24 May 1192: Styria becomes part of Austria.
On 17 August 1186 the Georgenberg Handfeste was concluded on the Georgenberg in Enns. These are two documents in which the childless and seriously ill Duke of Styria, Ottokar IV of the Traungau dynasty, bequeaths the Duchy of Styria to the Babenberg Duke Leopold V and his son Frederick. He also had it recorded in the deeds that the rights of his ministerials and countrymen were to remain untouched.
The succession occurred in 1192; on 24 May 1192 the Babenbergs received Styria as a fief from Emperor Henry VI. Styria has been linked to Austria ever since.
The document is kept in the Styrian Provincial Archives in Graz and has been included in the National Register of the UNESCO “Memory of the World” programme.
(K. M.)