When you have finished this lesson you can:

• Talk about history and politics

• Ask for explanations, opinions and thoughts

• Say you agree or disagree

• Know the past tense

There was a time where Austria was the center of power, it was the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz Joseph, who was announced as the successor to the throne with the age of 18, ruled the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary until 1916. After the Sarajevo assassination and the war declaration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Serbia, the first World War had started.

After WWI, the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy took place at 1918. But after some years Austria announced the annexation into the German Third Reich, where Nazis were responsible of the mass murder of millions of Jews and other minorities. This was the beginning of World War II, which ended 1945. 10 years later, in 1955, Austria signed an Austrian Independence Treaty to re-establish Austria as a sovereign state.

Do you understand the dates? Arrange correctly: Drag the year on the left to the corresponding statement on the right side.

Arrange correctly: Click at the word on the left and drag it to the corresponding word on the right side.

Austria is a parliamentary republic based on democracy and the separation of powers. The Federal President is the highest state representative. The legislative bodies consists of two parliamentary chambers: the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). The head of the Federal Government is the Federal Chancellor. Currently the government is ruled by two parties, the Austrian People's Party and the Austrian Freedom Party.

Because Austria and Germany are federal republics, the official terms are build with “Bund-”:

Arrange correctly: Click at the pronoun on the left and drag it to the corresponding form of the verb on the right side.

Answer the question.

(If you don't know just say this.)

As explained in a former chapter, the past tense is rarely used in spoken German language. But if you want to talk about history you might need it. And of course, it’s used in written texts.

To conjugate verbs in the simple past, we remove the infinitive ending -en and add the following endings:

 Examples:        Wir lernten viel über österreichische Geschichte.
                               [We learned much about Austrian history.]

Ich sah__ die Hofburg in Wien.
                               [I saw the Hofburg in Vienna.]

What is the right form of the verb in past tense?

Example: Ich ____________ in Wien. (leben)

Answer: lebte

As in other languages, you simply have to learn the irregular verbs and their forms in present, past and as past participle. If you already speak English, you have a small advantage: Many of the irregular verbs in English are also irregular in German…

Here you have a list of the most common verbs.
You can find the complete list in the internet
(https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses/irregular-verbs)
But remember: In spoken language, it is sufficient to master the perfect.

Remember the most important because most used irregular verbs “sein” and “haben”.

Click at the pronoun on the left and drag it to the corresponding form of the verb on the right side.

Sometimes, it is not easy to understand what another person think about a special issue. You can ask:

You can also ask the other person what his/her opinion is or what his/her thoughts to a special subject.

Arrange correctly: Click at the speaker-button on the left and drag it to the corresponding word on the right side.

If you want to say what you are thinking or meaning about a subject you can use different verbs:

 ! Remember the construction of a sentence with a main clause and a subordinate clause beginning with the conjugation “dass”.

In German, you often hear a construction with two main clauses and one subordinate clause (here with “dass”).

Arrange correctly: Click at the phrase on the left and drag it to the corresponding phrase on the right side.