Austria

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic in Central Europe. From 1938 to 1945, it was annexed into Nazi Germany.
== History ==
=== World War II ===
==== HYDRA Facilities ====
During World War II, HYDRA seized control of many facilities following the occupation of the country by Third Reich. Johann Schmidt established one of his many weapons facilities under command of Lohmer.
==== Hard Labor ====
As such, Lohmer split the prisoners by nationality, locking up members of different factions and brigades within the Allied Forces, hoping that they would be too busy fighting each other to try to fight their jailors. For example, he put in the same cell Gabe Jones, Dum Dum Dugan and Bucky Barnes. A joke made by Dugan while introducing themselves raised tension between the cellmates, and a brawl started, proving Lohmer's point.
Having contracted pneumonia on the battlefield, Barnes received a brutal beating for being unable to satisfy the quotas of production, letting munitions fall while moving a cart. Jones tended to Barnes when they returned to the cell, assuring that, given his sickness, contusions and broken ribs, if Lohmer made him work the following day, Barnes wouldn't survive. His cellmates tried to think of a way to avoid Lohmer forcing Barnes into hard labor. Falsworth devised a plan to get rid of Lohmer that required Dugan, Jones, and Dernier to work as a team using their respective expertise.
The next day, Falsworth's plan was carried out, with Dugan, Jones and Falsworth smuggling components for Dernier so he could make a substance to melt the chain of a crane carrying scrap. Lohmer appeared, demanding to incorporate Barnes into labor, though Kleiber considered him too sick. Just as Lohmer was shouting that Barnes would die working if necessary, Kleiber ordered the crane to be activated. The melted chain broke, dropping the crane's load on Lohmer as he passed, crushing him.
The soldiers made every prisoner return to their cell. Dugan informed Barnes that Lohmer wouldn't cause any harm again, while their role in his death couldn't be proven and the punishment would just be reducing their food rations for a week. Barnes only response was, however, to ask Dugan to stop calling him "Jimmy", as his full name was James Buchanan Barnes and he preferred being called Bucky.
==== Liberation of Allied Prisoners of War ====
Hearing about the events in Azzano and the imprisonment of the soldiers that battled HYDRA, Steve Rogers decided to rescue the prisoners alone. Agent Peggy Carter of the Strategic Scientific Reserve supported his decision and offered to fly him from Italy to Austria in a plane piloted by Howard Stark. Discussing the details of Rogers' extraction, the plane went under attack, so Rogers decided to jump off the plane, ordering them to abandon enemy airspace, as now he was a captain, and therefore able to give orders.
Arnim Zola was transferred from HYDRA Headquarters and put in charge of the weapons facility, with the Cosmic Cube contained inside the factory to harness its energy to fuel production and power the weapons. Zola took Johann Schmidt on a tour of the production floor, with Zola being very pleased that they were ahead of schedule considering the large size of many of the parts. Schmidt was not all that impressed and order Zola to increase the output in this and the rest of the facilities. When Zola informed him that the request was not possible given the condition of the prisoners, Schmidt casually replied for Zola to use what remaining strength they had left and that new workers were easy to come by.
Rogers successfully infiltrated the facility and made his way to the prison, acquiring a Tesseract fuel cell along the way. Rogers freed the prisoners, asking for the whereabouts of Bucky Barnes, and told them to exit the facility and head to a nearby forest, battling HYDRA soldiers along the way, while Rogers went to look for Barnes. The freed prisoners battled HYDRA forces, seizing many weapons and vehicles to clear their way out. Schmidt observed the ensuing chaos on the security monitors and activated an alarm signal in the whole facility, before realizing that Rogers had also infiltrated the base.
In order to avoid the facility being captured, Schmidt activated the self-destruct sequence to Zola's shock. He rushed to his office, in order to save important documents, coming across Rogers but fleeing before being reached. Rogers eventually found Barnes in a laboratory, where a map showing other HYDRA facilities was displayed. Rogers memorized the map and began searching for an exit with Barnes just before the self-destruct mechanisms started to explode. As the two tried to find a way out, they came across Schmidt and Zola. Schmidt taunted Rogers about their no longer human nature after being subjected to Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum.
Rogers and Schmidt exchanged blows, but Zola pulled a nearby lever causing the walkway the two were standing on to separate. Before making their getaway, Schmidt revealed his true face to Rogers, the result of Erskine's imperfect serum, being the reason for his nickname, the Red Skull. Schmidt boarded a single manned aircraft to escape the facility, while giving Zola the keys of his personal car to escape.
As the explosions continued, Rogers and Barnes made their way up the factory to a beam they needed to cross to get to safety. Barnes managed to get across before the beam broke. Without the beam, Rogers was left with no other option than to jump across in order to make it to safety. Despite the danger, Rogers successfully made the jump across the void through the erupting flames. Rogers and Barnes successfully escaped the factory, and met up with the rest of the freed prisoners to make their way back to base camp in Italy.
== Appearances ==
* Captain America
Category:Captain America Locations
Category:Comics Locations
Category:Countries