The city of Vienna, Austria is home to a long-established Hungarian community dating back to the 1500s. Beginning in the 17th century, Vienna became an important cultural center for Hungarians. During the time of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(1867-1918) and the early 1990s, Hungarians were the second largest non-German speaking population in Vienna after the Czechs. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, many of the Viennese Hungarians returned to Hungary. Today, Vienna is home to a small Hungarian population of around 27,000. Kärntner Straße Palais Esterhazy

History

Vienna, known in Hungarian as ''Bécs'', was the seat of the Royal Court of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary in 1485–1490. Hungarians established a community in Vienna from 1541 following the 1526

battle of Mohács The Battle of Mohács (; hu, mohácsi csata, tr, Mohaç Muharebesi or Mohaç Savaşı) was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and those ...

. Towards the end of the 17th century the city became a key cultural center for Hungarians. Hungarian students graduated from the Vienna University and from the 17th century onwards there was an increasing influx of Hungarian craftsmen into Vienna. In 1760, the Hungarian Royal Guard was established in Vienna and located in the

Palais Trautson Palais Trautson is a Baroque palace in Vienna, Austria, located at Museumstraße 7. It was once owned by the noble Trautson family. History The land on which the palace is built originally belonged to Countess Maria Margareta Trautson in 1657 ...

. The first cultural associations were set up in Vienna in the 1860s. 130,300 residents of Vienna in 1910 were citizens of the Hungarian part of the empire, while only 45,000 of them were also ethnically Hungarians. After World War I a re-emigration started. In censuses of the

Interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

Hungarians counted between 1000-2000 people. In 1920 the Hungarian Historical Institute in Vienna was founded, and in 1924 the Collegium Hungaricum was founded, both originally located in the

. After World War II the population sharply decreased again, as the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Hungarian or Czech origin to return to their ethnic homelands to further the

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

economy. However, refugees from Hungary increased the numbers again in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

, 1948 and

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

The city has a number of historic residences and palaces of Hungarian nobility, including of the

Esterházy The House of Esterházy, also spelled Eszterházy (), is a Hungarian noble family with origins in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century, the Esterházys were the greatest landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time that it ...

Pálffy Pálffy or Palffy is a Hungarian surname which means "son of Pál (Paul)". The family name is common in Hungary and Slovakia. Pálffy ab Erdöd noble family The most famous bearers of the name Pálffy are the members of the Austro-Hungarian noble ...

, Batthyány, Apponyi and

Erdődy The House of Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló (also House of Erdödy) is the name of an old Hungarian- Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently r ...

families. In the 2010s, according to the

Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service, founded in 1917, serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world as well as non-Jewish press, with about 70 syndication clients listed on its web ...

, a number of

Hungarian Jews The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

have left Hungary due to

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and economic woes and resettled in Vienna. The Viennese Jewish community has encouraged Hungarian Jews from Budapest to resettle in Vienna due to fears over the rise of the far-right Jobbik party, a climate of nationalism and xenophobia, and an economic recession. Disagreement exists within Jewish communities in Austria and Hungary over the extent to which Hungarian-Jewish emigration from Hungary is due to economic problems or due to antisemitism. As of 2017, Vienna was home to almost 27,000 Hungarians.

History

See also

References

Further reading