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1,000 Years Ostarrichi - Duke Henry II
This year, Austria celebrates it's 1,000th birthday with numerous festivities throughout the country. To commemorate Austria's first official naming 1,000 years ago, the Austrian Post and Telecom honors this occasion in it's own way with the issuance of a ten-part commemorative series. The second stamp in this series is dedicated to Henry II ("Jasomirgott" as he was known), who in the year 1156 succeeded in raising Austria's rank from margravate to duchy. The legal act of this transformation is documented in the "privilegium minus", which emphasizes Austria's pre-eminence as compared to other territories in the Empire. This priviledge is the most frequently revised imperial charter of the Middle Ages. Duke Henry II raised Vienna to the capital of the Babenbergs for the first time. Under his rule, a Late Middle Age population explosion occurred. A few years after his death, Styria - which also was raised to the status of a duchy in the meantime - also made its way on the road to inheritance and found itself under the possession of the Babenbergs. The dual dukes were henceforth the most powerful dukes in the Empire next to the King of Bohemia. When the Babenbergers died out after a 270-year reign with the death of Frederick II ("The Quarrelsome") in 1246, they left behind two politically and legally bound countries which was not to be divided, even during the confusion of the "interregnum".
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