● Capital: Vienna
● Language: German
● Currency: Euro
● Population: 8,82 million, 105 per km² (2018)
● Surface: 83 879 km²
(Image: Flag of Austria; source: Pixabay)
Through the migration of the peoples, which started already in the time B.C. and went on until 800 A.D., different ethnic groups, like Slavs and Southern Germans, mixed in Austria. From 976 A.D. the House of Habsburg ruled over the country, which constantly expanded and became one of the most powerful empires in Europe. Vienna as the centre of the Habsburg Monarchy has always been of great historic importance for the idea of a shared Danube space , since it united peoples and ideas.
From 1867 until 1918 there was the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. After the defeat in World War II the Habsburg empire broke apart and the First Austrian Republic was founded. In 1938 Austria was integrated into national socialist Germany and given the name of „the Ostmark“.
Only after the end of World War II the country regained its independence. Since 1995 Austria has been a member of the EU.
(Image: Hofburg - a residence of the Habsburgs in Vienna until 1918; source: Pixabay)
The Danube flows through Austria over a length of 349 km. Between Passau and Linz it changes its course by 180° („Schlögener Schlinge“). In the south of Vienna there is the national park of the „Donauauen“, one of the largest, mostly untouched pasture landscapes in Central Europe.
(Image: Nature Spectacle in Austria - Schlögener Schlinge; source: Pixabay)
Geography: the largest proportion of the land is covered by the Alps.
Famous people: Sigmund Freud, Bertha von Suttner, Mozart and other composers, Klimt and other artists, Schwarzenegger, Elyas M'Barek
(Image: Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg; source: Pixabay)
