922, Dr Alfred Rudolph Zimmerman, who had been Burgomaster of Rotterdam since 1906, was appointed Commissioner General by the League of Nations to administer their loan to Austria. It was due to the efforts of Dr Zimmerman and his team that the Kronen currency was stabilised until it was completely replaced in 1925 with the silver Schilling currency (see 1924 BGB461, at the bottom right of the page). This was introduced progressively, so while postage was paid in the new currency from 1 March 1925, the stamps were issued on 1 June. Kronen stamps were invalidated on 1 July 1925 but could be exchanged for new groschen issues until 30 September. Provision was made for the use of Kronen stamps to officially uprate postal stationery, also until 30 September. Dr Zimmerman was decommissioned on 1 July 1926.
By the mid 1920s Austria was split into two roughly equal factions, both with paramilitary organisations. On the right, the Christian Socialists and allies, mostly bourgeois, supporters of austerity and 'small government' - and by and large doing quite well. On the left, the Social Democrats, increasingly resentful of the growing poverty of the workers and unemployed and the growing affluence of the right - and in general doing very badly. Frequent demonstrations and counter-demonstrations were held. Trouble was inevitable.
In 1927 a demonstration by members of the Republican Schutzbund in Schattendorf (near the Hungarian boundary in Burgenland) was opposed by reactionary forces. Two demonstrators (a member of the Schutzbund and a child) were killed by bullets fired from the first floor of the village inn. The suspects were charged with "public violence": not even manslaughter. They pleaded self-defence and were acquitted by a Vienna court after 11 days. The Social Democrats called for a general strike and a mass protest on the Ringstrasse. Next day, 15 July 1927, Viennese workers clashed with the police, and bitter street-fighting developed. In this "July revolt" 4 policemen were killed and 600 injured; amongst the demonstrators 89 died and 548 were injured. As part of the protest, and also to destroy the police files concerning them, the demonstrators set fire to the Ministry of Justice building, cut the fire hoses, and opened hydrants elsewhere to reduce the water pressure. The building, including the WIEN 21 Post Office, burned out. The Social Democrats then launched a general strike, but it had to be called off since Seipel and Bürgermeister Seitz used the opportunity for a violent assertion of government authority. Terrified, large numbers of the bourgeoisie joined the Heimwehr.
In March 1931 the Austrian Foreign Minister tried to slip in an Austria-Germany customs union. The French considered this to be Anschluss wearing a disguise, and along with the countries of the Little Entente** vetoed it. An indirect result was a run on the Creditanstalt, the largest bank in Austria, in which the major German banks had large investments - so not only did confidence in the Austrian economy evaporate, but the economic recovery of Germany was also badly affected. In May 1931 the Creditanstalt was revealed to be bankrupt. It was "too big to fail". Its deposits were so large that freezing them while bankruptcy was carried through would have destroyed the Austrian economy. The government stepped in to guarantee deposits, with money it didn't have. The resulting expansion of the currency was inconsistent with gold-standard discipline. Savers liquidated their deposits and began to transfer funds out of the country in order to avoid the capital losses that would have been associated with a devaluation. Unemployment doubled, from 10% in 1929 to 21% in 1932; and unemployment benefit was paid for a limited time only after which one fended for ones-self.
**The Little Entente was an alliance formed in 1920 and 1921 by Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with the purposes of common defense against Hungarian claims against its neighbours; to thwart Italy's attempts to assert dominance over the region; and to prevent any prospect of a Habsburg restoration in Austria or Hungary.
In May 1932, Engelbert Dollfuss became Chancellor, leading a Christian-Social coalition of parties whose main aim was to prevent the Social Democrats on one hand, and the National Socialists on the other, gaining power. Dollfuss negotiated the Lausanne Treaty of July 1932, receiving a large League of Nations loan in exchange for abandoning any thoughts of union with Germany. In Parliament, and on the streets, the unrest continued to grow. On 4 March 1933, the three presidents of Parliament resigned so that they could vote on a crucial motion. Dolfuss siezed his opportunity, revived the unused but still valid Emergency Powers Act of 1917** (1917 RGB307; it begins at bottom right corner of the page), declared Parliament in abeyance, and instituted his "Ständestaat", a corporatist and authoritarian government with no dissent tolerated. He founded the Fatherland Front.
**On the occasion of the centenary of the Austrian Wartime Economy Enabling Act 1917 (Kriegswirtschaftliches Ermächtigungsgesetz 1917 – KwEG), the conference "Emergency Legislation" took place on October 17, 2017, at the Vienna Juridicum. It was organized by the Commission for Austrian Legal History of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Legal Sources Research Center of the University of Vienna. This essay by Prof. Dr. Thomas Olechowski provides an overview of the lectures given at the conference.
On 21 September 1933, Dollfuss dismissed the chairman of the Christian Social Party, Minister of the Army Carl Vaugoin, from the government and used his departure to carry out a major reshuffle of the cabinet. Emil Fey, who had been Minister of the Interior and leader of the Heimwehr, became Vice-Chancellor; Dollfuss himself took over four additional departments - from now on he was not only Federal Chancellor, but also Minister of the Interior with responsibility for public safety, and Minister of Defence, and Minister of Security, and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. As Federal Chancellor, he headed the Foreign Ministry. Small in stature, he was a bundle of energy, not exactly a great speaker but a strong persuasive conversationalist. He dared to do almost anything, demanded a lot from those around him and knew how to motivate his employees.
On 23 September, Dollfuss issued a decree (1933 BGB431) that made it legal "to arrest persons who pose a risk to security and confine them in a specific town or place without judicial proceedings". The specific place was in reality a detention camp; and in September 1933 one was opened at Wollersdorf on the site of a former munitions factory (a Feuerwerkanstalt) as described below.
The First Republic, surrounded by mostly totalitarian states, finally became a pseudo-fascist state in 1934. Dollfuss' government crushed a Socialist uprising in the February. One of their actions was to have the Army, willingly assisted by the Heimwehr, deploy light artillery to dislodge socialist fighters from the huge Karl-Marx-Hof, a city-owned housing estate in Heiligenstadt, Vienna. Soon Dolfuss abolished all political parties except for his Fatherland Front, issued a resplendently-formatted new Constitution (in 13 chapters), and changed the Austrian Coat-of-Arms to a double-headed eagle with a red-white-red breast-shield (picture on the second page). It was followed in the Bundegesetzblatt by a new Concordat with the Vatican. However, on 25 July 1934 Dollfuss was assassinated by Nazis. Kurt Schuschnigg took over; his right wing and anti-democratic government was quite unpopular, but in retrospect was perhaps unavoidable, since Austria was wedged between the competing and expansionist states of Hitler and Mussolini.
First, tribute must be paid to Nik Harty, whose researches into correspondence apparently to and from inmates of a fireworks factory uncovered much of a long-forgotten part of Austria's history. Now-a-days, instead of fighting your way along farm tracks, through thorn bushes, and into the National Archives you can spend an hour trawling the internet and find almost too much information. Nik wrote up his work in Austria issues 107 and 111; in earlier issues the problem was described - and some of our oldest members wrote of their own experiences.
Beginning in 1815, plants for the production of rockets and explosives were built on a site between Wiener Neustadt and Wöllersdorf, initially under the name Feuerwerksanstalt. "Fireworks factory" is an unfortunate mistranslation! Housing blocks were built to accommodate the production staff. During WWI, the site expanded to become the largest munitions factory in the monarchy. There were frequent explosions; one on 18 September 1918 killed at least 382 people, and the worst was in September 1914 when more than 500 workers lost their lives. At its peak, up to 40,000 people worked in the region's military industry. The railway network within the factory and the adjacent area was over 100 km. The factory seems to have been abandoned in 1918, although the houses were lived in, partly by widows of officers. Numerous photograph and postcards can be viewed here
In 1933, the government of the Austrian corporate state set up a detention camp in some halls of the Wöllersdorf works. In October, the first prisoners - nine National Socialists and one Communist - were brought to Wöllersdorf. In January 1934, a second detention camp was opened at Kaisersteinbruch in Burgenland. At first it was only used for National Socialists, but after the February 12 riots, arrested members of the Social Democratic and Communist parties were also added. However, the Kaisersteinbruch detention camp was closed in May 1934 and the remaining prisoners transferred to Wöllersdorf. With the civil war in February 1934, hundreds of members of the Schutzbund and Social Democrat officials were sent to Wöllersdorf. On May 1, 1934, there were 831 political prisoners in the camp, 508 Social Democrats and Communists and 323 National Socialists, in segregated buildings. After the failed July Putsch in 1934, the Wöllersdorf detention camp expanded to detain thousands of National Socialists. The peak was reached in October 1934 with almost 5,000 people, of whom 4,256 were National Socialists and 538 Social Democrats and Communists. An amnesty in 1936 reduced the number of prisoners to around 500 people. After the Berchtesgaden Agreement between Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg and Adolf Hitler in February 1938, the camp was closed. Shortly before the closure, 114 people were still being detained in Wöllersdorf, including 45 National Socialists, 11 Social Democrats and 58 Communists.
The conditions in the camp are described as "comparatively pleasant, all things considered". The different groups of prisoners each developed their own Wöllersdorf narrative. In the Nazi memorial literature, imprisonment in Wöllersdorf was stylized as "martyrdom" in order to establish the heroic myth of the illegals before the Anschluss. In the memoirs of left-wing opposition prisoners, the detention in Wöllersdorf is overshadowed by later persecution by the National Socialists. Everyday life in the camp in Wöllersdorf appeared to be relatively mild compared to the prisons and even more so in comparison to National Socialist concentration camps. Several people who were both in the Wöllersdorf detention camp and later in Hitler's concentration camps, irrespective of their political views, agreed with this. Nevertheless, the arbitrary arrest and internment of political opponents was a serious breach of human rights and civil rights, which were still guaranteed by the constitution.
In the course of the annexation of Austria to Hitler's Germany in March 1938, the camp was reactivated by the National Socialists for the imprisonment of officials of the Corporate State. As part of the propaganda of a so-called liberation, the camp was closed on 2 April 1938 and the barracks burned down (the housing blocks remained). The prisoners were taken to the Dachau concentration camp.
In 1973, based on a design by A. Kirchner, a memorial was erected on the site of the former detention camp and unveiled in February 1974 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the February fighting. Numerous photograph and postcards showing the camp, and the memorial, can be viewed here
When on 11 March 1938 German troops occupied Austria, there was negligible effective resistance; what emerged later was viciously repressed. The legalities are documented in the Gesetzblatt für das Land Österreich (GfLÖ).
Austria's Jews had their assets expropriated GfLÖ #13 of 23 March 1938, and unless they could escape were deported to concentration camps such as Mauthausen and Auschwitz.
From 1938 until 1945, the Austrian state ceased to exist GfLÖ #1 of 13 March 1938.
A "secret" referendum was called for 10 April to support the transfer; details, voting forms etc are in GfLÖ #2 .
Under Law GfLÖ #3 , Government officials (Beamte) had to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Jews were of course excluded from the new world.
The philatelic feature of greatest interest relating to the Anschluss was the use for several months of a mixture of Austrian and German stamps, during the several stages of the transition from the Austrian to the German system. See for example
GfLÖ #112 issued in Berlin on April 30, 1938 and effective in Land Österreich from May 3; and
GfLÖ #259 July 9, 1938 which has 59 sections with details of the new systems and their introduction dates.
From 1938 until 1945, the Austrian state ceased to exist and the stamps and postal materials of the German Reich were used. The philatelic feature of greatest interest relating to these events was the use for several months of a mixture of Austrian and German stamps, during the several stages of the transition from the Austrian to the German system. Details are here
At the end of the Second World War, Austria was resuscitated. The situation at that time was worse than after the First World War. A large fraction of the adult male population had been killed, had gone into exile, or were still missing or being held prisoner - many not returning from the Soviet Gulags until after Stalin’s death. This time the war had hit Austria proper. Many historical buildings in Vienna, such as the Cathedral of St. Stephen, the Burgtheater, the Opera House, and the City Hall had been destroyed or seriously damaged. The country was divided into four zones, each one occupied by one of the four victorious powers, as was Vienna itself.
The occupying powers were the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the United States. Soviet intransigence led to the decade-long occupation; the other nations had wanted to end their presence quickly. As the differences among the powers mounted, communication between the zones became difficult. It was only in 1955 that it became expedient to establish Austria as a neutral buffer. The Austrian State Treaty was signed [see here for an eyewitness account of the negotiations] and the occupation was lifted, and Austria was permitted to freely govern itself and join the United Nations. The border with Hungary, in the meantime, had become part of the Iron Curtain, to the detriment of commerce between the two states.
This time, however, the Austrians had learned from their past mistakes. To avoid any future split between the left and the right, a procedure called the "Proporzsystem" was established, in which an even sharing of power between the parties was assured. (This tended to mean that everything was duplicated, and jobs filled on political considerations rather than on competence.) In an extraordinary effort, the destroyed landmarks of Vienna and elsewhere were rebuilt as faithfully as possible. A system of strict neutrality in foreign policies was established, and, in large measure thanks to this effort, tourism was re-established and Austria became a European center for the activities of the United Nations. Especially in the immediate post-war period, the design of postage stamps carefully avoided controversy, concentrating on scenery, old buildings, and traditional costumes.
Unfortunately, it proved more difficult to re-establish the extraordinary cultural position that Viennese art and science had occupied before the war, and to replace or reverse the exodus of culture and civilization that had occurred. The political approach of "Don’t mention the war" and "Austria was an innocent victim of Hitler" led to a collective amnesia - it has been said "What other country could persuade the world that Beethoven and Mozart were Austrian while Hitler was German"! [Beethoven was born in Bonn; Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791, during all of which time Salzburg was an independent Prince-Archbishopric.]
This cosy consensus lasted until 1986 when the former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim was elected president, despite growing international controversy over his role in the German army in World War II, the details of which he had forgotten. Austria was viewed in a different light now, and reacted by asserting its right to govern itself as it saw fit. Far Right-wing parties began to win substantial numbers of votes in national elections, and joined the governing coalitions.
This re-emergence of the Right prompted much reflection, especially from the post-war generation, and produced a slow swing back to the centre. Also, in 1998 the Austrian Government set up an independent Historical Commission to examine Austria’s role in the expropriation of Jewish assets during the period of Nazi rule in World War Two, and in returning those assets afterwards. When it reported in 2003, public and private funds were used to make some redress for past wrongs – and the "it wasn’t us" approach was dropped.
When the Cold War ended, Austria found itself no longer at the border between East and West but at the centre of a larger Europe. Conflict was replaced by new forms of partnership and co-operation. Austria started to set a new and important international course for itself, and joined the European Union on 1 January 1995.
Austria actively supports the peace missions of NATO, the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Austria has participated in missions in the Middle East, Cyprus, and Africa by providing troops and other assistance. A considerable diversity of philatelic fieldpost is thus generated!
Long lists exist of works on the history, politics, and philately of Austria, and even if restricted to those in English they are still long. Although written in German and often printed in Frakturschrift, the most helpful sources of philatelic information are:
Some older classics (in English):
Some more modern works:
Fiction:
Internet:
The author thanks all those who provided assistance, examples, articles, and information; or contributed to discussions on topics both central and peripheral to the subject: including but not restricted to (in alphabetical order!) D Baron, J Boyer, K Brandon, H Bravery, M Brumby, R Morrell, Dr H Moser, Dr J Pitts, H Pollak, Mag. E Sinnmayer, Y Wheatley. The patience of Österreichische Post AG, the Austrian State Archive, and the Library of the Technical Museum in Vienna are gratefully acknowledged. However, the mistakes, misprints, ill-founded rationalisations and groundless speculations are All My Own Work™.
The author will be grateful for any corrections, additions, technical complaints and so on! Email webmaster@austrianphilately.com
© The Austrian Philatelic Society. Last updated 6 August 2024