First Republic of Austria - Foundation

Foundation

In 1919, the state of German Austria was dissolved by the Treaty of Saint Germain, which ceded German-populated regions in Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia, German-populated Tyrol to Italy and a portion of southern land to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca, or SHS) also known as Yugoslavia. The treaty angered the German population in Austria who claimed that it violated the Fourteen Points laid out by United States President Woodrow Wilson during peace talks, specifically the right to "self-determination" of all nations. The new state managed to prevent two land claims from being taken by their neighbours. The first was the south-eastern part of Carinthia, which was inhabited mostly by Slovenians. It was prevented from being taken by the new SHS-state through a plebiscite on October 20, 1920, in which the population chose to remain with Austria. The second land-claim that was prevented was Hungary's claim to Burgenland, which, under the name "Western Hungary", had been part of the Hungarian kingdom since 1647. It was inhabited mostly by a German-speaking population, but had also Croat- and Hungarian-speaking minorities. Through the Treaty of St. Germain it became part of the Austrian Republic in 1921. After a plebiscite which was disputed by Austria, the city of Sopron (German Ödenburg) remained in Hungary.

After the war, Austria was governed by a coalition of left-wing and right-wing parties which had established a number of progressive socioeconomic and labour legislation. In 1920, the coalition government established the Constitution of Austria. However the new state was difficult to control, as much of the former empire's important economic regions had been taken away with the foundation of new nation-states. The matter was further complicated by the fact that a number of these new nation-states were still dependent on Vienna's banks.