The Vienna Uprising or October Revolution (, or ) of October 1848 was the last uprising in the Austrian Revolution of 1848. On 6 October 1848, as the troops of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

were preparing to leave

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

to suppress the Hungarian Revolution, a crowd sympathetic to the Hungarian cause (of workers, students and mutinous soldiers) tried to prevent them from leaving. The incident escalated into violent street battles; blood was spilt in Saint Stephen's Cathedral and Count Baillet von Latour, the Austrian Minister of War, was

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

by the crowd. The commander of the Vienna garrison, Count Auersperg, was obliged to evacuate the city, but he entrenched himself in a strong position outside it. The Austrian Empire became familiar with Emperors and Foreign Ministers coming in and out of administration. The first victim to the Revolutions of 1848 was Klemens von Metternich, who resigned as the Foreign Minister on March 13, 1848. On 7 October, Emperor Ferdinand I fled with his court to Olmütz under the protection of

Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz General Alfred Candidus Ferdinand, Prince of Windischgrätz (; 11 May 178721 March 1862), a member of an old Austro- Bohemian House of Windischgrätz, was a Field Marshal in the Austrian army. He is most noted for his service during the Napo ...

. Two weeks later, the

Austrian Parliament The Austrian Parliament () is the bicameral federal legislature of Austria. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets i ...

was moved to Kremsier. On 26 October, under the command of General Windisch-Grätz and Count Josip Jelačić, the Austrian and Croatian armies started a bombardment of Vienna, and they stormed the city centre on the 31st. The defence was led by the Polish General

Józef Bem Józef Zachariasz Bem (, ; 14 March 1794 – 10 December 1850) was a Polish engineer and general, an Ottoman pasha and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European patriotic movements. Like Tadeusz Kościus ...

. Except for him, who managed to escape, all the leaders of the resistance were executed in the days following—including Wenzel Messenhauser, the journalist Alfred Julius Becher, Hermann Jellinek and the Radical member of parliament Robert Blum, even though he had

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

. The gains of the March Revolution were largely lost, and Austria began a phase of both reactionary authoritarianism—"

neo-absolutism The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a multinational European great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous mon ...

"—but also liberal reform.

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References

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.The Vienna October Uprising
and Chapter XII:

* {{Wars and battles involving Croatia, state=collapse Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire 1848 in the Austrian Empire 19th century in Vienna Military history of Vienna

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