Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0022/00226.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 31KB | 538 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00226}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Chapter 3B.   Boundaries and Political Subdivisions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{James M. Moore Jr.}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{austria
river
miles
vienna
west
province
austrian
country
east
tirol}
$Date{1976}
$Log{Figure 6.*0022601.scf
Figure 7.*0022602.scf
}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Austria, A Country Study
Author:      James M. Moore Jr.
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 3B.   Boundaries and Political Subdivisions

Boundaries

     Austria has a boundary of 490 miles with West Germany, 355 miles with
Czechoslovakia, 216 miles with Hungary, 194 miles with Yugoslavia, 268 miles
with Italy, 101 miles with Switzerland, and 23 miles with the principality of
Liechtenstein, a total of 1,647 miles. No borders are officially in dispute.

     Historians point out that Austria was, from the days that it was a march,
or Mark (frontier zone), of Rome until the Habsburg domains were finally
secured, an outpost on the border area between the east and west. A parallel
can be drawn to the modern situation, alleging that the country now has much
the same kind of exposure that it had before and during the Middle Ages.
Austria shares mostly Alpine frontiers with the Western nations Italy,
Switzerland, and West Germany; but it has miles of borders with no natural
barriers between it and the Eastern European countries Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, and Yugoslavia.

Political Subdivisions

     Austria is a federal republic; the nine provinces, one of which consists
only of Vienna and its suburbs, are semiautonomous (see fig. 6). The degree
of local autonomy is subject to interpretation, and the limits of
administrative authority are periodically tested in the courts. Unless the
political situation deteriorates seriously from that of the mid-1970s,
however, it is almost inconceivable that any province would test its rights to
the point of declaring itself independent and separate from the federation.

     The provinces were subdivided into ninety-eight Bezirke (districts) and
2,327 Gemeinden (local communities) on January 1, 1973. The Bezirke are
administrative units representing the federal government. The Gemeinden are
units of local government. In the case of chartered towns of 20,000 people or
more, the boundaries of the district may be coterminous with those of the
local community (see ch. 8).

[See Figure 6.: Austria, Political Subdivisions]

     Of the nine provinces, Vienna, with 160 square miles, has the least area;
but its population of 1.6 million is the greatest. The other provinces range
in size from 1,004 to 7,402 square miles and in population from 271,000 to 1.4
million (see ch. 4).

Vorarlberg

     Vorarlberg, the small westernmost province, borders Switzerland, the
principality of Liechtenstein, an Alpine portion of West Germany, and the
province of Tirol. Bregenz, the provincial capital, is located on the Bodensee
and is the country's only lake port. Vorarlberg was until modern times
isolated almost entirely from the rest of Austria. The Vorarlberg-Tirol
railroad line, however, tunnels through the Arlberg Mountains for 6.4 miles
and provides an all-weather link to the east.

     As an example, probably more extreme than typical, of the provinces'
federal attitude, Vorarlberg claims to be an independent state, having freely
decided to join the Austrian Federal Republic. It is oriented toward the west
and has a strong provincial patriotism. Although it has much in common with
its western neighbors, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the people consider that
their differences with them are greater than with the remainder of Austria.

     Owing partly to the ruggedness of the terrain, the severity of the
climate, and the struggle its citizens have waged in order to glean a
livelihood from Vorarlberg's meager resources, the people feel their
independence strongly and are an enterprising group. The province may be
isolated, but it is not backward. At the time it was within the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vorarlberg had the empire's first telephone, electric
light, and first hydroelectric turbine; one of its citizens was the first in
the empire to drive an automobile. The schools were in some respects 100 years
ahead of those in most of the empire. Its modern-day citizens are known as the
best of businessmen, and the region's dairy farming is, with respect to the
terrain, as modern and efficient as any in the world.

Tirol

     Tirol-the land of ski resorts-adjoins Vorarlberg to the east in a high
mountainous region. The province is divided in two by the southwestern tip of
Salzburg, which comes between eastern Tirol and the remainder of the province.
The separation came about because South Tirol was taken from Austria and given
to Italy during peace negotiations after World War I and was not restored to
Austria after World War II. This also accounts for the fact that the major
portion of the province-which lies almost entirely west of eastern Tirol-is
called North Tirol. Like the people of Vorarlberg, the Tiroleans also feel
strongly about their autonomy and federal status. They are quick to point out
that in 1342 the Tirol received the earliest democratic constitution in
Europe. This was called the Freedom Charter and was granted voluntarily by the
ruler, Meinhard II.

     The mountains surrounding eastern Tirol have almost isolated it from
northern and western Austria, giving it a much greater natural orientation
toward the Italian Tirol than toward Austrian Carinthia. The Grossglockner
Road, constructed during the 1930s, only partially relieved this isolation
since the road is closed by heavy snows during the winter.

     Northern Tirol is as rugged as eastern Tirol but much more accessible.
The Brenner Road is the best avenue for movement between Italy and West
Germany. The highest point in the Brenner Pass is about 4,500 feet. Innsbruck
(the "bridge town" and capital of the province) is located where the Brenner
Road enters the Inn River valley and is an important crossroads. From
Innsbruck northward from the pass, there is a choice of routes into Germany.
The Inn River flows generally west to east through the city. Following the
valley eastward downstream it curves to the north. Rail and road routes along
the river cross the German border southeast of Munich. Routes from Innsbruck
going west divide some ten miles from the city. The routes to West Germany go
north from the river and enter near Garmisch-Partenkirche, south-southwest of
Munich.

Salzburg

     Salzburg adjoins the eastern border of the main part of Tirol and is
north of eastern Tirol. Its seemingly random shape was arrived at in the
southwest to encompass the upper Salzach River valley, which is the most
important physical feature of its central region. In the east the border
encloses the headwaters of the Mur and Enns rivers but separates the province
from those to the east in areas of difficult terrain. The city of Salzburg is
the capital of the province. The salt mines, the remarkably scenic
countryside, and the portion of the Salzkammergut lake district in the
province are the most prominent features.

Upper Austria

     Upper Austria shares its western border with Salzburg. It borders West
Germany and Czechoslovakia in the northwest and north, Lower Austria in the
east, and Styria in the south. The province includes the arable, easily
worked, and comparatively level land in the north-central part of the country
and most of the extremely beautiful Salzkammergut. It also shares with Lower
Austria the heavily forested Austrian portion of the Bohemian massif, north of
the Danube River. Upper Austria and Lower Austria are the two original
Austrian provinces that formed the nucleus of the empire during the days of
its greatest power, and the boundary between them is for the most part only
for administrative convenience. The capital of Upper Austria, Linz, is on the
Danube River, which flows southeasterly across the no