War years

What was the war really like? What triggered the First World War? What happened to the Habsburg monarchy after the end of the war? What happened to Austria during the Second World War?

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The First World War

Experience an air raid towards the end of the Second World War in an original air raid shelter at Time Travel Vienna. How did it feel to survive the air raids in a bunker? How many people were able to find refuge there? How heavily was Vienna bombed? When was the Second World War over and who announced it? What happened to Austria in the post-war period?

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The years1914 - 1918

The First World War began in the summer of 1914 and lasted until November 1918. One of the triggers was the assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. It was also the result of many years of tension between the major European powers. The Central Powers (German Empire and Austria-Hungary) were opposed by the Triple Entente (France, England, Russia). The First World War ended with the defeat of the Central Powers and cost the lives of around 17 million people.

Long before June 1914, preparations for war in Europe were already in full swing. Around 1914, Europe was divided into two blocs: The Axis Powers (Central Powers) with Austria-Hungary, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria and Italy on one side and the “Entente” with Great Britain, Russia, France, Portugal and many other states on the other. Austria formed the Triple Alliance with Italy and Germany . Italy later switched to the Entente, as they promised the country South Tyrol.

The assassination of the heir to the throne and the declarations of war

The events following the assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie have gone down in history as the “July Crisis” . Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to the Serbian government , which was unacceptable to Serbia. Russia sided unequivocally with Serbia.

On July 28, 1914 , Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia . As a result, both Austria-Hungary and Russia were in a state of war. On August 1 , the German Reich declared war on Russia, three days later on France. German troops attacked France from the north-east, violating Belgium’s neutrality. This in turn led to the entry into the war of the Belgian guarantor power, Great Britain.

The First World War was only supposed to be a brief military retaliation against Serbia, but events came thick and fast. In April 1915 , poison gas was used for the first time when the German Reich used more than 160 tons of chlorine gas against French soldiers.

In 1915 , Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The Isonzo battles lasted until 1917. The Battle of Verdun was a material battle around the Verdun fortress that lasted around 10 months and cost the lives of around 700,000 people. The Battle of the Somme was no less costly. In 1917, there was unrestricted submarine warfare and the USA declared war on the Germans.

The October Revolution in Russia in 1917 brought about a turning point in the war and an armistice between the Central Powers and Russia.

In January 1918 , US President Wilson presented his 14-point program , which was initially rejected by the German Reich. The armistice was finally signed on 11.11.1918.

The First World War ended with the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy . The first republic was proclaimed in Austria on November 12, 1918.

The Second World War (1939 - 1945)

When Austria did not exist (1938 - 1945)

In March 1938 the annexation of Austria to Hitler’s Germany and the so-called Third Reich. For the next seven years, Austria disappeared politically from the map until 1945, when the Liberation by the Allies took place.

On Vienna’s Heldenplatz on March 15, 1938, Hitler announced the entry of his homeland into the German Reich. The annexation of Austria was complete. He had this confirmed by a referendum on April 10, 1938 with an overwhelming majority of 99.75%. This election was not intended as a secret ballot, but as a public rally and thus voluntary submission to the new regime.

For Jews, Roma and Sinti, as well as opponents of National Socialism, the Anschluss meant persecution and death. The greatest war crime was the Holocaust, the Nazi genocide in the course of which around 6 million Jews lost their lives in concentration camps.

The trigger for the Second World War was Hitler’s attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, which violated international law. France and Great Britain subsequently declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. The German Wehrmacht was initially successful against France, but suffered its first defeat in the air battle over England in the fall of 1940 .

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the USA also entered the war and it escalated into a Pacific war . The dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 was part of a warfare that knew no bounds.

The attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 ended in disaster for Germany due to the size of the country and the early onset of winter . February 1943 can be seen as the turning point , when the German Wehrmacht failed at Stalingrad and was almost completely annihilated.

When the battle came to an end

The Second World War is one of the largest and most costly conflicts in human history. It cost approx. 55 million people’s lives.

From April 1944 to March 1945 , around 115 alarm signals were given over the radio, which people could hear via the radio of the time, known as the “Volksempfänger”. Introduced by a cuckoo call as an invitation to seek out air raid shelters. People took refuge in cellars marked LSK (Luftschutzkeller). The first heavy air raid on Vienna took place on September 10, 1944. The greatest damage occurred between March and April 1945, when around 25% of the city was destroyed .

On June 6, 1944, the Allies landed on the French Normandy coast (D-Day). Hitler was thus surrounded on all sides and committed suicide in the Führerbunker on April 30, 1945 .

The unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht took place on May 8, 1945. The Second World War ended with the complete defeat of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) and the victory of the Allies (USA, France, Soviet Union, Great Britain).