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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Austria : The cradle of many cultural greats How many of you have seen or heard about 'The Sound of Music', a great musical movie of yesteryear? Some of you may be even familiar with the catchy tunes of 'Do-re-mi', 'Edelweiss' and 'I am sixteen' which were popular songs among young people.
This famous movie is based on a true story, and deals with the escape of the Von Trapp family from Nazi rule. And all this takes place in Austria, which has many other attractions such as the beautiful river Danube, which inspired the great classic 'Blue Danube Waltz. and the Vienna Boys' Choir. Today let's examine the topography (discipline of surface features) of this land, its population and culture. Austria is a land-locked country in central Europe. It is a largely mountainous country due to its location in the Alps. The capital is the city of Vienna, one of Europe's major cities.
Although Austria is a small country, its history as a world power and its unique cultural environment in the heart of Europe, have generated contributions to mankind in every possible field. One might argue that Austria is internationally best known for its musicians. It has been the birthplace of many famous composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Johann Strauss, Sr., Johann Strauss, Jr. or Gustav Mahler as well as members of the Second Viennese School such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern or Alban Berg. Complementing its status as a land of artists, Austria has always been a country of great poets, writers and novelists. It was the home of novelists Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Thomas Bernhard or Robert Musil; of poets Georg Trakl, Franz Werfel, Franz Grillparzer, Rainer Maria Rilke or Adalbert Stifter. Famous contemporary playwrights and novelists are Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke. Austria was the cradle of numerous scientists including physicists Ludwig Boltzmann, Lise Meitner, Erwin Schrudinger, Ernst Mach, Wolfgang Pauli, Richard von Mises and Christian Doppler; and engineers such as Ferdinand Porsche and Siegfried Marcus. In addition, Austria is the birthplace of the current governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Most Austrians can look back with pride on their cultural past, but even current Austria does not stand back in art and science. Austria boasts of a tremendous amount of culture, with its classical music festivals in Vienna, Salzburg and Bregenz, its modern artists and writers, its theatres and opera houses. Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy consisting of nine federal states, and is one of two European countries that have declared their everlasting 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. The German name for Austria,Austerreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German OstarrOchi. Reich can also mean "empire,". 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 a vote of no confidence in the lower chamber of parliament, the Nationalrat. A federal republic, Austria is divided into nine states, (German: Bundeslander). These states are divided into districts (Bezirke) and cities (Statutarstadte). Districts are subdivided into municipalities (Gemeinden). Cities have the competencies otherwise granted to both districts and municipalities. The states are not mere administrative divisions, but have some distinct legislative authority separate from the federal government. Austria is a largely mountainous country due to its location in the Alps. The Central Eastern Alps, Northern Limestone Alps and Southern Limestone Alps are all partly in Austria. Of the total area of Austria (84,000 km), only about a quarter can be considered low lying, and only 32 per cent of the country is below 500 metres. The high mountainous Alps in the west of Austria flatten somewhat into low lands and plains in the east of the country. Austria may be divided into five different areas. The biggest area is the Austrian Alps, which constitute 62 per cent of Austria's total area. The Austrian foothills at the base of the Alps and the Carpathians account for around 12 per cent of its area. The foothills in the east and areas surrounding the periphery of the Pannoni low country amounts to about 12 per cent of the total landmass. The second greater mountain area (much lower than the Alps) is situated in the north. Known as the Austrian granite plateau, it is located in the central area of the Bohemian Mass, and accounts for 10 per cent of Austria. The Austrian portion of the Viennese basin comprises the remaining 4 per cent. 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. Austria's capital Vienna is one of Europe's major cities, with a population exceeding 1.6 million (two million with suburbs) and constitutes a melting pot of citizens from all over Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to this metropolis, other cities do not exceed one million inhabitants, in fact the second largest city, Graz is the home of 305,000 people (followed by Linz with 180,000, Salzburg with 145,000 and Innsbruck with 134.803 (2005)). All other cities have fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. Austrians of German mother tongue, by far the country's largest ethnic group, form 91.1 per cent 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 official language, German, is spoken by almost all residents of the country. Austria's mountainous terrain led to the development of many distinct German dialects. All of the dialects in the country, however, belong to Austro-Bavarian
groups of German dialects, with the exception of the dialect spoken in its
west-most Bundesland, Vorarlberg, which belongs to the group of Alemannic
dialects. There is also a distinct grammatical standard for
Austrian-German with a few differences to the German spoken in Germany. |
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