In ancient times, there was a Gaelic kingdom high the Alps, called Noracom by the Romans.

It was incorporated into the Roman Empire in the first century,

and in the 5th century, ravaged first by migrating Germanic tribes and later by the Huns and the Avars.

In the 8th century, Charlemagne conquered the region,

and it became part of his Frankish Empire, and later the Holy Roman Empire. The former Noricum

became a buffer region between the Germanic Empire to the West and the Avars, Hungarians,

and Slavs to the east. By the year 1000, the Holyic Empire to the West and the Avars, Hungarians and Slavs to the east.

By the year 1000, the Holy Roman Empire was referring to this borderland as the Eastern

realm, or, in old high German, Eustereich.

Since Latin was still the predominant language of the educated class at that time, the name

Eustereich was rendered in Latin as Austria.

Over the next 900 years, Austria would go from a neglected border region to the seat of the most important dynasty in Europe,

to the center of an empire, to a ramshackle realm in search of its destiny

in a world that had passed it by.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

The 20th century. Episode 49, Tales of Old Vienna

In the 11th century, about the same time that the name Austria was being used for the first time,

a count of Kletgau, a region of Bavaria that today is split between Germany and Switzerland,

built himself a castle,

and he called it Hobbsburg. There are different suggestions about where the name came from,

but no one knows for certain. A century later, his grandson took the castle Hopsburg as his seat and started going around calling

himself the Count of Hopsburg, as did his descendants for many generations come.

...