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Republik Österreich{{#if:{{{conventional_long_name|}}}|
Image:Flag of Austria.svg Image:Austria Bundesadler.svg
Flag [[{{{symbol_type_article|{{{symbol_type|Coat of arms}}}}}} of Austria|{{{symbol_type|Coat of arms}}}]]
Motto: none
Anthem: Land der Berge, Land am Strome
("Land of Mountains, Land on the River")
Capital Vienna
Template:Coor dm
{{{largest_settlement_type|Largest city}}} Vienna}}}
Official language(s) German
Slovenian (reg.) Croatian (reg.) Hungarian (reg.)
Government Republic
Heinz Fischer
Wolfgang Schüssel
From Germany

 - Total
 - Water (%)
83,871 km² (113th)
32,383 sq mi 
 - 2005 est.{{#if:{{{population_census|}}}|
 - 2001 census}}
 - Density
97/km² (78th)
251/sq mi 
 - Total
 - Per capita
2005 estimate
$267 billion (35th)
$32,962 (9th)
HDI (2003) 0.936 (17th) – high
Currency Euro¹ (EUR)
Time zone
 - Summer (DST)
CEST (UTC+2)}}}
Internet TLD .at

Coordinates: Template:Coor dm


Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy consisting of nine federal states and is one of two European countries that have declared permanent neutrality, the other being Switzerland. Austria is a member of the United Nations (since 1955) and the European Union (since 1995). For the first half of 2006, Austria holds the seat of the Presidency of the EU.


Origin and history of the name

The German name Österreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German Ostarrîchi. 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 borderland", as it was situated at the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire, that was also mirrored in the name Ostmark applied after Anschluss to Germany.



Austria and the Holy Roman Empire

The territory of Austria, originally known as the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, was a long time ally of Rome. It was occupied rather than conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus and made the province Noricum in 16 BC. Later it was conquered by Huns, Rugii, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Bavarii, Avars (until c. 800), and Franks (in that order). Finally, after 48 years of Hungarian rule (907 to 955), the core territory of Austria was awarded to Leopold of Babenberg in 976. Being part of the Holy Roman Empire the Babenbergs ruled and expanded Austria from the 10th century to the 13th century.

Image:Juliusz Kossak Sobieski pod Wiedniem.jpeg

After Duke Frederick II died in 1246 and left no successor, Rudolf I of Habsburg gave the lands to his sons marking the beginning of the line of the Habsburgs, who continued to govern Austria until the 20th century.

With the short exception of Charles VII Albert of Bavaria, Austrian Habsburgs held the position of German Emperor beginning in 1438 with Albert II of Habsburg until the end of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 14th and 15th Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European imperial power at the end of the 15th century until the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918.

Modern history

Just two years before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, in 1804 the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into the dual-monarchy Austria-Hungary. The empire was split into several independent states in 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, with most of the German-speaking parts becoming a republic. (See Treaty of Saint-Germain.) Between 1918 and 1919 it was officially known as the Republic of German Austria (Republik Deutschösterreich). After the Entente powers forbade German Austria to unite with Germany, they also forbade the name, and then it was changed to simply Republic of Austria. The democratic republic lasted until 1933 when the chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß established an autocratic regime oriented towards Italian fascism (Austrofascism).

Austria became part of Germany in 1938 through the Anschluß and remained under Nazi rule until the end of World War II. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, the Allies occupied Austria until 1955, when the country became a fully independent republic under the condition that it would remain neutral (see: Austrian State Treaty). Austria also became a member of the UN in the same year. After the collapse of communist states in Eastern Europe, Austria became increasingly involved in European affairs, in 1995 joining the European Union, and in 1999 adopting the Euro monetary system.


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Austria became a federal, parliamentarian, democratic republic through the Federal Constitution of 1920. It was reintroduced in 1945 to the nine states of the Federal Republic. The head of state is the Federal President, who is directly elected. The chairman of the Federal Government is the Federal Chancellor, who is appointed by the president. The government can be removed from office by either a presidential decree or by vote of no confidence in the lower chamber of parliament, the Nationalrat.

The Parliament of Austria consists of two chambers. The composition of the Nationalrat is determined every four years by a free general election in which every citizen is allowed to vote to fill its 183 seats. A "Four Percent Hurdle" prevents a large splintering of the political landscape in the Nationalrat by awarding seats only to political parties that have obtained at least a four percent threshold of the general vote, or alternatively, have won a direct seat, or Direktmandat, in one of the 43 regional election districts. The Nationalrat is the dominant chamber in the formation of legislation in Austria. However, the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat has a limited right of veto (the Nationalrat can - in most cases - pass the respective bill a second time bypassing the Bundesrat altogether). A convention, called the Österreich–Konvent [1] was convened in June 30, 2003 to decide upon suggestions to reform the constitution, but has failed to produce a proposal that would receive the two thirds of votes in the Nationalrat necessary for constitutional amendments and/or reform. However some important parts of the final report were generally agreed upon and are still expected to be implemented.





In English In German
State Capital Bundesland Hauptstadt des Bundeslandes
1 Burgenland Eisenstadt Burgenland Eisenstadt
2 CarinthiaKlagenfurtKärntenKlagenfurt
3 Lower AustriaSt. PöltenNiederösterreichSt. Pölten
4 Upper AustriaLinzOberösterreichLinz
5 SalzburgSalzburgSalzburg (Land)Salzburg
6 StyriaGrazSteiermarkGraz
7 TyrolInnsbruckTirolInnsbruck
8 VorarlbergBregenzVorarlbergBregenz
9 ViennaViennaWien (Land)Wien



Image:Oesterreich topo.png





The greater part of Austria lies in the cool/temperate climate zone in which humid westerly winds predominate. With over half of the country dominated by the Alps the alpine climate is the predominant one. In the East the climate shows continental features with less rain than the areas with high rainfall averages. The six highest mountains in Austria are:

   Name  Height (m)  Height (ft) Range
   1 Großglockner    3797 m 12,457 ft Hohe Tauern
   2 Wildspitze    3768 m 12,362 ft Ötztal Alps
   3 Weißkugel    3739 m 12,267 ft Ötztal Alps
   4 Großvenediger    3674 m 12,054 ft Hohe Tauern
   5 Similaun    3606 m 11,831 ft Ötztal Alps
   6 Großes Wiesbachhorn    3571 m 11,715 ft Hohe Tauern


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See also: List of Austrian companies


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Austria's population was estimated in July, 2005 as 8,184,691 persons. The population of the capital, Vienna, exceeds 1.6 million (2 million with suburbs), representing about a quarter of the country's population, and is said to constitute a melting pot of citizens from all over Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to this Metropolis, other cities do not exceed 1 million inhabitants: the second largest city Graz is home of 240,000 people, followed by Linz with 187,000, Salzburg with 147,000, and Innsbruck with 116,000. All other cities have fewer than 100,000 inhabitants.

Austrians of German mother tongue, by far the country's largest group, form 91.1% of Austria's population. The remaining number of Austria's people are of non-Austrian descent, many from surrounding countries, especially from the former East Bloc nations. The Austrian federal states of Carinthia and Styria are home to a significant (indigenous) Slovenian minority with around 14,000 members (Austrian census; unofficial numbers of Slovene groups speak of about 40,000). So-called guest workers (Gastarbeiter) and their descendants also form an important minority group in Austria. Around 20,000 Hungarians and 30,000 Croatians live in the east-most Bundesland, Burgenland (formerly part of Hungary).


Politics concerning ethnic groups (Volksgruppenpolitik)



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While northern and central Germany was the origin of the Reformation, Austria (and Bavaria) were the heart of the Counter-Reformation in the 16th and 17th century, when the absolute monarchy of Habsburg imposed a strict regime to maintain Catholicism's power and influence among Austrians. The Habsburgs always saw themselves as the spearhead of Roman Catholicism and all other confessions and religions were oppressed. In 1781 Emperor Joseph II issued a Patent of Tolerance that allowed other Christian confessions a limited freedom of worship. Religious freedom was declared a constitutional right in the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich in 1867 thus paying tribute to the fact that the monarchy was home of numerous religions beside Roman Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims (Austria neighboured the Ottoman empire for centuries), Mormons and both Calvinists and Lutheran Protestants.


As of the end of the twentieth century about 73% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Both these numbers have been on the decline for decades, especially Roman Catholicism, which has suffered an increasing number of seceders of the church. This is due partly to child sexual abuse scandalsTemplate:Fact as well as the alleged unwillingness of the Roman Catholic Church to implement reformsTemplate:Fact. In addition, Austrian Catholics are obliged to pay a mandatory tax (calculated by income—ca. 1%) to the Austrian Roman Catholic Church, which acts as another incentive to leave the church.


See also: Buddhism in Austria, Hinduism in Austria, Islam in Austria, Paganism in the Eastern Alps


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Miscellaneous topics



External links


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Austria | Belgium | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Ireland | Italy | Latvia | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta | Netherlands | Poland | Portugal | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | United Kingdom
Acceding Countries: Bulgaria | Romania
Template:States of Austriaaf:Oostenryk

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