Austria Geography and history
Geography
Slightly smaller than Maine, Austria includes much of the mountainous
territory of the eastern Alps (about 75% of the area). The country contains
many snowfields, glaciers, and snowcapped peaks, the highest being the
Grossglockner (12,530 ft; 3,819 m). The Danube is the principal river.
Forests and woodlands cover about 40% of the land.
Government
Federal republic.
History
Settled in prehistoric times, the central European land that is now
Austria was overrun in pre-Roman times by various tribes, including the
Celts. After the fall of the Roman Empire, of which Austria was part, the
area was invaded by Bavarians and Slavic Avars. Charlemagne conquered the
area in 788 and encouraged colonization and Christianity. In 1252, Ottokar,
king of Bohemia, gained possession, only to lose the territories to Rudolf
of Hapsburg in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was
largely that of its ruling house, the Hapsburgs. Austria emerged from the
Congress of Vienna in 1815 as the continent's dominant power. The Ausgleich
of 1867 provided for a dual sovereignty, the empire of Austria and the
kingdom of Hungary, under Franz Joseph I, who ruled until his death on Nov.
21, 1916. The Austrian-Hungarian minority rule of this immensely diverse
empire, which included German, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, and many other
lands, became increasingly difficult in an age of emerging nationalist
movements. When Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian
nationalist in Sarajevo in 1914, World War I, as well as the destruction of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began.
During World War I, Austria-Hungary was one of the Central powers with
Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and the conflict left the country in
political chaos and economic ruin. Austria, shorn of Hungary, was proclaimed
a republic in 1918, and the monarchy was dissolved in 1919. A parliamentary
democracy was set up by the constitution of Nov. 10, 1920. To check the
power of Nazis advocating union with Germany, Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss
in 1933 established a dictatorship, but he was assassinated by the Nazis on
July 25, 1934. Kurt von Schuschnigg, his successor, struggled to keep
Austria independent, but on March 12, 1938, German troops occupied the
country, and Hitler proclaimed its Anschluss (union) with Germany, annexing
it to the Third Reich.
After World War II, the U.S. and Britain declared the Austrians a
“liberated” people, but the Russians prolonged the occupation. Finally
Austria concluded a state treaty with the USSR and the other occupying
powers and regained its independence on May 15, 1955. The second Austrian
republic, established Dec. 19, 1945, on the basis of the 1920 constitution
(amended in 1929), was declared by the federal parliament to be permanently
neutral.
On June 8, 1986, former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim was elected to
the ceremonial office of president in a campaign marked by controversy over
his alleged links to Nazi war crimes in Yugoslavia. Austria became a member
of the European Union in 1995, but it retained its strict constitutional
neutrality and forbade the stationing of foreign troops on its soil.
In Feb. 2000 the conservative People's Party formed a coalition with the
far-right Freedom Party, headed by Jörg Haider. A nationalist against
immigration, Haider had made several controversial remarks praising some
Nazi policies, which he has since recanted. His gradual rise to power was
credited to voters weary of decades of stasis under the rule of the Social
Democrats. The European Union condemned Austria's new coalition, froze
diplomatic contacts, and imposed sanctions, accusing Haider of being a
racist, xenophobe, and Nazi sympathizer. Given the controversy, Haider chose
not to join the government, but he continued to wield influence from the
sidelines.
In Sept. 2002, the coalition between the People's Party and the Freedom
Party dissolved after a shake-up in the Freedom Party, instigated by Haider.
In Nov. 2002, the People's Party made large gains in general elections.
After failed coalition talks with other parties, the People's Party again
formed a government with the Freedom Party in Feb. 2003. A government plan
to overhaul the country's pension program led to widespread strikes in May
and June 2003—the first national strikes in decades.
In 2004, Heinz Fischer, known as the “left conscience” of the Social
Democrat Party, was elected to the largely ceremonial role of president.
Austria's tough laws against Nazi propaganda led to a three-year prison
sentence for infamous British historian David Irving, who pleaded guilty in
Feb. 2006 to denying the Holocaust. In Dec. 2006, he was released from
prison early, and deported to England.
Three months after elections, Austria's two main parties formed a coalition
government in Jan. 2007. The leader of the Social Democrats, Alfred
Gusenbauer, became chancellor.
Parliament passed a law in June 2007 that lowered the voting age in Austria
to 16.
On July 7, 2008, the Austrian government collapsed after months of
struggling between the two major political parties, the Social Democratic
Party and the People's Party. Elections are expected to be held in
September. The chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, announced that he would not
run for re-election. The new Social Democratic Party leader and transport
minister, Werner Faymann, will be the Social Democrat candidate.
In September 2008, the right-wing parties made tremendous gains in
parliamentary elections. The Social Democratic Party of Austria won 29.3% of
the vote (57 of 183 seats), the Austrian People's Party 26% (51), the
Freedom Party of Austria 17.5% (34), the Alliance for the Future of Austria
10.7% (21), the Greens 10.4% (20), and the Liberal Forum 2.1% (0). Turnout
was 78.8%.
On October 11, 2008, during a crucial time in Austrian politics, the leader
of the far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria, Jorg Haider, died in a
car crash.
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