It's the spectacular, snowcapped
mountains of regions like the Tyrol
that provide the most familiar
images of
Austria - a
landscape of jagged peaks and
rampaging rivers, giving way to
green pastures studded with
onion-domed churches. Yet Austria is
by no means all alpine vistas: the
country stretches across central
Europe for some 700km, from the
shores of the Bodensee in the west
to the edge of the flat Hungarian
plain in the east. Far removed from
the archetype are the wetlands and
reed beds of Burgenland, and the
dramatic sequence of stopes that
carve their way up the Erzberg in
Styria. In Upper and Lower Austria
in particular, a predominantly
low-key landscape of gentle rolling
hills and vineyards can come as
something of a surprise to
first-time visitors. Yet this
fertile, low-lying northern half of
the country is, in fact, where the
majority of Austrians live and work,
many of them within commuting
distance of the capital,
Vienna
- the country's chief tourist
destination after the alpine
regions.
For all its bucolic charm and
fondness for the days of empire,
when Vienna sat at the centre of the
vast, multinational Habsburg
dynasty, Austria today is thoroughly
modern, clean, efficient and
eminently civilized, with uniformly
excellent tourist facilities. Like
neighbouring Switzerland, it's also
a supremely law-abiding nation,
where no one jaywalks or drops
litter, and the trains and trams run
on time. Whether you're staying in
one of the popular skiing, hiking or
spa resorts, or in an out-of-the-way
Gasthof, you're likely to experience
" Gemütlichkeit "
- a typically Austrian term
expressing a mixture of cosiness and
hospitality - at some point during
your visit.
Looking at the country at the
close of the twentieth century -
stable, conservative and wealthy -
you wouldn't think that Austria had
spent the first half of the century
struggling to find a national
identity. After all, it was only in
1918, when the Habsburg Empire
disintegrated, that the idea of a
modern Austrian nation was born. The
new republic, with a population of
just eight million reluctant
citizens, was riven by left- and
right-wing political violence and,
as a result, the majority of
Austrians were wildly enthusiastic
about the Anschluss with Nazi
Germany in 1938. The price of
Austria's participation, and
ultimately defeat, in World War II,
however, was Allied occupation. For
ten years the country was split,
like Germany, into Soviet, American,
British and French zones. As a
gesture of détente, the Soviets
finally agreed to withdraw their
troops, in return for Austria's
"permanent neutrality". At
this point, Austria turned over a
new leaf, and recast itself as a
model of consensus politics, with an
almost Scandinavian emphasis on
social policy as the guiding
principle of national life. Postwar
stability saw the growth of a
genuine patriotism, while the end of
the Cold War put the country, and
its capital, back at the heart of
Europe.
In 1995, Austria became a full
member of the European Union, a move
that for many was a sign that the
country had finally entered the
mainstream of European politics.
From time to time, Austria's more
reactionary elements have attracted
widespread media attention, most
notably during the Waldheim affair,
when the wartime record of the
president was called into question,
and in the recent rise of the Far
Right under the charismatic Jörg
Haider. But the reality is that the
Socialist party retains the
strongest influence in government,
as it has for much of the postwar
period, and the country's political
stability, for the most part,
continues intact.
