FK Austria Wien was founded on 20 October 1910 in Vienna, Austria, under the name Wiener Cricketer before being renamed Wiener Amateur-SV later that year. The club adopted its current identity, Fußballklub Austria Wien, in November 1926, the same year it claimed its second Austrian league title as the squad transitioned from amateur to professional football.
Austria Wien's earliest golden era came in the 1930s, when the club claimed back-to-back Mitropa Cup titles in 1933 and 1936 — a prestigious tournament for Central European champions. The heart of that side was forward Matthias Sindelar, later voted the greatest Austrian footballer of the twentieth century. That period was cut short by the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, during which the club was forced to change its name and faced severe disruption.
Post-war recovery brought renewed success. Three consecutive league titles in 1961–63, followed by a sustained run of eight championships in eleven seasons between 1976 and 1986, underlined Austria Wien's domestic dominance. On the European stage, the club reached the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1978 — losing 4–0 to Anderlecht — and the semi-finals of the European Cup the following season. A 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group-stage appearance against Porto, Atlético Madrid and Zenit Saint Petersburg marked the club's most recent foray into Europe's top tier.
Today Austria Wien has won 24 Austrian Bundesliga titles, 27 Austrian Cup titles and six Austrian Supercup titles — more than any other Austrian club in each of those competitions. Their defining rivalry is the Vienna derby against Rapid Wien, contested since 1911 and the most-played derby in European football outside Scotland. The two clubs share the distinction of being the only Austrian sides never relegated from the top flight.