AUSTRIA

Mitteldorf, a village in the high Alpine region of Tirol in western Austria. officially Republic of Austria, German Republik sterreich, largely mountainous country of south-central Europe. Austria extends roughly 340 miles (550 km) from east to west. It is bordered on the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, on the northwest by Germany, on the north by the Czech Republic, on the northeast by Slovakia, on the east by Hungary, and on the southwest by Italy. The capital is Vienna. Austria has an area of 32,378 square miles (83,859 square km). In the decades following the collapse, in 1918, of the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire of which it had been the heart, this small landlocked country experienced more than a quarter century of social and economic turbulence and a Nazi dictatorship. Yet the establishment of permanent neutrality in 1955, associated with the withdrawal of the four-power troops that had occupied the country for a decade, enabled Austria to develop into a stable and socially progressive nation with a flourishing cultural life that was reminiscent of its earlier days of international musical glory. Its social and economic institutions, too, have been characterized by new forms and a spirit of cooperation, and, although political and social problems remain, they have not erupted with the intensity evidenced in other countries of the Continent. A great part of Austria's status in the late 20th century can be attributed to its geographic position. It is at the centre of European traffic between east and west along the great Danubian trade route and between north and south through the magnificent Alpine passes, thus embedding the country within a variety of political and economic systems. Together with Switzerland, it forms what has been characterized as the neutral core of Europe (see the articles European history and Vienna). officially Republic of Austria, German Republik sterreich mountainous, landlocked country of south-central Europe. Austria extends 185 miles (300 km) from north to south and about 350 miles (560 km) from east to west. It is bordered on the west by Switzerland and Liechtenstein, on the northwest by Germany, on the north by the Czech Republic, on the northeast by Slovakia, on the east by Hungary, on the southeast by Slovenia, and on the southwest by Italy. The capital is Vienna. Area 32,378 square miles (83,858 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 8,027,000. Additional reading Geography Eugene K. Keefe et al., Area Handbook for Austria (1976), though old, is still valuable for its survey of physical features and description of national traditions and culture. Austria, Facts and Figures (1990), published by the Federal Press Service, is an informative compendium of illustrations and statistics. Among the more comprehensive guidebooks are Ian Robertson, Austria, 2nd ed. (1987); and Franz N. Mehling (ed.), Austria (1985; originally published in German, 1977), from the Phaidon Cultural Guide series. See also a brief UNESCO study, Harald Gardos and Manfred Wagner, Some Aspects of Cultural Policies in Austria (1981).Political developments are discussed in William T. Bluhm, Building an Austrian Nation: The Political Integration of a Western State (1973); and Felix Kreissler, Der sterreicher und Seine Nation: ein Lernprozess mit Hindernissen (1984; originally published in French, 1980), confronting Austrian Pan-Germanism with the development of an Austrian national identity. John Fitzmaurice, Austrian Politics and Society Today: In Defence of Austria (1990), is a study of economic, social, and political characteristics against the traditional perception of Austrian neutrality. For more detailed analysis of the political forces in Austrian society, see Max E. Riedlsperger, The Lingering Shadow of Nazism: The Austrian Independent Party Movement Since 1945 (1978); Melanie A. Sully, Political Parties and Elections in Austria (1981); and Anton Pelinka and Fritz Plasser (eds.), The Austrian Party System (1989). History For comprehensive chronological coverage, see Richard Rickett, A Brief Survey of Austrian History, 9th ed. (1988); and Erich Zllner, Geschichte sterreichs: von den Anfngen bis zur Gegenwart, 8th ed. (1990), a massive history of Austria from ancient times to the present day. Barbara Jelavich, Modern Austria: Empire and Republic, 18151986 (1987), provides a comprehensive survey. Austrian History Yearbook, published by the University of Minnesota, is devoted to recent research.Studies of particular historical periods include A.W. Leeper, A History of Medieval Austria (1941, reprinted 1978), focusing on the Middle Ages up to the middle of the 13th century; Adam Wandruszka, The House of Habsburg: Six Hundred Years of a European Dynasty (1964, reprinted 1975; originally published in German, 1956), on the late Middle Ages; Robert A. Kann, A History of the Habsburg Empire, 15261918 (1974); R.J.W. Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 15501700: An Interpretation (1979, reprinted 1984), concentrating on the ascent of the house of Habsburg, and Rudolf II and His World: A Study in Intellectual History, 15761612 (1973, reissued with corrections 1984); and Thomas M. Barker, Double Eagle and Crescent: Vienna's Second Turkish Siege and Its Historical Setting (1967), exploring the second half of the 17th century.The 18th century is examined in Erich Zllner (ed.), sterreich im Zeitalter des aufgeklrten Absolutismus (1983), an analysis of the era of enlightened absolutism; James Van Horn Melton, Absolutism and the Eighteenth-Century Origins of Compulsory Schooling in Prussia and Austria (1988), discussing the educational system against the background of general social history; and Ernst Wangermann, The Austrian Achievement, 17001800 (1973), on cultural and intellectual life. Works on the monarchy include C.A. Macartney, Maria Theresa and the House of Austria (1969); Derek Beales, Joseph II: In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, 17411780 (1987), focusing on Joseph's formative years; and Paul P. Bernard, Joseph II (1968), a briefer survey. Istvn Dek, The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 18481849 (1979), is an excellent work on the national problems. Analyses of politics and diplomacy include Enno E. Kraehe, Metternich's German Policy, 2 vol. (19631983); Arthur G. Haas, Metternich, Reorganization and Nationality, 18131818: A Story of Foresight and Frustration in the Rebuilding of the Austrian Empire (1963); Karl A. Roider, Jr., Baron Thugut and Austria's Response to the French Revolution (1987), centring on the great struggles against the French Revolution and Napoleon; Gunther E. Rothenberg, Napoleon's Great Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army, 17921814 (1982), on the military; and Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 18121822 (1946, reissued 1989). Economic development is examined in David F. Good, The Economic Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 17501914 (1984); and John Komlos, The Habsburg Monarchy as a Customs Union: Economic Development in Austria-Hungary in the Nineteenth Century (1983). Culture is surveyed in Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History: From Late Baroque to Romanticism (1960, reprinted 1973).The 19th century is covered in the following works: Heinrich Friedjung, The Struggle for Supremacy in Germany, 18591866 (1935, reprinted 1966; originally published in German, 10th ed., 2 vol., 191617); C.A. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire, 17901918 (1968); Arthur J. May, The Hapsburg Monarchy, 18671914 (1951, reissued 1968); Henry W. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy, 4th ed. (1919, reissued 1969); Robert A. Kann, The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy, 18481918, 2 vol. (1950, reissued 1977); and A.J.P. Taylor, The Habsburg Monarchy, 18091918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, new ed. (1948, reprinted 1976). William McCagg, A History of Habsburg Jews, 16701918 (1989); Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-Sicle Vienna: Politics and Culture (1980); and William M. Johnston, The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 18481938 (1972), provide a bridge between the centuries. F.L. Carsten, Fascist Movements in Austria: From Schnerer to Hitler (1977); and Charles A. Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 2 vol. (1948, reprinted 1980), do the same through analyses of social and political developments.Karl R. Stadler, Austria (1971); and Elisabeth Barker, Austria, 19181972 (1973), cover 20th-century history in general. For the First Republic in particular, see Arthur J. May, The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 19141918, 2 vol. (1966); Mary MacDonald, The Republic of Austria, 19181934: A Study in the Failure of Democratic Government (1946); Anson Rabinbach, The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: From Red Vienna to Civil War, 19271934 (1983); Martin Kitchen, The Coming of Austrian Fascism (1980); Bruce F. Pauley, Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism (1981); Ivar Oxaal, Michael Pollak, and Gerhard Botz (eds.), Jews, Antisemitism and Culture in Vienna (1987), a history of Austrian Jews, from assimilation to forced emigration and extermination; and, for a comprehensive survey of the First Republic, Erika Weinzierl and Kurt Skalnik, sterreich, 19181938: Geschichte der Ersten Republik, 2 vol. (1983).Emmerich Talos, Ernst Hanisch, and Wolfgang Neugebauer (eds.), NS-Herrschaft in sterreich, 19381945 (1988), is a comprehensive scholarly volume dealing with the implications of National Socialist rule for Austrian society. Robert H. Keyserlingk, Austria in World War II: An Anglo-American Dilemma (1988); and William B. Bader, Austria Between East and West, 19451955 (1966), deal with the period of transition. Reinhold Wagnleitner, Coca-Colonization and the Cold War: The Cultural Mission of the United States in Austria After the Second World War (1994; originally published in German, 1991), analyzes the impact of the U.S. reorientation policies toward Austria in the context of the Cold War and the development of a culture of consumption. F. Parkinson (ed.), Conquering the Past: Austrian Nazism Yesterday and Today (1989); and Richard Bassett, Waldheim and Austria (1989), are critical studies of the inability of Austrians to conquer their past. Kurt Steiner (ed.), Modern Austria (1981), examines political, social, economic, and cultural developments under the Second Republic; and Melanie A. Sully, A Contemporary History of Austria (1990), is a short review of politics in the 1980s. See also the same author's Continuity and Change in Austrian Socialism: The Eternal Quest for the Third Way (1982); and Jim Sweeney and Josef Weidenholzer (eds.), Austria: A Study in Modern Achievement (1988). Otto Leichter Karl R. Stadler George Hall Kirby Erich Zllner Karl A. Roider, Jr. Fritz Fellner Reinhold Wagnleitner Administration and social conditions Government Constitutional framework Under the constitution of 1920with minor changes made in 1929Austria is a democratic republic: its law derives from the people. A federal republic, Austria consists of nine self-governing Lnder (states): Burgenland, Krnten (Carinthia), Niedersterreich (Lower Austria), Obersterreich (Upper Austria), Salzburg, Steiermark (Styria), Tirol, Vorarlberg, and Wien (Vienna). The states have considerable autonomy. In 1934 the Austrian constitution was replaced by an authoritarian regime under Chancellors Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt von Schuschnigg. This, in turn, was eliminated by Hitler after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. With the liberation of Austria in 1945, the constitution of 1929 was revived and subsequently became the foundation stone of constitutional and political life in the Second Republic. The federal president and the Cabinet share the executive authority. The president is elected by popular vote for a term of six years. He acts as head of state, appoints the Cabinet, and calls parliament into session. He can dissolve parliament during the four-year legislative period, unless it dissolves itself by law, and can order new elections. He also acts as commander in chief of the armed forces. The president appoints the federal chancellor and, at his suggestion, the other Cabinet members. The Cabinet cannot remain in office if it and its members do not enjoy the confidence of the majority of the National Council. The parliament consists of two houses: the National Council (Nationalrat), wielding the primary legislative power, and the Federal Council (Bundesrat), representing the states. The National Council, which had had 165 members since 1920, was expanded to 183 members under a law passed in 1970 that took effect at a national election in 1971. The National Council is elected by all citizens over the age of 19, and every citizen over the age of 26 is eligible to run for office. The distribution of parliamentary seats is based on a system of proportional representation. The members of the Federal Council represent the states. The assemblies, or diets, of the states elect the members by a proportional system based on the population of the state. The legislative process originates in the National Council. Each billexcept for the budget, which is the sole prerogative of the National Councilmust be approved by the Federal Council. The National Council, however, can override a Federal Council veto by a simple majority vote. Each of the nine states is administered by a government headed by a governor; the governor is elected by the legislative diet, which in turn is elected by general and equal ballot. The local municipalities each elect a mayor and a city council. Vienna is a unique case: as both municipality and state, its mayor functions as the governor. The political process The first popular election of a president, although provided for by a 1929 amendment to the constitution, did not take place until after the death of the first post-World War II president, Karl Renner (18701950), who had been unanimously elected by the National Assembly after the liberation of 1945. The system of political parties of Austria, in a close parallel to the party structure of Germany, is characterized by two dominant parties of the centre-right and centre-left, along with a small but effective liberal party, the environmentalist Greens, a small communist party, and a fringe right-wing party. The Austrian People's Party (sterreichische Volkspartei; VP), which describes itself as a progressive centre party, is the successor of the Christian Social Party, founded in the 1890s. A Christian Democratic party, it is a member of the European Union of Christian Democrats and represents a combination of conservative forces and various social and economic groups that form semi-independent federations within the overall party. The divergent economic and social interests of these groupswhich include workers and employees, farmers, employers and tradespeople, feminists, young populists, and senior citizensare not always easy to reconcile. The Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei sterreichs; SP; until 1991 the Socialist Party), was founded in 1945. It is a successor of the original Social Democratic Party (founded 1889), which was a driving force in the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1918. Since 1945 the party has moved from a democratic Marxist doctrine to a more pragmatic and less ideological approach. The party programs promulgated in 1958 and 1978 emphasize the correction of social problems, government influence on an expanding and socially oriented economy, full employment, and increase in the standard of living. No longer exclusively the party of the working classes, its appeal has widened to the middle classes. The Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei sterreichs; FP), sometimes referred to as the Liberal Party, was founded in 1955 as a successor to the League of Independents. It is progressive and anticollectivist in character and stands for moderate social reform, participation of workers in management, and European unity. It joined the SP in coalition during the period 198386. The environmentalist parties, the Green Alternative (Die Grne Alternative; GA; founded 1986) and the United Greens of Austria (Vereinte Grne sterreichs; VG; founded 1982), collectively known as the Greens, won 10 seats in the National Council in the 1990 election. The Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei sterreichs; KP; founded 1918) is of only marginal strength and has not been represented in the national parliament since 1959 or in the provincial diets since 1970. The extreme right-wing party, the National Democratic Party (Nationale Demokratische Partei; NDP; founded 1966), likewise remains on the fringe. In the 13 National Council elections held between 1945 and 1986, the two main Austrian political partiesthe People's Party and the Socialist Partygarnered the largest share of the vote; however, in the November 1990 election, the People's Party lost ground to the Freedom Party, which won 17 percent of the vote. The Austrian constitution provides for popular initiatives (Volksbegehren), by which 200,000 vote-eligible citizens or half the populations of three states can petition parliament for approval of any bill; it can also be initiated by a majority of the National Council. A total revision of the constitution must be approved by plebiscite. Cultural life The cultural milieu Vienna State Opera, one of the world's leading opera houses, Vienna, Austria. 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 (14591519), 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 (174080) and ended in that of Francis Joseph (18481916) 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 is known for its contributions to music, especially during the Classical and Romantic periods. The major work of outsiders such as Ludwig van Beethoven (from Bonn), Johannes Brahms (from Hamburg), andin partRichard Strauss (from Munich) is no less associated with Vienna than that of such natives of Austria and the empire as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, and Hugo Wolf. Much of the pioneer work in modern music was done by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton von Webern, who are known collectively as the Second Viennese school. Vienna is also associated with two popular genres of music: the waltz and the operetta. Both forms find a common source in the person of Johann Strauss the Younger, who with his father, Johann the Elder, and his brothers, Josef and Eduard, constituted a virtual musical dynasty in the 19th century. The Viennese operetta, drawing heavily from the Slavic and Magyar regions of the empire, reached its apogee about 1900, the prototypical composer being Franz Lehr. The Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera are Austria's premier musical institutions. Other groups of note are the Austrian Radio Symphony, the Graz Philharmonic, the Linz Bruckner Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Alban Berg Quartet, and the Concertus Musicus. The Vienna Boys Choir, founded by the emperor Maximilian in 1498, still sings at Sunday masses in the chapel of the Hofburg. The theatre has occupied a central position in the cultural life of Austria. The 19th-century Viennese playwrights Johann Nestroy, Franz Grillparzer, and Ferdinand Raimund developed a drama with distinctly Austrian traits. The high citadel of the Austrian theatre is Vienna's Burgtheater, in which the canon of German classical drama is performed by the leading actors of the German-speaking world. The Theater in der Josefstadt performs contemporary drama and German adaptations of foreign plays. The theatrical director Max Reinhardt, the writer Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, and the composer Richard Strauss were instrumental in founding the Salzburg Festival in 1920, combining both theater and music. Coeval movements in literature, art, and architecture in the late 19th century produced distinctly Austrian styles and mannerisms. The writer Hermann Bahr was associated with an era of literary impressionism, the expressly Austrian characteristics of whicha heightened self-consciousness and feelings of ambivalence and tentativenesswere coupled with forebodings of being at the end of an overripe civilization. Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, poet, dramatist, essayist, and librettist of six operas by Richard Strauss and Arthur Schnitzler, whose dramas are thought to epitomize a hothouse Vienna at the turn of the century, have best conveyed these sensibilities. Karl Kraus, whose literary, political, and social criticism and satire contemplated an entire era in his review Die Fackel (18991936), focused on the importance of language. Coming from Prague to Vienna, Franz Kafka, with his haunting works of the individual confronted with anonymous, unheeding power, has entered the canon of world literature. Robert Musil's unfinished novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man Without Qualities) is said to be a metaphor for Austria itself. The Expressionist poet Georg Trakl wrote elegiacally of decay and death. Franz Werfel, another Expressionist, excelled as a poet, playwright, and novelist. Stefan Zweig, poet, dramatist, and story writer of imaginary and historical characters, was influenced by another Viennese, Sigmund Freud. The novelist Heimito von Doderer, who took an earlier Austria as his milieu, is a link between the vanished literary world of the pre-Anschluss years and the present. Among contemporary Austrian writers whose works have won international attention are Ilse Aichinger, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Peter Handke. In painting, a distinctly Viennese school developed in the movement known as the Vienna Secession (referring to its breakaway in 1897 from the academic painters of the Knstlerhaus), which was part of the Jugendstil, as Art Nouveau is known in the German regions. Led by Gustav Klimt, the movement tangentially involved a number of innovative architects, including Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and Josef Hoffmann, who also helped found a cooperative enterprise for crafts and design called the Wiener Werksttte. Led by Klimt, a later group was formed centring around an exhibition known as the Kunstschau, from which emerged some of the most illustrious modern Austrian painters, including Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, and Egon Schiele. Among contemporary artists, the abstract paintings of Friedensreich Hundertwasser recall the Secession. The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, led by Albert Paris Gtersloh, leans toward surrealism. Other groups include the Realities and, since the mid-1980s, the Junge Wilde (Young Wild Ones), of whom Siegfried Anzinger has won acclaim abroad. In sculpture, which in the interwar years was dominated by Anton Hanak, the preeminent figure since 1945 has been Fritz Wotruba. Clemens Holzmeister, the best-known modern Austrian architect, had considerable influence on modern church design and was responsible for the two major festival theatres in Salzburg. The designs of Roland Rainer, Erich Boltenstern, and Carl Aubck have had an impact on housing and office development. Folk art and folk traditions, supported by provincial governments, have survived in western Austria, especially in Tirol. Museums and research institutions The great museums of Austria are gathered in Vienna. Its Museum of Fine Arts, with holdings extending from antiquity through the great German, Italian, and Dutch masters, contains one of the world's premier collections. The Austrian Gallery in Belvedere Palace exhibits Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The Albertina Graphic Art Collection in Vienna has one of the world's finest collections. In the Hofburg the Collection of Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasures contains jewelry and regalia of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Modern collections are found in the Modern Art Museum and the Secession Museum. Collections of scientific, technical, and industrial interest are found in the Natural History Museum, the Austrian Museum of Applied Art, the Ethnological Museum, and the Technical Museum of Industry and Trade in Vienna. Of historical interest are the Post and Telegraph Museum, the Austrian Railway Museum, and the Military History Museum. The oldest Austrian academic research institution is the Academy of Science, whose traditions date to the end of the Middle Ages. More modern scientific foundations, notably the Krner Foundation and the Renner Foundation, support scientific research and other cultural endeavours; their main support comes from government sources. A federal Ministry of Science and Research was established in 1970; it is responsible for university institutions and for the advancement of scientific activities.