Name of Austria
Ostarrichi, also Ostarrîchi, contemporary initially also Marcha orientalis, later Marcha Austriae or Easter country, as Mark Austria or Margraviate of Austria occasionally referred to in the 19th century as Ostmark was nominally part of the duchy of Bavaria from 976 until independence in 1156 as the Duchy of Austria.
History
Ostarrichi is the first time in a gift of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. called to the bishopric of Freising from November 996: The donation includes areas " in the said popularly Ostarrichi region" (Latin regione vulgari vocabulo Ostarrichi ), which put the region was meant to Neuhofen an der Ybbs in today's Lower Austria ( in loco Niuuanhova dicto ). Neuhofen itself is probably a royal Fronhof, the donation includes " thirty lying in its immediate vicinity Königshufen with cultivated and uncultivated land with meadows, pastures, forests, buildings, springs and watercourses, with hunts, bee pastures, fish waters, mills, with movable and immovable goods, with paths and pathless country, with outputs and inputs, with achieved and to be achieved income and with all that goes according to the law on these hooves ... "
Whether the name refers to only that area, or a larger, given the recent Bavarian land acquisition in the former border region to the Magyar kingdom, in the area of - after the defeat of Pressburg 907 - foregone Carolingian Avar Empire as part of the first Marchia orientalis, not exactly known. The Margraviate Ostarrichi / Marchia orientalis included a few decades after the turn of the century, other areas above and below the Enns. 1156 Mark was Austria (Austria ) from the Duchy of Bavaria separated and elevated himself to a duchy and thus rich immediately, and equipped with the privilege minus.
Origin of the name
The oldest known written mention of the name comes from the copies in the Bruchsal instrument of Ottonian donation, addressed to Gottschalk of Haguenau, the Bishop of Freising, from 1 November 996, the Ostarrichi certificate. The certificate is now in the Bavarian State Archives in Munich.
" Ostarrichi " is the earliest known form of the word, from which the later name for Austria has emerged. Originally it referred to in the 10th century, a region in the territory of the Babenberg Margrave in the Duchy of Bavaria in the south east of the East Frankish Empire. The exact etymology of the word " Ostarrichi " was designated the this eastern border region ( Avar ) is unclear.
It is considered a vernacular translation of the Latin texts used in Marchia orientalis ( "Eastern Mark "). " Richi ", OHG rihhi here is not with Empire translate in the modern sense, but for a straight ruler belonging land. The core regions in the original Bavarian settlement area west of the Enns were, in contrast, always with the word Gau ( OHG waxed, bavarian Gai ) (eg, the Huosigau, Isengau, Künziggau, Attergau, Mattiggau, Traungau, Chiemgau, Sundergau, Pongau, etc.). The obvious interpretation is then as " country in the East", cf Austri, the Germanic mythological dwarf of the East, and Austrasia, the eastern kingdom. In 1147 King Conrad III to be a certificate. the Margrave of Austria as " Austrie marchionibus " ( dative pl. ) respectively. This first used in the Latin context word is not of Latin origin ( the similarity with Latin auster " south wind " is random ), but by ancient Germanic * austar, Old High German Ostar "east, to the east " derive, as a country name Latinized Austria. Alternatively, to the High Middle Ages was colloquially also the translation of Marchia orientalis Easter country or Osterlant ( " Eastern Land" or "Land in the East" ) in use. The name changed gradually to " Austria", in minus privilege it is called Marchia Austrie "Austrian market ."
In written in Latin Ostarrichi certificate four non-Latin words are mentioned ( Ostarrichi, Niuuanhova, hoba, zidalweidun ), of which the other three clearly altbairisch or Old High German are. This is an indication that the name is Old Bavarian texts Ostarrichi origin. Later it was believed to recognize a connection to the Germanic goddess Ostara hypothetical. However, this is highly controversial and sprang rather certain neo-pagan tendencies of many researchers during the period of the German Reich. To initiate a new discussion on the interpretation of the name Ostarrichi, was proposed by the Salzburg Slavic Professor Otto Kronsteiner also a possible Slavic origin. Accordingly, the word would mean something like " Spitzberg ". In fact, is located on the territory of the former Ostarrichi no remarkable rock formation that would have for the whole area can be eponymous. For a Slavic origin of the word Ostarrichi appears to be highly unlikely. Also a reference to the Ister of the Greeks, the lower course of the Danube, was aired, partly also a possible keltoromanischer origin is called - to all these hypotheses, the source location is now too meager.
The spelling with circumflex (^ ) above the "i" is a modern addition of linguistics to highlight the accent and the length of the sound, and was not written in this way in the original document.
Date 996
Austria celebrated in 1996, the first recorded mention of the name Ostarrichi with the slogan: "A Thousand Years Austria ". In 1976, the millennial anniversary of the establishment of Leopold I Margrave of Austria had been celebrated. As early as 1946 one 950 - year celebrations had done to strengthen those days especially with the aim of the Austrian national consciousness.