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'''Austrians''' ({{lang-de|Österreicher}}) are a [[nation]]<ref>http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/cstudies_austria_0070.html</ref><ref> http://images.derstandard.at/20080312/1918-1938-2008.pdf</ref> and an [[ethnic group]]{{Ref|19}} originating from the [[Austria|Republic of Austria]] and its [[History of Austria|historical predecessor states]] who share a common [[Austrian culture]] and Austrian [[Kinship and descent|descent]].
'''Austrians''' ({{lang-de|Österreicher}}) are a [[nation]]<ref>http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/cstudies_austria_0070.html</ref><ref> http://images.derstandard.at/20080312/1918-1938-2008.pdf</ref> and an [[ethnic group]]{{Ref|19}} originating from the [[Austria|Republic of Austria]] and its [[History of Austria|historical predecessor states]] who share a common [[Austrian culture]] and Austrian [[Kinship and descent|descent]].


Historically, Austrians were regarded as Germans due to [[Austria]] being part of [[The Holy Roman Empire]] until 1806 and [[German language|German]] being the official language spoken in [[Austria]]<ref>http://gratzfeld.twoday.net/topics/Austrian+Identity/</ref><ref>http://www.europe-cities.com/en/666/austria/history/language/</ref>
Historically, Austrians were regarded as [[Germans]] due to [[Austria]] being part of [[The Holy Roman Empire]] until 1806 and [[German language|German]] being the official language spoken in [[Austria]]<ref>http://gratzfeld.twoday.net/topics/Austrian+Identity/</ref><ref>http://www.europe-cities.com/en/666/austria/history/language/</ref>


The term Austrian in the 19th century applied to any citizen of the [[Empire of Austria]] between 1804 and 1867, and until 1918 to the citizens of [[Cisleithania]], [[Austria-Hungary]]'s western half. Before the 19th century, the term Austrian meant subjects of the [[Habsburg]] realm in the Holy Roman Empire, to which [[Transleithania]] did not belong. Thus, the definition included members of twelve different ethnic groups.
The term Austrian in the 19th century applied to any citizen of the [[Empire of Austria]] between 1804 and 1867, and until 1918 to the citizens of [[Cisleithania]], [[Austria-Hungary]]'s western half. Before the 19th century, the term Austrian meant subjects of the [[Habsburg]] realm in the Holy Roman Empire, to which [[Transleithania]] did not belong. Thus, the definition included members of twelve different ethnic groups.

Revision as of 22:14, 5 March 2011

This article is about Austrians as a nation and an ethnic group. For information on the population of Austria, see Demographics of Austria.
For an analysis on the nationality or Austrian citizenship, see Austrian nationality law.
Austrians
Österreicher
Regions with significant populations
 Austria        8 million
 United States735,128[1]
 Argentina511,000
 Italy (mainly South Tyrol)300,000[2][3]
 Germany (mainly Bavaria)230,000
  Switzerland80,000
 Australia45,530[4]
 United Kingdom24,000
 South Africa20,204
 Czech Republic (mainly South Moravia)9,300
 Sweden6,300
 Brazil4,000
 Hungary2,571[5]
 Greece1,800
 New Zealand1,300
 Slovakia (mainly Bratislava)331[6]
 Slovenia181[7]
Languages
German (Standard: Austrian German; Dialects: Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic)
regional also: Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene[8]
Religion
Roman Catholic ca. 66%, Protestant ca. 4%, other or no religion (ca. 26%)
Related ethnic groups
Germanic peoples, Czechs,[9] Slovaks, Hungarians, Slovenes and Croatians[10]

Austrians (German: Österreicher) are a nation[14][15] and an ethnic group[4] originating from the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent.

Historically, Austrians were regarded as Germans due to Austria being part of The Holy Roman Empire until 1806 and German being the official language spoken in Austria[16][17]

The term Austrian in the 19th century applied to any citizen of the Empire of Austria between 1804 and 1867, and until 1918 to the citizens of Cisleithania, Austria-Hungary's western half. Before the 19th century, the term Austrian meant subjects of the Habsburg realm in the Holy Roman Empire, to which Transleithania did not belong. Thus, the definition included members of twelve different ethnic groups.

In the closest sense, the term Austrian originally referred to the inhabitants of Lower Austria and Upper Austria, constituting the first regions to be called Austria in the early Middle Ages.

Etymology

The English word "Austrian" is a derivative of the proper name Austria, which is a latinization of Österreich, the German name for Austria. This word is derived from Ostarrîchi, which first appears in 996. This, in turn, is probably a translation of the Latin Marcha Orientalis, which means "eastern borderland" (of Bavaria).

History

Middle Ages to Early Modern period

Further information: History of Austria

In 1278 the territory, by then corresponding roughly to present Upper and Lower Austria, passed to the House of Habsburg, with whose history it became closely associated until the early 20th century. Within a century the Habsburgs had added Carinthia, Styria, Carniola, and Tyrol to their rule, thus effectively controlling most of the territory of the modern Republic of Austria. Being ruled from the Duchy of Austria, the name of the duchy came to be informally applied to all these territories collectively.

The Habsburgs greatly increased their political prestige and power with the acquisition of the lands of the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia in 1526. The Hungarian aristocracy was more successful at retaining the Magyars' cultural and political preponderance in multi-ethnic Hungary than Bohemia, on three sides surrounded by German neighbours, which underwent a period of intense German colonisation, germanizing the leading classes of the Czech people as well. The common German identity of lands such as Carinthia, Styria, or Tyrol, and the ruling dynasty made it easier for these lands to accept the central government set up in Vienna in the mid-18th century.

The term Austrian in these times was used for identifying subjects of the Domus Austriae, the House of Austria, as the dynasty was called in Europe, regardless of their ethnic definition. Although not formally a united state, the lands ruled by the Habsburgs would sometimes as well be known by the name Austria. In reality they remained a disparate range of semi-autonomous states, most of which were part of the complex network of states that was the Holy Roman Empire (the imperial institutions of which were themselves controlled for much of their later existence by the Habsburgs). However, the second half of the 18th century saw an increasingly centralised state begin to develop under the regency of Maria Theresa of Austria and her son Joseph II.

Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy

After the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon, the emperor Franz II formally founded the Austrian Empire in 1804 and became as Franz I the first Austrian emperor. For the first time the citizens of the various territories were now subjects of the one same state, while most of the German states, Prussia excluded, still cultivated their Kleinstaaterei and didn't succeed in forming a homogenous empire before 1871 when the German Empire was founded.

A further major change resulted from a reorganisation of the Austrian Empire in 1867 into a dual monarchy, acknowledging the Kingdom of Hungary as an independent state bound to the remaining part of the empire, as well independent, by a personal and real union, the Emperor of Austria being the Apostolic King of Hungary (with both titles on the same level). The Austrian half, a patchwork of crown-lands, broadly coterminous with the modern-day Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and parts of Poland, Ukraine, Italy, and Croatia, was bound together by the common constitution of 1867, stating that all subjects now would carry the "uniform Austrian citizenship" and have the same fundamental rights. These non-Hungarian lands were not called Austrian Empire any more (the term would have recalled a period behind the newest development). Until 1915, they officially were called "the Kingdoms and States Represented in the Imperial Council". Politicians used the technical term Cisleithania (labelling the Hungarian lands as Transleithania), the general public called them Austria. In 1915, the non-parliamentary Cisleithanian government decreed to use this term officially, too.

19th-century nationalism

Further information: Pan-Germanism

The lands later called Cisleithania (except Galicia and Dalmatia) were members of the German Confederation since 1815 as they had been part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1806. Until 1848, Austria and its chancellor Prince Metternich unanimously dominated the confederation. The developing sense of a German nationality had been accelerated massively as a consequence of the political turmoil and wars that engulfed Central Europe following the French Revolution and the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte. Although the years of peace after Napoleon's fall quickly saw German nationalism largely pushed out of the public political arena by reactionary absolutism, the Revolutions of 1848 established it as a significant political issue for a period of nearly hundred years.

Political debate now centred on the nature of a possible future German state to replace the Confederation, and part of that debate concerned the issue of whether or not the Austrian lands had a place in the Germany polity. When Emperor Franz Joseph I ordered to build a monument in Vienna in 1860 to Archduke Charles, victor over Napoleon in the Battle of Aspern-Essling in 1809, it carried the dedication "To the persistent fighter for Germany's honour", to underline the Germanic mission of the House of Austria.

Habsburg influence over the German Confederation, which was strongest in the southern member states, was rivalled by the increasingly powerful Prussian state. Political manoeuvering by the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck resulted in military defeat of the Austrians in 1866 and the collapse of the Confederation, both effectively ending any future Austrian influence on German political events.

The so-called Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of a German Empire, headed by Prussia and pointedly excluding any of the Austrian lands, let the state turn away from Germany and turn its gaze towards the Balkan Peninsula. Thereby the influence of pan-Germanism was diminished in the Habsburg territories, but as the term Austrians still was used supra-national, German-speaking Austrians considered themselves Germans (and were counted as such in the censuses). The state as a whole tried to work out a sense of a distinctively Austrian identity.

While the high bureaucracy of Austria and many German-Austrian army officers considered themselves "black-yellow" (the Habsburg colours), i.e. loyal to the dynasty, the term "Deutschösterreich" (German Austria) appeared in the media to mean all Austrian districts with a German majority among the inhabitants. Georg Ritter von Schönerers political party agitated against the "multi-national" Habsburgs and advocated for Deutschösterreich joining Imperial Germany.

The 20th century

Provinces claimed by German Austria, with the subsequent border of the First Austrian Republic outlined in red

The last year of World War I saw the collapse of Habsburg authority throughout an increasingly greater part of its empire. On October 16, 1918, emperor Karl I invited the nations of Austria to create national councils, with the aim to instigate a restructuring of the state under Habsburg rule. The nations followed the invitation (the Czechs had founded their national council already before the invitation) but ignored the will of the emperor to keep them in a restructured Austrian state. Their goal was total independence.

On October 21, the German members of the Austrian parliament, elected in 1911, met in Vienna to found the Provisional National Assembly of German Austria ("Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich"). On October 30, 1918 they installed the first German Austrian government, leaving the question "monarchy or republic" open. (German nationalists and social democrats favoured the republic, the Christian Socialists wanted to keep the monarchy.) This government in the first days of November took over competences of the last imperial-royal government in a peaceful way. Initially the new state took the name German Austria, reflecting the republic being the German part of the old Austria and showing the popular desire to unite with the new German republic. On November 12, 1918, the provisional national assembly voted for the republic and for unification with Germany with a large majority.

The creation of the Czecho-Slovak and South Slav states, full independence for Hungary, and the post-war treaties imposed by the victorious Allies combined to see the newly-established Austrian republic both with the boundaries it has today, and a largely homogeneous German-speaking population. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, in September, 1919 the union with Germany was prohibited, henceforth the new republic's name "Deutschösterreich" was ignored; instead the term "Republic of Austria" was used. (The westernmost province Vorarlberg's wish to unite with Switzerland[18] as well was ignored.) On October 21, 1919, the state changed its name accordingly. Many Austrian German communities were left scattered throughout the other new states, especially in Czechoslowakia, where more than 3 million of Austrian Germans had not been allowed their districts to become part of new Austria, as well as in the southern part of Tyrol which now found itself part of Italy. In total, more than 3.5 million Austrian Germans had to stay outside the republic of Austria.

Desire for unity with Germany was motivated both by a sense of common national identity, and also by a fear that the new state, stripped of its one-time imperial possessions, and surrounded by potentially hostile nation-states, would not be economically viable. Austrian identity emerged to some degree during the First Republic, and although Austria was still considered part of the "German Nation" by most, Austrian patriotism was encouraged by the anti-Nazi/anti-Socialist clerico-authoritarianist state ideology known as Austrofascism from 1934-38. Dictator Kurt von Schuschnigg called Austria "the better German state".

Sign of the Austrian resistance movement at the Stephansdom in Vienna

By March 1938, with Nazi governments in control of both Berlin and Vienna, the country was annexed to Germany (Anschluss) as Ostmark. In 1942 the name was changed to the Danubian and Alpine Districts, thus eradicating any links with a special Austrian past.

During the war, Austrians' addiction to Germany faded when Hitler's series of victories ended. When social democrat Adolf Schärf, from 1945 party president and vice-chancellor and from 1957 federal president of Austria, was visited by German friends who wanted to talk on post-war government, he spontaneously explained to his surprised visitors, "the love to Germany has been put out in Austrians". The Moscow Declaration of 1943, in which the allies declared to reestablish an independent Austrian state after the victory, in Austria was only known to people secretly listening to enemy broadcasts ("Feindsender"), which was heavily persecuted as a criminal offence.

Since large portions of Austrian society either actively or tacitly supported the Nazi regime, the Allied forces treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation. But they treated Austria significantly different from Germany: They accepted the Declaration of Independence Austrian politicians had signed at Vienna's city hall on April 27, 1945, and they made the first national elections possible in the autumn of that year. By the end of 1945, Austria, under the supervision of the Allied Council in Vienna, had a democratic parliament and government again, acknowledged in all four allied occupation zones.

The Austrian resistance to the Nazi rule started with the Anschluss in 1938. Historians estimate that there were about 100.000 members of resistance facing 700.000 NSDAP members in Austria.[19] The sign of the Austrian resistance was O5, where the 5 stands for E and OE is the abbreviation of Österreich with Ö as OE.

Post World War II

The end of World War II in 1945 saw the re-establishment of an independent Austria, although the Allied Powers remained in occupation until 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty between Austria and them was signed to end occupation and to regain Austrian sovereignty.

Map of Austrian people in Central Europe

The national concept developed by only few people before and during annexation emerged strongly in the postwar era. Austrians developed a self-image unambiguously separate from its German neighbour, basing itself on cultural achievements of the past, the Moscow Declaration, geopolitical neutrality, language variation, Habsburg legacy (sans monarchism), and the historical separation of the Austrian and German empires in the 19th century. It proved favourable for Austrians not to be held guilty for World War II, genocide and war crimes, since Austria was considered victim of Nazi Germany. It was, for decades, widely ignored in Austria that many Austrians had either been Nazis or had collaborated with the Nazi regime up to terrible crimes.

Unlike earlier in the 20th century, in 1987 only 6 percent of the Austrians identified themselves as "Germans".[20] Indeed, being (mis)identified as one can cause resentment. Today over 90 percent of the Austrians see themselves as an independent nation.[21][22] The logic of the existence of an independent Austrian state is no longer questioned as it was in the inter-war period.

Austria's multicultural history and geographical location has resulted in post-Soviet era immigration from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Poland. As with neighbouring Germany, there has also been immigration from Turkey and former Yugoslav states such as Croatia and Serbia. Today, the largest group of immigrants are Germans.

Culture

Main article: Austrian culture

Culture on the territory of what is today Austria can be traced back to around 1050 B.C. with the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. However, a culture of Austria as we know it today began to take shape when the Austrian lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire, with the Privilegium Minus of 1156, which elevated Austria to the status of a Duchy, marking an important step in its development. Austrian culture has largely been influenced by its neighbours, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Bohemia and the other Czech lands.

Language

The official language of Austria is German, and the standard used is called Austrian German since German is considered a pluricentric language today. Austrian German is defined by the Austrian dictionary (Österreichisches Wörterbuch), published under the authority of the ministry of education, art and culture. Thus, all websites, official announcements and most of the media are carried out in Austrian German. Besides, the minority languages Slovene, Croatian and Hungarian are spoken and officially recognized.

In terms of native language, it is generally not Austrian German that is used, but instead local dialects of the Austro-Bavarian and Allemannic (in Vorarlberg and the Tiroler Außerfern) family. The Austro-Bavarian dialects are considered to belong either to the Central Austro-Bavarian or Southern Austro-Bavarian subgroups, with the latter encompassing the languages of the Tyrol, Carinthia, and Styria and the former including the dialects of Vienna, Upper Austria, and Lower Austria. The vast majority of Austrians are however able to speak Austrian Standard German in addition to their native dialect, as it is taught in all modern day schools.

Cuisine

Main article: Austrian Cuisine

Austrian cuisine, which is often incorrectly equated with Viennese cuisine, is derived from the cuisine of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition to native regional traditions it has been influenced above all by Hungarian, Czech, Jewish, Italian and Polish cuisines, from which both dishes and methods of food preparation have often been borrowed. Goulash is one example of this. Austrian cuisine is known primarily in the rest of the world for its pastries and sweets. In recent times a new regional cuisine has also developed which is centred on regional produce and employs modern and easy methods of preparation.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See the following references:[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]

References and sources

  1. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_PCT018&-CONTEXT=dt&-tree_id=403&-redoLog=true&-all_geo_types=N&-geo_id=01000US&-search_results=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en&-SubjectID=14595646
  2. ^ http://www.provincia.bz.it/downloads/Siz_2006-eng.pdf
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv7n4/v7n4_3price.pdf
  5. ^ http://portal.ksh.hu/pls/ksh/docs/eng/xtabla/nemzvand/nv07_02_04b.html
  6. ^ http://portal.statistics.sk/files/Sekcie/sek_600/Demografia/Migracia/preddefinovane-tabulky/za-rok-2009/immigrants-citizenship.pdf
  7. ^ http://www.stat.si/popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=7
  8. ^ CIA World Factbook - Austria - Languages
  9. ^ http://www.da-vienna.ac.at/userfiles/directorscorner/apa1.pdf
  10. ^ The sound of success, Economist, Nov 22nd 2007
  11. ^ According to the CIA World Factbook - Austria - People: Ethnic Groups the percentage of ethnic Austrians in Austria is 91.1% meaning there are 7,463,714 ethnic Austrians in Austria.
  12. ^ Census 2000: Ancestry - 730,336 people claimed Austrian descent; see also Austrian-Americans
  13. ^ Statistics Canada 2001: Ethnic Origins - 147,585 claimed to be of Austrian ethnic origin.
  14. ^ http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/cstudies_austria_0070.html
  15. ^ http://images.derstandard.at/20080312/1918-1938-2008.pdf
  16. ^ http://gratzfeld.twoday.net/topics/Austrian+Identity/
  17. ^ http://www.europe-cities.com/en/666/austria/history/language/
  18. ^ [2]
  19. ^ Dokumentationsarchiev des österreichischen Widerstands
  20. ^ [3] Development of the Austrian identity .
  21. ^ http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=3261105
  22. ^ Austria. Library of Congress Country Studies, 2004. Accessed 1 October 2006.
  23. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html#People The CIA World Factbook
  24. ^ http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575697_2/Austria.html#s7 MSN Encarta. Archived 2009-10-31.
  25. ^ http://original.britannica.com/eb/article-33395/Austria
  26. ^ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3165.htm
  27. ^ http://eumc.europa.eu/eumc/index.php?fuseaction=content.dsp_cat_content&contentid=44f6f724ba916&catid=4434e55adcab7&search=1&frmsearch=ethnic%20austrians&lang=EN The European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia
  28. ^ Literature:
    • Franz A. J. Szabo: Austrian Immigration to Canada. Pg. 41 et seq.
    • Alfred Connor Browman: Zones of Strain: A Memoir of the Early Cold War. Pg. 73
    • Ilija Sutalo: Croatians in Austria. Pg. 21
    • Donald G. Daviau, Herbert Arlt: Geschichte der österreichischen Literatur. Pg. 318
    • Deirdre N. McCloskey: The Bourgeois Virtues - ethnics for an age of commerce. Pg. 190
    • Bruce M. Mitchell, Robert E. Salsbury: Multicultural Education - An international guiede to research, policies and programs. Pg. 19
  29. ^ http://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/eco/es-170.pdf Institute for Higher Studies (IHS)
  30. ^ http://www2.gov.si/up-rs/2002-2007/jd-ang.nsf/dokumentiweb/FC8720F0466FFA64C1256F95002D0082?OpenDocument The President of the Republic of Slovenia
  31. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/638999.stm The BBC
  32. ^ http://www.chinese-embassy.info/europe/aut.htm The Chinese Embassy in Austria
  33. ^ http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_IV/Bohemicum/IK/Sprachmanagement-Theorie.pdf A study from the University of Regensburg

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