Neither side could find the breakthrough in the first period but Thomas Hitzlsperger, Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez were on target after the interval to give the visitors a convincing triumph.

Germany captain Michael Ballack - playing his first game for his country in almost a year following a long-term ankle injury - almost opened the scoring in the 14th minute but headed over the crossbar from Bernd Schneider's left-wing free-kick.

Stuttgart midfielder Hitzlsperger then fired a left-footed shot towards Alex Manninger's goal but the Siena stopper was equal to it.

Austria gradually started to come into the game approaching the 20-minute mark when skipper twice fired over Jens Lehmann's bar in quick succession.

The hosts were then denied the opener by the woodwork when Martin Harnik's header from Andreas Ivanschitz's cross came back off the post.

Lehmann had to be alert shortly afterwards to parry a Christian Fuchs shot and then Roland Linz blasted a volley over as the Euro 2008 co-hosts continued to push forward.

The deadlock was broken eight minutes into the second half when Hitzlsperger's right-footed effort found the bottom-right corner of Manninger's net.

Harnik almost restored parity instantly but saw his shot parried by Arsenal goalkeeper Lehmann.

Just after the hour mark, Joachim Low's team went two up through Bayern Munich frontman Klose when he latched onto Ballack's pass and slotted into the bottom-left corner from 12 yards.

Austria did not give up, with Per Mertesacker blocking a shot from Roland Linz as Josef Hickersberger's team looked to halve the deficit in the 69th minute.

Ten minutes from time, however, Stuttgart striker Gomez put the result beyond any doubt by nodding the third goal home from Lukas Podolski's left-wing cross.

There was still time for Germany to muster a couple more chances, but Manninger ensured the scoreline finished with some degree of respectability for the Austrians by first parrying Klose's shot and then catching an attempt from Gomez.