History in Austria (Aimee)

For this weeks tandem lesson I met with Sarah and she spoke to me about the history of her home country. I thought it would be really interesting to compare the history of my home country compared to Austria. Sarah told me that in 1914 Archduke Ferdinand, the heir of the Austrian throne was assassinated. That event led to the First World War. Sarah told me that 1918 even before the war officially ended the Empire began to break up as the various parts of Austria declared independence and in November 1918 the emperor abdicated and Austria then became a Republic. A similarity to Austria and my home country that I found from this discussion was that both countries really did struggle with the depression after the war ended. 

Sarah told me that Austria suffered greatly during the Second World War. Many Austrian soldiers were killed and the country suffered from allied bombing and from a Russian invasion in 1945. However in 1943 the allies decided to restore an independent Austria after the war. Like the United Kingdom there was a great lack of men in the country for many years after the war had ended. I liked discussing this topic with Sarah because I am a great lover of history and I was never given the chance to study about another country’s side for the war before, just my own British side. Sarah and I have both found something in common that both of our countries suffer at the hands of both the First and Second World War. 

Sarah also told me that Austria joined the EU in 1995, while joining the euro in 1999. These are all new aspects that I learned from this tandem lesson as I was totally unaware of these facts before this discussion. Sarah told me that the last Emperor (King) of Austria-Hungary was Karl Franz Josef, but he actually became King of Austria and of Hungary, the Dual Monarchy - in 1867. His reign ended in 1922 when he died. Since then there are been no monarchy in Austria which is something really new to me as I have only ever known to have a Queen with several heirs to follow her. I really enjoyed just listening to Sarah talk about this, this method of discussion really worked for me as it was like listening to a story and I really took in what Sarah was telling me. I realised again just how much I love history and hearing people talk to me about the history of their country.