Austria

Republic of Austria Republik Österreich
Anthem: Land der Berge, Land am Strome  (German) Land of Mountains, Land by the River
Capital and largest city		Vienna 48°12′N 16°21′E
Official languages		German (Standard: Austrian German)
Recognised regional languages		Slovene, Croatian, and Hungarian
Ethnic groups		91.1% Austrians, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or unspecified 2.4% (2001 census)
Demonym		Austrian
Government		Federal Parliamentary republic
-	President	Alexander Van der Bellen
-	Chancellor	Christian Stocker (ÖVP)
-	President of the National Council	Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ)
Independence
-	Austrian State Treaty in force	27 July 1955 (Duchy: 1156, Austrian Empire: 1804, First Austrian Republic: 1918–1938, Second Republic since 1945)
Area
-	Total	83,855 km2 (115th) 32,377 sq mi
-	Water (%)	1.7
Population
-	2009 estimate	8,356,707 (93rd)
-	2001 census	8,032,926
-	Density	99/km2 (99th) 257/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$330.496 billion
-	Per capita	$39,454
GDP (nominal)		2010 estimate
-	Total	$366.259 billion
-	Per capita	$43,723.
Gini (2007)		26 low
HDI (2010)		0.851 very high · 25th
Currency		Euro (€) ² (EUR)
Time zone		CET (UTC+01)
-	Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02)
Drives on the		right
Calling code		43
Internet TLD		.at ³
1.	Slovene, Croatian, Hungarian are officially recognised regional languages and Austrian Sign Language is a protected minority language throughout the country.
2.	Euro since 1 Jan 1999 virtual, since 1 Jan 2002 real currency; before: Austrian Schilling.
3.	The .eu domain is also used, as it is shared with other European Union member states.

Austria (German: Österreich), officially the Republic of Austria, is today a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The capital city is Vienna.

Etymology

The German name Österreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German Ostarrîchi. The name was Latinized as "Austria", although it has no etymological connection with the name of Australia (which derives from Latin Australis meaning The South). Reich can also mean "empire," and this connotation is the one that is understood in the context of the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, although not in the context of the modern Republic of Österreich. The term probably originates in a vernacular translation of the Medieval Latin name for the region: Marchia orientalis, which translates as "eastern marches" or "eastern borderland", as it was situated at the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, that was also mirrored in the name "Ostmark", for a short period applied after reunification with Germany.

The current official designation is the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich). It was originally known after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1918 as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschösterreich), but the state was forced to change its name to "Republic of Austria" in 1919 the peace Treaty of Saint-Germain. The name was changed again during the Austro-fascist regime (1934–1938), into Federal State of Austria (Bundesstaat Österreich), but restored after regaining independence and the birth of the Second Austrian Republic (1955–present).

During the monarchy, Austria was known as the Austrian Empire (Kaisertum Österreich); however no official designation existed since the empire was strongly multiethnic. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the empire became known as Austria-Hungary in reflection of the dual monarchy character.

History

Prehistory and the Middle Ages

Settled in prehistoric times, the central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes. The Celtic kingdom of Noricum was claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province. After the fall of the Empire, of which most of Austria was part (all parts south of the Danube), the area was invaded by Bavarians, Slavs and Avars. Charlemagne conquered the area in 788 and encouraged German colonization and Christianity. As part of Eastern Francia, the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the House of Babenberg. The area was known as the Marchia Orientalis and was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976.

The first record showing the name Austria is from 996 where it is written as Ostarrîchi, referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. The term Ostmark appears to be a corruption of Marchia Orientalis.

The following centuries were characterized first by the settlement of the country. In 1156 Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa's Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy with many distinguished privileges, including that of female succession, hitherto unknown in the feudal principalities of Germany. The Dukes of Austria were declare equal in rank to Palatine Archdukes. In 1192 the Babenbergs also acquired the Duchy of Styria. With the death of Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II in 1250, the line of the Babenbergers became extinct.

The Habsburgs

King Otakar II of Bohemia then invaded the extensive and fertile lands of Austria, Styria and Carinthia. His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut by Rudolf, Graf von Habsburg, in 1278. Rudolf was a Count of a very ancient family of considerable possessions as well as those in what is today Switzerland, and upon both banks of the Upper Rhine. Rudolf (1218 – 1291) went on to become the first King of Germany of the Habsburg dynasty, from 1273 until his death. His election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which had begun after the death of Frederick II. Following Otakar's expulsion from Austria, Styria and Carniola, Rudolf conferred these now vacant fiefs upon his son Albert, with the consent of the Imperial Diet. At this time the great families of Austria, Bavaria, and Luxemburg were the real heads of the German body.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, from then on, every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception.

The Habsburgs began also to accumulate lands far from the Hereditary Lands. In 1477, the Archduke Maximilian, only son of Emperor Frederick III, married the heiress of Burgundy, thus acquiring most of the Low Countries for the family. His son Philip the Fair married the heiress of Castile and Aragon, and thus acquired Spain and its Italian, African, and New World appendages for the Habsburgs.

In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács, Austrian rulers expanded their territories, bringing Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans under their rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two powers, particularly evident in the so-called Long War of 1593 to 1606.

Austria as a European Power

The long reign of Leopold I (1657–1705) saw the culmination of the Austrian conflict with the Turks. Following the successful defence by the forces of the Holy Roman Empire of Vienna in 1683, a series of campaigns resulted in the return of all Hungary to Austrian control under the Treaty of Carlowitz in 1699.

The later part of the reign of Emperor Charles VI (1711–1740) saw Austria relinquish many of these fairly impressive gains, largely due to Charles's apprehensions at the imminent extinction of the House of Habsburg. Charles was willing to offer concrete advantages in territory and authority in exchange for other powers' worthless recognitions of the Pragmatic Sanction that made his daughter Maria Theresa his heir. With the rise of Prussia begins the Austrian–Prussian dualism in Germany.

Austria became engaged in the war with Revolutionary France, which lasted until 1797 and at the beginning proved unsuccessful for Austria. Defeats against Napoleon meant the end of the old Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Just two years before its abolition, in 1804 the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into the dual-monarchy of Austria-Hungary. However, in 1814 Austria was part of the Allied forces invading France and conquering it. Following the Napoleonic wars Austria emerged from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as one of the three continental dominant powers (together with Russia and Prussia). In 1815 the German Confederation, (German: Deutscher Bund) was founded under the Presidency of Austria. Its central institution was the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) based in Frankfurt. Because of unsolved social, political and national conflicts some of the German inhabitants in the Confederation took part in the 1848 revolutions across Europe.

The Frankfurt Parliament, held in St. Paul's Church, elected the Archduke Johann von Habsburg as Regent (Reichsverweser) of the German Confederation. For a new German empire to have emerged would have been possible via three options: a Greater Germany with the German-speaking territories of the Habsburg Empire, a Greater Austrian solution (Großösterreichische) being the German Confederation with the whole Habsburg territories, and a smaller German solution, the German Confederation without Austria at all. As Austria was not willing to relinquish its German-speaking territories to what would become a German Empire of 1848, the parliament offered the Regency the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In 1864 Austria and Prussia fought together against Denmark, to free the independent Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. But Austria and Prussia could not agree on a solution to the administration of Schleswig and Holstein, which led to the Austro-Prussian War two years later, in 1866. Austria, which had fought together with some of the other German states (i.e: Bavaria, was defeated by Prussia in the battle of Königgrätz in Bohemia. Austria had to leave the German Confederation and was subsequently no longer permitted to take part in greater German politics.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 provided for a dual sovereignty, the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary, under Emperor & King Franz Joseph I, who ruled until his death on 21 November 1916. The Austrians now ruled a diverse empire, which included, various Slavic groups such as Poles, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs and Croats, as well as large Italian and Romanian communities. As a result, running Austria-Hungary became increasingly difficult and cumbersome in an age of emerging nationalist movements, notably the Russian-inspired and patronised Pan-Slav Movement.

World War I and its aftermath

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 by Gavrilo Princip (a member of the Serbian nationalist group the Black Hand) sparked off World War I, which led ultimately to the downfall and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. War left the country in political chaos and economic ruin, the Central Powers having been defeated in November 1918. The plutocratic Western Allies dismembered the Empire. Austria, with most of the German-speaking parts became a republic (see Treaty of Saint-Germain), losing their considerable seaboard, and the smaller racial provinces and Crown lands became independent countries.

In November 1918 the socialists in Vienna deposed the Emperor-King and the Imperial family left for Switzerland. From December 1918 the country was known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschösterreich) despite the fact that Emperor refused to abdicate. After the Entente powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, it was thus changed to the Republic of Austria. A new constitution was adopted on 10 November 1920.

In the autumn of 1922, Austria was granted an international loan supervised by the League of Nations. The purpose of the loan was to avoid national bankruptcy, stabilize the currency, and improve the general economic condition. With the granting of the loan, it was argued that the real ruler of Austria became the League, through its Commissioner in Vienna, a Dutchman, although not formally part of the Austrian government. Austria had fallen under an international receivership, which had not been seen openly since Lord Cromer became the financial advisor to the bankrupt Khedivial Government of Egypt a little less than half a century earlier.

Austrofascism and the Third Reich

The First Austrian Republic, lasted until 1933 when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß shut down parliament and established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism, (Austrofascism) to check the power of National Socialists advocating union with Germany. The two big parties of this time —the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Conservatives— had paramilitary armies, which fought each other. The "Heimwehr" (later integrated into the "Vaterländische Front"), the paramilitary arm of the Conservative party supported Dollfuß' s Fascist regime; the "Republikanischer Schutzbund", was the military arm of the Social Democrats which was outlawed in 1933 but still existed underground - civil war was to break out.

After the Austrian Civil War in February 1934, several members of the Schutzbund were executed, the Social Democratic party was outlawed and many of its members were imprisoned or emigrated. In May of that year the Fascists introduced a new constitution ("Maiverfassung") which cemented Dollfuß's power but on 25 July he was assassinated in a German coup attempt.

His successor Kurt Schuschnigg, struggled to keep Austria independent but on March 12, 1938 German troops occupied the country and Hitler, himself a native of Austria who lost Austrian citizenship in 1925, proclaimed its Anschluss with Germany, annexing it to the Third Reich, Austria thus ceased to exist.

Just before the collapse of the Third Reich, the defeat of Germany and the end of the war, Karl Renner, formed a Provisional Government in Vienna in April 1945 with tacit approval of the Soviet forces and declared Austria's secession from the Third Reich.

After the defeat of Germany, Allied Occupation

As with Germany, Austria was divided into a British, a French, a Soviet and an American Zone and was governed by the Allied Commission for Austria but because of Karl Renner's action on April 27th in setting up a Provisional Government there was, automatically, a very subtle difference in the treatment of Austria by the Allies (Austria was treated as though, originally, it had been invaded by Germany. Therefore, having being freed, it had been liberated). This Austrian Government was recognised and tolerated by the Four Powers.

Vienna itself was totally within the Soviet Zone and, especially during the time of the Berlin Air Lift, Soviet military pressure on the access points was, with skillful Allied military and political//diplomatic influence, successfully resisted, Britain's High Commissioner during a large part of this time being the exceptionally able Sir Harold Anthony Caccia. (Viennese citizens were at very great risk if they attempted to cross and to exit the Soviet Zone, travel to the West being banned.).

On 15 May 1955 Austria regained its independence by concluding the Austrian State Treaty with the Four Occupying Powers. And with its Second Austrian Republic, (established 19 December 1945 on the basis of the 1920 constitution (amended in 1929) ), the country was declared by the Federal Parliament to be neutral.

Recent history

The political system of the Second Republic came to be characterized by the system of Proporz, meaning that most posts of some political importance were split evenly between members of the Social Democrats (Labour Party) and the People's Party (Conservatives).

Interest group representations with mandatory membership (e.g. for workers, businesspeople, farmers etc.) grew to considerable importance and were usually consulted in the legislative process, so that hardly any legislation was passed that did not reflect widespread consensus. The Proporz and consensus systems largely held even during the years between 1966 and 1983, when there were non-coalition governments, but can now be called history.

Austria nowadays has five major political parties: The SPÖ (Labour Party), the ÖVP (Conservatives), the "Greens" (Environmental, social-liberal) and FPÖ/BZÖ (both right-wing, nationalist). SPÖ and ÖVP share about 75% of the parliamentary mandates, while the remaining 25% are divided between the other three parties.

Austria became a member of the European Union in 1995 and retained its constitutional neutrality, like other EU members (e.g. Sweden). The major parties SPÖ and ÖVP have contrary opinions about the future status of Austria's military neutrality: While the SPÖ pleas for a neutral role in the EU (together with other neutral EU members like Sweden), the ÖVP argues for a stronger integration into the EU's security policy and even an entry into NATO is considered by some ÖVP politicians. In any case, neutrality is a constitutional law and can only be suspended by a two-thirds majority in the Austrian parliament.

See also

• Chronology of Austria
• Pan-Germanism
• Austrian Armed Forces