Key Facts
- Duration
- 1918–1919
- Territory
- 118,311 km²
- Population
- 10.4 million inhabitants
- Successor state
- First Austrian Republic (1920)
- Union with Germany
- Forbidden by Treaty of Versailles (1919)
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Territorial Scale Comparison
Peak area vs modern sovereign states
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I in November 1918, German-speaking politicians in Vienna proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria as a provisional state. The intention was to gather the predominantly German-speaking and ethnic German populations of the former Cisleithanian crownlands and ultimately unite them with the new German republic in Berlin.
Phase II: Zenith
At its claimed peak, German-Austria encompassed 118,311 km² and 10.4 million inhabitants across the Danubian and Alpine provinces that had formed the heart of Cisleithania. The Viennese provisional government sought to assert administrative authority over these regions while simultaneously negotiating its desired Anschluss with Germany as the basis for political and economic survival.
Phase III: Decline
German-Austria's ambitions were curtailed almost immediately. Much of its claimed territory fell under de facto Czechoslovak administration and received international recognition as such. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 explicitly prohibited union with Germany, rendering the state's core rationale void. The republic was formally dissolved and reconstituted as the First Austrian Republic in 1920.