Sure, that's true, but only partly. Austria lost an empire at the end of WWI. I come from an area that used to be part of that empire, and until WWI, if you wer

Sure, that's true, but only partly. Austria lost an empire at the end of WWI. I come from an area that used to be part of that empire, and until WWI, if you were talented and ambitious, you went to study in Vienna. Many of the locally recognized writers, artists etc. did. And some stayed there for their entire careers. That all ended after the war.