The abbreviation “AEIOU” appears on countless buildings throughout the area of the former Habsburg Empire. But what do these letters actually stand for? For centuries, researchers have developed a wide variety of theories. But now the mystery of the abbreviation, which originated in Graz, seems to have been solved.
German historian Konstantin Moritz Langmaier presented the results of his latest research into “AEIOU” on Wednesday evening in Graz, which may finally solve a historical mystery after 500 years.
The history
When the later Emperor Friedrich III. (1415 – 1493) inherited the Duchy of Styria, Carinthia and Karniola as a child in 1424, it was not yet foreseeable that he would later become the Roman-German king with the longest reign (1440 – 1493) and the last emperor of the Holy become Roman Empire.
Already during his time as Duke of Styria, who lived in Graz Castle, Friedrich began to use the series of letters “AEIOU” – the letters were first proven before 1437, to this day these letters are not only used can be seen at Graz Castle and Graz Cathedral, but adorn many historic buildings from Trieste to Vienna in areas of Central Europe formerly under Habsburg rule.
What’s behind it?
The question of what is meant by “AEIOU” is almost as old as Frederick III’s use of it. From “Austria erit in orbe ultima” to “All the earth is subject to Austria” to the sarcastic-fatalistic “First of all, Austria is lost”, about 300 known interpretations have emerged over the centuries, and generations of historians have researched the origin.
To solve the historical riddle, Langmaier resorts to one of the oldest, but little known, traditional variants. So “AEIOU” stands for “amor Eafter reading ijust now Odino YOUltor“. The word order, which roughly translates to “Loved by the elect, feared by the unjust,” appears in contemporary writings by and about Frederick III. find: “En, amor electis, iniustis ordinor ultor; Sic Fridericus ego mea iura rego.”
The Styrian duke Friedrich therefore uses this phrase – in German “Behold, I am loved by the elect, I am feared by the unjust, so I, Friedrich, rule lawfully” – at a young age to legitimize rule. With his rise to seniority of the entire “House of Austria” and then to long-term head of the realm—favored by unexpected deaths in other branches of the Habsburg family—the Styrian duke’s “AEIOU” spread far beyond Frederick’s original rule .
The solution has actually been known for a long time
The fact that this interpretation of the “AEIOU” was previously known in historical research but was not among the “favorites” also has something to do with historical science itself: Alfons Lhotsky, doyen of Austrian medieval research in the 20th century, has in his work This so-called “En amor distichon” qualifies as an “AEIOU” as an invention of the Moravian notary Nikolaus Petschacher, a supposed councilor of Emperor Friedrich III.
“Through his research, Langmaier now proves conclusively that Lhotsky’s knowledge was a research error,” emphasizes the director of the State Archives. Gernot Peter Obersteiner. With this, and with evidence that the En-amor word order had been used in manuscripts by Duke Friedrich himself from as early as 1437, Langmaier presented a compelling thesis. “The findings are groundbreaking for AEIOU research. Langmaier does not propose a new, hitherto completely unknown interpretation, but rigorously proves that the En amor distichon has long been seen as contemporary, but has been wrongly misinterpreted as an external attribution,” emphasizes Obersteiner.
Source: Krone
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