History of Austria wanting to annex the country to the German Third Reich, resulting in the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. While the coup failed, Adolf Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria on 12 March 1938 as "Ostmark", until 1945. Austria was partitioned after the Second World War and then in 1955 became the independent sovereign state (Second Republic) that has existed to the present day. In 1995, Austria joined the European Union. The modern state of Austria is considered to have three geographic zones. The biggest third consists of the Alps, which covers 62.8% of the country's landmass. In the north, across the
Chancellor of Austria Archchancellor ("Erzkanzler"), later Imperial Chancellor ("Reichserzkanzler"), was created as a high office on the service of the Holy Roman Emperor. The task was usually fulfilled by the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz as Archchancellors of the German lands. In the course of the Imperial reform, the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I in 1498 attempted to counter the spiritual power of the "Reichserzkanzler" with a more secular position of an Imperial Court Chancellor ("Hofkanzler"), but the two became merged. These were also the times when attempts were made to balance Imperial absolutism by the creation of Imperial Governments ("Reichsregiment"), ultimately a failure. Nevertheless, when