Vienna, Austria Genealogy

Vienna is the capital city of Austria. Since 1922, it has been one of the nine federal provinces (Bundesländer) that consitute the federal Rupublic of Austria.

The Celtic settlement of Vindomina situated on the River Danube became an important Roman town, Vindobona, fortified from early in the first century of the modern era. When the Romans withdrew in the 5th century, it fell to a series of eastern European invaders. The Habsburg dynasty began its connection to Vienna in 1276 when they transferred the power base there. The city was called Wenia and Wienis before taking its present German name of Wien. It was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire (1558–1806), of the Austrian Empire (1806–67), of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) (called Bécs in Hungarian), and of the Republic of Austria since 1918. Joint Western-Russian forces occupied the city from 1945 to 1955. Vienna is the world's third-largest German-speaking city after Berlin and Hamburg.