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Wien

Wien

Wien can refer to:
- The German name for the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria. See Vienna.
- A river in Austria, flowing into the Danube River in Vienna. See Wien (river).
- German physicist Wilhelm Wien, discoverer of Wien's displacement law.
- Wien, Wisconsin

German language

German (German: ), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. Spoken by more than 130 million people in 38 countries of the world, German is—like English—a pluricentric language with three main centers of usage: Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Geographic distribution

German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in two-thirds of the South Tyrol province of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark. In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German, Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced the local German dialects in the last 40 years. Some German speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia, Kazakhstan and Poland, although massive relocations to Germany in the late 1940s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German speaking communities are to be found in the USA and in Brazil where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the great majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German speaking communities are to be found in the former German colony of Namibia, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloneiro developed), Thailand, and Australia. See also Plautdietsch. In the USA, the largest concentration of German speakers are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites and some Mennonites speak Pennsylvania German and Hutterite German), Texas (Texas German), North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and Indiana also speak dialects of German. In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul, where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo). Generally, German immigrant communities in the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America, possibly due to the fact that for Germans English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. German is the main language of about 100 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the most spoken language in Europe excluding Russia, above French (66.5 million speakers in Europe in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in Europe in 2004). German is the third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the USA (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign language in the EU (after English; see [http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf]) It is one of the official languages of the European Union.

History

As a consequence of the colonisation patterns the Völkerwanderung, the routes for trade and communication (chiefly the rivers), and of physical isolation (high mountains and deep forests) very different regional dialects developed. These dialects, sometimes mutually unintelligible, were used across the Holy Roman Empire. As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardisation of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area. When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1521 and the Old Testament in 1534) he based his translation mainly on this already developed language, which was the most widely understood language at this time. This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (Gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German. German used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Until about 1800, Standard German was almost only a written language. In this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider that northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region. Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called Hochdeutsch in German), which is understood in all areas of German languages (except by pre-school children in areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland — but in this age of TV, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age). The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1960, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spelling co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the heated public debate concerning the reform. During the 1870s, the German language successfully replaced Latin as the dominant language in all major European and North American universities, thanks to the prominence of German universities at the time. Most important research in the sciences for some decades afterward was published in German, and new universities preferred German instead of Greek or Latin mottoes (for example, Stanford University).

Classification and related languages

Stanford University is divided into Upper German (blue) and Central German (green), and the Dutch/Plattdüütsch (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked in red.]] German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

Neighboring languages

German forms together with Dutch, its closest relative, a coherent and well-defined language area that is separated from its neighbors by language borders. These neighbors are: in the north Frisian and Danish; in the east Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian; in the south Slovenian, Italian, Friulian, Ladin, and Romansh; in the west French. Except for Frisian, none of these languages are West Germanic, and so they are clearly distinct from German and Dutch. While Frisian is closely related to German and Dutch, it is generally considered not to be mutually intelligible with them. The situation is more complex with respect to the distinction between German and Dutch. Until recently, there has been a dialect continuum throughout the whole German-Dutch language area, with no language borders. In such a dialect continuum, dialects are always mutually intelligible with their neighbors, but dialects that are further apart from each other are often not. The German-Dutch continuum lent itself to a classification of dialects into Low German and High German based on their participation in the High German consonant shift; Dutch is part of the Low German group. However, because of the political separation between Germany and the Netherlands, Low German dialects in the Netherlands and Low German dialects in Germany have started to diverge during the 20th century. Additionally, both in northern Germany and in the Netherlands, many dialects are close to extinction and are being replaced by the German and Dutch standard languages. In this way, a language border between Dutch and German is currently forming. While German is grammatically similar in many ways to Dutch, it is very different in speech. A speaker of one may require some practice to effectively understand a speaker of the other. Compare, for example: :De kleinste kameleon is volwassen 2 cm groot, de grootste kan wel 80 cm worden. (Dutch) :Das kleinste Chamäleon ist ausgewachsen 2 cm groß, das größte kann gut 80 cm werden. (Standard German) : (English: "The smallest chameleon is fully grown 2 cm long, the longest can easily attain 80 cm.") Dutch speakers are generally able to read German, and German speakers who can speak Low German or English are generally able to read Dutch, but have problems understanding the spoken language, although Germans who speak High German, or, even better, Low German, can cope with Dutch much better than people from Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria who have grown up with the Alemannic or Bavarian dialects.

Official status

Standard German is the only official language in Germany, Liechtenstein, and Austria; it shares official status in Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh), and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in German-speaking regions of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Poland. It is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union. It is also a minority language in Canada, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Poland, Romania, Togo, Cameroon, the USA, Namibia, Brazil, Paraguay, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Ukraine, Croatia, Moldavia, Australia, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Increasing influence from the English language has affected German recently. However, German remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught world-wide, and is more popular than French as a foreign language in Europe. 8% of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German, in addition to the 24% who speak German as a mother tongue.[http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html] This is assisted by the availability of German TV by cable or satellite, where series like Star Trek are shown dubbed into German. German is also the second language of the Internet, more than 8% of the websites are in German (English 50%, French 6%, Japanese 5%, Spanish 3% and Portuguese 2%).

Dialects

The term "German" is used for the dialects of Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland (that is, outside the French-, Italian-, and Romansch-speaking areas) and some areas in the surrounding countries, as well as for several colonies and other ethnic concentrations founded by German-speaking people (for example German in the United States). The variation among the German dialects is considerable. Only the neighbouring dialects are mutually understandable. Most dialects are not understandable for someone who knows standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages because any pair of neighbouring dialects is perfectly mutually intelligible. The dialect continuum of the continental West Germanic languages is typically divided into Low Germanic languages and High Germanic languages. Low Germanic is defined as the varieties that were not affected by the High German consonant shift. They consist of two subgroups, Low Franconian and Plattdüütsch (Low German). Low Franconian includes Dutch and Afrikaans, spoken primarily in the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa; Plattdüütsch includes dialects spoken primarily in the German Lowlands and in the eastern Netherlands. The Plattdüütsch varieties are considered dialects of the German language by some, but a separate language by others; the Low Franconian varieties are not considered a part of the German language (see above for a discussion of the distinction between German and Dutch). High Germanic is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian, Hessian, Thuringian and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German. The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardized and institutionalized and are therefore usually considered a separate language, Luxembourgish language. Upper German dialects include Alemannic (for instance Swiss German), Swabian, East Franconian, and Austro-Bavarian. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from (for example Pennsylvania German resembles dialects of the Palatinate, or Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia). In the United States, the teaching of the German language to latter-age students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language. It is often understandable by either party. The speakers of this language often refer to it as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch, although it is known in English as American German.

Standard German

In German linguistics, only the traditional regional varieties are called dialects, not the different varieties of standard German. Standard German has originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German (especially in major cities of Germany, and to some extent in Vienna). Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking countries, especially in vocabulary, but also in some instances of pronunciation and even grammar. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is almost entirely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia. Standard German is rarely spoken, for instance when speaking with people who do not understand the Swiss German dialects at all, and it is expected to be used in school.

Grammar

Main article: German grammar German is an inflected language.

Noun inflection

German nouns inflect into:
- one of four declension classes
- one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Word endings indicate some grammatical genders; others are arbitrary and must be memorised.
- two numbers: singular and plural
- four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative case. Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, it should be noted that the degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old German, or in Icelandic today. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. This dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or written language. Weak masculine nouns share an common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, six inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -en, -ns, -e In the German orthography, unlike any other orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which makes it quite easy for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence. On the other hand, things get more difficult for the writer. Like most Germanic languages, German forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: Hundehütte (eng. doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) always uses the closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (eng. tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English compounds.) The longest official German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. There is even a child's game played in kindergartens and primary schools where a child begins the spelling of a word (which is not told) by naming the first letter. The next one tells the next letter, the third one tells the third and so on. The game is over when the a child can not think of another letter to be added to the word.

Verb Inflection

Standard German verbs inflect into:
- one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English). (note: in fact there is a third class, called "gemischte Verben", which can be either weak ("active meaning") or strong ("passive meaning")) There are about 200 irregular verbs.
- three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
- two numbers: singular and plural
- three moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative
- two genera verbi: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic.
- 2 non-composed tenses (Present, Preterite) and 4 composed tenses (Perfect, Plusquamperfect, Future I, Future II)
- no distinction between aspects (in English, perfect and progressive; in Polish between completed and incompleted form; in Turkish between first-hand and second-hand information) There are also many ways to expand, an sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through several prefixes. Example: haften=to stick, verhaften=to imprison The word order is much more flexible than in English. The word order can be changed for subtle changes of a sentence's meaning. In normal positive sentences the verb always has position 2, in questions it has position 1. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin, French, and most recently English.

Writing system

German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and ü, as well as a special symbol for "ss", which is used only after long vowels or diphthongs (and not used at all in Switzerland), the Eszett or Scharfes-S (sharp "s") ß. Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif antiqua typefaces used today, and are difficult for the untrained to read. They were abolished by the Nazis (incorrectly claiming that these letters are Jewish) in 1941 but this has been retained for broader and easier usability.

Alphabet

Main article: German alphabet.

Phonology

Main article: German phonology (pronunciation, historical sound changes).

Cognates with English

There are many German words that are cognate to English words. Most of them are easily identifiable and have almost the same meaning. When these cognates have slightly different consonants, this is often due to the High German consonant shift. There are cognates whose meanings in either language have changed through the centuries. It is sometimes difficult for both English and German speakers to discern the relationship. On the other hand, once the definitions are made clear, then the logical relation becomes obvious. There are many English loanwords in German, and a somewhat smaller number of German loanwords in English. Sometimes these also involve semantic changes, for example German Dogge, 'mastiff', from English dog, or German Handy, 'mobile phone'. German and English also share many borrowings from other languages, especially from Latin, French and Greek, but also from many other languages. Most of these word have the same meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics.

Examples of German

Names of the German language in other languages

Because of the turbulent history of both Germany and the German language, the names that other peoples have chosen to use to refer to it varies more than for most other languages. In general, the names for the German language can be arranged in five groups according to their origin: Lao is unique in that both under the influence of English "German" (through Thai "yenman") and French (the colonial language) "Allemand", it chose a name in between: ພາສາເຢຍລະມັນ (phaxa yeylaman), which could be ranked both under category 2 and category 5. Note: The Romanian language used to use in the past the Slavonic term "nemţeşte", but "germană" is now widely used. Hungarian "német" is also a Slavonic loan-word. The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived from the Slavonic term. A possible explanation for the use of "mute" to refer to German (and also to Germans) in Slavic languages is that Germans were the first people Slavic tribes encountered, with whom they could not communicate. The corresponding experience for the Germans was with the Volcae, whose name they subsequently also applied to the Slavs, see etymology of Vlach. Hebrew traditionally (nowadays this is not the case) used the Biblical term Ashkenaz (Genesis 10.3) to refer to Germany, or to certain parts of it, and the Ashkenazi Jews are those who originate from Germany and Eastern Europe and formerly spoke Yiddish as their native language, derived from Middle High German.

External links

-
- [http://www.declan-software.com/german German language learning audio software]
- [http://learno.com/german Online Learno german course] Free online German tutorial at Learno.com
- [http://www.washjeff.edu/capl/ Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon] Free online visual lexicon of the German language with authentic photos from German speaking world.
- [http://www.sprachtausch.net Sprachtausch.net] — German website to find someone to teach you, for example german in exchange with your language.
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=deu Ethnologue report for German]
- [http://www.travlang.com/languages/german/ihgg/ Internet Handbook of German Grammar]
- [http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/ German resources] at the University of Michigan
- [http://german.languages4everyone.com Learn German Online] with this internet German course for beginners
- [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,2469,00.html Deutsche Welle's Online German Courses]
- [http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/german.php German courses in Germany]
- [http://www.vds-ev.de Verein Deutsche Sprache] (in German)
- A beginning [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/German German Language Textbook] under development at [http://wikibooks.org/ Wikibooks]
- [http://www.diwa.info/ Digital Wenker-Atlas] Project publishing the 19th century Linguistic Atlas of the German Empire
- [http://www.geocities.com/language_directory/languages/german.htm List of online German-related resources]
- [http://eserver.org/langs/the-awful-german-language.txt That awful German language] — A humourous essay by Mark Twain
- [http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/german/index.html Why learn German? A German language profile]
- [http://www.vistawide.com/german/why_german.htm Why learn German?] — 12 reasons to learn German
- [http://www.actilingua.com/german_courses/german_language.php Short summary on German language and varieties with a map!]
- [http://www.ielanguages.com/German.html Free German Language Tutorial from ielanguages.com]
- [http://www.passwort-deutsch.de/ Passwort Deutsch] - A German course
- [http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/ Learn German Online] containing free courses
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=1&learn-German/ Learn and listen to useful expressions in German] Each expression is presented with an audio recording and an illustration
- [http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=37&name=Germany+Education Articles on learning German] Also has a service whereby learners of German can send questions to a German teacher

Dictionary and word translations

- [http://dict.leo.org/ The LEO Online Dictionary] German-English-German dictionary at Leo.org
- [http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/ TU Chemnitz Dictionary] a 185000+ German-English Dictionary with proverbs and pronounciation
- [http://www.dict.cc/ dict.cc: User-editable German-English-German Dictionary] works similar to Wikipedia, more than 840,000 keywords (420,000 translation pairs)
- [http://odge.info/ Odge.info] uses dict.cc's data according to [http://odge.info/License/ license] page
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/German-english/ German — English Dictionary]: from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] — the Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.canoo.net/index_en.html German Grammar, Online Dictionary for Spelling, Infection and Wordformation for the German Language]
- [http://www.geodic.de GEODic] German-English-Online-Dictionary
- [http://www.woerterbuch.info woerterbuch.info — Free English-German Online Dictionary] with over 600.000 translations
- [http://www.dwds.de The Digital Dictonary Project]in German - Dictionary, Corpus and Statistics
- http://www.dedict.de - English-German Online Dictionary
- http://www.spell-it.net - Free English-German Online Dictionary

Grammar

- [http://www.wm.edu/modlang/gasmit/grammar/grammnu.html Grammar of German]
- [http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~skidmore/grammarpage.htm German Grammar on the Web]
- [http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~oberle/courses/review.html German Review Grammar]
- [http://www.cas.muohio.edu/~greal/netzgrammatik/grammar.html German Grammar Charts]

Reference

Austria

The Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich) is 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 is the city of Vienna. 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 United Nations and the European Union.

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, German Empire, "Third Reich," or 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 border," 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 the Third Reich.

History

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 rather occupied 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. 13th century After Duke Frederick II died in 1246 and left no successor, the German King 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 century Austria continued to expand its territory until it reached the position of a European superpower at the end of the 15th century until the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918.

Modern history

After the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Empire of Austria was founded, which was transformed in 1867 into the double-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 the Third Reich in 1938 through the Anschluß and remained under Nazi hegemony 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 communism in Eastern Europe, Austria became increasingly involved in European affairs, and in 1995, Austria joined the European Union, and the Euro monetary system in 1999.

Politics

1999 Austria became a federal, parliamentary democracy 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 and voted into office by the majority of the lower chamber of parliament, the Nationalrat, the National Council of Austria. The government can be recalled by a vote of no confidence in the National Council. The Austrian parliament 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 received at least four percent 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 pass the respective bill a second time bypassing the Bundesrat altogether). A convention, called the Österreich Konvent [http://www.konvent.gv.at/] 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.

Subdivisions

A federal republic, Austria is divided into nine states, (German: Bundesländer). These states are divided into districts (Bezirke) and cities (Statutarstädte). 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. Statutarstädte

Geography

Statutarstädte Statutarstädte 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 km²), only about a quarter can be considered low lying, and only 32% 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 5 different areas. The biggest area are the Austrian Alps, which constitute 62% of Austria's total area. The Austrian foothills at the base of the Alps and the Carpathians account for around 12% of its area. The foothills in the east and areas surrounding the periphery of the Pannoni low country amount to about 12% 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% of Austria. The Austrian portion of the Viennese basin comprises the remaining 4%.

Climate

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 predominate one. In the East the climate shows continental features with less rain than the Western alpine areas with high rainfall averages. The six highest mountains in Austria are:

Economy

alpine climate ]] Austria has a well-developed social market economy and a high standard of living. Until the 1980s many of Austria's largest industry firms were nationalised, however in recent years privatisation has reduced state holdings to a level comparable to other European economies. Labour movements are particularly strong in Austria and have large influence on labour politics. Germany has historically been the main trading partner of Austria, making it vulnerable to rapid changes in the German economy. Slow growth in Germany and elsewhere in the world affected Austria, slowing its growth to 1.2% in 2001. But since Austria became a member state of the European Union it has gained closer ties to other European Union economies, reducing its economic dependence on Germany. In addition, 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 aspiring economies. Therefore estimates of growth in 2005 (up to 2%) are much more favourable than in the crippling German economy. Agriculture: Austrian farms, like those of other west European mountainous countries, are small and fragmented, and production is relatively expensive. Industry: Although some industries, such as several iron and steel works and chemical plants, are large industrial enterprises employing thousands of people, most industrial and commercial enterprises in Austria are relatively small on an international scale. Services: Like in other western countries, the biggest contributor to Austria's GDP is its service sector. Most notably is tourism, especially winter tourism. To meet increased competition from both EU and Central European countries, Austria will need to emphasize knowledge-based sectors of the economy, continue to deregulate the service sector, and lower its tax burden. See also: List of Austrian companies

Demographics

List of Austrian companies]] Austria's capital Vienna is one of Europe's major cities with a population exceeding 1.6 million (2 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 1 million inhabitants, in fact the second largest city Graz is home of 305,000 people (followed by Linz with 180,000, Salzburg with 145,000 and Innsbruck with 120,000). 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% 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). 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.

Politics concerning ethnic groups (Volksgruppenpolitik) in Austria

An estimated 25,000-40,000 Slovenians in the Austrian state of Carinthia as well as Croatians and Hungarians in Burgenland were recognized as a minority and have enjoyed special rights following the Austrian State Treaty (Staatsvertrag) of 1955. The Slovenians in the Austrian state of Styria (estimated at a number between 1,600 and 5,000) are not recognized as a minority and do not enjoy special rights, although the State Treaty of July 27, 1955 states otherwise. The right for bilingual topographic signs for the regions where Slovene and Croatian speaking Austrians live alongside with the German speaking population (as required by the 1955 State Treaty) is still to be fully implemented. There is also an undercurrent of thinking amongst parts of the Carenthian population that the Slovenian involvement in the partisan war against the Nazi occupation force was a bad thing, and indeed "Tito partisan" is a not an infrequent insult hurled against members of the minority. Many Carinthians are afraid of Slovenian territorial claims, pointing to the fact that Yugoslav troops entered the state after each of the two World Wars. The current governor, Jörg Haider, regularly plays the Slovenian card when his popularity starts to dwindle, and indeed relies on the strong anti-Slovenian attitudes in many parts of the province for his power base. However, a recent poll suggests that a 2/3 majority of Carinthians are in favour of an increase of bilingual topographic signs in order to fulfil the requirements set by the State Treaty. Another interesting phenomenon is the so called "Windischen-Theorie" [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windischen-Theorie] stating that the Slovenians can be split in two groups: actual Slovenians and Windische, based on differences in language between Austrian Slovenians, who were taught Slovenian standard language in school and those Slovenians, who spoke their local Slovenian dialect but went to German schools. To the latter group the term "Windische" (originally the German word for Slovenians) was applied, claiming that they were a different ethnic group. This theory was never generally accepted and has been ultimately rejected several decades ago.
- List of cities in Austria

Religion

List of cities in Austria] 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. Despite this establishment of Catholicism as the predominant Christian religion (Protestants have throughout Austria's history remained a relatively small group), Austria's history as a multinational state has made it necessary for Habsburg rulers to deal with a heterogeneous religious population. Religious freedom was declared a constitutional right as early as 1867 and Austria-Hungary was home of numerous religions beside Roman Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims (Austria neighboured the Turkish empire for centuries), Mormons and both Calvinists and Lutheran Protestants. Still Austria remained largely influenced by Catholicism. After 1918 First Republic Catholic leaders such as Theodor Innitzer and Ignaz Seipel took leading positions within or close to the Austrian Government and increased their influence during the time of the Austrofascism – Catholicism was treated much like a state religion by dictators Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. Although Catholic leaders welcomed the Germans in 1938 during the Anschluss of Austria into Hitlerite Germany, Austrian Catholicism stopped its support of Nazism later on and many former Religious public figures became involved with the resistance during the Third Reich. After 1945 a stricter secularism was imposed in Austria and religious influence on politics has nearly vanished. As of the end of the 20th century about 73% of Austria's population are registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% consider themselves Protestants. Both these numbers have been on the decline for decades, especially Roman Catholicm has suffered an increasing number of seceders of the church. This is due partly to child sexual abuse scandals by priests as well as the alleged unwillingness of the Roman Catholic Church to implement reforms. In addition Austrians 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. About 12% of the population declare that they do not belong to any church or religious community. Of the remaining people, about 180,000 are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church and about 7,300 are Jewish. It has to be noted that the Austrian Jewish Community of 1938 – Vienna alone counted more than 200,000, of which solely 4,000 to 5,000 remained after the Second World War. The influx of Eastern Europeans, especially from the former Yugoslav nations, Albania and particularly from Turkey largely contributed to a substantial Muslim minority in Austria – around 300,000 are registered as members of various Muslim communities. The numbers of people adhering to the Islam has increased largely during the last years and is expected to grow in the future. Buddhism, which was legally recognized as a religion in Austria in 1983, enjoys widespread acceptance and has a following of 20,000 (10,402 at the 2001 census). A 2005 survey among 8,000 people in various European countries showed that Austrians are still among the countries with the strongest belief in God. 84% of all Austrians do state they believe in God, with only Poland (97%), Portugal (90%) and Russia (87%) in front of the countries surveyed. This is a much larger figure than the European average of 71% or Germany with 67%. [http://www.readers-digest.de/service_fuer_journalisten/index.php?id=mrd&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=251&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=15]

Culture

Germany 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. Among Austrian artists and architects one can find painters Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele or Friedensreich Hundertwasser, photographer Inge Morath or architect Otto Wagner. Austria was the cradle of numerous scientists including physicists Ludwig Boltzmann, Lise Meitner, Erwin Schrödinger, Ernst Mach, Wolfgang Pauli, Richard von Mises and Christian Doppler, philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, biologists Gregor Mendel and Konrad Lorenz as well as mathematician Kurt Gödel. It was home to psychologists Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Paul Watzlawick and Hans Asperger, psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, economists Joseph Schumpeter, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek (Austrian School) and Peter Drucker, and engineers such as Ferdinand Porsche and Siegfried Marcus. In addition, Austria is the birthplace of the current governor of California, Arnold Schwartzenegger. Although Austrians can look back with pride on their cultural past, current Austria does not stand back in art and science. Austria hosts 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.
- List of Austrians
- Music of Austria

Miscellaneous topics

- Austrian folk dancing
- Austrian German
- Communications in Austria
- Cuisine of Austria
- Education in Austria
- Foreign relations of Austria
- Media in Austria
- Military of Austria
- Public holidays in Austria
- Spanish Riding School
- Stamps and postal history of Austria
- Tourism in Austria
- Transportation in Austria

References

- References and bibliography can be found in the more detailed articles linked to in this article

External links

- The aeiou Encyclopedia ([http://www.aeiou.at/;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en Homepage] | [http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.a Table of Contents] | [http://www.aeiou.at/;internal&action=search.action Search])
- [http://www.aboutaustria.org About Austria] Austrian Tourist, Travel and Culture Guide
- [http://www.oevsv.at Amateur Radio in Austria]
- [http://www.answers.com/austria Answers.com] Article on Austria
- [http://austria.europe-countries.com Austria in Pictures]
- [http://www.austria.info/ Austria.info] Official homepage of the Austrian National Tourist Office (German, English and other languages)
- [http://www.acfny.org Austrian Cultural Forum New York] Cultural meeting place in Manhattan
- [http://www.cookbookwiki.com/Category:Austrian Austrian Recipes on CookBookWiki.com]
- [http://www.austrosearch.at/ Austrosearch] Bilingual Austrian Search engine and Directory (German, English)
- [http://www.bundeskanzleramt.at/ Bundeskanzleramt Österreich/Federal Chancellor of Austria] Website of the Federal Chancellery of Austria (German, English)
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/au.html Cia.gov] CIA's Factbook on Austria
- [http://www.dwellan.com/documents/links_at_en.html Dwellan.com] Tourism in Austria
- [http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/european/austria/au.html Library of Congress] Portals on the World - Austria
- [http://peter-diem.at/default_e.htm Peter Diem] The Symbols of Austria
- [http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/ Photoglobe.info] Country Studies - Austria Info
- [http://radio.orf.at/ Radio-ORF] Austrian Radio stations - both classical and modern music (live feed)
- [http://www.tiscover.at/ Tiscover.at] Austria travel guide
- [http://www.anytravels.com/europe/austria/ Travel Information from Any Travels] Travel Information about Austria
- [http://www.austria-hotels-travel.com/ Austria-Hotels-Travel] Austria Travel Destination
- [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3165.htm US Department of State] Facts and Information (updated February 2005)
- [http://www.willgoto.com/categories.aspx?Destination=217&Langue=1 Willgoto Austria] Travel guide and directory
- [http://uk.aua.com/ Austrian Airlines]
- [http://www.parks.it/world/AT/Eindex.html Parks in Austria] National parks, nature parks, reserves and other protected areas Category:European Union member states Austria, People of Category:Landlocked countries fiu-vro:Austria zh-min-nan:Tang-kok als:Österreich ko:오스트리아 ms:Austria ja:オーストリア simple:Austria th:ประเทศออสเตรีย

Austria

Origin and history of the name

History

Austria and the Holy Roman Empire

Modern history

Politics

Subdivisions

Geography

Climate

Economy

Demographics

Politics concerning ethnic groups (Volksgruppenpolitik) in Austria

Religion

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

References

- References and bibliography can be found in the more detailed articles linked to in this article