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| Austria | Introduction | Back to Top |
Austria (in German, Österreich), officially Republic of Austria, republic in central Europe, bordered on the north by the Czech Republic; on the north-east by Slovakia; on the east by Hungary; on the south by Slovenia, Italy, and Switzerland; and on the west by Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Germany. Austria is about 580 km (360 mi) long and has an area of 83,859 sq km (32,378 sq mi). Vienna is the country's capital and largest city.
Population 8,054,000 (1995 estimate) Population Density 96 people/sq km (249 people/sq mi) (1995 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 65% Urban 35% Rural Largest Cities Vienna1,539,848 Graz237,810 Linz203,044 (1991 census) Ethnic Groups 93% Austrian 7% Other including Slovenes, Croats, Hungarians, Czechs Languages Official Language German Religions 80% Roman Catholicism 6% Protestantism 10% Other including Islam and Judaism
| Austria | Provinces | Back to Top |
9 states (bundeslaender, singular - bundesland); Burgenland, Kaernten, Niederoesterreich, Oberoesterreich, Salzburg, Steiermark, Tirol, Vorarlberg, Wien.
| Austria | People | Back to Top |
Austria had a population of 7,795,786. The 2001 estimated population was 8,150,835, giving the country an overall population density of 97 persons per sq km (252 per sq mi). Some 65 percent of the population is urban, with more than one-quarter of the people living in the five largest cities: Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. The Austrian people are German-speaking, but the country has a varied ethnic mixture—a legacy from the time of the multinational Habsburg Austria. About 99 percent of the population is ethnic Austrian. Minority groups include Croats and Hungarians.
The German spoken in Austria, except in the west, is technically a subdialect of the major Bavarian dialect, of which Tirolean is a separate subdialect. Characteristic of Austrian German is the dialect of Vienna, which has overtones of Bavarian but is perhaps softer and more lilting and melodious than the speech of, say, Munich. The speech of Kärnten and Steiermark, areas that are largely separated from the rest of the country by mountain ranges, is clearly distinguishable from that of the west and northeast. The inhabitants of the Vorarlberg and parts of western Tirol are Alemannic in origin, with cultural and dialectal affinities with the German Swiss to the west and Swabians in Germany to the north.
| Austria | History | Back to Top |
Much of the region south of the Danube River was known as Noricum. The western uplands region between the upper Rhine River, the lower course of the Inn River, and the Bavarian and subalpine plateau was known as Rhaetia, an area which also included parts of modern-day Germany and Switzerland. The plains region in the east and southeast was known as Pannonia and included areas in present-day Hungary and Slovenia. The Romans invaded all three regions about 15 bc and made them provinces of the empire. Under Roman control, the provinces eventually became outposts for offensive and defensive action against various barbarian tribes. To a large extent Roman strategy was based on the fact that the region contains important passes through the Eastern Alps and thus commands vital transportation arteries between northern, southern, western, and eastern Europe. One of the first Roman military posts in the region was Vindobona (now Vienna), which was located on the site of a Celtic settlement on the edge of the Eastern Alps and on an arm of the Danube. Vindobona became an important strategic crossroad for two main trade routes and for numerous roads leading into the fertile basin of Niederösterreich. Carnuntum (now Petronell), east of present-day Vienna, was another important Roman center in the area.
In the territories of Austria the first traces of human settlement date from the Lower Paleolithic Period. The archaeological material becomes richer and more varied for subsequent periods, giving evidence of several distinct cultures succeeding one another or coexisting. The Austrian site of Hallstatt gave its name to the principal culture of the Early Iron Age (c. 800–450 BC). Celtic tribes invaded the eastern Alps about 400 BC and eventually founded the kingdom of Noricum, the first “state” on Austrian territory known by name. In the west, however, the ancient race of Raetians was able to maintain its seat. Then, attracted by the rich iron resources and the strategic importance of the region, the Romans began to assert themselves. After an initially peaceful penetration during the last two centuries BC, Roman troops finally occupied the country about 15 BC, and the lands as far as the Danube became part of the Roman Empire, being allotted to the Roman provinces of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia.
June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. After receiving German assurances of support, the Austro-Hungarian foreign office sent a harsh ultimatum to the Serbian government, holding it responsible for the assassination and requiring its total acceptance of Austria-Hungary’s demands within three days. Despite a conciliatory reply that accepted all but two of the demands, and mediation efforts by the European powers, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28. Germany’s declaration of war on Russia and France in early August transformed the conflict into World War I. Austro-Hungarian military activity during the first year of the war was concentrated against Russia and Serbia. In May 1915 Italy, which had declared its neutrality in 1914, left the Triple Alliance and entered the war on the side of the Allies.
| Austria | Culture | Back to Top |
18th and 19th centuries, Vienna was a world center of culture, particularly in music and literature. Austrian fine art usually is considered with the art of southern Germany. A distinctive Austrian style, however, is manifested in the refined baroque architecture and sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries, notably in Vienna, Salzburg, and Melk.
Austria has been a leader and guardian of some of the most sublime achievements in the fine arts, the theatre, literature, architecture, medicine, and science. The culture is part of the mainstream of German culture shared by Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. But what has shaped it and dominated it, what has made it essentially Austrian, are the Habsburg empire and the Christian church. The greatest Middle High German lyric poet, Walther von der Vogelweide, served at the Viennese court in the late 12th century. The great epic of the German Middle Ages, the anonymous Das Nibelungenlied, was written in Austria. The emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519), called “the Last Knight” (der letzte Ritter), was a poet and a patron of the theatre. The Habsburg dynasty's tradition of patronage of the arts has carried over to the modern republic of today.
The church was a powerful influence in Austrian architecture, drama, and music. The great Romanesque monasteries, the Gothic St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, and the splendours of the quintessentially Austrian Baroque and Rococco obviously derive from the church. The Austrian theatre has its origins in late medieval religious drama, and the affinities of the church with Austrian music continue down to modern times. The era that began in the reign of Maria Theresa (1740–80) and ended in that of Francis Joseph (1848–1916) was an age of spectacular flourishing in the arts and sciences. During this time an aggregation of genius and talent in often interlocking circles was gathered in Vienna.
| Austria | Life | Back to Top |
Important art contributions include early wood carvings, Gobelins tapestries, hand-carved and hand-painted chests, intricately forged grates and other ironwork, stained-glass windows, Augarten porcelain from Vienna, lace, and leatherwork. Wood carving and sculpturing have long been popular among the people of the Alpine valleys. Among the best-known modern painters of Austria are Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and Hundertwasser.
| Austria | Land | Back to Top |
Mountains and forests give the Austrian landscape its character, although in the northeastern part of the country the Danube winds between the eastern edge of the Alps and the hills of Bohemia and Moravia, in its journey toward the Hungarian Plain. Vienna, the capital of Austria and long one of the great cities of Europe, lies in the area where the Danube emerges from between the mountains into the drier plains. The landscape of the eastern Alps offers a complex geologic and topographical pattern, with the highest elevation—the Grossglockner (12,460 feet [3,798 metres])—rising toward the west. The Austrian Alps may be subdivided into a northern and a southern limestone range, each of which is composed of rugged mountains.
| Austria | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
Deciduous trees, mainly beech, oak, and birch, are predominant in the lower elevations; spruce, fir, larch, Austrian black pine, and stone pine extend to the timberline. The higher elevations have a very brief season during which alpine plants, including edelweiss, gentians, primroses, buttercups, and monkshoods, come into brilliant flower. Wildlife is generally scarce in Austria. Chamois, deer, and marmot are still represented; bear, which were once abundant, are now almost completely absent. Hunting is strictly regulated to protect the remaining species.
| Austria | Economy | Back to Top |
The Austrian economy is based on a balance of private and public enterprise. All the basic industries were nationalized in 1946; these included all oil production and refining; the largest commercial banks; and the principal companies in river and air transportation, railroad equipment, electric machinery and appliances, mining, iron, steel, and chemical manufacturing, and natural-gas and electric power production. However, government control was reduced through privatization efforts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, allowing for the sale of shares in many nationalized companies to private investors. Over the years, Austria maintained close ties with the countries of Eastern Europe. Since the collapse of Communism in those countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 1,000 Western companies have chosen Austria as their base for new Eastern European operations.
In 1946 and 1947 the Austrian parliament enacted legislation that nationalized more than 70 firms in essential industries and services, including the three largest commercial banks, such heavy industries as petroleum and oil refining, coal, mining, iron and steel, iron and steel products (structural materials, heavy machinery, railway equipment), shipbuilding, and electrical machinery and appliances, as well as river navigation. Later reorganization reduced the number of nationalized firms to 19 and placed the property rights with limited powers of management and supervision into a holding company owned by the Republic of Austria, the Österreichische Industrieverwaltungs-Aktiengesellschaft (ÖIAG; Austrian Industrial Administration Limited-Liability Company). In 1986–89 ÖIAG was restructured to give it powers to function along the lines of a major private industry, and it was renamed Österreichische Industrieholding AG. The company is largely shielded from political intervention, and it is the largest single component of the Austrian economy, accounting for an annual turnover of more than 150 billion Austrian schillings per annum in the early 1990s
Austria with its well-developed market economy and high standard of living is closely tied to other EU economies, especially Germany's. Membership in the EU has drawn an influx of foreign investors attracted by Austria's access to the single European market and proximity to EU aspirant economies. In 2000, Austria moved to further cut government spending and raise taxes to meet EMU deficit targets after facing unexpected difficulties in reducing the public deficit. To meet increased competition from both EU and Central European countries, Austria will need to emphasize knowledge-based sectors of the economy and continue to deregulate the service sector. Growth is expected to remain at about 3% in 2001.
| Austria | Communications | Back to Top |
highly developed and efficient domestic: there are 48 main lines for every 100 persons and the system is nearly 100% digital; the fiber optic net is very extensive; all telephone applications and Internet services are available international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean) and 2 Eutelsat
| Austria | Languages | Back to Top |
German is the official language of Austria. About 2 percent of the population speaks languages other than German, chiefly Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian, and Turkish.
| Austria | Politics | Back to Top |
Austrian People's Party or OeVP [Wolfgang SCHUESSEL]; Freedom Party of Austria or FPOe [Susanne RIESS-PASSER]; Social Democratic Party of Austria or SPOe [Alfred GUSENBAUER]; The Greens Alternative or GA [Alexander VAN DER BELLEN]
| Austria | Government | Back to Top |
Austria is a democratic, federal republic governed according to the constitution of 1920, as amended in 1929 and subsequently modified. Like the constitutions of many other Western democracies, the constitution of Austria provides for a distinct division of power among the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches of government. Laws having their origin in 1862 and 1867 guarantee basic human rights and liberties; the rights of minorities are also guaranteed by the constitution. Executive power is exercised by the president of the republic, who is elected by popular vote every six years, and by the Council of Ministers, or cabinet, which is headed by a chancellor, appointed by the president for a term not exceeding four years. Suffrage is universal for citizens 19 years of age and older.
| Austria | Legal | Back to Top |
Legal system: civil law system with Roman law origin; judicial review of legislative acts by the Constitutional Court; separate administrative and civil/penal supreme courts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction Suffrage: 19 years of age; universal; compulsory for presidential elections Executive branch: chief of state: President Thomas KLESTIL (since 8 July 1992) head of government: Chancellor Wolfgang SCHUESSEL (OeVP)(since 4 February 2000); Vice Chancellor Susanne RIESS-PASSER (FPOe) (since 4 February 2000) cabinet: Council of Ministers chosen by the president on the advice of the chancellor elections: president elected by direct popular vote for a six-year term; presidential election last held 19 April 1998 (next to be held in the spring of 2004); chancellor traditionally chosen by the president from the plurality party in the National Council; in the case of the current coalition, the chancellor was chosen from another party after the plurality party failed to form a government; vice chancellor chosen by the president on the advice of the chancellor election results: Thomas KLESTIL reelected president; percent of vote - Thomas KLESTIL 63%, Gertraud KNOLL 14%, Heide SCHMIDT 11%, Richard LUGNER 10%, Karl NOWAK 2% note: government coalition - OeVP and FPOe Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly or Bundesversammlung consists of Federal Council or Bundesrat (64 members; members represent each of the states on the basis of population, but with each state having at least three representatives; members serve a four- or six-year term) and the National Council or Nationalrat (183 seats; members elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections: National Council - last held 3 October 1999 (next to be held in the fall of 2003) election results: National Council - percent of vote by party - SPOe 33.2%, OeVP 26.9%, FPOe 26.9%, Greens 7.4%; seats by party - SPOe 65, OeVP 52, FPOe 52, Greens 14 Judicial branch: Supreme Judicial Court or Oberster Gerichtshof; Administrative Court or Verwaltungsgerichtshof; Constitutional Court or Verfassungsgerichtshof
| Austria | organization | Back to Top |
AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CCC, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNMOT, UNOMIG, UNTAET, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC.
| Austria | Education | Back to Top |
The basis of the Austrian educational system is the national law that requires school attendance for all youths between the ages of 6 and 15. Austria’s long tradition of free education dates from the Educational Reform Act of 1774, instituted by Empress Maria Theresa. This law, which was expanded in 1867 and again in 1962, largely accounts for the fact that virtually all of the adult population is able to read and write. Although the foundations of Austria’s present educational system were laid in the 18th century, its roots can be traced to the monastic schools of the Middle Ages. One such school, the Schottengymnasium in Vienna, has been in continuous operation by the order of the Benedictines since 1155. Austria was under German occupation from 1938 to 1945, and the country’s schools suffered severe restraints on their teaching programs. Since World War II, various programs have been inaugurated to expand and strengthen the educational system.
| Austria | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Army (includes Flying Division)
Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 2,091,263 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 1,731,383 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 50,580 (2001 est.)
| Austria | International Disputes | Back to Top |
minor disputes with Czech Republic and Slovenia over nuclear power plants and post-World War II treatment of German-speaking minorities