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HISTORY
TIMELINE
Timeline of Austrian Empire events from 1804 to 1918.
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A DAY IN THE LIFE DURING ...
THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE
by Jacquelin Cangro
Come along with Josef Krauss, a talented young singer as he tries
out for the prestigious Vienna Boy’s Choir.
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THE HABSBURG TALENT FOR MARRIAGE
Adrian Lowe
As late as 1918, the Habsburg dynasty still ruled a huge bloc of
territory in central Europe, including all of the countries we know
today as Austria, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and Slovenia. But seven hundred years earlier it had been just another
little noble family ruling a small corner of Switzerland. How the
Habsburgs rose from obscurity to great power is not just a story
of war and conquest. It is also the story of well-chosen marriages.
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VIENNA 1815: THE HABSBURG PARTY THAT SAVED EUROPE
Deborah Bryson
Imagine you are attending a grand ball in Vienna in the fall of 1814.
Inside, a glittering crowd of ladies in rustling silk gowns and men
in uniforms performs the intricate steps of Vienna’s latest
dance craze, the waltz. Emperor Francis I, leader of the Habsburg
royal family, greets you as you join the guests. Who are these important
people, and why have they gathered in Vienna to eat, dance, and have
fun? Let’s find out how a party that lasted nine months saved
Europe and the Habsburg dynasty. |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF VIENNA
Steve Carper
Franz Joseph issued the famous decree to remake the city in 1857,
saying “It is my will! Work continued for thirty years,
and by the late 1880s the medieval walls and the glacis had been
transformed into a circular boulevard, the Ringstrasse, Learn
how the Vienna was transformed from a cramped medieval city to
a jewel of Europe.
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ELEGANT EQUINES: THE HORSES OF THE SPANISH RIDING
Karen Sessions
Crystal chandeliers flash like giant diamonds on the ceilings of
the Winter Riding School at the Imperial Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
The lights dim, and the air fills with the sound of lilting classical
music. A hush falls over the expectant crowd as the “dancing” stallions,
trained by the riders of the Spanish Riding School, enter the arena.
Explore the scene at the Riding School and learn more about the Lippizaner
stallions that perform there.
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BIG WHEEL KEEP ON TURNING
Mary Langer Thompson
In this short story, American teen Catherine strolls through Vienna
with her great-grandfather, a native of the city, who recollects
its history as he shows her the sights.
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THE CAFÉS OF VIENNA
Evangeline Holland
As boulevards are associated with Paris, Hyde Park with London,
and Fifth Avenue with New York City, so is the café entwined
with the city of Vienna. Learn about the history of coffee and the
famous cafés of the empire’s capital. |
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THE VIENNESE SCHOOL: HAYDN, MOZART, AND BEETHOVEN
L.S. Carlson
Vienna truly was a city alive with the sound of music. Among all
these composers and musicians, three men dominated the era: Joseph
Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, and Ludwig von Beethoven. As founding fathers of the Viennese
School, they changed the course of music history – find out
how.
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TWO MUSICAL MARIAS
Beth Lee-De Amici
Marianna von Martinez and Maria Theresia von Paradis were two important
female musicians who lived at the time of Mozart and Haydn. Both
of them were gifted performers and composers who gained great fame
and respect for their talents. This was quite unusual for women composers
at the time. Discover why their lives and careers tell us a great
deal about women musicians in the Austrian Empire. |
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WALTZING IN VIENNA
Deborah Bryson
During the World Peace Jubilee in Boston in 1872, a crowd of more
than one hundred thousand people crowded into a huge wooden hall
to hear a famous musician from Austria. Policemen escorted a well-
dressed man with curly black hair to the stage, where twenty thousand
singers and instrumentalists waited to perform. The musician raised
his baton and men began to cheer. Women screamed and waved their
handkerchiefs and some of them fainted from the excitement. The world’s
first musical superstar wasn’t the leader of a rock band. Read
how Johann Strauss, Jr., a composer and violinist from Vienna, topped
the pop charts in the nineteenth century and came to be known as
the Waltz King. |
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MODERN-DAY BUDAPEST, LONG-AGO BUDA-PEST
Abigail Mieko Vargus
Travel with Greta and her parents as they tour modern day Budapest
while imagining the history of when it was part of the Austrian Empire.
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CHRISTIAN DOPPLER AND THE DOPPLER EFFECT
Liz Rice
Did you check the weather report today? If you did, the forecast
was probably generated by information gathered from Doppler radar,
which uses the Doppler effect for electro- magnetic waves to predict
the weather. The Doppler effect was discovered by Austrian Empire
resident Christian Doppler long before radar was even invented – find
out how.
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HE LAST TRUE EMPEROR: FRANZ JOSEPH
Mac Carey
Franz Joseph was one of the last of an age of monarchs, both in title
and disposition. Raised in the court, he was traditional in everything
and brought with him all the baggage of former imperial rulers. Find
out the changes he ushered in or bore witness to as the empire began
its decline.
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HE BEGINNING OF THE END: SARAJEVO, JUNE 28, 1914
Pamela Toler
Read about the events that happened on June 28, 1914 that caused
the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia and quickly escalated
as the complicated and unstable tangle of alliances that divided
Europe into two camps pulled one country after another into the World
War I.
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