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Wikipedia

Austrians

March 02, 2023

For an analysis on the nationality or Austrian citizenship, see Austrian nationality law.

Austrians (German: Österreicher) are the citizens and nationals of Austria. The English term Austrians was applied to the population of Habsburg Austria from the 17th or 18th century. Subsequently, during the 19th century, it referred to the citizens of the Empire of Austria (1804–1867), and from 1867 until 1918 to the citizens of Cisleithania. In the closest sense, the term Austria originally referred to the historical March of Austria, corresponding roughly to the Vienna Basin in what is today Lower Austria.

Austrians
German: Österreicher
Total population
c. 8–8.5 million
Regions with significant populations
 Austria 7,427,759[a]
 United States684,184[2]
 Germany345,620[3]
 Canada197,990[4]
 Switzerland40,300–65,090[5][6][7]
 Australia45,530[8]
 United Kingdom21,600–25,000[6][7]
 France20,000[9][7]
 Italy16,331[7]
 Netherlands15,771 (2017)[10]
 Brazil14,000[6]
 Spain12,000[6]
 South Africa10,000[6]
Other countries (1,000–10,000)
 Argentina9,800[6]
 Hungary9,044[7]
 Israel9,000[6]
 Sweden6,311[11]
 Turkey1,900[6]–14,400[7]
 Chile5,000[12]
 Czech Republic5,000[6]
 Greece4,000[6]
 Thailand4,000[13]
 Liechtenstein3,868[7]
 Poland3,790[7]
 Mexico3,500[6]
 Egypt3,400[6]
 Norway3,200[6]
 Slovakia3,154[7]
 Romania3,100[6]
 Slovenia3,052[7]
 Belgium3,020[7]
 Russia2,953[7]
 United Arab Emirates2,500[6]
 China1,900[6]
 Denmark1,500–1,900[7][6]
 Colombia1,600[6]
 New Zealand1,500[6]
 Portugal1,500[6]
 Philippines1,400[6]
 Croatia1,000[6]
 Uruguay1,000[6]
Languages
German
(Austro-Bavarian, Alemannic)
Religion
Historically:[14]
primarily Roman Catholic
minority Lutheran
Nowadays:[15][16]
Christian (68%)
Irreligious (24%)

Historically, Austrians were regarded as ethnic Germans and viewed themselves as such.[17][18][19] The Austrian lands (including Bohemia etc) were part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 which resulted in Prussia expelling the Austrian Empire from the Confederation.[18] Thus, when Germany was founded as a nation-state in 1871, Austria was not a part of it.[18] In 1867, Austria was reformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austria was reduced to a rump state and adopted and briefly used the name the Republic of German-Austria (German: Republik Deutschösterreich) in an attempt for union with Germany, but was forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The First Austrian Republic was founded in 1919. Nazi Germany annexed Austria with the Anschluss in 1938.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe, both the political ideology of pan-Germanism and the union with Germany have become associated with Nazism, resulting in Austrians developing their own separate and distinct national identity. Today, the vast majority of Austrians do not identify as German.[20][21][22]

Name

Further information: Name of Austria
 
The first document containing the word "Ostarrîchi", the word is marked with a red circle.

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" (viz. delimiting the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire). It was a margraviate of the Duchy of Bavaria, ruled by the House of Babenberg from AD 976. During the 12th century, the Marcha Orientalis under the Babenbergs became independent of Bavaria. What is today known as Lower Austria corresponds to the Marcha Orientalis, while Upper Austria corresponds to the eastern half of the core territory of Bavaria (the western half forming part of the German state of Bavaria).

The adjective Austrian entered the English language in the early 17th century, at the time referring to Habsburg Austria in the sense of "members of the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg" (the junior branch emerging from the dynastic split into Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs in 1521), but from the 18th century also "a native or inhabitant of Austria".[23]

History

Main article: History of Austria

Early history

 
Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures:
  The core Hallstatt territory (HaC, 800 BC) is shown in solid yellow,
The territories of some major Celtic tribes of the late La Tène period are labelled.

The territory of what is today Austria in the Roman era was divided into Raetia, Noricum and Pannonia. Noricum was a Celtic kingdom, while the Pannonii were of Illyrian stock. The Raetians were an ancient alpine people probably akin to the Etruscans. During the Migration period (c. 6th century), these territories were settled by the Bavarians and other Germanic groups in the west (Alemanni in Vorarlberg, Lombards in Tyrol), and by Slavic groups (principality Carantania), Huns and Avars in the east. In the 8th century, the former territories of Raetia and Noricum fell under Carolingian rule, and were divided into the duchies of Swabia, Bavaria and principality Carantania. Pannonia until the end of the 8th century was part of the Avar Khaganate. The "East March" (Ostmark) during the 9th century was the boundary region separating East Francia from the Avars and the Magyars. The site of Vienna had been settled since Celtic times (as Vindobona), but the city only rose to importance in the High Middle Ages as the chief settlement of the March of Austria (the March river just east of Vienna marks the ancient border between Francia and the Avars).

After the defeat of the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, the East March or March of Austria came to be the easternmost portion of the Holy Roman Empire, bordering on Moravia to the north and on the Kingdom of Hungary to the east. As a consequence, the national character of the Austro-Bavarian speaking majority population of Austria throughout their early modern and modern history remained characterized by their neighbourhood to the West Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks) to the north, the South Slavs (Slovenes, Carinthian Slovenes, Burgenland Croats) to the south, and the Hungarians to the east.

The unification of the various territories of Austria outside of the March of Austria proper (i.e. parts of Bavaria, Swabia and Carinthia) was a gradual process of feudal politics during the High and Late Middle Ages, at first in the Archduchy of Austria under the House of Babenberg during the 12th to 13th centuries, and under the House of Habsburg after 1278 and throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The various populations of these territories were not unified under the single name of "Austrians" before the early modern period.

Early Modern period

Further information: Habsburg Austria
 
Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg, who had ruled the territory of Austria since the Late Middle Ages, 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.[citation needed]

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 ancestry. Although not formally a united state, the lands ruled by the Habsburgs would sometimes 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 reign of Maria Theresa of Austria and her son Joseph II.

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. Following Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian war in 1866, Otto von Bismarck successfully unified the German Empire in 1871, which was Prussian-dominated, without the inclusion of Austria and the German Austrians.[24]

After Austria was excluded from Germany in 1866, the following year Austria joined Hungary as a dual empire known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 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, and parts of Slovenia, Poland, Ukraine, Italy and Croatia, was bound together by the common constitution of 1867, stating that all subjects now would carry "uniform Austrian citizenship" and have the same fundamental rights. These non-Hungarian lands were not officially called the Austrian Empire. Until 1915, they were officially called "the Kingdoms and States Represented in the Imperial Council" and politicians used the technical term Cisleithania (labelling the Hungarian lands as Transleithania). The general public called them Austria, and in 1915, the non-parliamentary Cisleithanian government decreed to use this term officially, too.

19th-century nationalism

Main articles: Austrian nationalism, Austria–Prussia rivalry, German nationalism, German nationalism in Austria, and Pan-Germanism
 
Central Europe (ca 1820) showing the Kingdom of Prussia (blue), the Austrian Empire (yellow) and other independent German states (grey). The red line marks the border of the German Confederation; both Prussia and Austria controlled lands outside the Confederation.

The idea of grouping all Germans into one nation-state gave way to a rapid rise of German nationalism within the German Confederation, especially in the two most powerful German states, Austria and Prussia. The question of how a unified Germany was to be formed was a matter of debate. The German Question was to be solved by either unifying all German-speaking peoples under one state as the "Greater German solution" (Großdeutsche Lösung), which was promoted by the Austrian Empire and its supporters. On the other hand, the "Lesser German solution" (Kleindeutsche Lösung) advocated only to unify the northern German states and exclude Austria; this proposal was favored by the Kingdom of Prussia and its supporters. This debate became known as German dualism.

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.

 
A map of the German Confederation in 1849 showing the 39 independent states.

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 German 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.

The idea of uniting all ethnic Germans into one nation-state began to be challenged in Austria by the rise of Austrian nationalism, especially within the Christian Social Party that identified Austrians on the basis of their predominantly Catholic religious identity as opposed to the predominantly Protestant religious identity of the Prussians.[25]

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 the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the collapse of the Confederation, both effectively ending any future Austrian influence on German political events.

When asked by Edward VII to abandon Austria-Hungary's alliance with Germany for co-operation with England, Franz Joseph replied "I am a German prince."[26][27]

The Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of a German Empire in 1871, 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). After Bismarck had excluded Austria from Germany, many Austrians faced a dilemma about their identity which prompted the Social Democratic Leader Otto Bauer to state that the dilemma was "the conflict between our Austrian and German character."[28] The state as a whole tried to work out a sense of a distinctively Austrian identity.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire created ethnic conflict between the German Austrians and the other ethnic groups of the empire. Many pan-German movements in the empire desired the reinforcement of an ethnic German identity and that the empire would collapse and allow for a quick annexation of Austria to Germany.[29][30] Although it was precisely because of Bismarck's policies that Austria and the German Austrians were excluded from Germany, many Austrian pan-Germans idolized him.[31]

While the high bureaucracy of Austria and many Austrian army officers considered themselves "black-yellow" (the Habsburg colours), i.e. loyal to the dynasty, the term "German Austria" (Deutschösterreich) was a term used in the press to mean all the Austrian districts with an ethnic German majority among the inhabitants. Austrian pan-Germans such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer and his followers agitated against the "multi-national" Austro-Hungarian Empire and advocated for German Austria to join the German Empire.[32] Although many Austrians shared the same views, a lot of them still showed allegiance to the Habsburg monarchy and hoped for Austria to remain an independent country.[33] Although not as radical as Schönerer and his followers, populists such as Karl Lueger used anti-semitism and pan-Germanism as a form of populism to further their own political purposes.[34]

World Wars

Main articles: Austria-Hungary § World War I, Anschluss, and First Austrian Republic
 
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.

 
Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg

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 the duties of the last imperial-royal government in a peaceful way. Initially the new state adopted 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.

 
Sign of the Austrian resistance movement at the Stephansdom in Vienna

The creation of the Czecho-Slovak and South Slav states, the dissolution of the real union with 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, and the new republic's name "Deutschösterreich" was prohibited by the treaty; instead the term "Republic of Austria" was used. The westernmost province Vorarlberg's wish to unite with Switzerland was also ignored. On October 21, 1919, the state changed its name accordingly. Many German Austrian communities were left scattered throughout the other new states, especially in Czechoslovakia, where more than 3 million German Bohemians had not been allowed to become part of the new Austrian state, as well as in the southern part of Tyrol which now found itself part of Italy. In total, more than 3.5 million German-speaking Austrians were forced to remain outside the Austrian state.

The collapse of the empire caused an apparent struggle for some German Austrians between an "Austrian" and a "German" character.[35] The idea of unifying Austria with Germany was motivated both by a sense of a common German 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. An 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 to 1938. The Engelbert Dollfuss/Kurt von Schuschnigg government accepted that Austria was a "German state" and believed Austrians were "better Germans", but strongly opposed the annexing of Austria to Nazi Germany.[36]

 
Austrians greeting the Nazis during the Anschluss 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 "Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue" ("Alpine and Danubian Gaue"), thus eradicating any links with a special Austrian past. Some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians, including Adolf Hitler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Franz Stangl, Otto Skorzeny, and Odilo Globocnik,[37] as were 40% of the staff at Nazi extermination camps.[38] During the war, Austrians' infatuation with Germany faded as Austrian-born Hitler's series of victories ended.[citation needed] 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 about post-war government, he spontaneously explained to his surprised visitors, "love for Germany has been put out in Austrians". When the allies declared that they would reestablish an independent Austrian state after their victory (the Moscow Declaration of 1943) the only Austrians who heard them were those secretly listening to enemy broadcasts ("Feindsender"), which was a criminal offence and heavily prosecuted.

Though the Allied forces treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation, they accepted the Declaration of Independence which 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 by 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.[39] 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.

Republic of Austria (1955 to present)

See also: Austria victim theory and Foreign relations of Austria
 
"Red-White-Red Book" which was published by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946, the book describes the accepted description of the events during the Anschluss (1938-1945) by the founders of the Second Austrian Republic.

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. Immediately after 1945 the majority of Austrians still saw themselves as Germans, as a broader Austrian national identity took time to develop. In a 1956 survey, 46% of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans.[40] Another survey carried out in 1964 revealed that only 15% of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans.[40]

In contrast, the Austrian political elite referred to their experiences in concentration camps and in prison, which had brought out a desire for the lost independence of the Austrian state. Kreissler (1993) writes: "It was not until after the (long dark) night of the Third Reich that Austrian identity was brought back to consciousness by resistance and exile".[41] Austrians developed a self-image unambiguously separate from their German neighbour. It was based on cultural achievements of the past, the Moscow Declaration, geopolitical neutrality, language variation, the Habsburg legacy, and the separation of the two empires in the late 19th century. The German Empire was formed without Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the arrangement known as the Kleindeutsche Lösung or "the Little Germany Solution". It proved favourable for Austrians not to be held guilty for World War II, genocide and war crimes, since Austria was considered a victim of Nazi Germany, although some historians call this a "big lie" and have challenged this statement.[42]

Unlike earlier in the 20th century, in 1987 only 6% of Austrians identified themselves as "Germans".[43] Today over 90% of the Austrians see themselves as an independent nation.[44][45] The logic of the existence of an independent Austrian state is no longer questioned as it was in the inter-war period. Proponents who recognize Austrians as a nation claim that Austrians have Celtic heritage, as Austria is the location of the first characteristically Celtic culture to exist.[46] It is said that Celtic Austria became culturally Romanized under Roman rule and later culturally Germanized after Germanic invasions.[46] Contemporary Austrians express pride in having Celtic heritage and Austria possesses one of the largest collections of Celtic artifacts in Europe.[47]

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 heavy immigration from Turkey and former Yugoslav states such as Croatia and Serbia.

Language

Further information: German language and High German languages

Austrians have historically spoken the German language. The sole official language at the federal level of Austria is German, and the standard used is called Austrian German since German is considered a pluricentric language, like English. Austrian German is defined by the Austrian Dictionary (German: Österreichisches Wörterbuch), published under the authority of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture. Thus, all websites, official announcements and most of the media are carried out in Austrian German. 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, Burgenland, 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.[citation needed]

The minority languages Slovene, Burgenland Croatian and Hungarian are spoken and officially recognized by some states of Austria.[citation needed]

Naturalization

Main articles: Austrian nationality law and Immigration to Austria

Like most of Central Europe, Austria has had high levels of immigration since the 1970s. As with Germany, the largest immigrant group are Turks. An estimated total of 350,000 ethnic Turks lived in Austria in 2010, accounting for 3% of the Austrian population.[48]

The rate of naturalization has increased after 1995, since which dates Turks in Austria could retain their citizenship in Turkey after naturalization in Austria (dual citizenship). After 2007, the rate of naturalizations has decreased due to a stricter nationality law enacted by the Austrian legislature.[49] During the 2000s, an average number of 27,127 foreign nationals per year was naturalized as Austrian citizens, compared to an average 67,688 children per year born with Austrian nationality.[50]

Today, the largest group of foreign nationals are Germans. As of January 2018 - 186,891 Germans lived in Austria.[51]

Consequently, an increasing portion of Austrians is not descended from the historical populations of Austria. While the term "ethnic Austrian" has mostly been reserved for the context of overseas emigration from Austria (Austrian Americans, Austrian Canadians etc.), it can more recently also be used to distinguish the indigenous population from the naturalized immigrant population.[52]

Culture

Main article: Austrian culture

Music

Main article: Music of Austria
Further information: Music of Vienna

Vienna, the capital city of Austria 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, Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss, Jr., among others, were associated with the city. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music.

Literature

Main article: Austrian literature
See also: List of Austrian writers

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. Writers of philosophy include Ernst Mach, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and the members of the Vienna circle.

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 German, 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.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Austria

The majority of Austrians are traditionally Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism in Austria has played a significant role both in the culture and in the politics of Austria. It enabled the House of Habsburg to rule Spain and its empire as a Catholic Monarchy from the 16th century, and it determined the role of Habsburg Austria in the Thirty Years' War. The music in the tradition of Viennese classicism is sacral to a significant extent, including works such as Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, masses by Joseph Haydn (1750-1802), Beethoven's Mass in C major (1807), down to Bruckner's Te Deum (1903).

Secularism has been on the rise since the 1980s. An estimated 66% of Austrians adhered to Roman Catholicism in 2009, compared to 78% in 1991 and 89% in 1961. There is a traditional Lutheran minority, accounting for 4% of the population in 2009 (down from 6% in 1961). An estimated 17% are nonreligious (as of 2005).

Islam in Austria has grown rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s, rising from 0.8% in 1971 to an estimated 6% in 2010, overtaking the traditional size of the Lutheran community in Austria.[53] This rapid growth was due to the significant immigration to Austria from Turkey and Former Yugoslavia during the 1990s to 2000s.

See also

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Austrians.

References

  1. ^ Citizens of Austria living there in 2018 according to official census data.[1]

Citations

  1. ^ "Bevölkerung 2018 nach detaillierter Staatsangehörigkeit, Geschlecht und Bundesland" (in German). Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  2. ^ Results   Archived February 12, 2020, at archive.today American Fact Finder (US Census Bureau)
  3. ^ "Zensusdatenbank - Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011". Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  4. ^ Statistic Canada 2011 National Household Survey (197,990 reported Austrian origin)
  5. ^ . Swiss Federal Statistical Office (in German). Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved October 6, 2014. Österreich denotes Austria
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "Auslandsösterreicherinnen und Auslandsösterreicher 2015". Statistik Austria (in German). Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Destination and Origin" (XLSX). United Nations. December 1, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  8. ^ Monash University ARROW Repository | People and Place April 15, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Présentation de l'Autriche" (in French). Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  10. ^ "CBS StatLine - Bevolking; generatie, geslacht, leeftijd en herkomstgroepering, 1 januari". Statline.cbs.nl. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  11. ^ "Befolkningsstatistik". Sverige i siffror. February 23, 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  12. ^ Austria en Chile, Embajada de Austria en Santiago de Chile. Retrieved 23 July 2020. Cite: Se estima que entre 4.000 y 5.000 austríacos se habrían radicado en Chile en el transcurso del siglo XX.
  13. ^ "H.E. Dr. Eva Hager The Austrian Ambassador to Thailand". October 5, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  14. ^ Except a brief period in the 16th century, when much of what is now eastern Austria turned Lutheran.
  15. ^ [Leaving church increased by eleven percent in 2012]. derStandard.at (in German). January 8, 2013. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013.
  16. ^ WZ-Recherche 2016. Published in article: "Staat und Religion". Wiener Zeitung, January 2016.
  17. ^ Robert H. Keyserlingk (July 1, 1990). Austria in World War II: An Anglo-American Dilemma. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. pp. 138–. ISBN 978-0-7735-0800-2.
  18. ^ a b c Thaler 2001, pp. 72–.
  19. ^ Ruth Wodak (2009). The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-0-7486-3734-8.
  20. ^ "Österreicher fühlen sich heute als Nation". Der Standard. March 12, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  21. ^ Thaler 2001, pp. 166–175.
  22. ^ Bischof & Pelinka 1997, pp. 32–63.
  23. ^ OED s.g. "Austrian, adj. and n."
  24. ^ Mark Allinson, Germany and Austria 1814-2000, pp. 23-29
  25. ^ Spohn, Willfried (2005), "Austria: From Habsburg Empire to a Small Nation in Europe", Entangled identities: nations and Europe, Ashgate, p. 61
  26. ^ ("Ich bin ein Deutscher Fürst") Walter Wiltschegg: Österreich, der "zweite deutsche Staat"?: der nationale Gedanke in der Ersten Republik, Stocker, 1992, p. 41 (German)
  27. ^ Richard Bassett, For God and Kaiser: The Imperial Austrian Army, 1619-1918, p. 40
  28. ^ Bukey 2002, p. 6.
  29. ^ (PDF) (in German). Vienna: Austrian Federal Press Service. 2000. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 23, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  30. ^ Hamann 2010, p. 394.
  31. ^ Suppan (2008). ′Germans′ in the Habsburg Empire. The Germans and the East. pp. 171–172.
  32. ^ Hamann 2010, p. 238.
  33. ^ Low 1974, pp. 14–16.
  34. ^ Hamann 2010, p. 282.
  35. ^ Bukey 2002, p. 8.
  36. ^ Ryschka, Birgit (January 1, 2008). Constructing and Deconstructing National Identity: Dramatic Discourse in Tom Murphy's The Patriot Game and Felix Mitterer's In Der Löwengrube. Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631581117 – via Google Books.
  37. ^ Ian Wallace (1999). "German-speaking exiles in Great Britain". Rodopi. p.81. ISBN 90-420-0415-0
  38. ^ David Art (2006). "The politics of the Nazi past in Germany and Austria". Cambridge University Press. p.43. ISBN 0-521-85683-3
  39. ^ Dokumentationsarchiev des österreichischen Widerstands July 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  40. ^ a b Thaler 2001.
  41. ^ Ruth Wodak; Rudolf de Cillia; Martin Reisigl (2009). The discursive construction of national identity. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 57–. ISBN 978-0-7486-3734-8.
  42. ^ Bischof & Pelinka 1997, pp. 3–.
  43. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2009. Development of the Austrian identity .
  44. ^ Österreicher fühlen sich heute als Nation - 1938 - derStandard.at › Wissenschaft
  45. ^ Austria. Library of Congress Country Studies, 2004. Accessed 1 October 2006.
  46. ^ a b Carl Waldman, Catherine Mason. Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Infobase Publishing, 2006. P. 42.
  47. ^ Kevin Duffy. Who Were the Celts? Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1996. P. 20.
  48. ^ BBC (November 10, 2010). "Turkey's ambassador to Austria prompts immigration spat". BBC News. Retrieved November 10, 2010.
  49. ^ Bauböck, Rainer (2006), Migration and Citizenship: Legal Status, Rights and Political Participation, Amsterdam University Press, ISBN 90-5356-888-3 p. 58.
  50. ^ statistik.at (years 2000–2009):
    • Naturalizations: 24320, 31731, 36011, 44694, 41645, 34876, 25746, 14010, 10258, 7978.
    • Births (Austrian nationality): 67694, 65741, 68474, 67861, 69902, 69023, 68662, 66864, 67348, 65312.
    The rate of naturalizations was at about 7,700 per year during the 1980s. It rose to 16,000 in 1997, 25,000 in 1999, peaking at 45,000 in 2003. Since 2004 the figure has shown a decreasing trend, falling back to a 1970s level (below 7,000) by 2010.
  51. ^ Staista (2018). "Foreign Nationals living in Austria". Statista News.
  52. ^ World and Its Peoples, Volume 7: Europe, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, ISBN 978-0-7614-7894-2, p. 921.
  53. ^ islamineurope.blogspot.com, citing Austrian census figures.

Bibliography

  • Bischof, Günter; Pelinka, Anton (1997). Austrian historical memory & national identity. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56000-902-3.
  • Bukey, Evan Burr (2002). Hitler's Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-1945. University North Carolina. ISBN 0807853631.
  • Hamann, Brigitte (2010). Hitler's Vienna: A Dictator's Apprenticeship. Tauris Parke. ISBN 978-1848852778.
  • Low, Alfred D. (1974). The Anschluss Movement, 1918‒1919, and the Paris Peace Conference. Amer Philosophical Society. ISBN 0871691035.
  • Thaler, Peter (2001). The Ambivalence of Identity: The Austrian Experience of Nation-Building in a Modern Society. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-201-5.

March 02, 2023
austrians, analysis, nationality, austrian, citizenship, austrian, nationality, german, österreicher, citizens, nationals, austria, english, term, applied, population, habsburg, austria, from, 17th, 18th, century, subsequently, during, 19th, century, referred,. For an analysis on the nationality or Austrian citizenship see Austrian nationality law Austrians German Osterreicher are the citizens and nationals of Austria The English term Austrians was applied to the population of Habsburg Austria from the 17th or 18th century Subsequently during the 19th century it referred to the citizens of the Empire of Austria 1804 1867 and from 1867 until 1918 to the citizens of Cisleithania In the closest sense the term Austria originally referred to the historical March of Austria corresponding roughly to the Vienna Basin in what is today Lower Austria AustriansGerman OsterreicherTotal populationc 8 8 5 millionRegions with significant populations Austria 7 427 759 a United States684 184 2 Germany345 620 3 Canada197 990 4 Switzerland40 300 65 090 5 6 7 Australia45 530 8 United Kingdom21 600 25 000 6 7 France20 000 9 7 Italy16 331 7 Netherlands15 771 2017 10 Brazil14 000 6 Spain12 000 6 South Africa10 000 6 Other countries 1 000 10 000 Argentina9 800 6 Hungary9 044 7 Israel9 000 6 Sweden6 311 11 Turkey1 900 6 14 400 7 Chile5 000 12 Czech Republic5 000 6 Greece4 000 6 Thailand4 000 13 Liechtenstein3 868 7 Poland3 790 7 Mexico3 500 6 Egypt3 400 6 Norway3 200 6 Slovakia3 154 7 Romania3 100 6 Slovenia3 052 7 Belgium3 020 7 Russia2 953 7 United Arab Emirates2 500 6 China1 900 6 Denmark1 500 1 900 7 6 Colombia1 600 6 New Zealand1 500 6 Portugal1 500 6 Philippines1 400 6 Croatia1 000 6 Uruguay1 000 6 LanguagesGerman Austro Bavarian Alemannic ReligionHistorically 14 primarily Roman Catholicminority LutheranNowadays 15 16 Christian 68 Irreligious 24 Historically Austrians were regarded as ethnic Germans and viewed themselves as such 17 18 19 The Austrian lands including Bohemia etc were part of the Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation until the Austro Prussian War in 1866 which resulted in Prussia expelling the Austrian Empire from the Confederation 18 Thus when Germany was founded as a nation state in 1871 Austria was not a part of it 18 In 1867 Austria was reformed into the Austro Hungarian Empire After the collapse of the Austro Hungarian Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I Austria was reduced to a rump state and adopted and briefly used the name the Republic of German Austria German Republik Deutschosterreich in an attempt for union with Germany but was forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint Germain en Laye 1919 The First Austrian Republic was founded in 1919 Nazi Germany annexed Austria with the Anschluss in 1938 After the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II in Europe both the political ideology of pan Germanism and the union with Germany have become associated with Nazism resulting in Austrians developing their own separate and distinct national identity Today the vast majority of Austrians do not identify as German 20 21 22 Contents 1 Name 2 History 2 1 Early history 2 2 Early Modern period 2 3 19th century nationalism 2 4 World Wars 2 5 Republic of Austria 1955 to present 3 Language 4 Naturalization 5 Culture 5 1 Music 5 2 Literature 5 3 Cuisine 5 4 Religion 6 See also 7 References 7 1 Citations 7 2 BibliographyName EditFurther information Name of Austria The first document containing the word Ostarrichi the word is marked with a red circle The English word Austrian is a derivative of the proper name Austria which is a latinization of Osterreich the German name for Austria This word is derived from Ostarrichi which first appears in 996 This in turn is probably a translation of the Latin Marcha Orientalis which means eastern borderland viz delimiting the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire It was a margraviate of the Duchy of Bavaria ruled by the House of Babenberg from AD 976 During the 12th century the Marcha Orientalis under the Babenbergs became independent of Bavaria What is today known as Lower Austria corresponds to the Marcha Orientalis while Upper Austria corresponds to the eastern half of the core territory of Bavaria the western half forming part of the German state of Bavaria The adjective Austrian entered the English language in the early 17th century at the time referring to Habsburg Austria in the sense of members of the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg the junior branch emerging from the dynastic split into Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs in 1521 but from the 18th century also a native or inhabitant of Austria 23 History EditMain article History of Austria Early history Edit Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures The core Hallstatt territory HaC 800 BC is shown in solid yellow The territories of some major Celtic tribes of the late La Tene period are labelled The territory of what is today Austria in the Roman era was divided into Raetia Noricum and Pannonia Noricum was a Celtic kingdom while the Pannonii were of Illyrian stock The Raetians were an ancient alpine people probably akin to the Etruscans During the Migration period c 6th century these territories were settled by the Bavarians and other Germanic groups in the west Alemanni in Vorarlberg Lombards in Tyrol and by Slavic groups principality Carantania Huns and Avars in the east In the 8th century the former territories of Raetia and Noricum fell under Carolingian rule and were divided into the duchies of Swabia Bavaria and principality Carantania Pannonia until the end of the 8th century was part of the Avar Khaganate The East March Ostmark during the 9th century was the boundary region separating East Francia from the Avars and the Magyars The site of Vienna had been settled since Celtic times as Vindobona but the city only rose to importance in the High Middle Ages as the chief settlement of the March of Austria the March river just east of Vienna marks the ancient border between Francia and the Avars After the defeat of the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 the East March or March of Austria came to be the easternmost portion of the Holy Roman Empire bordering on Moravia to the north and on the Kingdom of Hungary to the east As a consequence the national character of the Austro Bavarian speaking majority population of Austria throughout their early modern and modern history remained characterized by their neighbourhood to the West Slavs Czechs Slovaks to the north the South Slavs Slovenes Carinthian Slovenes Burgenland Croats to the south and the Hungarians to the east The unification of the various territories of Austria outside of the March of Austria proper i e parts of Bavaria Swabia and Carinthia was a gradual process of feudal politics during the High and Late Middle Ages at first in the Archduchy of Austria under the House of Babenberg during the 12th to 13th centuries and under the House of Habsburg after 1278 and throughout the 14th and 15th centuries The various populations of these territories were not unified under the single name of Austrians before the early modern period Early Modern period Edit Further information Habsburg Austria Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy The Habsburg who had ruled the territory of Austria since the Late Middle Ages 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 citation needed 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 ancestry Although not formally a united state the lands ruled by the Habsburgs would sometimes 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 reign of Maria Theresa of Austria and her son Joseph II 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 Following Prussia s victory in the Austro Prussian war in 1866 Otto von Bismarck successfully unified the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated without the inclusion of Austria and the German Austrians 24 After Austria was excluded from Germany in 1866 the following year Austria joined Hungary as a dual empire known as the Austro Hungarian Empire 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 and parts of Slovenia Poland Ukraine Italy and Croatia was bound together by the common constitution of 1867 stating that all subjects now would carry uniform Austrian citizenship and have the same fundamental rights These non Hungarian lands were not officially called the Austrian Empire Until 1915 they were officially called the Kingdoms and States Represented in the Imperial Council and politicians used the technical term Cisleithania labelling the Hungarian lands as Transleithania The general public called them Austria and in 1915 the non parliamentary Cisleithanian government decreed to use this term officially too 19th century nationalism Edit Main articles Austrian nationalism Austria Prussia rivalry German nationalism German nationalism in Austria and Pan Germanism Central Europe ca 1820 showing the Kingdom of Prussia blue the Austrian Empire yellow and other independent German states grey The red line marks the border of the German Confederation both Prussia and Austria controlled lands outside the Confederation The idea of grouping all Germans into one nation state gave way to a rapid rise of German nationalism within the German Confederation especially in the two most powerful German states Austria and Prussia The question of how a unified Germany was to be formed was a matter of debate The German Question was to be solved by either unifying all German speaking peoples under one state as the Greater German solution Grossdeutsche Losung which was promoted by the Austrian Empire and its supporters On the other hand the Lesser German solution Kleindeutsche Losung advocated only to unify the northern German states and exclude Austria this proposal was favored by the Kingdom of Prussia and its supporters This debate became known as German dualism 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 A map of the German Confederation in 1849 showing the 39 independent states 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 German 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 The idea of uniting all ethnic Germans into one nation state began to be challenged in Austria by the rise of Austrian nationalism especially within the Christian Social Party that identified Austrians on the basis of their predominantly Catholic religious identity as opposed to the predominantly Protestant religious identity of the Prussians 25 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 the Austro Prussian War of 1866 and the collapse of the Confederation both effectively ending any future Austrian influence on German political events When asked by Edward VII to abandon Austria Hungary s alliance with Germany for co operation with England Franz Joseph replied I am a German prince 26 27 The Franco Prussian War and the establishment of a German Empire in 1871 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 After Bismarck had excluded Austria from Germany many Austrians faced a dilemma about their identity which prompted the Social Democratic Leader Otto Bauer to state that the dilemma was the conflict between our Austrian and German character 28 The state as a whole tried to work out a sense of a distinctively Austrian identity The Austro Hungarian Empire created ethnic conflict between the German Austrians and the other ethnic groups of the empire Many pan German movements in the empire desired the reinforcement of an ethnic German identity and that the empire would collapse and allow for a quick annexation of Austria to Germany 29 30 Although it was precisely because of Bismarck s policies that Austria and the German Austrians were excluded from Germany many Austrian pan Germans idolized him 31 While the high bureaucracy of Austria and many Austrian army officers considered themselves black yellow the Habsburg colours i e loyal to the dynasty the term German Austria Deutschosterreich was a term used in the press to mean all the Austrian districts with an ethnic German majority among the inhabitants Austrian pan Germans such as Georg Ritter von Schonerer and his followers agitated against the multi national Austro Hungarian Empire and advocated for German Austria to join the German Empire 32 Although many Austrians shared the same views a lot of them still showed allegiance to the Habsburg monarchy and hoped for Austria to remain an independent country 33 Although not as radical as Schonerer and his followers populists such as Karl Lueger used anti semitism and pan Germanism as a form of populism to further their own political purposes 34 World Wars Edit Main articles Austria Hungary World War I Anschluss and First Austrian Republic 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 Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg 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 fur Deutschosterreich 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 the duties of the last imperial royal government in a peaceful way Initially the new state adopted 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 Sign of the Austrian resistance movement at the Stephansdom in Vienna The creation of the Czecho Slovak and South Slav states the dissolution of the real union with 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 and the new republic s name Deutschosterreich was prohibited by the treaty instead the term Republic of Austria was used The westernmost province Vorarlberg s wish to unite with Switzerland was also ignored On October 21 1919 the state changed its name accordingly Many German Austrian communities were left scattered throughout the other new states especially in Czechoslovakia where more than 3 million German Bohemians had not been allowed to become part of the new Austrian state as well as in the southern part of Tyrol which now found itself part of Italy In total more than 3 5 million German speaking Austrians were forced to remain outside the Austrian state The collapse of the empire caused an apparent struggle for some German Austrians between an Austrian and a German character 35 The idea of unifying Austria with Germany was motivated both by a sense of a common German 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 An 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 to 1938 The Engelbert Dollfuss Kurt von Schuschnigg government accepted that Austria was a German state and believed Austrians were better Germans but strongly opposed the annexing of Austria to Nazi Germany 36 Austrians greeting the Nazis during the Anschluss 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 Alpen und Donau Reichsgaue Alpine and Danubian Gaue thus eradicating any links with a special Austrian past Some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians including Adolf Hitler Ernst Kaltenbrunner Arthur Seyss Inquart Franz Stangl Otto Skorzeny and Odilo Globocnik 37 as were 40 of the staff at Nazi extermination camps 38 During the war Austrians infatuation with Germany faded as Austrian born Hitler s series of victories ended citation needed When social democrat Adolf Scharf from 1945 party president and vice chancellor and from 1957 federal president of Austria was visited by German friends who wanted to talk about post war government he spontaneously explained to his surprised visitors love for Germany has been put out in Austrians When the allies declared that they would reestablish an independent Austrian state after their victory the Moscow Declaration of 1943 the only Austrians who heard them were those secretly listening to enemy broadcasts Feindsender which was a criminal offence and heavily prosecuted Though the Allied forces treated Austria as a belligerent party in the war and maintained occupation of it after the Nazi capitulation they accepted the Declaration of Independence which 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 by 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 39 The sign of the Austrian resistance was O5 where the 5 stands for E and OE is the abbreviation of Osterreich with O as OE Republic of Austria 1955 to present Edit See also Austria victim theory and Foreign relations of Austria Red White Red Book which was published by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946 the book describes the accepted description of the events during the Anschluss 1938 1945 by the founders of the Second Austrian Republic 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 Immediately after 1945 the majority of Austrians still saw themselves as Germans as a broader Austrian national identity took time to develop In a 1956 survey 46 of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans 40 Another survey carried out in 1964 revealed that only 15 of Austrians still considered themselves to be Germans 40 In contrast the Austrian political elite referred to their experiences in concentration camps and in prison which had brought out a desire for the lost independence of the Austrian state Kreissler 1993 writes It was not until after the long dark night of the Third Reich that Austrian identity was brought back to consciousness by resistance and exile 41 Austrians developed a self image unambiguously separate from their German neighbour It was based on cultural achievements of the past the Moscow Declaration geopolitical neutrality language variation the Habsburg legacy and the separation of the two empires in the late 19th century The German Empire was formed without Austria and the Austro Hungarian Empire in the arrangement known as the Kleindeutsche Losung or the Little Germany Solution It proved favourable for Austrians not to be held guilty for World War II genocide and war crimes since Austria was considered a victim of Nazi Germany although some historians call this a big lie and have challenged this statement 42 Unlike earlier in the 20th century in 1987 only 6 of Austrians identified themselves as Germans 43 Today over 90 of the Austrians see themselves as an independent nation 44 45 The logic of the existence of an independent Austrian state is no longer questioned as it was in the inter war period Proponents who recognize Austrians as a nation claim that Austrians have Celtic heritage as Austria is the location of the first characteristically Celtic culture to exist 46 It is said that Celtic Austria became culturally Romanized under Roman rule and later culturally Germanized after Germanic invasions 46 Contemporary Austrians express pride in having Celtic heritage and Austria possesses one of the largest collections of Celtic artifacts in Europe 47 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 heavy immigration from Turkey and former Yugoslav states such as Croatia and Serbia Language EditFurther information German language and High German languages Austrians have historically spoken the German language The sole official language at the federal level of Austria is German and the standard used is called Austrian German since German is considered a pluricentric language like English Austrian German is defined by the Austrian Dictionary German Osterreichisches Worterbuch published under the authority of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education Arts and Culture Thus all websites official announcements and most of the media are carried out in Austrian German 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 Burgenland 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 citation needed The minority languages Slovene Burgenland Croatian and Hungarian are spoken and officially recognized by some states of Austria citation needed Naturalization EditMain articles Austrian nationality law and Immigration to Austria Like most of Central Europe Austria has had high levels of immigration since the 1970s As with Germany the largest immigrant group are Turks An estimated total of 350 000 ethnic Turks lived in Austria in 2010 accounting for 3 of the Austrian population 48 The rate of naturalization has increased after 1995 since which dates Turks in Austria could retain their citizenship in Turkey after naturalization in Austria dual citizenship After 2007 the rate of naturalizations has decreased due to a stricter nationality law enacted by the Austrian legislature 49 During the 2000s an average number of 27 127 foreign nationals per year was naturalized as Austrian citizens compared to an average 67 688 children per year born with Austrian nationality 50 Today the largest group of foreign nationals are Germans As of January 2018 186 891 Germans lived in Austria 51 Consequently an increasing portion of Austrians is not descended from the historical populations of Austria While the term ethnic Austrian has mostly been reserved for the context of overseas emigration from Austria Austrian Americans Austrian Canadians etc it can more recently also be used to distinguish the indigenous population from the naturalized immigrant population 52 Culture EditMain article Austrian culture Music Edit Main article Music of Austria Further information Music of Vienna Vienna the capital city of Austria 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 Franz Schubert and Johann Strauss Jr among others were associated with the city During the Baroque period Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music Literature Edit Main article Austrian literature See also List of Austrian writers 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 Writers of philosophy include Ernst Mach Ludwig Wittgenstein Karl Popper and the members of the Vienna circle Cuisine Edit 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 German 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 Religion Edit Main article Religion in Austria The majority of Austrians are traditionally Roman Catholic Roman Catholicism in Austria has played a significant role both in the culture and in the politics of Austria It enabled the House of Habsburg to rule Spain and its empire as a Catholic Monarchy from the 16th century and it determined the role of Habsburg Austria in the Thirty Years War The music in the tradition of Viennese classicism is sacral to a significant extent including works such as Mozart s Great Mass in C minor masses by Joseph Haydn 1750 1802 Beethoven s Mass in C major 1807 down to Bruckner s Te Deum 1903 Secularism has been on the rise since the 1980s An estimated 66 of Austrians adhered to Roman Catholicism in 2009 compared to 78 in 1991 and 89 in 1961 There is a traditional Lutheran minority accounting for 4 of the population in 2009 down from 6 in 1961 An estimated 17 are nonreligious as of 2005 Islam in Austria has grown rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s rising from 0 8 in 1971 to an estimated 6 in 2010 overtaking the traditional size of the Lutheran community in Austria 53 This rapid growth was due to the significant immigration to Austria from Turkey and Former Yugoslavia during the 1990s to 2000s See also Edit Austria portal Wikiquote has quotations related to Austrians Demographics of Austria Austrian American Austrian Brazilian Austrian Canadians Austrian Mexicans Austro Bavarian German nationalism in Austria Pan Germanism List of Austrians Studentenverbindung Austrian culture Austrian cuisine Austria Germany relationsReferences Edit Citizens of Austria living there in 2018 according to official census data 1 Citations Edit Bevolkerung 2018 nach detaillierter Staatsangehorigkeit Geschlecht und Bundesland in German Retrieved June 14 2021 Results Archived February 12 2020 at archive today American Fact Finder US Census Bureau Zensusdatenbank Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011 Retrieved April 25 2015 Statistic Canada 2011 National Household Survey 197 990 reported Austrian origin Auslandische Bevolkerung Staatsangehorigkeit Swiss Federal Statistical Office in German Archived from the original on January 30 2012 Retrieved October 6 2014 Osterreich denotes Austria a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Auslandsosterreicherinnen und Auslandsosterreicher 2015 Statistik Austria in German Retrieved July 14 2016 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trends in International Migrant Stock Migrants by Destination and Origin XLSX United Nations December 1 2015 Retrieved July 14 2016 Monash University ARROW Repository People and Place Archived April 15 2005 at the Wayback Machine Presentation de l Autriche in French Retrieved July 15 2016 CBS StatLine Bevolking generatie geslacht leeftijd en herkomstgroepering 1 januari Statline cbs nl Retrieved October 5 2017 Befolkningsstatistik Sverige i siffror February 23 2017 Retrieved July 8 2017 Austria en Chile Embajada de Austria en Santiago de Chile Retrieved 23 July 2020 Cite Se estima que entre 4 000 y 5 000 austriacos se habrian radicado en Chile en el transcurso del siglo XX H E Dr Eva Hager The Austrian Ambassador to Thailand October 5 2019 Retrieved April 13 2021 Except a brief period in the 16th century when much of what is now eastern Austria turned Lutheran Kirchenaustritte gingen 2012 um elf Prozent zuruck Leaving church increased by eleven percent in 2012 derStandard at in German January 8 2013 Archived from the original on October 20 2013 WZ Recherche 2016 Published in article Staat und Religion Wiener Zeitung January 2016 Robert H Keyserlingk July 1 1990 Austria in World War II An Anglo American Dilemma McGill Queen s Press MQUP pp 138 ISBN 978 0 7735 0800 2 a b c Thaler 2001 pp 72 Ruth Wodak 2009 The Discursive Construction of National Identity Edinburgh University Press pp 56 ISBN 978 0 7486 3734 8 Osterreicher fuhlen sich heute als Nation Der Standard March 12 2008 Retrieved July 14 2014 Thaler 2001 pp 166 175 Bischof amp Pelinka 1997 pp 32 63 OED s g Austrian adj and n Mark Allinson Germany and Austria 1814 2000 pp 23 29 Spohn Willfried 2005 Austria From Habsburg Empire to a Small Nation in Europe Entangled identities nations and Europe Ashgate p 61 Ich bin ein Deutscher Furst Walter Wiltschegg Osterreich der zweite deutsche Staat der nationale Gedanke in der Ersten Republik Stocker 1992 p 41 German Richard Bassett For God and Kaiser The Imperial Austrian Army 1619 1918 p 40 Bukey 2002 p 6 Das politische System in Osterreich The Political System in Austria PDF in German Vienna Austrian Federal Press Service 2000 p 24 Archived from the original PDF on April 23 2014 Retrieved July 9 2014 Hamann 2010 p 394 Suppan 2008 Germans in the Habsburg Empire The Germans and the East pp 171 172 Hamann 2010 p 238 Low 1974 pp 14 16 Hamann 2010 p 282 Bukey 2002 p 8 Ryschka Birgit January 1 2008 Constructing and Deconstructing National Identity Dramatic Discourse in Tom Murphy s The Patriot Game and Felix Mitterer s In Der Lowengrube Peter Lang ISBN 9783631581117 via Google Books Ian Wallace 1999 German speaking exiles in Great Britain Rodopi p 81 ISBN 90 420 0415 0 David Art 2006 The politics of the Nazi past in Germany and Austria Cambridge University Press p 43 ISBN 0 521 85683 3 Dokumentationsarchiev des osterreichischen Widerstands Archived July 18 2009 at the Wayback Machine a b Thaler 2001 Ruth Wodak Rudolf de Cillia Martin Reisigl 2009 The discursive construction of national identity Edinburgh University Press pp 57 ISBN 978 0 7486 3734 8 Bischof amp Pelinka 1997 pp 3 Die Entwicklung des Osterreichbewusstseins PDF Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved July 22 2009 Development of the Austrian identity Osterreicher fuhlen sich heute als Nation 1938 derStandard at Wissenschaft Austria Library of Congress Country Studies 2004 Accessed 1 October 2006 a b Carl Waldman Catherine Mason Encyclopedia of European Peoples Infobase Publishing 2006 P 42 Kevin Duffy Who Were the Celts Barnes amp Noble Publishing 1996 P 20 BBC November 10 2010 Turkey s ambassador to Austria prompts immigration spat BBC News Retrieved November 10 2010 Baubock Rainer 2006 Migration and Citizenship Legal Status Rights and Political Participation Amsterdam University Press ISBN 90 5356 888 3 p 58 statistik at years 2000 2009 Naturalizations 24320 31731 36011 44694 41645 34876 25746 14010 10258 7978 Births Austrian nationality 67694 65741 68474 67861 69902 69023 68662 66864 67348 65312 The rate of naturalizations was at about 7 700 per year during the 1980s It rose to 16 000 in 1997 25 000 in 1999 peaking at 45 000 in 2003 Since 2004 the figure has shown a decreasing trend falling back to a 1970s level below 7 000 by 2010 Staista 2018 Foreign Nationals living in Austria Statista News World and Its Peoples Volume 7 Europe Marshall Cavendish Corporation ISBN 978 0 7614 7894 2 p 921 islamineurope blogspot com citing Austrian census figures Bibliography Edit Bischof Gunter Pelinka Anton 1997 Austrian historical memory amp national identity Transaction Publishers ISBN 978 1 56000 902 3 Bukey Evan Burr 2002 Hitler s Austria Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era 1938 1945 University North Carolina ISBN 0807853631 Hamann Brigitte 2010 Hitler s Vienna A Dictator s Apprenticeship Tauris Parke ISBN 978 1848852778 Low Alfred D 1974 The Anschluss Movement 1918 1919 and the Paris Peace Conference Amer Philosophical Society ISBN 0871691035 Thaler Peter 2001 The Ambivalence of Identity The Austrian Experience of Nation Building in a Modern Society Purdue University Press ISBN 978 1 55753 201 5 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Austrians amp oldid 1136020371, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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