Republic of German Austria
| Republic of German-Austria | ||||||||||||||||||
| Republik Deutsch-Österreich | ||||||||||||||||||
| Unrecognised rump state; unofficial state of the Weimar Republic | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Provinces claimed by German Austria. The border of the subsequent First Austrian Republic is outlined in red.
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| Capital | Vienna | |||||||||||||||||
| Languages | German | |||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Catholic Church | |||||||||||||||||
| Government | Republic | |||||||||||||||||
| President | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1919 | Karl Seitz | ||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1918–1919 | Karl Renner | ||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Imperial Council | |||||||||||||||||
| • | Upper Chamber | Herrenhaus | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Lower Chamber | Abgeordnetenhaus | ||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Aftermath of World War I | |||||||||||||||||
| • | Proclamation by Charles I | 11 November 1918 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Republic declared | 12 November 1918 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Reichsrat claims Cisleithania |
22 November 1918 |
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| • | Treaty of St Germain | 10 September 1919 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Ratified by Reichsrat | 21 October 1919 | ||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Austrian krone | |||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Austria Czech Republic Italy Slovenia
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The Republic of German-Austria (German: Republik Deutschösterreich or Deutsch-Österreich) was a country created following World War I as the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
German-Austria demanded an area of 118 311 km², with 10.4 million inhabitants in the area of the present-day Republic of Austria and other areas where most ethnic Germans lived.
In Habsburg Austria-Hungary, "German-Austria" was an unofficial term for the areas of the empire inhabited by Austrian Germans.
On 12 October 1918, Emperor Charles I met with the leaders of the largest German parties. German Nationalists wanted a constitutional monarchy of free nations; Christian Socialists wanted to maintain monarchy and a federation of nations; Social Democrats wanted a republic that would either be a part or federation of nations or join Germany.
On October 16 1918, Emperor Charles I published a manifesto which offered to change Austria-Hungary into a federation of nationalities. This came too late as Czechs and Southern Slavs were well on their way to creating independent states. However, this gave an impulse to the Reichsrat of German inhabited areas to meet.
With the impending collapse of the empire the 208 ethnic German deputies to the Cisleithanian Austrian parliament (Reichsrat) elected in 1911 met on 21 October 1918 and proclaimed itself to be a "Provisional National Assembly for German-Austria" representing the ethnic Germans in all Cisleithanian lands. It elected Franz Dinghofer of the German National Movement, Jodok Fink of the Christian Social Party, and Karl Seitz of the Social Democratic Workers' Party as assembly presidents. The assembly included representatives from Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia who refused to submit to the new state of Czechoslovakia which had been declared on 28 October 1918. It also proclaimed that "the German people in Austria are resolved to determine their own future political organization to form an independent German-Austrian state, and to regulate their relations with other nations through free agreements with them". On October 25 Provisional Assembly called on all German inhabited Lands to form their own provisional assemblies.
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Wikipedia