Both countries have a long common history since the ruling dynasty of Austria, the Habsburgs, inherited the Hungarian throne in the 16th century.

In Hungary, by the Hungarian Nationalities Law (1868) the full equality of all citizens was reinstated along with first minority rights of Europe, though the Magyar aristocracy and bourgeoisie tried to "Magyarize" the ethnicities of the multi-national kingdom within forty years: this affected mainly the education, language and administration.

Before World War I, many aristocratic Hungarian families (such as Esterházy, Batthyány and Pálffy) had their own palaces in Vienna, where their king (who was also the Emperor of Austria) resided.

Both shared the experience of seeing millions of nationals having to live in other countries: the Austrians were not allowed to integrate the Germans of Bohemia and Moravia into their republic, the Hungarians had to leave the Magyars of Transylvania to Romania and those north of the Danube to Czechoslovakia (today Slovakia).

[citation needed] Hungary did not agree to relinquish this city, so the Allied powers ordered a referendum, which the Hungarians won.

The Iron Curtain made Hungarians and Austrians living near the border feel the division of Europe quite personally.

[citation needed] During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Austrians hoped Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and the thousands of revolutionaries would succeed.

[citation needed] During the 1970s, Hungary under János Kádár curbed the oppressive state control and implemented a new policy called "Goulash Communism".

[citation needed] In 1989, the Hungarian government decided to tear down the Iron Curtain at the border with Austria, and on 27 June 1989 they staged a "tear-down action" together with Austria, at which foreign ministers Alois Mock and Gyula Horn cut through barbed wire with pliers in the presence of news photographers and reporters from around the world.

Both countries are members of the European Union, and since the end of 2007, the Schengen Agreement has allowed citizens to cross the border without control wherever there is a right of way.

On 16 June 2008 the European Commission stated that because OMV was already the biggest player in the oil and gas markets in central Europe, a merger with MOL would seriously hamper competition in the region.

Haydn, born in Lower Austria, died in Vienna, but had lived and worked for the Esterházy princes for 30 years in western Hungary, part of which is now the Austrian Burgenland.