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Archduke Ferdinand of Austria

Vienna, 6 Dec 1918 – Ulm, 6 Aug 2004

8 facts1 source

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 6 Dec 1918

    Born in Vienna

  2. 6 Aug 2004

    Dies in Ulm, aged 85

During his lifetime

He lived through 10 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Vienna.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1910s · Archduke is born in Vienna

In the news1919

Women gain vote, 1919

The new Republic introduced women's suffrage, with women voting for the first time in the February 1919 national assembly elections.

What people wore

Infant swaddling for physical development

To help them grow straight, infants in the Kirchberg region were placed in a swaddling cushion for several months, which prevented them from moving or kicking.

Getting around

State control of Austrian railways in 1914

By 1914, the Imperial-Royal State Railways held a near monopoly, with 82 percent of the 22,981 kilometers of railway tracks in Austria being state-owned.

The Spanish flu. A flu pandemic infected a third of humanity and killed some 50 million people, more than the war that had just ended.Around the world · 1918–1920

The Spanish flu. A flu pandemic infected a third of humanity and killed some 50 million people, more than the war that had just ended.

Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine · public domain

In the news1914–1918

Wartime inflation begins, 1914

Just after war broke out in 1914, the government began using the printing press to fund military costs, causing the money supply to expand by 977 percent by 1918.

Music

Traditional wedding dance and procession music

The Zillertaler Tramplan was a traditional wedding dance performed as the wedding party walked from the church to the inn. It was a regional dance piece that later became a musical signature of tourism in the Ziller Valley.

Daily life

Housing for the poor in Vienna

In 1909, around 66,000 people in Vienna were bed-renters who did not have their own home and paid to use a bed for only a few hours. Many tenement buildings lacked running water, toilets, and electricity, requiring residents to collect water from a corridor tap called a Bassena.