Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0022/00222.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 22KB | 340 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00222}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Chapter 1.    General Character of the Society}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eugene K. Keefe}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{austria
republic
war
first
austrian
social
spo
empire
world
government}
$Date{1976}
$Log{Vienna*0022201.scf
}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Austria, A Country Study
Author:      Eugene K. Keefe
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 1.    General Character of the Society

[See Vienna: Courtesy Embassy of Austria, Washington DC.]

     The modern Republic of Austria (Republik Osterreich) is a direct
descendant of the Habsburg empire, which collapsed in 1918. The republic that
was established at the end of World War I and later referred to as the First
Republic, survived as an independent state for only twenty years; in March
1938 Adolf Hitler annexed Austria, beginning the seven-year period known as
Anschluss (union with Germany). In a 1943 meeting of the foreign ministers of
the principal allies-the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United
States-Austria was recognized as a victim of nazi aggression, albeit with a
reminder of its participation in the war on the side of the Germans. The
Allies declared their intention to liberate Austria and see it reestablished
as a free and independent state. When liberation came in the spring of 1945,
the Republic of Austria (the Second Republic) was reestablished, but it was
also occupied by American, British, French, and Soviet military forces and
remained so until 1955. Vienna, the capital, was under quadripartite control
all during the occupation.

     Until World War I the people of Austria were citizens of a large
multinational empire of which their capital, Vienna, was the symbolic center
and the Habsburgs the hereditary rulers. From the year 1278 a member of the
Habsburg family had ruled Austria, and for much of that time the Habsburg
ruler of Austria was also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Anticipating by
two years the demise of that peculiar confederation of German states that
called itself holy and Roman and empire and, by definition, was not any of the
three, Emperor Franz II proclaimed himself hereditary emperor of Austria in
1804. Two years later the Holy Roman Empire expired, but Franz II had ensured
the continuity of Habsburg rule in Austria.

     After defeat in a short war against Prussia in 1866, Emperor Franz Josef
I agreed to the Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 by which the Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary was created. The long-lived Franz Josef I who reigned from
1848 until his death in 1916, was concurrently emperor of Austria and king of
Hungary. The last Habsburg ruler of Austria-Hungary was Karl I, who succeeded
Franz Josef I in the midst of World War I and renounced the throne on November
11, 1918, one day before the establishment of the Republic of Austria.

     The twenty-year existence of the First Republic was complicated by a
multitude of problems, not the least of which was the aftermath of the defeat
suffered in World War I. The subsequent economic chaos seemed insurmountable;
the contraction from vast empire to small republic had destroyed the former
economic system, and the new Republic of Austria as well as the other
successor states in Central Europe groped for new economic relationships. In
addition to the economic woes that beset the people of Austria and their
leaders, there was also a serious question of identity; many people questioned
the validity and the viability of an independent Austria, stating that it
should be united with Germany. Anschluss, however, was an action forbidden in
the Treaty of Saint-Germain, by which the victorious Allies of World War I
dictated the peace terms to Austria. Eventually, in 1938, Hitler overrode any
arguments about Austrian identity and forcibly annexed the country, unopposed
by the Austrians or by the powers that had previously forbidden Anschluss. For
the next seven years Austria as an independent political entity did not appear
on the map of Europe.

     In 1945, when Austria was liberated by the World War II Allies, the
country was again enjoined to avoid any renewal of Anschluss; but in the
Second Republic the voices favoring such a union were few compared to the
numerous advocates during the interwar years. In the post-World War II period
and particularly after the Allies drew up the Austrian State Treaty of 1955
and removed their occupation forces, the Austrians developed a sense of
nationhood that had been comparatively lacking in the First Republic. Since
1955 Austria has been free, sovereign, and neutral, and its citizens, in
general, take price in being Austrians rather than worrying about whether or
not they should call themselves German-Austrians and accentuate their
Germanness.

     Austria, a small state (32,375 square miles) located in south-central
Europe, reverted to its prewar borders after liberation in 1945 (see fig. 1).
Its neighbors are Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Switzerland, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), all of which
have had close relations with Austria in the long course of European history.
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, known as successor states, were ruled
from Vienna until the breakup of the Habsburg empire during World War I. The
northern province of Italy called Alto-Adige was known to the Austrians as
South Tirol and was also part of the old empire until it was ceded to Italy
after World War I. Switzerland had at one time been part of the Holy Roman
Empire under Habsburg rule but fought for and won independence at the end of
the fifteenth century, even though that independence was not officially
recognized until the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Germany (at the
time a multitude of German states) had also been part of the Holy Roman Empire
under the Habsburgs but, with the end of that confederation in 1806, the
German states began a separate development and, after defeating the Habsburgs
in the short Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the Germans severed the final
political tie with the Habsburgs.

     Austria's terrain is dominated by the Eastern Alps, which cover about
three-fifths of the country. The remainder consists of foothills, river
valleys, and lowlands. In addition to the dominant Alps, two other European
mountain ranges also intrude into the small country-if not as mountains, as
highlands or foothills. These are the small part of the Bohemian massif found
in northern Austria and the small stretch of the Carpathian Mountains that
crosses the border from Czechoslovakia. Austria's highest peak is the
Grossglockner (12,461 feet), located at the point in the Eastern Alps where
the provinces of Carinthia, Salzburg, and Tirol meet. The Danube River is the
most important waterway; entering the western part of the province of Upper
Austria from West Germany, it traverses the country for 217 miles before
exiting in the east at Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

     Ethnically, Austria is a very homogeneous country, particularly as
compared with the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire from which the
republic was created. The two principal minority groups in the early 1970s
were the approximately 25,000 Croatians of Burgenland and 20,000 Slovenians of
Styria and Carinthia. Actually, the ethnic Slovenians may number three or four
times that figure, but official statistics list only those who gave Slovenian
as their first language rather than listing all who consider themselves ethnic
Slovenians but whose first language is German. In 1974 German was spoken by
over 99 percent of the population.

     The social structure of Austria from the late nineteenth century has been
closely attuned to the development of the two major political groupings. The
socialist faction appealed to generally anticlerical industrial workers,
whereas the conservative faction was made up of an alliance between
churchgoing farmers and small businessmen. The end of the empire brought about
t