Ostmark

This page is about medieval Austria. For East German currency, see East German mark

Ostmark ("Eastern March") was also an old term for Austria. The East March was exactly that. It began in the 700s and 800s. Charlemagne's conquest of Germania brought a new united German nation into being. Following Charlemagne, his empire was split into three, with two main parts, France and the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire united the Germans and brought about an unparalleled population explosion. The need for expansion by the rapidly growing Germans was essential. Drang nach Osten was the term that described the basic movement east towards Eastern Europe by the Germans, conquering and settling lands. Western European nations supported this as a means to turn the Germans into a buffer zone from Slavic expansion. The Slavs, who had conquered as far west as modern-day Switzerland, were pushed back east. Austria was part of the Drang nach Osten, receiving the name Ostmark. Austria, which had been a Roman province overrun by Slavic invaders, was conquered by Germans and settled. Other regions part of the Drang nach Osten included Brandenburg and Saxony, which had been settled by Sorbs early on.

As time went on, the movement east culminated with the conquest of Prussia by the Teutonic knights. Use of the term "Ostmark" died out by the end of the Middle Ages. It was later revived by the Nazis after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938.