Fin de Siècle, Anschluss & Post-war Period
Viennese Modernism (1890–1918)
The Fin de Siècle was Vienna's golden era — an explosion of creativity that changed the world: Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele revolutionized art, Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos architecture, Sigmund Freud psychology, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg music, Ludwig Wittgenstein philosophy. Vienna was a city of 2 million inhabitants — multicultural (Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Poles) and intellectually explosive.
World War I & Interwar Period
In 1918, the monarchy ended — the Habsburg Empire became a small republic, and Vienna was suddenly an oversized capital of a small country. The "Red Vienna" of the 1920s (social-democratic city government) created remarkable social projects: municipal housing (Karl-Marx-Hof), public education facilities, and a health system that became a global model.
The Anschluss (1938)
On March 12, 1938, the Nazis marched into Austria. Hitler spoke from the balcony of the Hofburg to 250,000 cheering Viennese. What followed: the expulsion and murder of Vienna's Jewish population (65,000 of the 200,000 Viennese Jews were murdered), the destruction of a unique intellectual culture, and six years of war. Vienna was liberated by the Red Army in April 1945 and occupied by the four Allies until 1955 — the city was divided into four sectors like Berlin.
Post-war Period & EU
The State Treaty of 1955 restored Austria's sovereignty — the legendary "Austria is free!" by Foreign Minister Figl on the balcony of the Belvedere. Austria declared itself neutral, joined the EU in 1995 (but not NATO), and Vienna became a UN location (alongside New York and Geneva). Today, Vienna is one of the most livable cities in the world — shaped by its imperial past, yet modern, green, and cosmopolitan.
