1.
Innsbruck
–
Innsbruck is the capital city of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn valley, at its junction with the Wipp valley, Innsbruck lies about halfway between Munich in Germany and Verona in Italy. Located in the valley between high mountains, the so-called North Chain in the Karwendel Alps to the north. Innsbruck is an internationally renowned winter sports centre, and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics as well as the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympics, Innsbruck also hosted the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012. The name translates as Inn bridge, earliest traces suggest initial inhabitation in the early Stone Age. Surviving pre-Roman place names show that the area has been populated continuously, in the 4th century the Romans established the army station Veldidena at Oenipons, to protect the economically important commercial road from Verona-Brenner-Augsburg in their province of Raetia. The first mention of Innsbruck dates back to the name Oeni Pontum or Oeni Pons which is Latin for bridge over the Inn, the Counts of Andechs acquired the town in 1180. In 1248 the town passed into the hands of the Counts of Tyrol, the citys arms show a birds-eye view of the Inn bridge, a design used since 1267. The route over the Brenner Pass was then a major transport, the revenues generated by serving as a transit station enabled the city to flourish. Innsbruck became the capital of all Tyrol in 1429 and in the 15th century the city became a centre of European politics, the city benefited from the emperors presence as can be seen for example in the Hofkirche. Here a funeral monument for Maximilian was planned and erected partly by his successors, the ensemble with a cenotaph and the bronze statues of real and mythical ancestors of the Habsburgian emperor are one of the main artistic monuments of Innsbruck. A regular postal service between Innsbruck and Mechelen was established in 1490 by the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post, in 1564 Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria received the rulership over Tirol and other Further Austrian possessions administrated from Innsbruck up to the 18th century. He had Schloss Ambras built and arranged there his unique Renaissance collections nowadays mainly part of Viennas Kunsthistorisches Museum, up to 1665 a stirps of the Habsburgian dynasty ruled in Innsbruck with an independent court. In the 1620s the first opera house north of the Alps was erected in Innsbruck, in 1669 the university was founded. Also as a compensation for the court as Emperor Leopold I again reigned from Vienna, during the Napoleonic Wars Tyrol was ceded to Bavaria, ally of France. Andreas Hofer led a Tyrolean peasant army to victory in the Battles of Bergisel against the combined Bavarian and French forces, the combined army later overran the Tyrolean militia army and until 1814 Innsbruck was part of Bavaria. After the Vienna Congress Austrian rule was restored, until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy, head of the district of the same name, one of the 21 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Tyrol province. The Tyrolean hero Andreas Hofer was executed in Mantua, his remains were returned to Innsbruck in 1823, during World War I, the only recorded action taking place in Innsbruck was near the end of the war
2.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
3.
Renaissance architecture
–
Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the style was carried to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact. Italy of the 15th century, and the city of Florence in particular, was home to the Renaissance, the scholarly approach to the architecture of the ancient coincided with the general revival of learning. A number of factors were influential in bringing this about, Italian architects had always preferred forms that were clearly defined and structural members that expressed their purpose. Many Tuscan Romanesque buildings demonstrate these characteristics, as seen in the Florence Baptistery, Italy had never fully adopted the Gothic style of architecture. In the 15th century, Florence, Venice and Naples extended their power through much of the area that surrounded them and this enabled Florence to have significant artistic influence in Milan, and through Milan, France. Successive Popes, especially Julius II, 1503–13, sought to extend the Pope’s temporal power throughout Italy, in the early Renaissance, Venice controlled sea trade over goods from the East. Trade brought wool from England to Florence, ideally located on the river for the production of fine cloth, by dominating Pisa, Florence gained a seaport, and also maintained dominance of Genoa. In this commercial climate, one family in particular turned their attention from trade to the business of money-lending. The Medici became the chief bankers to the princes of Europe, becoming virtually princes themselves as they did so, along the trade routes, and thus offered some protection by commercial interest, moved not only goods but also artists, scientists and philosophers. This commenced in the mid 15th century and gained momentum in the 16th century, the construction of the Sistine Chapel with its uniquely important decorations and the entire rebuilding of St Peters, one of Christendoms most significant churches, were part of this process. In wealthy republican Florence, the impetus for church-building was more civic than spiritual, the unfinished state of the enormous cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary did no honour to the city under her patronage. The dome inspired further religious works in Florence, through Humanism, civic pride and the promotion of civil peace and order were seen as the marks of citizenship. Some major ecclesiastical building works were commissioned, not by the church. During the Renaissance, architecture became not only a question of practice, printing played a large role in the dissemination of ideas. The first treatise on architecture was De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450 and it was to some degree dependent on Vitruviuss De architectura, a manuscript of which was discovered in 1414 in a library in Switzerland. De re aedificatoria in 1485 became the first printed book on architecture, Sebastiano Serlio produced the next important text, the first volume of which appeared in Venice in 1537, it was entitled Regole generali darchitettura. It is known as Serlios Fourth Book since it was the fourth in Serlios original plan of a treatise in seven books, in all, five books were published
4.
Counts of Andechs
–
The House of Andechs was a feudal line of German princes in 12th and 13th century. One Count Rasso is documented in Dießen, who fought against the invading Magyars in the early 10th century. By their ancestor Count Palatine Berthold of Reisensburg, a grandson of the Bavarian duke Arnulf the Bad, Berthold appears a fierce enemy of King Otto I of Germany and was blamed as a traitor at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld against the Hungarians. He probably married a daughter of Duke Frederick I of Upper Lorraine, his descendant Count Berthold II and he served as vogt of Benediktbeuern Abbey and by marriage with Sophie, daughter of Margrave Poppo II, came into property of lands in the March of Istria and Carniola. In the year 1180, the County of Andechs acquired the town of Innsbruck, Otto II of Andechs was bishop of Bamberg in 1177–1196. In 1208, when Philip of Swabia, King of the Germans, was assassinated at Bamberg by Otto VIII of Wittelsbach, saint Hedwig of Andechs was one of eight children born to Berthold IV, Duke of Merania, Count of Dießen-Andechs and Margrave of Istria. Of her four brothers, two bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg, and Berthold, Patriarch of Aquileia. Otto succeeded his father as Duke of Dalmatia, and Henry became Margrave of Istria, a history of the House of Andechs was written by the statesman and historian Joseph Hormayr, Baron zu Hortenburg, and published in 1796
5.
Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria
–
Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria was ruler of Further Austria including Tirol. The son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, he was married to Philippine Welser in his first marriage, in his second marriage to Anna Juliana Gonzaga, he was the father of Anna of Tyrol, the would-be Holy Roman Empress. Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was the son of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia. He was a brother of Emperor Maximilian II. At the behest of his father, he was put in charge of the administration of Bohemia in 1547 and he also led the campaign against the Turks in Hungary in 1556. In 1557 he was married to Philippine Welser, daughter of a patrician from Augsburg. The marriage was accepted by Emperor Ferdinand I in 1559 under the condition of secrecy. The children were to receive the name of Austria but would only be entitled to if the House of Habsburg became totally extinct in the male line. The sons born of this received the title Margrave of Burgau, after the Margraviate of Burgau. The younger of the sons, who survived their father, later received the title of Fürst zu Burgau. After his fathers death in 1564, Ferdinand became the ruler of Tirol, however, he remained governor of Bohemia in Prague until 1567 according to the wishes of his brother Maximilian II. In his own lands, Ferdinand made sure that the Catholic counterreformation would prevail, the cultured humanist from the House of Habsburg was instrumental in promoting the Renaissance in central European. He also was a collector of art. He accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum built specifically for that purpose, the collection was started during his time in Bohemia and subsequently moved it to Tyrol. In particular, the Chamber of Art and Curiosities, the gallery of portraits and the collection of armor were highly expensive, today these collections are at Ambras Castle Innsbruck and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. After the death of Philippine in 1580, he married Anne Catherine, Archduke Ferdinand died on 24 January 1595. Since his sons from the first marriage were not entitled to the inheritance, and his daughter from the Mantuan marriage became the Empress Anna, consort of Emperor Mathias, who received his Further Austrian inheritance. He and his first wife Philippine Welser were parents of four children, became a Cardinal in 1576, Margrave of Burgau in 1578, Bishop of Constance in 1589 and Bishop of Brixen in 1591
6.
Philippine Welser
–
Philippine Welser was the morganatic wife of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. She was granted the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg and her family, the Welsers of Augsburg, were merchants and financiers of European significance and great wealth. Her father was Franz Welser and her mother was Anna Adler, Philippine Welsers uncle Bartholomeus V. Welser received Venezuela as security for a loan from the King of Spain in 1528, and the family thus became rulers of the colony. Already at an age, she was renowned for both her beauty and her learning. She died at Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck in Tyrol and she was the mother of Margrave Andrew of Burgau, who became a Cardinal, and Charles, Margrave of Burgau, who became a noted General. After her death, her husband remarried to Anne Juliana Gonzaga and became the father of Anna of Tyrol, PA1474 Sigrid-Maria Größing, Kaufmannstochter im Kaiserhaus. Philippine Welser und ihre Heilkunst, Vienna, Kremayr und Scheriau,1992,254 Pages, ISBN 3-218-00531-0 Sigrid-Maria Größing, Augsburg, Sankt-Ulrich-Verlag,1998,160 Pages, ISBN 3-929246-28-7 Karl Beer, Philippine Welser als Freundin der Heilkunst. In, Gesnerus 7 80-86 University of Hamburg Die Heilkunst der Philippine Welser
7.
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Maximilian I was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was always too risky. He was the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and he ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his fathers reign, from c.1483 to 1493. Charles father Philip died in 1506, so Charles succeeded Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, Maximilian was born at Wiener Neustadt on 22 March 1459. His father, Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, named him for an obscure saint whom Frederick believed had once warned him of imminent peril in a dream, in his infancy, he and his parents were besieged in Vienna by Albert of Austria. One source relates that, during the sieges bleakest days, the prince would wander about the castle garrison, begging the servants. The young prince was an excellent hunter, his hobby was the hunting for birds as a horse archer. The reigning duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was the political opponent of Maximilians father Frederick III. After the Siege of Neuss, he was successful, the wedding between Maximilian and Mary took place on the evening of 16 August 1477. Maximilians wife had inherited the large Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her fathers death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. Already before his coronation as the King of the Romans in 1486, Maximilian decided to secure this distant and extensive Burgundian inheritance to his family, the House of Habsburg, at all costs. Maximilian undertook the defence of his wifes dominions from an attack by Louis XI and defeated the French forces at Guinegate, the wedding contract between Maximilian and Mary stipulated that only the children of bride and groom had a right to inherit from each, not the surviving parent. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Marys death in an accident on 27 March 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilians aim was now to secure the inheritance to one of his and Marys children. Some of the Netherlander provinces were hostile to Maximilian, and they signed a treaty with Louis XI in 1482 that forced Maximilian to give up Franche-Comté and they openly rebelled twice in the period 1482–1492, attempting to regain the autonomy they had enjoined under Mary. Flemish rebels managed to capture Philip and even Maximilian himself, Maximilian continued to govern Marys remaining inheritance in the name of Philip the Handsome. After the regency ended, Maximilian and Charles VIII of France exchanged these two territories for Burgundy and Picardy in the Treaty of Senlis, thus a large part of the Netherlands stayed in the Habsburg patrimony. Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his fathers initiative and he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of his father in 1493. Much of Austria was under Hungarian rule when he took power, in 1490, Maximilian reconquered the territory and entered Vienna
8.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
–
Leopold I was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and King of Serbia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain, elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1658, Leopold would rule as such until his death in 1705. Leopolds reign is known for the conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the east, and the rivalry with Louis XIV, after more than a decade of warfare, Leopold emerged victorious from the Great Turkish War thanks to military talents of Prince Eugene of Savoy. By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary which had fallen under the Turkish yoke in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács. Leopold fought three wars against France including the Dutch War, the Nine Years War, and the War of the Spanish Succession, in this last, Leopold sought to give his younger son the entire Spanish inheritance, disregarding the late Spanish kings will. To this end, he started a war which soon engulfed much of Europe, when peace returned at the end of it all, Austria could not be said to have emerged as triumphant as it did from the war against the Turks. Born on 9 June 1640 in Vienna, Leopold received an education by excellent teachers. From an early age Leopold showed an inclination toward learning and he became fluent in several languages, Latin, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. In addition to German, Italian would be the most favored language at his court, Leopold was schooled in the classics, history, literature, natural science and astronomy, and was particularly interested in music, having inherited his fathers musical talents. Originally intended for the Church, Leopold had received an ecclesiastical education. But fate put in motion a different plan for him when smallpox took his elder brother Ferdinand on 9 July 1654, nonetheless, Leopolds church education had clearly marked him. Leopold remained influenced by the Jesuits and his education throughout his life, and was uncommonly knowledgeable for a monarch about theology, metaphysics, jurisprudence and he also retained his interest in astrology and alchemy which he had developed under Jesuit tutors. A deeply religious and devoted person, Leopold personified the pietas Austriaca, Leopold was said to have typically Habsburg physical attributes. Short, thin, and of sickly constitution, Leopold was cold and reserved in public, however, he is also said to have been open with close associates. Coxe described Leopold in the manner, His gait was stately, slow and deliberate, his air pensive, his address awkward, his manner uncouth, his disposition cold. He grew to manhood without the military ambition that characterized most of his fellow monarchs, from the beginning, his reign was defensive and profoundly conservative. Hungary elected Leopold as its king in 1655, with Bohemia and Croatia following suit in 1656 and 1657 respectively. To conciliate France, which had influence in German affairs thanks to the League of the Rhine
9.
House of Habsburg
–
The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
10.
March of Istria
–
The March of Istria was originally a Carolingian frontier march covering the Istrian peninsula and surrounding territory conquered by Charlemagnes son Pepin of Italy in 789. After 1364, it was the name of the Istrian province of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Istrian peninsula remained under Byzantine influence, while South Slavic tribes settled in the east and north. Aistulf, King of the Lombards from 749, attacked the remaining Byzantine territories in Italy, in 755, Pepin invaded Italy and forced Aistulf under Frankish suzerainty. Pepins son Charlemagne in 773/774 finally incorporated the Italian kingdom into the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne at first attached the Istrian peninsula to the Lombard Duchy of Friuli, part of the Carolingian Kingdom of Italy under his son Pepin. Though officially a duchy, Friuli de facto was a march with a merely titular ducal dignity, an Istrian margraviate itself first emerged following the death of Duke Eric of Friuli in the 799 Siege of Trsat on the Frankish border with Littoral Croatia. Istria was enfeoffed to the Frankish count Hunfrid, who bore the title of a dux Foroiulanus. The original Carolingian march stretched from the Julian Alps and the Kras Plateau down to the Gulf of Kvarner and it was one of three marches, along with Friuli and Carantania, guarding Italy from the Avars, Slavs, and Magyars successively. In the first decade of the 9th century, Istria was ruled by one Duke John, nominally according to its ancient Byzantine customs, the region then had nine cities, Trieste foremost among them. After this, it falls into obscurity, but perhaps the Byzantines never succeeded in re-establishing their government in the returned territories, the remaining parts of Istria were probably eventually just re-integrated into the Carolingian duchy of Friuli. When after the deposition of the last Friulian duke Baldric, Emperor Louis the Pious at the 829 Reichstag in Worms divided his vast duchy into four marches, Istria with the March of Friuli was ruled from Aquileia by Margrave Eberhard and his Unruoching descendants. It became part of Middle Francia after the 843 Treaty of Verdun, the Unruoching margrave Berengar of Friuli even succeeded Charles the Fat as King of Italy in 888. The Carniolan margraves gradually acquired the territories of the peninsula. The German king Henry IV nominally assigned the remaining march to the Patriarchate of Aquileia, the margravial title, in 1173 the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa enfeoffed the Bavarian noble House of Andechs, who attached Istria to their Duchy of Merania. Aquileia regained Istria in 1209, when the Andechs margraves were banned due to alleged entanglement in the assassination of the German king, by mid-century most of the Istrian coast had been conquered by Venice. The patriarchs had ceased appointing margraves and had given the interior of the peninsula into the direct control of their Vogt officials. The Görz territories were acquired by the Habsburg archdukes of Austria in 1374. In 1382 they also gained control over the City of Trieste, after the secular territory of the Patriarchs of Aquileia had been completed conquered by Venice in 1420, most of Istria belonged to La Serenissima. The Austrian House of Habsburg only held a territory in the interior of the peninsula around Pazin
