Socialist and worker's movements and associations had already started to form in Austria by the mid-19th century. The party's first meeting took place in 1874 in Neudörfl in what later became Burgenland. The following years saw

The party had moderate success in the 1920s, but its conflict with right wing forces escalated until it was defeated in the Austrian Civil War.
Establishment of the First

The battle of Vienna between Soviet and Nazi forces was over on 13 April 1945. Immediately the party was refounded as the "Socialist Party of Austria" (Sozialistische Partei

The grand coalition government with the conservative ÖVP as the junior partner would last from 1988 until 2000.
In July 1990, Bruno Kreisky, who was the grand doyen of the party, died. The end of the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain confronted Austria and the

On 7 March 1933, parliament in effect shut itself down due to a minor technicality in the parliamentary procedures. During a vote impasse, the collective presidency of the lower house stepped down from office and in effect left the house without a speaker or chair.

In the parliamentary elections of April 1966, the ÖVP won a governmental majority and was thus able to rule alone. The Socialists left the grand coalition government, going into opposition. On 30

The problem of the grand coalition in Austria was the continuation of the old Proporz system, where basically any political position as well as the civil service, trade unions and even positions in the economy and state businesses were occupied by either