Alternative Austria

Valdemar II

Banned
In OTL Austria was original the Bavarian march along the Donau, between the Bavaria proper and Hungary, the are are today known as Upper and Lower Austria. Austria come from the German Österreich (meaning Easten Realm), it name before that had been Ostmark (meaning East March). But it wasn't the only area with that name on the northen side of Bohemia one of the Saxon marches had the same name at the time Ostmark*. So what if that area became known as Österreich/Austria instead. What would our Austria be called, would it keep Ostmark, readopt Pannovia as it was known before or would another name be adopted?

On the other hand would the Saxon Austria disappear again, or would the term be so universal that the later rulers kept it? Saxon Ostmark name was dropped, but on the other hand "realm" beat "march" any day of the week in prestige.

*The area was more or less the later Electorate/Kingdom of Saxony in its pre-Vienna form.
 
The point probably is: After the Germans to settle in Poland (esp. Silesia), the Saxon Ostmark wasn't the easternmost part of German settlement anymore, while Austria (at its latitude) still was.

And I don't know an alternative name for Austria either.
 
Your scenario is not completely clear to me.

So you assume that Austria is split off from Bavaria as IOTL by Barbarossa?
Then it was known as the Eastern March at once. The territories in the North were much less populated and much less desired, so that the actual Austria had the first claim to that name.

Of course, other names are possible, but practically only if you start as early as in its Bavarian time.

The other "Eastern March" is never a hindrance, among other reasons because is existed for so short a time.
 
The point probably is: After the Germans to settle in Poland (esp. Silesia), the Saxon Ostmark wasn't the easternmost part of German settlement anymore, while Austria (at its latitude) still was.

Actual position seldom takes a name out of usage.
And while Austria was originally the "Eastern" march/realm, the name was later interpreted via Latin "auster", i.e. the "South-Eastern" lands.
In other words, people will always find a way to explain themselves the name that they have got acquainted with.
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Actual position seldom takes a name out of usage.

I agree, plus the Silesia was only germanised centuries later.

And while Austria was originally the "Eastern" march/realm, the name was later interpreted via Latin "auster", i.e. the "South-Eastern" lands.
In other words, people will always find a way to explain themselves the name that they have got acquainted with.

While I hate to use Wikipedia in a discussin of a linguistic term, there's this tidbits in page about the old Frankish kingdom Austrasia.

wikipedia said:
Austrasia (rarely Austria, both meaning "eastern land"), formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital, although some Austrasian kings ruled from Rheims, Trier, and Cologne also. Austrasia was also used as a term for northeast Italy, as opposed to Neustria, which meant the northwest.

Plus in German the meaning of Österreich are extremely clear "East Realm", and in all non-English Germanic language it has the same meaning.
 
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