| |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
| 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 | 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 | Culture | Back to Top |
Austrian society was traditionally stratified and had a low degree of social mobility. As a result, social distinctions were clear. Social relations between aristocrats and commoners, masters and servants, large landowners and peasant-farmers, and employers and employees were hierarchical and well defined, and the use of titles as a reflection of rank or social status was important. Austrians born into specific social groups or classes had few opportunities to improve their social and economic standing and identified themselves strongly with their inherited social positions, which were reinforced by education (or the lack thereof), attitudes toward religion, and political convictions.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the three predominant social classes in Austria were aristocrats; "citizens" or burghers in towns and cities, who had special charters of rights and privileges; and peasants-farmer--"free farmers" in western Austria who owned and tilled their own land and peasant-serfs in eastern Austria. Reforms had been introduced during the last decades of the eighteenth century to bring about a greater degree of social equality, but legal equality was not established in the Austrian half of Austria-Hungary until the constitution of 1867 was promulgated. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century, society still consisted of a very small upper class composed of an old aristocracy of "blue bloods" and a recently ennobled and new aristocracy of wealth, a small middle and entrepreneurial class (approximately 15 percent), a growing working class (approximately 25 percent), and a class of peasantfarmers (approximately 55 to 60 percent).
During the troubled interwar period, a time of political unrest and economic hardship for most Austrians, the country's main social groups remained rigidly segregated and there was a high degree of identification of specific classes with corresponding political ideologies and worldviews. The resulting "Lager," or "camp," mentality was seen in the embrace of the urban working class of social democracy while the rest of the country became proponents of conservative Roman Catholic Christian politics or, to a much lesser degree, European-style liberalism.
After World War II, however, the structure of Austrian society changed substantially. The white-collar middle class expanded greatly during four decades of unprecedented prosperity. The number of farmers and workers declined as they or their children were able to benefit from the postwar era's social mobility and find better employment. Many low-status jobs were taken by foreign workers from southeastern Europe. An increasingly white-collar service economy reduced the previous social inequalities and blurred traditional class distinctions. Education became the most important vehicle of upward social mobility, and a more open education system made it more available than ever before. Attitudinal barriers to social mobility did not disappear to a corresponding extent, however. Coming from an "established" or older family still played an important role in the social position Austrians were able to assume in society.
The long period of prosperity and social mobility weakened the Lager mentality that had characterized the interwar period. Beginning in the 1980s, electoral patterns indicated that the traditional political allegiances of specific classes to corresponding political parties and ideologies had deteriorated. This relaxation of political ties permitted the formation of new political parties that profited from a growing pool of "floating votes."
| 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
| 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 | Education | Back to Top |
Austria has a free and public school system, and nine years of education are mandatory. Schools offer a series of vocational- technical and university preparatory tracks involving one to three additional years of education beyond the minimum mandatory level. The legal basis for primary and secondary education in Austria is the School Law of 1962. The federal Ministry for Education is responsible for funding and supervising primary and secondary education, which is administered on the provincial level by the authorities of the respective provinces.
The country's university system is also free. The General Law for University Education of 1966 and the University Organization Law of 1975 provide the legal framework for tertiary education, and the federal Ministry for Science and Research funds and oversees education at the university level. Twelve universities and six academies of music and art enjoy a high degree of autonomy and offer a full spectrum of degree programs. Established in 1365, the University of Vienna is Austria's oldest and largest university.
Federal legislation played a prominent role in the education system, and laws dealing with education effectively have a constitutional status because they can be passed or amended only by a two-thirds majority in parliament. For this reason, agreement between the ÖVP and the SPÖ is needed to pass or amend legislation relating to education.
Private schools that provide primary and secondary education and some teacher training are run mainly by the Roman Catholic Church and account for approximately 10 percent of the 6,800 schools and 120,000 teachers. Roman Catholic schools have a reputation for more discipline and rigor than public institutions, and some are considered elite institutions. Because there is no tradition of private university education in Austria, the state has a virtual monopoly on higher education.
The history of the Austrian education system since World War II may be characterized as an attempt to transform higher education from a traditional entitlement of the upper social classes to an equal opportunity for all social classes. Before the School Law of 1962, Austria had a "two-track" education system. After four years of compulsory primary education from the ages of six to ten in the elementary school, or Volksschule (pl., Volksschulen), children and their parents had to choose between the compulsory secondary level for eleven- to fourteen-year-olds called the middle school, or Hauptschule (pl., Hauptschulen), or the first four years of an eight-year university preparatory track at higher schools of general education (Allgemeinbildende Höhere Schulen-- AHS). AHS is an umbrella term used to describe institutions providing different fields of specialization that grant the diploma (Reifeprüfung or Matura) needed to enter university.
Before the 1962 reform, the great majority of children--more than 90 percent--attended the compulsory Hauptschule, where they were divided according to their performance in elementary school into two groups: an "A group," which was directed toward two- to four-year vocational-technical training schools after graduation from the Hauptschule; and a "B group," which was required to complete one additional year of compulsory education before entrance into apprenticeship programs or the work force. The remaining elementary-school graduates-- less than 10 percent--enrolled in the AHS at age eleven. Children attending these university-track schools also had to choose a specific course of study.
The rigidity of the two-track system required that the most important educational decision in a child's life--with all of he implications it had for the future--be made at the age of ten. The decision depended to a great extent on the parents' background, income, and social status. Children from agricultural backgrounds or of urban working-class parents generally attended the Volkschule and the Hauptschule and then entered the work force. Children having lower-middle-class backgrounds frequently received vocational-technical training after the Hauptschule, while children from the upper-middle and upper classes, boys in particular, attended the AHS, which gave them access to university-level education.
The early selection process meant that children of the largest segment of the population, farmers and workers, were grossly underrepresented at higher schools and universities, whereas the children of a relatively small segment of the population, those who had attended higher schools or the universities, were overrepresented. Consequently, the education system tended to reproduce or to reinforce traditional social structures instead of being a vehicle of opportunity or social mobility.
The School Law of 1962 and subsequent amendments require that all state-funded schools be open to children regardless of birth, gender, race, status, class, language, or religion. The law also attempts to introduce more flexibility into the traditional two- track system and to provide students with a greater degree of latitude within it so that educational (and hence career) decisions can be made at an older age. Although the primary and secondary school system continues to be fundamentally based on the two-track idea, after a series of reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, ten- to fourteen-year-olds are no longer streamed into A and B groups in the Hauptschule. Graduates of this kind of school also have the opportunity to cross over into certain branches of the AHS track at the age of fourteen or to attend a series of different "higher vocational-technical schools" (Berufsbildende Höhere Schulen and Höhere Technische Lehranstalten), which have five-year programs of specialization.
Shifts in enrollment patterns reflect these changes in the school system. In the mid-1960s, less than 10 percent of all students finished the university preparatory AHS track, and more than 66 percent of them were male. By the early 1990s, more than 30 percent of all students finished the AHS track and just above 50 percent of them were female. Furthermore, a second educational path was developed that permitted some students without a diploma from the university-track AHS to enroll in a university.
As a general rule, the quality of Hauptschule education is high especially in rural areas and small communities where the schools have maintained their traditional social importance and where attendance at an AHS involves commuting considerable distances, or, for the inhabitants of more remote areas, boarding. In urban centers with a full spectrum of educational opportunities, the Hauptschule has become less popular, and parents who earlier would not have enrolled their children in an AHS have begun doing so. The increased enrollments have overburdened the AHS and created a shortage of students at the Hauptschulen and at vocational-technical schools.
In some areas, this trend has been strengthened by the number of children of foreign workers in the compulsory schools. In 1991, for example, almost 30 percent of school-age children in Vienna were the children of foreign workers. In some districts of the city, these children exceeded 70 percent. Although the children of long-term foreign workers frequently speak German well, the numbers of classes in which students with inadequate mastery of German are overrepresented has overburdened the Hauptschule system and made it a less desirable alternative than in the past. Therefore, special remedial and intercultural programs are being developed so that the compulsory school system in Austria can continue to fulfill its educational and social roles.
The SPÖ has continued to press for further reforms of the school system. It argued for an abolition of the two-track system for ten- to fourteen-year-olds and for combining the Hauptschule and the first four years of the AHS into a new comprehensive middle school. As of 1993, however, because of the resistance of other political parties, this alternative has been limited to a number of experimental schools.
As a result of the reforms since the 1960s, the university system has changed from one serving the elite to one serving the masses. The increasing number of students at Austrian universities reflects the liberalization of educational policy at secondary and higher levels. Between the 1955-56 and 1991-92 academic years, the number of students enrolled in institutions of higher education increased from about 19,000 to more than 200,000. The number of students beginning university-level education after having completed the AHS program also increased and amounted to 85 percent in 1990, compared with 60 percent in the mid-1960s.
The reforms have also meant that university education ceased to be a male privilege. Between the 1960-61 and 1991-92 academic years, the number of female students enrolling in universities rose from 23 to 44 percent. Yet, although women account for almost half of the students at university level, only 2 percent of the professors at institutions of higher learning were women in 1990.
Despite the increase in the numbers of university students and the greater presence of women, universities remain primarily the domain of middle- and higher-income groups. The number of students with working-class backgrounds has doubled from 7 to 14 percent, and the number of these with agricultural backgrounds increased from less than 2 percent to more than 4 percent between 1960 and 1990. But children of white-collar workers, civil servants, and the self-employed accounted for more than 80 percent of enrollments at Austrian institutions of higher education in the early 1990s.
Increased accessibility to university-level education has a number of consequences. The dramatic expansion in the number of students led to overcrowding at many institutions. Some critics maintain that the increasing number of students diminishes the overall quality of university-level education despite increases in federal investment. One obvious problem was that more than 50 percent of students enrolled at the universities in the 1980s did not successfully complete a degree program. Complex reasons account for this high drop-out rate. Some students enroll simply to acquire student benefits. Others study for the sake of personal enrichment without intending to get a degree. Some are unable to complete their studies for financial reasons. Although a university degree provides students with a substantial amount of social status and better income opportunities, there has been an increase in "academic unemployment," especially among degree- holders in the humanities and social sciences.
Debates about educational policy in Austria frequently are the result of different perspectives related to the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional education system. Proponents of the two-track secondary system, for example, defend it as performance oriented and criticize the leveling of achievement or lowering of standards the introduction of one compulsory middle school would involve. Conversely, opponents of the two-track system criticize its rigidity and inherent absence of equal opportunity. Consequently, such bipolar terms as performance and leveling, elite and mass education, and achievement and equal opportunity prevail in educational debates. In some respects, Austrians of different political and educational policy persuasions may expect too many different things from one university system. They expect it to provide general education, as do state university systems in the United States, and "Ivy League" performance at the same time.
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 | Government | Back to Top |
Government: Federal republic with nine provinces, each with own assembly and government. 1920 constitution, revised 1929, forms constitutional basis of government. Government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. President head of state, elected every six years by popular vote. Executive headed by chancellor (prime minister) and cabinet, which reflect party composition of parliament. Legislative power vested in bicameral parliament consisting of Nationalrat (National Council) and Bundesrat (Federal Council). Nationalrat primary legislative power, with 183 popularly elected members; Bundesrat represents the provinces with sixty-three members elected by provincial assemblies. Independent judiciary.
Legal System: Supreme Court for civil and criminal cases, Administrative Court for cases involving administrative agencies, and Constitutional Court for constitutional cases. Four higher provincial courts, seventeen provincial and district courts, and numerous local courts.
Politics: Dominated by Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs--SPÖ) and Austrian People's Party (Österreichs Volkspartei--ÖVP); government coalition of these two parties since 1987. Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs--FPÖ) gaining strength despite split in early 1993 with formation of The Liberal Forum (Das Liberale Forum). Environmentalists also represented in parliament.
Foreign Relations: Founding member of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and member of United Nations (UN) and European Economic Area (EEA). Admission into European Union (EU) expected in January 1995.
| Austria | History | Back to Top |
Germanic tribes were not the first peoples to occupy the eastern Alpine-Danubian region, but the history and culture of these tribes, especially the Bavarians and Swabians, are the foundation of Austria's modern identity. Austria thus shares in the broader history and culture of the Germanic peoples of Europe. The territories that constitute modern Austria were, for most of their history, constituent parts of the German nation and were linked to one another only insofar as they were all feudal possessions of one of the leading dynasties in Europe, the Habsburgs.
Surrounded by German, Hungarian, Slavic, Italian, and Turkish nations, the German lands of the Habsburgs became the core of their empire, reaching across German national and cultural borders. This multicultural empire was held together by the Habsburgs' dynastic claims and by the cultural and religious values of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation that the Habsburgs cultivated to provide a unifying identity to the region. But this cultural-religious identity was ultimately unable to compete with the rising importance of nationalism in European politics, and the nineteenth century saw growing ethnic conflict within the Habsburg Empire. The German population of the Habsburg Empire directed its nationalist aspirations toward the German nation, over which the Habsburgs had long enjoyed titular leadership. Prussia's successful bid for power in Germany in the nineteenth century--culminating in the formation in 1871 of a German empire under Prussian leadership that excluded the Habsburgs' German lands--was thus a severe political shock to the German population of the Habsburg Empire.
When the Habsburg Empire collapsed in 1918 at the end of World War I, its territories that were dominated by non-German ethnic groups established their own independent nation-states. The German-speaking lands of the empire sought to become part of the new German republic, but European fears of an enlarged Germany forced them to form an independent Austrian state. The new country's economic weakness and lack of national consciousness contributed to political instability and polarization throughout the 1920s and 1930s and facilitated the annexation (Anschluss) of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.
As part of Germany, Austria came under Nazi totalitarian rule and suffered military defeat in World War II. To escape this Nazi German legacy, Austrians began to seek refuge in a national identity that emphasized their cultural and historical differences with Germans even before the end of the war. Thus, the population welcomed the 1945 decision of the victorious Allied powers to restore an independent Austria.
The bitter experience of the Anschluss and World War II enabled Austrians to overcome the extreme political polarization of the interwar years through a common commitment to parliamentary democracy and integration with the West. The close cooperation of the two major parties, the Socialist Party of Austria (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs--SPÖ) and the Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei--ÖVP), helped Austria frustrate Soviet efforts after World War II that might have seen the country's absorption into the Soviet bloc or division into communist and noncommunist halves. The signing of the State Treaty in 1955 ended Allied occupation of Austria and any immediate danger of communist dictatorship and/or partition. But the occupation era and the continuing Cold War shaped the country's identity and self-understanding as it positioned itself as a neutral country bridging East and West.
This new Austrian cultural, political, and international identity laid the foundation for a stable democracy, a strong economy tied to the West, and neutrality between communist and democratic Europe. At the same time, however, it discouraged close examination of the role played individually and collectively by Austrians in Nazi aggression and war crimes. Revelations about the wartime record of Kurt Waldheim during the presidential election in 1985 thus initiated a painful reassessment of Austria's Nazi past. Moreover, the end of the Cold War has undercut Austria's self-appointed mission as a bridge between East and West. A redefinition of Austrian nationalism and its international role thus seems likely in the 1990s.
| 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 | Land | Back to Top |
The two best-known features of the Austrian landscape are the Alps and the Danube River. The Danube has its source in southwestern Germany and flows through Austria before emptying into the Black Sea. It is the only major European river that flows eastward, and its importance as an inland waterway has been enhanced by the completion in 1992 of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in Bavaria, which connects the Rhine and Main rivers with the Danube and makes possible barge traffic from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
The major rivers north of the watershed of the Austrian Alps (the Inn in Tirol, the Salzach in Salzburg, and the Enns in Styria and Upper Austria) are direct tributaries of the Danube and flow north into the Danube Valley, whereas the rivers south of the watershed in central and eastern Austria (the Gail and Drau rivers in Carinthia and the Mürz and Mur rivers in Styria) flow south into the drainage system of the Drau, which eventually empties into the Danube in Serbia. Consequently, central and eastern Austria are geographically oriented away from the watershed of the Alps: the provinces of Upper Austria and Lower Austria toward the Danube and the provinces of Carinthia and Styria toward the Drau.
The Alps cover 62 percent of the country's total area. Three major Alpine ranges--the Northern Alps, Central Alps, and Southern Alps--run west to east through Austria. The Central Alps, which consist largely of a granite base, are the largest and highest ranges in Austria. The Central Alps run from Tirol to approximately the Styria-Lower Austria border and include areas that are permanently glaciated in the Ötzal Alps on the TiroleanItalian border and the High Tauern in eastern Tirol and Carinthia. The Northern Alps, which run from Vorarlberg through Tirol into Salzburg along the German border and through Upper Austria and Lower Austria toward Vienna, and the Southern Alps, on the Carinthia-Slovenia border, are predominantly limestone and dolomite. At 3,797 meters, Grossglockner in Carinthia is the highest mountain in Austria. As a general rule, the farther east the Northern Alps and Central Alps run, the lower they become. The altitude of the mountains also drops north and south of the central ranges.
As a geographic feature, the Alps literally overshadow other landform regions. Just over 28 percent of Austria is moderately hilly or flat: the Northern Alpine Foreland, which includes the Danube Valley; the lowlands and hilly regions in northeastern and eastern Austria, which include the Danube Basin; and the rolling hills and lowlands of the Southeastern Alpine Foreland. The parts of Austria that are most suitable for settlement--that is, arable and climatically favorable--run north of the Alps through the provinces of Upper Austria and Lower Austria in the Danube Valley and then curve east and south of the Alps through Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, and Styria. Austria's least mountainous landscape is southeast of the low Leitha Range, which forms the southern lip of the Viennese Basin, where the steppe of the Hungarian Plain begins. The Bohemian Granite Massif, a low mountain range with bare and windswept plateaus and a harsh climate, is located north of the Danube Valley and covers the remaining 10 percent of Austria's area.
| 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 | 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 | Life | Back to Top |
In the late nineteenth century, large sections of the Austrian population were effectively excluded from the institutions of marriage and family because they lacked the property and income necessary to participate in them. In Alpine and rural communities, for example, property ownership was a traditional prerequisite for marriage that neither day-laborers nor household servants of landowning farmers could meet. Among urban and industrial working classes, poverty was so widespread that it made the establishment of independent households and families difficult.
During the course of the twentieth century, however, marriage and family have become increasingly common, especially after World War II, when the "economic miracle" brought prosperity to nearly everyone. For the first time in Austrian history, there was almost uniform access to these basic social institutions. Because of this, the postwar period up through the 1960s represented a "golden age" of the family in Austria. More than 90 percent of the women born between 1935 and 1945 have married--a percentage higher than any generation before or since. The "twochild family" was considered an ideal.
| 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 | 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 | 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 | Provinces | Back to Top |
9 states (bundeslaender, singular - bundesland); Burgenland, Kaernten, Niederoesterreich, Oberoesterreich, Salzburg, Steiermark, Tirol, Vorarlberg, Wien.
Time and Date in ViennaWrite your own experience on Europe Travel includes each countries and cities, map, car rental, airfare, attractions, and hotels.
| FreeGK | Map4Travel | USA | Hotel | ATM | Mapzones | Webmaster | Actress | Map | Kids |
MapZones™ is created and maintained by Panalink Internet Services and is a trade mark of Panalink Technologies. Copyright © 1995-2002 Panalink Internet Services. All rights reserved worldwide. Email: mailto:info@mapzones.com?subject=Mail from HomePage. Disclaimer. Privacy Policy |