Austria profile - Timeline
19 April 2018
A chronology of key events:
1918 - End of the Hapsburg empire.
1919 - Treaty of St Germain defines Austria's boundaries.
1920 - New constitution creates Republic of Austria.
1932 - Engelbert Dollfuss, a Christian Socialist, becomes chancellor.
1934 - Government crushes Socialist uprising, backed by the army and the Heimwehr
(Home Defence Force). All political parties abolished except the Fatherland Front.
1934 April - Chancellor Dollfuss dismisses parliament.
1934 July - Imprisonment of Nazi conspirators leads to attempted Nazi coup.
Dollfuss assassinated, succeeded by Kurt von Schuschnigg.
Anschluss
1936 - Austria acknowledges itself "a German state".
1938 - The Anschluss (union): Austria incorporated into Germany by Hitler.
Schuschnigg imprisoned. Austria now called the Ostmark (Eastern March).
World War II - Austria's armed forces, under German control, used on Eastern Front.
1945 - Soviet troops liberate Vienna. Austria occupied by Soviet, British, US and
French forces.
Elections result in People's Party and Socialist Party coalition; Karl Renner elected
president, Leopold Figl becomes chancellor.
1946-47 - Denazification laws passed. Reconstruction begins.
Neutrality
1949 - Former Nazis allowed to participate in general election.
1955 - Treaty signed by UK, France, US and USSR establishes an independent
but neutral Austria - a convenient buffer between the West and the Soviet bloc.
Austria joins the United Nations.
1970 - Government formed under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky who dominates
political scene for more than a decade.
1983 - Socialists and the Freedom Party form a coalition government under Fred
Sinowatz.
1986 - Ex-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim elected president, despite
controversy over role in German army in World War II.
Franz Vranitzky replaces Sinowatz as federal chancellor.
Rise of the right
1992 - Thomas Klestil, former ambassador to the US, replaces Waldheim as
president.
1995 - Austria joins EU. Coalition collapses over budget disagreements and strict
convergence criteria for European monetary union.
1996 - Social Democrats form new coalition with People's Party.
1997 - Vranitzky resigns as chancellor and leader of Social Democrats. Finance
Minister Viktor Klima takes over both positions.
1998 - Klestil re-elected president.
1999 October - Far-right Freedom Party led by Joerg Haider wins 27% of vote in
national elections, equal second with centre right People's Party. Social Democrats
remain largest party.
2000 January - Coalition talks between Social Democrats and People's Party break
down.
People's Party opens talks with Freedom Party.
Sanctions
2000 February/March - International outcry as Freedom Party enters government
for first time following protracted coalition talks between main parties.
People's Party head Wolfgang Schuessel becomes chancellor with Susanne
Riess-Passer of the Freedom Party as his deputy. EU imposes diplomatic
sanctions.
Haider hands over as Freedom Party leader to Riess-Passer, seen as less extreme.
2000 August - State-owned companies agree to pay $65m into compensation fund
for survivors of Holocaust.
2000 September - EU ends seven months of diplomatic isolation after report
concludes that it is counterproductive.
2000 October - Austrian environmentalists blockade border with Czech
Republic in protest against the launch of a new Czech nuclear power station at
Temelin.
Compensation
2001 January - Deal signed on compensating Jews whose assets were seized by
Nazis.
Government and companies to pay $360m into settlement fund.
2001 November - Chancellor Schuessel and Czech government move to settle
dispute over Temelin nuclear power plant by agreeing tough measures to improve
safety and monitor impact on environment.
2002 August - Devastating floods as Danube bursts banks following torrential rain.
2002 - September - Coalition collapses. Vice Chancellor and Freedom Party leader
Riess-Passer and two Freedom Party ministers resign in row with Joerg Haider,
widely seen as part of power struggle within party.
2002 November - Schuessel's People's Party makes sweeping gains in general
election, largely at expense of far-right Freedom Party. Coalition talks start.
2003 February - Coalition talks with Social Democrats and Greens fail; People's Party
again agrees to form government with Freedom Party.
2003 May - Pension reform plans spark first nationwide strike action in several
decades.
2003 October - Package of asylum laws introduced, widely seen as among the most
restrictive in Europe.
2004 April - Heinz Fischer elected president.
2005 April - Freedom Party splits as Joerg Haider announces he is leaving to set up
Alliance for the Future of Austria.
2005 May - Parliament ratifies the EU constitution.
2006 February - A Vienna court finds British historian David Irving guilty of Holocaust
denial and sentences him to three years in prison. He is released in December 2006.
The case sparks a national debate about the denial legislation.
2006 October - The Social Democrats led by Alfred Gusenbauer narrowly defeat
the ruling conservative People's Party in elections. After weeks of bargaining, the
two parties agree on a coalition. The government is inaugurated in January 2007.
National soul-searching
2008 April - National outrage and soul-searching at case of Josef Fritzl, who
imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathered children with her.
Tougher law on sexual abuse planned.
2008 July - The centre-right People's Party withdraws from grand coalition with
Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer's Social Democrats, forcing a snap general
election.
2008 September - The Social Democrats again emerge as largest party in the
general election, but both it and the People's Party suffer heavy losses while
resurgent far-right parties take 29%.
2008 October - The leader of the far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria,
Joerg Haider, is killed in a car crash.
2008 December - New coalition government made up of the centre-left Social
Democrats (SPOe) and the conservative People's Party is sworn in, two months after
snap elections. SPOe leader Werner Faymann becomes chancellor.
2010 April - President Fischer is re-elected.
2010 October - Far-right Freedom Party wins 26% of vote in municipal
elections in Vienna, putting it in second place to Social Democrats.
2011 July - Otto von Habsburg - eldest son of the last Austrian emperor - is
buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna amid much of the pomp associated
with the days of the empire.
2013 January - Referendum. Austrians vote to keep compulsory military service.
2013 June - Austria withdraws troops from the Golan Heights after nearly 40 years of
monitoring a UN buffer zone between Israel and Syria, as violence from Syria's civil
war spreads.
2013 September - Parliamentary elections. The governing coalition parties win
enough votes to form a new government.
Energy security
2014 June - A deal is signed to complete the Austrian section of the South Stream
gas pipeline for transporting Russian gas to Europe - bypassing the long-standing
transit route through Ukraine - despite calls by the EU for its member states to unite
against the project.
2014 December - Russia scraps the South Stream gas pipeline construction
project following the imposition of European sanctions in response to its
annexation of Crimea.
2015 February - Parliament approves controversial reform to 1912 law which made
Islam an official religion in Austria. The revised law gives Muslims more legal
security but bans foreign funding for mosques and imams.
Migrant crisis
2015 October - Austria says it plans to erect barriers at a border crossing with
Slovenia after tens of thousands of migrants are estimated to have entered the
country - mainly en route for Germany.
2016 February - Austria imposes a cap on the number of migrants and refugees
allowed to enter the country, after receiving 90,000 asylum applications in 2015.
2016 May - In a surprise move, Werner Faymann steps down as Chancellor and
SPOe leader after a string of electoral setbacks. He is replaced by Austrian
Railways CEO Christian Kern, also of the SPOe.
Green Party member Alexander Van der Bellen, standing as an independent,
narrowly beats fear-right Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer in the
presidential election, but Austria's highest court annuls the result in July.
2016 December - Alexander Van der Bellen defeats Norbert Hofer in the
re-run of the presidential election, gaining a larger margin of victory than
in May.
2017 January - Ruling coalition agrees to ban Islamic full-face veils in courts,
schools and other public spaces.
2017 October - Federal elections see a strong swing to the right. Conservative
People's Party leader Sebastian Kurz becomes chancellor.