In 1867, the new entity became the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted until the end of World War I, in 1918.

The new empire immediately went on an expansion spree, mostly in an easterly direction, soon adding most of the Balkans, as well as Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Hungary, and even parts of present-day Ukraine, Romania, Poland, and northern Italy to its realm. Importantly, it also meant the beginning of an Austrian empire, with the former Francis II of Germany metamorphosing into Emperor Francis I of Austria. This ended 844 years of the First German Reich. Politically, the stories of Austria and Germany began to diverge only in 1806, when, following a debacle against Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the last Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation, the Habsburg Francis II (1768–1835) renounced the crown.

As a result, German beer history and Austrian beer history are inextricably intertwined. That was in the late Middle Ages, when, from its capital of Vienna, the Austrian dynasty, the House of Habsburg, ruled not only what we know as Austria but also virtually all of Europe-with the exception of France, Britain, Russia, and Scandinavia.

Vienna lager from german brewery