Republik sterreich (de)
Republic of Austria (en)
( Flag of Austria ) ( Arms of Austria )
National motto : None Hab. 97.8 inhabitants / km 2
Demonym	Austrian Austrian
HDI ( 2005 )	0.955 (high) ( 14th )
Currency	Euro ( EUR )
Time Zone	UTC 1
National anthem	Land der Berge, Land am Strome
Internet domain	. Has
Indicative Telephone	+43

Austria Republic of Austria or, in long form and in German ), is a country of Central Europe , without access to the sea. It is surrounded by Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west, the Italy and Slovenia to the south, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, and Germany and the Czech Republic to the north. Austria is a member of the European Union (EU) and the euro area. Its language is the German , but it also recognizes the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages : the Croatian , the Hungarian and Slovenian.

Politics

Democracy has always been imposed by foreign powers, since the two world wars. So there is no culture of protest (demonstrations, strikes ...) or mistrust vis--vis the state, but rather a tradition of obedience to authority (social dialogue, strong link between trade unions and SP ). During the French Revolution, Austria was the soul of the resistance to revolutionary ideas. The far-right parties have experienced a renaissance in recent decades. After the end of the Second World War, the Left has yet built a strong welfare state, with widespread wealth.

Austria is a country neutral , which does not, for example part of NATO , unlike most European countries . The Austrian neutrality is a direct result of the negotiations for the Austrian State Treaty (Staatsvertrag), signed May 15, 1955 in Vienna.

The country is a member of the European Union since ¹ January 1995 .

The National Council of Austria (Nationalrat, 183 seats) is from 28 September 2008 composed as follows:

• 57 seats in the SP (Austrian Social Democratic Party) (29.3% of votes);
• 51 seats to the VP (Austrian People's Party) (26%);
• 34 seats FP (Austrian Freedom Party) (17.5%);
• 21 seats in the BZ (Union Future Austria) (10.7% and the BZ was founded on April 4 2005 by Joerg Haider in a split in the FP);
• 20 seats to die Grnen (The Greens) (10.4%).

The federal president , Heinz Fischer was elected SP 25 April 2004 with 52.41% of the vote against 47.59% of votes for Benita Ferrero-Waldner. He was inducted into the 8 July 2004 , two days after the death of his predecessor Thomas Klestil. On 25 April 2009 , Fischer was reelected with 79.3% of the votes and now he's president until 2016.

Bundeslnder (states)

Austria is a federal republic nine states or Bundeslnder :

• Lower Austria (Niedersterreich), whose capital is Saint-Hippolyte (St. Plten) since the inception of the Land of Vienna;
• Burgenland , whose capital is Eisenstadt ;
• Carinthia (Krnten), whose capital is Klagenfurt (Klagenfurt am Wrthersee);
• Upper Austria (Obersterreich), whose capital is Linz ;
• Salzburg (Salzburg), whose capital city is Salzburg (Salzburg);
• Styria (Steiermark), whose capital is Graz ;
• Tyrol (Tirol), whose capital is Innsbruck ;
• Vienna (Wien), city and federal capital-land;
• Vorarlberg , whose capital is Bregenz (Bregenz).

Cities

Economy

• Unemployment rate: 4.5% (end 2005) by European data, 7.1% (April 2005) using the methods of calculation Austria.
• GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ): 254 billion (in 2005)
• GDP per capita: U.S. 31 406 (2005)
• GDP composition by sector:
  • primary (agriculture): 3% (6% of workforce)
  • secondary (industry): 40%
  • tertiary (services): 57%

Thanks to the heavy weight of corporate outsourcing, Austria is a country of mostly small and medium enterprises.

Key sectors of Austrian Industry:

• the chemical industry (cellulose, petrochemicals);
• Textile and clothing (high end);
• Industry paper and cardboard (thanks to abundant forest resources);
• the electrical and electronics industry (more than 400 companies manufacture electrical or electronic components, the chip until the power plant delivered turnkey);
• the food (largely benefited from European integration);
• metallurgical and mechanical industry (the leading sector, given that Austria is an exporter of machine tools).

Geography

Map of Austria

The three largest cities are in order, Vienna , Graz and Linz.

The Alps occupy two thirds of the floor area of Austria. The highest point is Grossglockner , which rises to 3797 meters.

The longest river is the Danube , which also passes through the Germany , the Slovak Republic , the Hungarian , of Croatia , the Serbia , the Bulgarian , the Romanian , the Moldova and Ukraine. His career in Austria extends 350 km.

Demographics

With a population estimated at 8,292,322 inhabitants in late September 2006, Austria grew by more than 280,000 residents since late December 2000.

The growth was of 53,200 inhabitants in 2005. The average rate of 0.66% observed in 2004-2005 was five times higher than the rate displayed very low in the mid-1990s.

But, like all its neighbors, the country is actually part of the group of countries in central-southern Europe to low fertility rates (1.41 in 2005). The excess of births is very low (1000 to 5000 + people in recent years) and due entirely to natural increase of foreigners. The entire population growth observed was due to a new wave of immigration. On 78 000 births in 2005, over 9000 were foreign nationals, and more counting births linked to immigrant parents or newly naturalized foreigners. The flow of net immigration has exceeded 50 000 persons in 2004 as in 2005 and despite the arrival of the far right in power in the late 1990s. The level of acquisition of Austrian nationality is high, especially among young people and reached nearly 35,000 foreigners in 2005, after record years 2003 and 2004 (44,694 and 41,645). Austria, however, prohibits work with citizens who are not nationals of the EU to curb immigration.

Life expectancy in Austria amounted to 82.1 years for females and 76.4 years for men.

Infrastructure

Transport

The Austrian transport infrastructure is directly related to his situation, first in the Alps , and the other at its center a crossroads of Central Europe, both in terms of road links far as rail. The development of communication routes in the Alps requires many bridges and tunnels whose characteristics have to resist extreme weather conditions. Because of its central location, Austria is a transit country, primarily for the North-South and North-South-East, and since the fall of the Iron Curtain also for the East-West. It thus involves a net-sizing of communication channels, especially in environmentally sensitive areas, often raising protests from the population.

To cope with this difficult combination of interests both economic and ecological measures were necessary, helping to make Austria a country at the forefront of environmental protection. The Alpine republic has imposed such early use of catalytic converters on motor vehicles. Some roads are only open to trucks at the noise reduced. Various deregulations have led however, mainly among certain populations such as those in the valley of the Inn , a feeling of being overlooked by regulators acting at the national and international, including the European Union.

Road

The Austrian road network currently comprises:

• 47.59% of highways (Autobahnen) and highways;
• 47.59% of priority roads (formerly Bundesstraen or federal highways);
• 25 000 km of regional roads (Landesstraen);
• 70 000 km of local roads (Gemeindestraen).

The road network is maintained primarily by the state. A tax on vehicles is on the motorway network in the form of mandatory sticker (73 in 2007 to an annual disc). Trucks must pay a fee per kilometer (maximum 0.273 / km) to the Company ASFINAG.

Rail

The majority of the railway network is managed by the BB (sterreichische Bundesbahnen). Other companies are also active in the Austrian rail transport, held either by the states or by the private sector.

• In 2006, nearly 440 million passengers used the Austrian railway network, an increase of 10 million compared to 2005. This rapid growth and inadequate investment BB forced to rent additional cars from its German partners, Swiss, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Polish, in order to meet demand especially during the Christmas holidays 2006. The average age of cars of the BB is 21 years .
• Truck transportation by rail (also known under the term "combined transport" or "feroutage") is developing rapidly: the crossing of Tyrol rail has been used by nearly 110,000 trucks in 2006, an increase of 130% of the traffic. Thanks in part to large subsidies from the Austrian Federal Government, and by the BB, this mode of transport would be about 20% less expensive for carriers, allowing more drivers to better meet their break time regulations.

A network of S-Bahn (equivalent to the French RER trains) is currently deployed in the regions around Vienna and Salzburg. Graz , Linz and Innsbruck have projects such networks.

Vienna is the only Austrian town to be equipped with a network of underground (U-Bahn). Some stations of tram network of Linz are underground. The cities of Vienna , Graz , Linz , Innsbruck and Gmunden also have a tram network. The village of Serfaus , located in the Tyrol, has Luftkissenschwebebahn underground, sometimes considered the smallest metro in the world.

Armed Forces

Culture

Austria has given birth to many famous artists such as composers, Franz Schubert , Johann Strauss ( father and son ), Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler , the actress Romy Schneider , painters Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt , and writers Arthur Schnitzler , Thomas Bernhard , Ingeborg Bachmann and Robert Musil. Many have emigrated in the late 1930's and came to prominence in foreign countries: the writer Stefan Zweig , the art historian Otto Bencsh , painter Mariette Lydis , the composer Arnold Schoenberg , the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold , the director Max Reinhardt , the choreographer Margarethe Wallmann among many others.

Religions

In 2001, 73.6% of Austrians are Catholic, Lutheran 4.7%, 4.2% Muslim, 3.5% other, unspecified 2% and 12% no religion.

Television

• Austrian TV
• TV

Music

The country has many internationally renowned orchestras such as the Concentus Musicus Wien , conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt , and especially the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by renowned guest conductors. Attention, the famous composer Mozart was not born in Austria, he was born in Salzburg in 1756, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Austrian Literature

Personalities

Other famous Austrians include the composers Franz Schubert , Bruckner and Gustav Mahler Aton, the physicists Ludwig Boltzmann and Erwin Schrdinger , the mathematician Kurt Gdel , economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek , the philosopher Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein , the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud , the writer Stefan Zweig , Robert Musil , Carl Zuckmayer , Elfriede Jelinek , Joseph Roth or Thomas Bernhard and the actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger actress Romy Schneider , the actor Christoph Waltz , actor Helmut Berger , but also Adolf Hitler , emigrated to Germany in 1913, and who seeks to renounce his Austrian citizenship April 7, 1925 or the father of Zionism founder Theodor Herzl.

Located in the Alps , Austria is home to many alpine skiers , such as Toni Sailer , Hermann Maier , Annemarie Moser-Prll , Anita Wachter and Benjamin Raich / A>. With the EURO 2008 organized by Switzerland and Austria, the players of the national soccer team also won popularity as Andy Ivanschitz, Jimmy Hoffer Prdl or Sebastian.

This small country demographically speaking has also spawned two world champions of Formula 1 : Jochen Rindt (champion in 1970, posthumously) and Niki Lauda (champion in 1975.1977 and 1984)

Practical Information

Religious practice was 35% in 1950 ^Statistics

  Land borders: 2,562 km ( Germany 784 km, Italy 430 km, Hungary 366 km, Czech Republic 362 km, Slovenia 330 km, Switzerland 164 km, Slovakia 91 km, Liechtenstein 35 km)  

• Elevation Extremes: + 115 m <3798 m + ( Grossglockner )
• Fixed telephone lines: 400 per 1000 inhabitants ( 2008 )
• Mobile Phones: 1190 to 1000 (in 2007 )
• Radios: 6.08 million ( 1997 )
• Televisions: 4.25 million ( 1997 )
• Internet users: 2.6 million ( 2000 )
• Number of ISPs: 37 (in 2000 )
• Roads: 133,361 km (all asphalt) (in 1998 )
• Railways: 6,095 km ( 2001 )
• Waterways: 358 km ( 1999 )
• Number of airports: 55 (including 24 with paved runways) (in 2000 )

Codes

Austria codes for:

• A , according to the list of international codes of plates ,
• AT , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (list of country codes), code alpha-2
• . Has , according to the list of top level country domains (country code top level domain: ccTLDs)
• AU , according to a list of country codes used by NATO , alpha-2 code,
• TUE , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (list of country codes), code alpha-3,
• TUE , according to the list of country codes IOC ,
• TUE , according to the list of country codes used by NATO , code alpha-3,
• SO , according to the list of prefixes ICAO airport codes ,
• OE , according to the list of prefixes ICAO aircraft registration ,

References

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