AEIOU

Illumination in King Frederick IV's handbook , 1446

AEIOU is a Habsburg motto that Emperor Friedrich III. (1415–1493) had a signature affixed to his tableware, his coat of arms and buildings such as the castle in Wiener Neustadt , the Linz castle and the cathedral and castle in Graz . Under Archduchess Maria Theresa , this election and eligibility statement was also placed on the coat of arms and on the world's oldest military academy (1752) in Wiener Neustadt. It still adorns the coat of arms and signet rings of the academy's graduates, the retired junior officers. It also adorns the Kreisky room in the Federal Chancellery on Ballhausplatz as an inlay, together with the Austrian coat of arms . Therefore, the sequence of letters can be seen as the national symbol of Austria.

Friedrich's contemporaries - according to Conrad Grünenberg around 1480 - were already concerned with the interpretation of signs. A compilation of 86 of the more than 300 known interpretations comes from the historian Alfons Lhotsky ; some of them are as follows:

Austriae est imperare orbi universo (Austria is destined to rule the world)

Austria erit in orbe ultima (Austria will exist until the end of the world)

Austria est imperium optime unita (Austria is a perfectly united empire)

Augustus est iustitiae optimus vindex (the emperor is the best protector of justice)

All earth is subject to Austria (16th / 17th century)

Austria est imperatrix omnis universi (Austria is the ruler of the whole world)

During the occupation of Vienna under the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus (1485), the Viennese used the following interpretation: Austria is lost first

In 1951, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888–1973) offered the reading: Austria Europae Imago, Onus, Unio - Austria as Europe's counterpart, burden and compulsion to unification.

Inscription on Graz Castle , 1453
Ruprechtskirche (Vienna) , 1439
On a sundial in Merano .
Lettering on the predella of the Wiener Neustädter Altar
The motto at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt
Badge of the TherMilAk

literature

Alfons Lhotsky : AEIOU The "motto" of Emperor Friedrich III and his notebook. In: Communications from the Institute for Austrian Historical Research . Volume 60, 1952, pp. 155-193.
Henriette Peters: AEIOV - attempt at an interpretation. (= Contributions to the history of the Viennese diocese. Supplement to the Wiener Diözesanblatt, Volume 34, Issue 2), Vienna 1993, pp. 22-25.

Web links

Commons : AEIOU - collection of images, videos and audio files

Martin Mutschlechner: AEIOU. In: The world of the Habsburgs. Online portal, habsburger.net.
Entry on AEIOU in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
The Kreisky room on the website of the Federal Chancellery

Individual evidence

^ Conrad Grünenberg : Wappenbuch (around 1480), p. 7: All he is Austria vntertann or All ere is whether vnns . Illustration .
↑ Le Guide Vert - The green travel guide (Michelin). “Vienne” (French edition), 2007, p. 156; see also Julius Franz Schneller: History of the States of the Empire of Austria. Third part: Austria's and Steyermark's alone. Miller, Grätz 1818, p. 424.

[1] Conrad Grünenberg : Wappenbuch (around 1480), p. 7: All he is Austria vntertann or All ere is whether vnns . Illustration .

[2] Le Guide Vert - The green travel guide (Michelin). “Vienne” (French edition), 2007, p. 156; see also Julius Franz Schneller: History of the States of the Empire of Austria. Third part: Austria's and Steyermark's alone. Miller, Grätz 1818, p. 424.