proper noun

• A republic in central Europe; population 8,600,000 (estimated 2015); capital, Vienna; official language, German.

  Austria was dominated from the early Middle Ages by the Habsburg family and became the center of a massive central European empire that lasted until 1918. The country was incorporated within the Nazi Reich in 1938 and after World War II was occupied by the Allies before regaining its sovereignty in 1955. A referendum in 1994 approved Austria's entry into the European Union