Austria

G

Culture

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Vienna was a world centre of culture, particularly in music and literature. Austrian fine art is usually considered with the art of southern Germany. A distinctive Austrian style, however, is manifested in the refined Baroque architecture and sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries, notably in Vienna and Salzburg.

The largest of the 2,400 libraries in Austria is the National Library, founded in 1526. Important research collections are housed in the various universities, in several old monasteries, and in a number of scientific libraries. The collection of the former royal house contains state papers dating from 816; collections of the Holy Roman Empire dating from 1555; and documents concerning the history of the Austrian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and the period since 1918.

The art and natural science museums of Vienna are internationally known, as are many individual collections. The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) is famous for its paintings by members of the Brueghel family and for the works of Dutch, Italian, and German painters. The Albertina collection of prints and drawings, the collections of jewellery and relics of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian Gallery, the technical museum, and the museum of folklore and ethnography are all well known. Salzburg, birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, has two museums housing collections of his manuscripts and memorabilia.

Important art contributions include early woodcarvings, tapestries, hand-carved and hand-painted chests, intricately forged grates and other ironwork, stained-glass windows, porcelain, lace, and leatherwork. Woodcarving has long been popular among the people of the Alpine valleys. Among the best-known modern painters of Austria are Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and Hundertwasser.

The Land of Music is a name often given to Austria. The composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss the Elder and Younger, Franz von Suppé, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Franz Lehár, and Arnold Schoenberg, as well as the conductors Felix Weingartner, Clemens Krauss, and Herbert von Karajan, are just a few who have enriched Austrian cultural life. The Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are celebrated institutions. Vienna has two famous opera houses, the Volksoper (People’s Opera), opened in 1904, and the Vienna State Opera, completed in 1869 and known for its magnificent architecture and the high quality of its performances. In addition, every provincial capital has its own theatre, and the summer festivals in Vienna, Salzburg, and Bregenz are outstanding musical events.

See also Austrian Literature.

IV

Economy

The Austrian economy was based on a balance of private and public enterprise. However, the basic industries were nationalized after 1946; these include all oil production and refining; the largest commercial banks; and the principal companies in river and air transport, rail equipment, electrical machinery and appliances, mining, iron, steel, and chemical manufacturing, and natural gas and electric power production. A programme of privatization was initiated that resulted in many industries passing out of public ownership by the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s only a few enterprises, among them the postal service, parts of the banking system, and fixed-line telecommunications, remained in the public sector.

The gross national product (GNP) of Austria in 2004 was US$264 billion (World Bank estimate), or US$37,190 per capita. In the 2005 the estimated annual national budget included revenues of US$128.8 billion and expenditures of US$122.1 billion. In 2005 the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) was US$306 billion.

A

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Of the total land area, about 16.8 per cent is considered suitable for cultivation. Meadows and pastures constitute about 24 per cent of the total land area, and market gardens and vineyards account for slightly more than 1 per cent. About half of Austrian farms are under 10 hectares (25 acres) in size. Agriculture contributes about 1.5 per cent of Austrian GDP (2005, including forestry and fishing), and employs about 6 per cent of the working population (2005).

Major products and yearly yields in 2005 included sugar beet (3 million tonnes), maize (1.60 million), wheat (1.45 million), barley (1 million), and potatoes (707,911 tonnes). Livestock included 3 million pigs, 2.01 million head of cattle (of which about one quarter were dairy cows), 325,700 sheep, and 85,000 horses.

Approximately 46.8 per cent of the total land area is forest or woodland. A comprehensive reforestation and conservation programme has been in progress since the early 1950s to compensate for damage inflicted during World War II and for post-war overcutting of forest trees. Almost 80 per cent of the forests consists of conifers, mostly spruce, which are important in the paper and pulp industry as well as in building construction. In 1995 about 13.8 million cu m (488 million cu ft) of timber were felled.

Processing and consumption of fish are low, and most fish are imported. Fishing in the mountain streams is a popular sport.

B

Mining

The average annual production of principal minerals in the late 1980s included iron ore (1.6 million tonnes), lignite (1.3 million), crude oil (1.1 million), salt (786,000), magnesite (654,000), and zinc ore (20,014). Other minerals commercially mined included copper, lead, antimony, graphite, gypsum, kaolin, and talc; there was also drilling for natural gas.

C

Manufacturing

The Austrian manufacturing industry consists of a few large organizations, many of which operate under government auspices, and a great number of small and medium-sized production units. Manufacturing contributed almost 20 per cent of Austrian GDP in 2003, and employed almost 22 per cent of the working population. The principal industrial products by bulk are pig iron, crude steel, rolled steel, machinery, food products, chemical products, motor vehicles, cement, fertilizers, rayon, cotton, and woollen yarns and fabrics, and paper. Production of crude steel totalled just under 5 million tonnes in 1994.