Download or read book Edelweiss - the Story of Austria written by Peter Bubendorfer and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the story of modern Austria from prehistory to the present, with a brief foray into the Age of the Dinosaurs. It draws on a wide variety of sources, and is intended to tell history in an interesting way, rather than a recital of events and dates. It begins in the Jurassic and explains how the sometimes catastrophic events of the past created the modern Austrian landscape, which has had a big influence on the movement of peoples and historical events. The book then covers prehistoric settlement, the development of the first towns and cities, and eventually the emergence of Austria as a nation cobbled together from small robber baron fiefdoms by two dynastic families, the Babenbergs and later the Habsburgs, the latter going on to acquire a vast empire that at its height created a super-power that spanned Europe. Austria and its glittering capital Vienna came to form the cultural center of Europe as the country looked to the west and east, symbolized by its double headed eagle. But all this was lost after Austria blundered into war following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The bitter defeat of WWI stripped the country of both its empire and its ruling dynasty, and left it as the poverty stricken First Republic, a rump state reduced to its original frontiers and with one of its eagle heads lopped off. The Great Depression stymied economic recovery, and Nazism grew and spread to defeat Austro-Fascism. In 1939 Austria was invaded by Nazi Germany and lost its identity altogether for the duration of WWII. The country at first regained its identity but not its liberty, being occupied, sometime brutally, by Western and Soviet forces. For a while it looked as though much of the country might disappear behind the Iron Curtain, but in 1955 it won its freedom as the Second Republic. After 1955 an almost permanent coalition between socialists and moderate conservatives created a moribund political landscape but delivered prosperity. Politics became more uncertain after the rise of right wing parties began in the 1990's, and Austria continues to face challenges over its national identity, immigration, and lingering controversy in the West over the Nazi past of many Austrians.