Treaty of Saint - Germain - en - Laye ( 1919 ) The Treaty of Saint - Germain - en - Laye , was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the Republic of German - Austria on the other . Like the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary and the Treaty of Versailles with Germany , it contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and as a result was not ratified by the United States but was followed by the US – Austrian Peace Treaty of 1921 . The treaty signing ceremony took place at the Château de Saint - Germain - en - Laye . Background . Already on 21 October 1918 , 208 German - speaking delegates of the Austrian Imperial Council had convened in a " provisional national assembly of German - Austria " at the Lower Austrian Landtag . While the collapse of the Austro - Hungarian Army culminated at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto , the Social Democrat Karl Renner was elected German - Austrian State Chancellor on October 30 . In the course of the Aster Revolution on October 31 , the newly established Democratic Republic of Hungary under Minister President Mihály Károlyi declared the real union with Austria terminated . With the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918 , the fate of the Austro - Hungarian Monarchy was sealed . On 11 November 1918 Emperor Charles I of Austria officially declared to " relinquish every participation in the administration " , one day later the provisional assembly declared German - Austria a democratic republic and part of the German Republic . However , on the territory of the Cisleithania n ( " Austrian " ) half of the former Empire , the newly established states of Czechoslovakia , Poland , and the Yugoslav Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes ( the “ successor states ” ) had been proclaimed . Moreover South Tyrol and Trentino was occupied by Italian forces and Yugoslav troops entered the former Duchy of Carinthia , leading to violent fights . An Austrian Constitutional Assembly election was held on 16 February 1919 . The Assembly re - elected Karl Renner state chancellor and enacted the Habsburg Law concerning the banishment of the House of Lorraine . When Chancellor Renner arrived at Saint - Germain in May 1919 , he and the Austrian delegation found themselves excluded from the negotiations led by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau . Upon an Allied ultimatum , Renner signed the treaty on September 10 . The Treaty of Trianon in June 1920 between Hungary and the Allies completed the disposition of the former Dual Monarchy . Provisions . The treaty declared that the Austro - Hungarian Empire was to be dissolved . According to article 177 , the Austrian side accepted responsibility for causing the war along with the Central Powers . The new Republic of Austria , consisting of most of the German - speaking Danubian and Alpine provinces in former Cisleithania , recognized the independence of Hungary , Czechoslovakia , Poland , and the Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes . The treaty included ' war reparations ' of large sums of money , directed towards the Allies , to pay for the costs of the war over a period of 30 years . Territory . Cisleithanian Austria had to face significant territorial losses : Burgenland , i . e . the predominantly German - speaking western parts of the Hungarian counties of Moson , Sopron and Vas , were awarded to Austria . The affiliation of the Southern Carinthian territory with its Slovene - speaking share of population was to be decided in a Carinthian Plebiscite . Politics and military . Article 88 of the treaty required Austria to refrain from directly or indirectly compromising its independence , which meant that Austria could not enter into political or economic union with the German Reich without the agreement of the council of the League of Nations . Accordingly , the new republic ' s initial self - chosen name of German - Austria ( ) had to be changed to Austria . Many Austrians would come to find this term harsh ( especially among the Austrian Germans who were German nationalists of the former Austro - Hungarian Empire ) , due to Austria ' s later economic weakness , which was caused by loss of land . The economic weakness of Austria would later lead to support for the idea of " Anschluss " ( political union ) with Nazi Germany . Conscription was abolished and the Austrian Army was limited to a force of 30 , 000 volunteers . There were numerous provisions dealing with Danubian navigation , the transfer of railways , and other details involved in the breakup of a great empire into several small independent states . The vast reduction of population , territory and resources of the new Austria relative to the old empire wreaked havoc on the economy of the old nation , most notably in Vienna , an imperial capital now without an empire to support it . For a time , the country ' s very unity was called into question . Unlike its former Hungarian partner , Austria had never been a nation in the true sense of the term . While the Austrian state had existed in one form or another for over 700 years , it had had no unifying force other than loyalty to the Habsburgs . External links . politics