The Early Middle Ages

The decline of Roman power in the Danube provinces was not a sudden event, but rather dragged on for decades as a lengthy, crisis-ridden process of development. The administrative framework crumbled. However, this was not caused solely by the events arising from the wars, but also by economic decline and the fall in the population. The highly-developed ancient infrastructure – roads, bridges, aqueducts and Danube harbours – fell into decay. The Romans could no longer do anything to prevent the final thrust of the German tribes over the Danube at the end of the 5th century. As the later occupiers of the region, the Germanic Bavarii, encountered inhabitants (Walhs) who were still speaking a Romance language in the 6th century, we may assume that Roman and Christian culture survived.

In fact, it was in no way the case that the entire provincial population followed the exodus of the Roman soldiers and officials. The end of Roman military and civil rule did not mean the end of Roman culture. Furthermore, the Germanic peoples who had settled on Roman territory could, by that time, certainly no longer be regarded as pagan barbarians. Their reigns continued in the Roman tradition. In fact, it seems to have become normal practice for the leading clans among the immigrant peoples to set up their seats of residence and rulership within old Roman walls. We can find life springing anew from the ruins in this way at many places along the Danube – in Regensburg, Passau and Budapest.

In the course of the reorganisation of the Church, many monasteries came into existence under the Bavarian dukes, as centres of regional development – Niederalteich, Metten, Niedernburg in Passau, and St. Florian, situated before the Enns estuary.

After the Roman period, Charles the Great is the next outstanding imperial figure whom we encounter on the Danube. With him, a new chapter of our European history begins. In the year 800, he had himself crowned Emperor in Rome, thus laying claim to his Roman predecessors’ right to universal rulership. During their military and mission campaigns, Charles and his son Pippin used the Danube as a military highway. The imperial sojourns in Regensburg and Lorch are historically documented. The Carolingian Empire extended deep into Pannonia, today’s Hungary. The successors of Charles the Great chose Regensburg as their royal seat. The subsequent dukes from Saxon, Frankish, Guelph and, finally, Wittelsbach dynasties also established their residences here. Almost all emperors and kings sojourned in the city for lengthy periods and issued their imperial decrees from there. Under the Imperial Bishop Wolfgang, Emmeram abbey in Regensburg achieved a spiritual zenith of wide-ranging influence. In 975, it founded a school of singing, out of which today’s Regensburger Domspatzen, the world-famous boys’ choir developed. The possessions and rights of Regensburg’s prince-bishopric extended far down the Danube. One important base was Pöchlarn, which remained in the possession of Regensburg until 1803.

It’s hard to believe that today’s friendly Hungarians are the descendants of the same Magyars who harried all Europe with their Hun-like military campaigns during the first half of the 10th century. They used the Danube as an incursion route for their mounted attacks. However, Emperor Otto I subsequently gave them such a thrashing on the field of battle that they pledged to thenceforth remain in Hungary and to become Christian. Passau, in particular, excelled in the subsequent mission to the east initiated by the central Danube area. From 970 onwards, numerous daughter churches of Passau arose along the Danube. The most famous of them would, in 1147, become Vienna. Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral is, after all, strongly reminiscent of the dedication of Passau Cathedral to St. Stephen. From the 8th to the 11th century, the Diocese of Passau not only grew to become the largest diocese in the Danube region, but of the whole Romano-Germanic Empire! The Passau Bishop Pilgrim enjoyed spectacular success among the Hungarians. In 973, his missionaries baptised Vajk, the young son of the Grand Prince, with the name of the patron of the Bishopric of Passau, Stephen (István in Hungarian). The young ruler confirmed his conversion to Christianity by marrying Gisela, the sister of Emperor Saint Henry II in 997. In Gisela, we encounter the first outstanding female personage on the Danube, and the first Christian Queen of Hungary. The bridal journey led down the Danube – from Regensburg all the way to Esztergom. One year after the turn of the millennium, Stephen received the crown of the Apostolic King from the Pope and, on Christmas Day of that year, 1001, was crowned king in the castle church of Esztergom. Right up to the present day, the Crown of St. Stephen (the Szentkorona or Holy Crown) sent from Rome at that time has lost none of its symbolic power through Hungary’s independence.

Following the mission to Hungary, Bavaria renewed its determined efforts to settle and colonise the Margraviate of Austria. The Marchia Orientalis, or March of Austria, was the Danube territory to the east of the Enns river which Emperor Otto II granted to the Babenbergs as a margraviate in 976. In a deed of gift dated 996, it is for the first time called Ostarrichi, or Eastern Empire – which later became Österreich, or Austria. The Austrian dukes established their places of residence on the Danube. From their first castle in Pöchlarn, they moved to Melk in 984, to Tulln in about 1050, to Klosterneuburg in 1106 and, finally, to Vienna in 1156.