Culture of Austria
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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.
Name
The German name Österreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German Ostarrîchi. 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. The derivation of the Latin name from the original Old German gives rise to the use of "Aust-" for east, rather than south as in Classical Latin (the Classical Latin "Aust-" is the origin of the name for Australia, a southern land). With the term Austria came the name for its inhabitants, Austrian(s).
The Arts
Music
Vienna has long been an important center of musical innovation. Composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were drawn to the city by the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Johann Strauss, Jr., among others, were associated with the city. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music. Vienna's status began its rise as a cultural center in the early 1500s, and was focused around instruments including the lute.
Classical music
During the 18th century, the classical-music era dominated European classical music, and the city of Vienna was an especially important place for musical innovation. Three composers arose, making lasting innovations: Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonic patterns, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's balance between melody and form, and Joseph Haydn's development of the string quartet and sonata.
First Viennese School
Second Viennese School
Vienna Philharmonic
The Musikverein in Vienna is considered to be one of the three finest concert halls in the world and was opend on January 6, 1870. Since 1939, the famous Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic is broadcasted from its Golden Hall to an audience of one billion in 44 countries. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic, which is regularly considered one of the finest in the world, are chosen from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera.
The Vienna Philharmonic can trace its origins to 1842, when Otto Nicolai formed the Philharmonische Academie. This orchestra took all its decisions by a democratic vote of all its members, and these are principles still hold today.
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera, in German called Staatsoper, is one of the most important opera companies in the world. It employs over 1000 people, and in 2008, the annual operating budget of the Staatsoper was 100 million Euros with slightly more than 50% coming in the form of a state subsidy.
It is also venue for the Vienna Opera Ball, an event that takes place on the Thursday preceding Ash Wednesday. The Opera Ball was first held 1936, and has seen up to 12,000 visitors. 180 pairs are opening the ball officially, before the command "Alles Walzer", based on a tradition of Johann Strauss Jr., the dance floor is openend for everyone.
Vienna Boys' Choir
The Vienna Boys' Choir (German: Wiener Sängerknaben) is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. Known for its exceedingly high vocal standard, the choir has worked with musicians including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri and Anton Bruckner
The choir was established by a letter written by Maximilian I of Habsburg on 7 July 1498. Palais Augarten serves as rehearsal space and boarding school for the boys of the choir.
Folk Music
Schrammelmusik
The most popular form of modern Austrian folk music is Viennese Schrammelmusik, which is played with an accordion and a double-necked guitar. Modern performers include Roland Neuwirth, Karl Hodina, and Edi Reiser.
Yodeling
Yodeling is a type of throat singing that developed in the Alps. In Austria, it was called juchazn and featured the use of both nonlexical syllables and yells that were used to communicate across mountains.
Austrian folk dancing
Austrian folk dancing is mostly associated with Schuhplattler, Landler, Polka, or Waltz. However, there are other dances, such as Zwiefacher, Kontratänze, and Sprachinseltänze.
Ländler
The ländler is a folk dance of uncertain origin. Known under several names for a long period, it became known as Landl ob der Enns, which was eventually shortened to ländler. The dance became popular in about 1720. It required close contact between members of the opposite sex, and was thus denounced as lustful by some church authorities. Ländlers were brought first to Vienna, and later to places as far away as the Ukraine. The ländler eventually evolved into what is known as the waltz.
Austropop
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DJ Ötzi received the Amadeus Austrian Music Award in 2001 and 2002 for being the Austrian artis most successful internationally. The beatboxing group Bauchklang received an Amadeus in 2002 in the category group pop/rock national. Falco, Rainhard Fendrich, André Heller, Georg Danzer and Christina Stürmer all received Amadeus Awards in the category artist pop/rock national.
Austria3 was a conglomerate of three Austrian quite individualist singer-songwriters Wolfgang Ambros, Georg Danzer and Rainhard Fendrich, on stage from 1997 to 2006.
Alpine New Wave
This genre of punk rock, whose name may be shortened to alpunk originated in the Alpine regions of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Alpunk fuses the chaotic, energetic rhythms of punk music with the accordion-based folk music that the region is famous for.
Other notable music
Misconceptions
Apparently, the musical The Sound of Music and the film based on it played a role in shaping how mainly the english speaking world sees Austria in terms of music. It has to be said the some of the arrangements in "The Sound of Music" have been done for the purpose of art, rather than for the purpose of giving a realistic view on Austrian music culture. So for example there is the view that the song Edelweiss is actually the national athem of Austria, which is not the case. Moreover, the Ländler performed in the movie is not a traditional Ländler.
Literature
Austrian literature can be divided into two main divisions, namely the period up until the mid 20th century, and the period subsequent, after both the Austro-Hungarian and German empires were gone. Austria went from being a major European power, to being a small country. In addition, there is a body of literature that some would deem Austrian but is not written in German.
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, and Robert Musil, and of poets Georg Trakl, Franz Werfel, Franz Grillparzer, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Adalbert Stifter. Famous contemporary Austrian playwrights and novelists include Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke.
Theatre
Architecture
Austria is famous for its castles, palaces, and cemeteries, among other architectural works. Some of Austria's most famous castles include Festung Hohensalzburg, Burg Hohenwerfen, Castle Liechtenstein, and the Schloß Artstetten. Many of Austria's castles were created during the Habsburg reign.
The Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1996, stating that "Salzburg has managed to preserve an extraordinarily rich urban fabric, developed over the period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century when it was a city-state ruled by a prince-archbishop."[1]
Three years later, the City of Graz - Historic Centre followed Salzburg, as the "old city is a harmonious blend of the architectural styles and artistic movements that have succeeded each other since the Middle Ages, together with cultural influences from the neighbouring regions."[2]
In 2001, finally the Historic Centre of Vienna was listed as World Heritage Site, with the comment that the "historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, as well as the late-19th-century Ringstrasse lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks."[3]
Cathedrals
Austria is rich in Roman Catholic tradition. One of Austria's oldest cathedrals is the Minoritenkirche in Vienna. It was built in the Gothic style in the year 1224. One of the world's tallest cathedrals, the 136-meter-tall (446-foot-tall) Stephansdom is the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna; the Stephansdom is 107 meters (351 ft) long and 34 meters (111.5 ft) wide.
Palaces
Two of the most famous Austrian palaces are the Belvedere and Schönbrunn. The baroque-style Belvedere palace was built in the period 1714–1723, by Prince Eugene of Savoy, and now is home to the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Schönbrunn palace was built in 1696 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach for Emperor Leopold I; empress Maria Theresa of Austria ordered the palace restyled in Rococo. In 1996, it was added to the United Nations' World Cultural Heritage list[4].
Cemeteries
Austria is also known for its cemeteries. Vienna has fifty different cemeteries, of which the Zentralfriedhof is the most famous. The Habsburgs are buried in the Imperial Crypt.
Stift Melk
Stift Melk is a Benedictine abbey in the federal state of Lower Austria, overlooking the Danube as it flows through the Wachau Valley. The abbey was formed in 1089 on a rock above the city of Melk.
Semmering Railway
The Semmering Railway, a famous engineering project constructed in the years 1848–1854, was the first European mountain railway built with a standard-gauge track. Still fully functional, it is now part of the Austrian Southern Railway. It was appointed a World Heritage Site in 1998[5].
Visual art
Danube school
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was part of a varied movement around 1900 that is now covered by the general term Art Nouveau.
Major figures of the Vienna Secession were Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Koloman Moser.
Vienna School of Fantastic Realism
Viennese Actionism
New Media: Ars Electronica
The Prix Ars Electronica is a major award in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. Since 1987, this award is been given by Ars Electronica, one of the world's major centers for art and technology, which in turn was founded in 1979 in Linz, Austria. The connected museum is the six floor Ars Electronica Center
Broadcasting and Film
Cinema of Austria
In the silent movie era, Austria was one of the leading producers of movies. Many of the Austrian directors, actors, authors and cinematographers also worked in Berlin. The most famous was Fritz Lang, the director of Metropolis. Following the Anschluss, the German annexation of Austria in 1938, many Austrian directors emigrated to the United States, including Erich von Stroheim, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Hedy Lamarr, Mia May, Richard Oswald and Josef von Sternberg.
Vienna International Film Festival
Philosophy, science and technology
Austrian School
Vienna School of Art History
Vienna Circle
Psychoanalysis and Freud
Quantum Optics and Zeilinger
Everyday culture
Transhumance in the Alps
Alpine pastures amount to a quarter of the farmland in Austria, where around 500,000 cattle were taken care of by 70,000 farmers at 12,000 sites.
Rearing cattle involving seasonal migration between valley and high pastures has shaped a lot of landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas below 2000 m would be forests.
Pre-Christian Alpine traditions
Some pagan customs survived only in the remote valleys inaccessible to the Roman Catholic Church's influence, other customs were actively assimilated over the centuries. One example is the Perchta, a goddess in Southern Germanic paganism in the Alpine countries, whose name means The Shining One. The Perchta welcome spring time during Fastnacht.
Media
Austrian German
In Austria, there is no unitary Austrian language, but a variety of Germanic dialects are spoken.
While strong forms of the various dialects are not normally comprehensible to Northern Germans, there is virtually no communication barrier to speakers from Bavaria. The Central Austro-Bavarian dialects are more intelligible to speakers of Standard German than the Southern Austro-Bavarian dialects of Tirol. Viennese, the Austro-Bavarian dialect of Vienna, is most frequently used in Germany for impersonations of the typical inhabitant of Austria. The people of Graz, the capital of Styria, speak yet another dialect which is not very Styrian and more easily understood by people from other parts of Austria than other Styrian dialects, e.g. from western Styria.
Minority languages spoken in Austria include Slovenian, Croatian and Hungarian.
Food
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 and Italian 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.
Every state in Austria has some specialities: In Lower Austria they have poppies, in Burgenland polenta, in Styria pumpkin, in Carinthia's many lakes they have fish, in Upper Austria dumpling play a vital role, for Salzburg the Salzburger Nockerln are famous (a Soufflé), Tyrol has their tyrolean bacon, and Vorarlberg is influenced by the close neighbor Switzerland thus cheese plays a role.
Viennese Cuisine
Vienna is the capital of Austria for more than a thousand years. It became the cultural centre of the country and developed its own regional cuisine. Viennese Cuisine is the only kind of cuisine named after a city. [1]
The variety of ingredients sold on the famous Naschmarkt might lead to the thought of an evenly varied cuisine. In fact, dishes heavily depending on meat make up the typical Viennese cuisine: Wiener schnitzel (fried veal coated in breadcrumbs), Tafelspitz (boiled beef), Beuschel (a ragout containing calf lungs and heart) and Selchfleisch (smoked meat) with Sauerkraut and dumplings make up for a good percentage of the main courses.
Some sweet Viennese dishes, mainly served for dessert include Apfelstrudel (strudel pastry jacket filled with apples), Kaiserschmarren (shredded pancakes served with fruit compotes) and Sachertorte (cake of two layers of chocolate cake with apricot jam in the middle ).
Liptauer as spread, or Powidl also as spread or base for dumplings are also quite popular.
Viennese café
The culture of coffee houses is still strong in Austria. Much of their reputation they got during the turn of the nineteenth century when writers like Peter Altenberg, Karl Kraus, Hermann Broch and Friedrich Torberg decided to use them for work and pleasure. Rumor has it that Peter Altenberg used to give "Wien 1, Café Central" as his private address, as he spent so much time in Café Central. Also artists, scientists, and politicians of the period such as Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Adolf Loos, Theodor Herzl and even Leon Trotsky were constant coffee house patrons.
Austrian wine
Austria has a long winemaking tradition and produces both white and red wines. There is evidence of grape seeds in urns in the area of Zagersdorf in Burgenland, dating back to 700 B.C.[6]
Austria has over 50,000 hectares of vineyard, almost all of it in the east or southeast of the country. Many of the approximately 20,000 small wine producing estates base their financial existence on the selling of wine directly on the premises.[7] Due to a decree that goes back to the so called Maria Theresianische Buschenschankverordnung from 1784, a vintner can sell his own wine in his own house without any dedicated license to do so.
Dry white wines made from the Grüner Veltliner grape have gained international recognition, and is also the dominant grape in Austria.
Austrian beer
There are many different types of Austrian Beer to be found. One of the most common brands of beer to be found in Austria is Stiegl, founded in 1492.
Sports
Common sports in Austria, are soccer, skiing, and ice hockey. Parts of Austria are located in the Alps which makes it a prime location for skiing. Austria is the leading nation in the Alpine Skiing World Cup (consistently winning the largest number of points of all countries) and also strong in many other winter sports such as ski jumping. Austria's national ice hockey team ranks 13th in the world.
Austria (particularly Vienna) also has an old tradition in football, even though, since World War II, the sport has more or less been in decline in the country. The Austrian Championship (originally only limited to Vienna, as there were no professional teams elsewhere), has been held since 1912. The Austrian Cup has been held since 1913. The Austria national football team has qualified for 7 World Cups however has not ever qualified in its history to the European Championship, though that will change with the 2008 Tournament as they qualify as co-hosts with Switzerland. The governing body for football in Austria is the Austrian Football Association.
The first official world chess champion, Wilhelm Steinitz was from the Austrian Empire .
Also,Vienna is well known for the Spanish Riding school, where skilled riders ride Lipizzaner horses in difficult poses and dances.
Education
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Empress Maria Theresa instituted the "General School Regulations,in 1774," creating the Austrian educational system. Eight-year compulsory education was introduced in 1869. Currently, compulsory schooling lasts nine years.
Four years of elementary school (Volksschule for ages 6-10) are followed by secondary education in a Hauptschule, or the first four years of Gymnasium as intermediate school. It has to be noted that in particular in the rural areas, their is quite often no gymnasium available, so everyone attends the hauptschule.
After the age of 14, students have their first real choice to make, mo matter which they have attended until then. They can spend a year at the polytechnic school which qualifies them for vocational school as part of a apprenticeship. Or they can go to the Höhere Technische Lehranstalt (HTL), which are technology and crafts orientated higher colleges and a unique feature of the Austrian educational system within Europe. Finalising the HTL permits to use the title "Ing." (Engineer). Another option would be the Handelsakademie with a focus on accounting and business administration. Finally there is the Gymnasium which ends with the Matura exam as the ultimate preparation for a further education at the university. There are a couple of other school types not mentioned here.
An alternative to the university is the Austria Fachhochschule, which is more application oriented than the university, but nevertheless leads to a academic degree. As part of the Bologna process, both the eductation at universities as well as at the Fachhochschulen changes.
Federal laws enforce uniformity throughout the educational system.
All state-run schools are free of charge. The largest university is the University of Vienna.
Religion
73.6% of the native population identify themselves as Roman Catholic, while 4.7% consider themselves Protestant. Some 400,000 Austrians are members of diverse Muslim communities, about 180,000 are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and about 7,300 are Jewish. Prior to the Holocaust, about 200,000 Jews lived in Austria.
About 12% of the population does not belong to any church or religious community.
Buddhism in Austria
Although still small in absolute numbers (10,402 at the 2001 census), Buddhism in Austria enjoys widespread acceptance if not popularity. A majority of Buddhists in the country are Austrian nationals (some of them naturalized after immigration from Asia, predominantly from China and Vietnam), while a considerable number of them are foreign nationals.
Tourism in Austria
Public holidays
As the Roman Catholic Christianity is the predominant religion in Austria, most of the public holidays are catholic ones. Nevertheless, Good Friday is a public holiday for those who have that day as a high holiday in their religion. So different compared to for example Switzerland or Germany, this holiday is applied based on one's personal religion, not based on the religion of the majority in the area one lives in.
Although most holidays in Austria are defined in the federal labour law called Arbeitsruhegesetz, some are days off due to other sources of law, for example the collective contract negotiated between the social partners (see: Austria's "social partnership"). Due to the special emphasis that the Austrian labour law puts on the collective contract, the collective contracts in Austria are not limited to those who are members in the respective employee representation that negotiated the contract. So the collective contract actually applies more in a way a law does, than a contract does. In fact, the contract, and in turn also the public holidays defined in it, apply for all employees in the industry the respective collective was closed for.
Besides these holidays which are defined for the complete country, some are defined on a state basis. Abbreviations for the Austria states are described in States of Austria.
Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday are not listed below, as these will always be on a Sunday and therefore all the rules for Sundays will already be applied to these two days. Thus there is no need to explicitly define these as public holidays.[8]
| English Name | Local Name | Date | B | K | NÖ | OÖ | S | ST | T | V | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Neujahr | 1 January | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Epiphany | Heilige Drei Könige | 6 January | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Saint Joseph | Josef 5) | 19 March | • | • | • | • | |||||
| Good Friday | Karfreitag 1) | floating holiday (Easter Sunday - 2 days) | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Easter Monday | Ostermontag | floating holiday (Easter Sunday + 1 day) | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| National Holiday Labour day | Staatsfeiertag (Tag der Arbeit) | 1 May | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Saint Florian | Florian 4) 5) | 4 May | • | ||||||||
| Ascension | Christi Himmelfahrt | floating holiday (Easter Sunday + 39 days) | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Whit Monday | Pfingstmontag | floating holiday (Easter Sunday + 50 days) | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Corpus Christi | Fronleichnam | floating holiday (Easter Sunday + 60 days) | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Assumption of Mary | Mariä Himmelfahrt | 15 August | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Rupert of Salzburg | Rupert 5) | 24 September | • | ||||||||
| Carinthian Plebiscite | Tag der Volksabstimmung 5) | 10 October | • | ||||||||
| National Day (Declaration of Neutrality) | Nationalfeiertag | 26 October | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| All Saints | Allerheiligen | 1 November | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Martin of Tours | Martin 5) | 11 November | • | ||||||||
| Leopold III, Margrave of Austria | Leopold 3) 5) | 15 November | • | • | |||||||
| Immaculate Conception | Mariä Empfängnis 2) | 8 December | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Christmas Eve | Heiliger Abend (CC) | 24 December | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Christmas | Christtag | 25 December | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| St. Stephen's Day | Stefanitag | 26 December | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| New Year's Eve | Silvester (CC) | 31 December | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Total number of days 6) | 17 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 |
(CC) day off or partly day off due to collective contract (german: Kollektivvertrag)
1) Holiday according to the federal labor law, but applies only to the followers of the Reformed churches and Lutheran Church, the Old Catholic Church and the Methodist Church.
2) If 8 December is a working day, employees may work in shops.
3) Until 2003 it was also a holiday in Upper Austria.
4) A holiday only since 2004.
5) Holidays due to state law, mainly affects schools and state offices.
6) The total amount of holidays that apply for all employees is 13, or 12, if 2) applys.
Notes
- ^ UNESCO: Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg
- ^ UNESCO: City of Graz - Historic Centre
- ^ UNESCO: Historic Centre of Vienna
- ^ UNESCO: Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn
- ^ UNESCO: Semmering Railway
- ^ Austrian Wine Marketing Board: Viticulture in Austria – a journey in fast motion
- ^ Austrian Wine Marketing Board: Facts & Figures: Viniculture in Austria
- ^ Comprehensive overview over the Austrian holidays (German PDF file)