Portal:Austria

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The Austria Portal

Topographical map of Austria
The flag of Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine federal states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and federal state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of around 9 million.

The area of today's Austria had been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic period. Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Roman period, followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period. Austria, as a unified state, emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium, first as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, it then developed into a duchy in 1156, and was made an Archduchy in 1453. Being the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy since the late 13th century, Austria was a major imperial power in Central Europe for centuries and from the 16th century, Vienna was also serving as the Holy Roman Empire's administrative capital. Before the dissolution of the empire two years later, in 1804, Austria established its own empire, which became a great power and one of the largest states in Europe during its whole existence. The empire's defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia, which ultimately escalated into World War I. The empire's defeat and subsequent collapse led to the proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic in 1919. During the interwar period, anti-parliamentarian sentiments culminated in the formation of an Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. A year before the outbreak of World War II, Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler, and it became a sub-national division. After its liberation in 1945 and a decade of Allied occupation, the country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955.

Austria is a semi-presidential representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and a chancellor as head of government and chief executive. Major cities include Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living; it was ranked 22th in the world for its Human Development Index in 2022. The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995. It hosts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Interpol. It also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. (Full article...)
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City hall of Vienna

Vienna (/vˈɛnə/; German: Wien [ˈviːn]; Bavarian: Wean) is the capital of Austria and one of the nine states. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million, and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 6th largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations such as the United Nations and OPEC.

Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region of 3 million inhabitants, referred to as Twin City. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vienna was ranked #1 as the world's most livable city by the Mercer Survey in 2009 and 2010. Analytically, the city was ranked 1st globally for a culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and 2nd globally after Boston in 2009 from 256 cities on an analysis of 162 indicators in the Innovation Cities Index on a 3 factor score covering culture, infrastructure and markets.

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The Golden Roof in Innsbruck

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Statue of Athena outside the Austrian Parliament
Statue of Athena outside the Austrian Parliament

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Otto Wagner (13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an architect and city planner. His art nouveau (Jugendstil) buildings and his thoughts on architecture and city planning made him one of the most prominent architects of the late 19th century.

Wagner was very interested in urban planning — in 1890 he designed a new city plan for Vienna, but only his urban rail network, the Stadtbahn, was built. In 1896 he published a textbook entitled Modern Architecture in which he expressed his ideas about the role of the architect; it was based on the text of his 1894 inaugural lecture to the Academy. His style incorporated the use of new materials and new forms to reflect the fact that society itself was changing. In his textbook, he stated that "new human tasks and views called for a change or reconstitution of existing forms". In pursuit of this ideal, he designed and built structures that reflected their intended function.

In 1897, he joined Gustav Klimt, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser shortly after they founded the "Vienna Secession" artistic group. From the ideas of this group he developed a style that included quasi-symbolic references to the new forms of modernity.

Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that in the 1920s, Austrian painter Richard Geiger produced numerous portraits of the character Pierrette?
  • ... that in the 1930s Alfred Verdross, an Austrian international lawyer and future judge of the European Court of Human Rights, sympathised with National Socialism?
  • ... that The Baby-Sitters Club actress Sophia Reid-Gantzert won an Austrian ballet competition when she was six?
  • ... that Austrian online streamer Keekihime became fluent in Japanese from live-streaming daily on the Japanese video website Nico Douga?
  • ... that Charlize Mörz became the first Austrian female gymnast to win a gold medal in the FIG World Cup series in 2024?
  • ... that the novel Mama Dear by Christine Haidegger details her childhood in post–World War II Austria?

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