1.
Coat of arms of Austria
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The current coat of arms of Austria has been in use, in various forms, by the Republic of Austria since 1919. Between 1934 and the German annexation in 1938 Austria used a different coat of arms, the establishment of the Second Republic in 1945 saw the return of the original arms, with broken chains added to symbolise Austrias liberation. Both versions are used in parallel, surveys have however confirmed, that understanding of the actual symbolism of the arms is widespread. On the one hand the arms serve as a new republican symbol, the current version of the arms is often regarded as being reminiscent of the double-headed eagle of the Habsburg monarchy. According to this interpretation, the single headed eagle alludes, in the sense of the removal of the hand, Hungarian head. The Austrian federal states have however retained pre-republican heraldic traditions, on 31 October 1918, the council of state agreed upon the colours of the republic as well as the new coat of arms composed personally by chancellor Karl Renner. The coat of arms was composed quickly due to the need for having a seal at the talks after World War I. The coat of arms consisted of a tower representing the bourgeoisie. The colours black, red and gold was chosen because they were the national colours of Germany. The new coat of arms was however withdrawn as it was met with criticism from, for example, Adolf Loos and heraldists. A decision by the council of ministers on 8 May 1919 replaced the arms with the eagle
2.
Flag of Austria
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The flag of Austria has three equal horizontal bands of red, white, and red. The Austrian triband is based on the coat of arms of the Babenberg dynasty and it may have seen use in flags from about the 15th century, alongside the black-and-yellow colors of the House of Habsburg and other insignia of the Holy Roman Empire. It was adopted as an ensign in the 18th century. The flag traces back to the coat of arms of the medieval Babenberg dynasty, however, the Babenberg margrave Leopold III of Austria had already been depicted with a triband shield in 1105. When the last Otakar Duke Ottokar IV of Styria died in 1192, the triband is first documented in a seal on a deed issued on 30 November 1230, confirming the privileges of Lilienfeld Abbey. The medieval chronicler Jans der Enikel reports that the duke appeared in a ceremonial dress at his 1232 accolade in the Vienna Schottenstift. The Babenberg family colors developed to the coat of arms of their Austrian possessions, after the dynasty had become extinct with Fredericks death at the 1246 Battle of the Leitha River, they were adopted by his Přemyslid successor King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Upon the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld the colours were assumed by the victorious House of Habsburg, according to legend, the flag was invented by Duke Leopold V of Austria as a consequence of his fighting during the Siege of Acre. After a fierce battle, his white surcoat was completely drenched in blood, when he removed his belt, the cloth beneath remained unstained, revealing the combination of red-white-red. So taken was he by this singular sight that he adopted the colors, the incident was documented as early as 1260, though it is highly unlikely. In fact, the war flag of the Holy Roman Empire during the Crusades was a cross on a red field quite similar to the later Austrian arms. This ensign was used by the Austrian capital Vienna from the late 13th century onwards, since the days of Rudolph of Habsburg and the 1283 Treaty of Rheinfelden, the combination of red-white-red was widely considered to be the Austrian colours used by the ruling Habsburg dynasty. However, the flag of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, like the later Austrian Empire. These were the colours of the Imperial House of Habsburg. Beginning in the reign of Emperor Joseph II, the Austrian, later Austro-Hungarian Navy used a Naval Ensign based on the red-white-red colours, and augmented with a shield of similar colours. Both of these became obsolete with Austria-Hungarys dissolution in 1918. The Austrian flag has been the motif of many collector coins. One of the most recent examples is the 20 euro Post War Period coin, the obverse of this coin shows the Austrian coat of arms flanked by the Austrian flag and the European Union flag
3.
Sebastian Kurz
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Sebastian Kurz is an Austrian politician, who has been Austrias Minister for Foreign Affairs and Integration since 2013. He had been described as the youngest Minister for Foreign Affairs and integration throughout the world and European history and he is a member of the Austrian Peoples Party. Kurz was born in Vienna and brought up in the city district of Meidling and he entered the Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium Erlgasse in 1996 and after his final exam in 2004 Kurz completed the obligatory military service. In 2011, he decided to suspend his law studies at the University of Vienna, in 2009 Kurz was elected chairman of the youth branch of the Austrian Peoples Party. Between 2010 and 2011 he was member of Viennas city council, in April 2011 Kurz was appointed to the newly created post of State Secretary for Integration. In the 2013 general election, Kurz was elected as a member of parliament and he won the most direct votes of any member of parliament in the election. In December 2013, Kurz became Austrias Foreign Minister, whose portfolio was at his request widened to include Social integration. At the time of his swearing-in Kurz was Austrias youngest government minister since the foundation of the republic and the youngest foreign minister in the European Union and the world. His first trip abroad took Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz to Croatia, in February 2014, Sebastian Kurz hosted the first of several rounds of negotiations on the nuclear program of Iran in Vienna, strengthening Austria’s position as place of dialogue. The negotiations were concluded on 14 July 2015, when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed by Iran, the P5+1. During his first year in office, Kurz chaired the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe until May 2014, in late 2014, he succeeded Radosław Sikorski as co-chair of the European People’s Party Foreign Ministers Meeting, alongside Elmar Brok. In November 2014, Sebastian Kurz was appointed to lead the European Peoples Party Foreign Affairs Ministers together with Elmar Brok, Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee in the EP. In 2015, Sebastian Kurz proposed a new Islamgesetz illegalizing foreign funding of mosques and paying salaries of imams and it however also gives Muslims additional rights, such as the rights to halal food and pastoral care in the military. Sebastian Kurz said the changes were intended to combat the influence of radical Islam in Austria. The law was passed by the Austrian parliament in February 2015, as part of the Humanitarian Initiative, Kurz hosted the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in late 2014. Following his proposal, Vienna later hosted the leading to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for the nuclear program of Iran in 2015. List of foreign ministers in 2017 List of current foreign ministers Personal Website
4.
Government of Austria
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The Austrian Federal Government is a collective body that exercises executive power in the Republic of Austria. It is composed of the Chancellor, who is leader of the government, the Vice-Chancellor, the President and the Government together form the executive branch of Austria. The nominations of the takes place at the suggestion of the Chancellor. Likewise, the President may dismiss the Chancellor and/or the whole government at any time, however, a new government must be formed by the parties that control parliament. The government is convened for frequently scheduled meetings, when formally convened as such, the government is termed the Council of Ministers, which is equivalent to the word cabinet. Each federal minister is responsible for his or her own ministry, and may be supported by one or more state secretaries. State secretaries are not considered members of the government, and have no right to vote during cabinet meetings, the incumbent government of Austria is a grand coalition government formed by the left-wing Social Democratic Party of Austria and the right-wing Austrian Peoples Party. Most of the ministers kept their job, however, some decided to step down or were replaced, the Renner ministry was composed of representatives of the three main political parties—Social Democrats, the Christian Social Party and German Nationalists —according to the Proporz doctrine. State Chancellor Renner had signed the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, whereafter his cabinet retired en bloc, re-elected by the Constitutional Assembly on 17 October 1919, his third cabinet finally was overturned with the break-up of the SPÖ-CS coalition on 7 July 1920. Renner was succeeded by the Christian Social politician Michael Mayr, who with the commencement of the Austria Constitution on 10 November 1920 became first Federal Chancellor of Austria. Mayr and his successors proceeded with the support of the Christian Social Party, from 5 March 1933 onwards, the Christian Social chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß kept on ruling by suppression of the National Council parliament. In the course of the Austrian Civil War he brought down the opposition and on 1 May 1934 implemented the authoritarian Federal State of Austria, all parties were banned, except for the Fatherlands Front supporting Dollfuß Austrofascist government. The Federal Government discontinued with the Anschluss incorporation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 13 March 1938, on 27 April 1945 a provisional Austrian national unity government, again under a State Chancellor Karl Renner, declared the Anschluss null and void. It prepared the The elections to the Austrian National Council held on 25 November, on 20 December 1945, the Austrian Constitution was officially re-enacted, with ÖVP founder Leopold Figl forming the first post-war Federal Government. List of cabinets since 1945, Austrian Federal Government
5.
Politics of Austria
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Governments, both local and federal, exercise executive power. Federal legislative power is vested both in the government and in the two chambers of parliament, the National Council and the Federal Council, since 1949 the conservative Austrian Peoples Party and the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria have largely dominated the party-political landscape of Austria. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, the ethnically and culturally heterogeneous nation state of Austria is one of the many remnant states of Austria-Hungary, a vast multinational empire that ceased to exist in 1918. The Austrian Republic was preceded by a monarchy, whose legislative body was elected by, as The New York Times put it. Austrias first attempt at republican governance, after the fall of the monarchy in 1918, was hampered by the crippling economic costs of war reparations required by the victorious Allies. Austrias First Republic made some pioneering reforms in the 1920s, particularly in Vienna, however, the Republic gradually developed into an Austrofascist dictatorship between 1933-1934 under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, whom Nazi party agents assassinated in 1934. The First Republic ended with invasion and annexation by Germany in 1938, following the defeat of Germany in 1945 Austria resumed its republican government. The beginning of the 21st century marked, for Austria, a half-century of a government under a constitutional federal republican system. It is governed according to the principles of democracy and the rule of law. The constitutional framework of the politics of Austria and the marrow of the practical implementation are widely agreed to be robust. Austrias constitution characterizes the republic as a federation consisting of nine autonomous federal states, both the federation and all its states have written constitutions defining them to be republican entities governed according to the principles of representative democracy. Austrias head of state is the Federal President, elected by popular vote for a term of six years, former president Heinz Fischer was elected for a second term on 25 April 2010. He will be replaced by President-elect Alexander Van der Bellen, who was elected on 4 December 2016, the office of the Federal President is largely ceremonial, although the constitution allows the president to dismiss the cabinet or to dissolve the National Council and call new elections. The Federal Chancellor is appointed by the Federal President, although he is head of government, he has no power to direct other members of the government. Following the Austrian National Council election of 2008 Social Democratic Party leader Werner Faymann was sworn in as Chancellor by President Heinz Fischer on 2 December 2008. The federal cabinet consists of the Federal Chancellor appointed by the president, the federal cabinet is answerable to the National Council and can be forced to resign by a motion of no confidence. The current cabinet, made up by the Social Democratic Party, the Parliament of Austria consists of two chambers. The National Council has 183 members, elected for a term by proportional representation
6.
Excellency
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Excellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organisation or state. Generally people addressed as Excellency are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, and others holding equivalent rank and the FIFA President. It is sometimes misinterpreted as a title of office in itself, in reference to such an official, it takes the form His or Her Excellency, in direct address, Your Excellency, or, less formally, simply Excellency. The abbreviation HE is often used instead of His/Her Excellency, alternatively it may stand for His/Her Eminence, in most republican nations, the head of state is formally addressed as His Excellency. If a republic has a head of government, that official is often addressed as Excellency as well. If the nation is a monarchy, however, the customs may vary, in the case of Australia, all ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and the governor-general and their spouses are entitled to the use of Excellency. Governors of colonies in the British Empire were entitled to be addressed as Excellency, in various international organizations, notably the UN and its agencies, Excellency is used as a generic form of address for all republican heads of state and heads of government. Judges of the International Court of Justice are also called Your Excellency, in some monarchies the husbands, wives, or children, of a royal prince or princess, who do not possess a princely title themselves, may be entitled to the style. For example, in Spain spouses or children of a born infante or infanta are addressed as Excellency, also, former members of a royal house or family, who did have a royal title but forfeited it, may be awarded the style afterwards. Examples are former husbands or wives of a prince or princess, including Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg. In some emirates, only the Emir, heir apparent and prime minister are called His Highness and their children are styled with the lower treatment of His/Her Excellency. In Spain members of the nobility, holding the dignity of grandee, are addressed as The Most Excellent Lord/Lady. Some of the high ranking counts, Excellency can also attach to a prestigious quality, notably in an order of knighthood. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonial of 31 December 1930 the Holy See granted bishops of the Roman Catholic Church the title of Most Reverend Excellency. In the years following the First World War, the title of Excellency. The adjective Most Reverend was intended to distinguish the title from that of Excellency given to civil officials. The instruction Ut sive sollicite of the Holy Sees Secretariat of State, dated 28 March 1969, cardinals, even those who were bishops, continued to use the title of Eminence. In some English-speaking countries, the honorific of Excellency does not apply to other than the nuncio
7.
Federation
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A federation is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions under a central government. The governmental or constitutional structure found in a federation is known as federalism and it can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state. Federations are often multiethnic and cover an area of territory. The initial agreements create a stability that encourages other common interests, at some time, that is recognized and a movement is organized to merge more closely. At other times, especially when common cultural factors are at such as ethnicity and language. The Old Swiss Confederacy was an example of formal non-unitary statehood. Several colonies and dominions in the New World consisted of autonomous provinces, the oldest continuous federation, and a role model for many subsequent federations, is the United States. Some of the New World federations failed, the Federal Republic of Central America broke up into independent states ten years after its founding, others, such as Argentina and Mexico, have shifted between federal, confederal, and unitary systems, before settling into federalism. Brazil became a federation only after the fall of the monarchy, australia and Canada are also federations. Germany is another nation-state that has switched between confederal, federal and unitary rules, since the German Confederation was founded in 1815, the North German Confederation, the succeeding German Empire and the Weimar Republic were federations. The Russian Federation has inherited a similar system, Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Malaysia became federations on or shortly before becoming independent from the British Empire. In some recent cases, federations have been instituted as a measure to handle ethnic conflict within a state, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq since 2005. The component states are in some sense sovereign, insofar as certain powers are reserved to them that may not be exercised by the central government, however, a federation is more than a mere loose alliance of independent states. The component states of a federation usually possess no powers in relation to foreign policy, however, German Länder have that power, which is beginning to be exercised on a European level. Some federations are called asymmetric because some states have more autonomy than others, an example of such a federation is Malaysia, in which Sarawak and Sabah agreed to form the federation on different terms and conditions from the states of Peninsular Malaysia. A federation often emerges from an agreement between a number of separate states. The purpose can be the will to solve problems and to provide for mutual defense or to create a nation state for an ethnicity spread over several states. The former was the case with the United States and Switzerland, however, as the histories of countries and nations vary, the federalist system of a state can be quite different from these models
8.
Head of government
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The term head of government is often differentiated from the term head of state, as they may be separate positions, individuals, and/or roles depending on the country. In parliamentary systems, including constitutional monarchies, the head of government is the de facto leader of the government. For example, in the United Kingdom, the prime minister advises the Queen on the appointment of the cabinet, advice she is required to accept. On the other hand, the Queens long service as the head of state enables her to provide the prime minister with information and insight into many matters to better run the government. However, because the United Kingdom is a monarchy, the Prime Minister uses his or her own discretion regarding whether or not to follow the Queens advice. The Queen also is entitled to appoint a new Prime Minister, in presidential republics or in absolute monarchies, the head of state is also usually the head of government. The relationship between that leader and the government, however, can vary greatly, ranging from separation of powers to autocracy, in semi-presidential systems, the head of government may answer to both the head of state and the legislature, with the specifics provided by each countrys constitution. A modern example is the present French government, which originated as the French Fifth Republic in 1958, in France, the president, the head of state, appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. In some cases, the head of state may represent one political party, in this case, known as cohabitation, the prime minister, along with the cabinet, controls domestic policy, with the presidents influence is largely restricted to foreign affairs. In directorial systems, the executive responsibilities of the head of government are spread among a group of people, a prominent example is the Swiss Federal Council, where each member of the council heads a department and also votes on proposals relating to all departments. A common title for many heads of government is prime minister, various constitutions use different titles, and even the same title can have various multiple meanings, depending on the constitutional order and political system of the state in question. In addition to prime minister, titles used for the democratic model, some of these titles relate to governments below the national level. Have been used by various Empires, Kingdoms and Princely States of India as a title for the Prime Minister, maltese, In Malta, the head of government is Prim Ministru. In this case, the prime minister serves at the pleasure of the monarch, some such titles are diwan, mahamantri, pradhan, wasir or vizier. However, just because the head of state is the de jure dominant position does not mean that he/she will not always be the de facto political leader, in some cases, the head of state is a figurehead whilst the head of the government leads the ruling party. In some cases a head of government may even pass on the title in hereditary fashion, the ability to vote down legislative proposals of the government. Control over or ability to vote down fiscal measures and the budget, all of these requirements directly impact the Head of governments role. Many parliamentary systems require ministers to serve in parliament, while others ban ministers from sitting in parliament, heads of government are typically removed from power in a parliamentary system by Resignation, following, Defeat in a general election
9.
National Council (Austria)
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The National Council is one of the two houses of the Austrian Parliament and is frequently referred to as the lower house. The constitution endows the National Council far more power than the Federal Council, the National Council is where Austrias federal legislative authority is concentrated, for a bill to become federal law, it must be resolved upon by this chamber. Bills passed by the National Council are sent to the Federal Council for corroboration, if the Federal Council approves of the bill or simply does nothing for eight weeks, the bill has succeeded. In other words, the Federal Council does not have any power to prevent adoption of legislation. The approval of the National Council is also required for most of the prerogatives of the Federal Assembly to be exercised. For example, motions to call for a referendum aimed at having the President removed from office by the electorate, only motions to impeach the President can also be from the Federal Council. National Council elections are general elections, the nine regional electoral districts are subdivided into a total of 43 local electoral districts. Political parties submit separate ranked lists of candidates for district, regional or local. They also submit a federal-level list, votes cast are first counted within their local electoral districts. Since there are 43 local districts but 183 seats to fill, the number of votes required to win one seat is simply the number of votes divided by the number of seats assigned to the district in question. For example, if 150,000 votes are cast in a local district. If a party has scored 61,000 votes out of the 150,000 votes cast, since 60,000 votes would have been sufficient to win two seats,1000 votes are left unaccounted for by this first round of tallying. Any vote not accounted for on the level is dealt with on the regional level. Any vote not accounted for on the level either is dealt with on the federal level. The DHondt method is used to allocate any National Council seats remaining to be filled, in addition to voting for a party list, voters may express preference for one individual candidate. It is not possible, however, to vote for party X. In practice, however, Austrias President plays no role in the administration, which is left to the Chancellor and Cabinet, which are dependent on the confidence of the National Council. While the President has the authority to dissolve a hostile National Council
10.
European Council
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The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings. Established as a summit in 1975, the European Council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Its current President is Donald Tusk, while the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is a strategic body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as a collective presidency. The European Commission remains the sole initiator of legislation, but the European Council is able to provide an impetus to guide legislative policy, decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise. The European Council officially gained the status of an EU institution after Lisbon treaty in 2000, before that, the first summits of EU heads of state or government were held in February and July 1961. The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988, the inaugural European Council, as it became known, was held in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Irelands first Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In 1987, it was included in the treaties for the first time and had a role for the first time in the Maastricht Treaty. At first only a minimum of two meetings per year were required, which resulted in an average of three meetings per year being held for the 1975-1995 period, since 1996, the number of meetings were required to be minimum four per year. For the latest 2008-2014 period, this minimum was well exceeded, the seat of the Council was formalised in 2002, basing it in Brussels. Three types of European Councils exist, Informal, Scheduled and Extraordinary, some meetings of the European Council are seen by some as turning points in the history of the European Union. For example,1969, The Hague, Foreign policy and enlargement,1974, Paris, Creation of the Council. 1985, Milan, Initiate IGC leading to the Single European Act,1991, Maastricht, Agreement on the Maastricht Treaty. 1992, Edinburgh, Agreement to retain at Strasbourg the plenary seat of the European Parliament,1993, Copenhagen, Leading to the definition of the Copenhagen Criteria. 1997, Amsterdam, Agreement on the Amsterdam Treaty,1998, Brussels, Selected member states to adopt the euro. 1999, Cologne, Declaration on military forces,1999, Tampere, Institutional reform 2000, Lisbon, Lisbon Strategy 2002, Copenhagen, Agreement for May 2004 enlargement. 2007, Lisbon, Agreement on the Lisbon Treaty,2009, Brussels, Appointment of first president and merged High Representative. The Treaty of Lisbon made the European Council a formal institution distinct from the Council of the EU, as an outgrowth of the Council of the EU, the European Council had previously followed the same Presidency, rotating between each member state. Following the ratification of the treaty in December 2009, the European Council elected the then-Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent president
11.
Official residence
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An official residence is the residence at which a nations head of state, head of government, governor or other senior figure officially resides. It may or may not be the location where the individual conducts work-related functions or lives. This has occurred in the 21st century in Detroit and New York City, in the case of Denver, no mayor has ever lived in the official residence, the city instead makes it available to certain non-profit groups for special functions. The President uses own private residence, - Its address is 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located next to Gyeongbokgung, the palace during the Joseon Dynasty. Cheong Nam Dae - Cheong Nam Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. It was returned to public in 2003, - It is located in Cheongwon-gun, North Chungcheong Province. Cheong Hae Dae - Cheong Hae Dae used to be one of the two residences for the President of Republic of Korea. Although the president no longer uses this facility this compound is still under the administration of the Republic of Korea Navy, - It is located on one of the islands of Geoje-shi, South Gyeongsang Province. Chongri Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Prime Minister of Republic of Korea. The Prime Minister, however, does not work here, - Its address is 111-2 Samcheongdong-gil, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. It is located close to Cheong Wa Dae, gukhoeuijang Gonggwan - This is the official residence for the Speaker of the National Assembly of Republic of Korea. The Speaker, also, does not work here, - It is located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where many foreign missions to Korea are located. Daebeobwonjang Gonggwan - This is the residence for the Chief Justice of Republic of Korea. The Chief Justice, also, does not work here, - It is also located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Most ministers of state and heads of administrative regions also have official residences, although they are not listed here. S
12.
Ballhausplatz
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As a result, Ballhausplatz is often used as shorthand for the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Until 1918 the Foreign Ministry of Austria-Hungary was also housed here, similar to Downing Street or the Quai dOrsay, the word Ballhausplatz is a synecdoche for the seat of power. Ballhausplatz is located in the first district Innere Stadt in central Vienna, until 1754 the square itself did not exist, as an imperial hospital was located there. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor erected a real tennis house there, later the building was used for the Imperial Court Construction Office. At the end of the 18th century the Ballhaus was ripped down, Ballhausplatz 2 is the official residence of the Federal Chancellor. It was constructed in 1717/19 by the architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, the main facade has largely remained the same since its construction by von Hildebrandt. The interior is decorated with stucco. The building suffered damage during World War II due to aerial bombardments. Located on the first floor are the offices of the Federal Chancellor, federal ministers, the Government of Austria regularly meets here for cabinet meetings. Ballhausplatz 2 played an important role in European politics for over 250 years and it was here that Chancellor Klemens Wenzel von Metternich held the Congress of Vienna, which was held after Napoleon Bonapartes defeat in 1814 and resulted in the balance of power. Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß was murdered by Nazis in his office in 1934 and his successor Kurt von Schuschnigg gave his farewell speech shortly before Austria was annexed by Nazi-Germany in 1938 with his famous closing words Gott schütze Österreich. After 1945 and the restoration of independence the offices of the Federal Chancellor were once located here. Ballhausplatz 1 is the address of the Office of the President of Austria, the offices of the president himself are located in the Hofburg Imperial Palace. In 2011, Vienna decided to honour Austrian Wehrmacht deserters, on 24 October 2014, a Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice was inaugurated on the Ballhausplatz by Austrias President Heinz Fischer. The monument was created by German artist Olaf Nicolai and is located opposite the Presidents office, the inscription on top of the three-step sculpture features a poem by Scottish poet, Ian Hamilton Finlay, made up of just two words, all alone. Media related to Ballhausplatz, Vienna at Wikimedia Commons Minoritenplatz Czeike, ISBN 3-7991-5769-7 AEIOU | Ballhausplatz www. Ballhausplatz. at Website of the Ballhausplatz demonstrators
13.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
14.
President of Austria
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The President of Austria is the federal head of state of Austria. The President of Austria is directly elected by adult suffrage once in every six years. The Presidents offices are located in the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, many presidents have gained tremendous popularity while in office, and no incumbent has ever lost a bid for re-election, although Kurt Waldheim did not run for a second term in office. Five presidents have died in office, from 2004 to 2016, the office was occupied by social democrat Heinz Fischer. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a number of independent nation states over the course of the following year, as chairman, he also became a member of the Austrian State Council. On 12 November 1918, the State Council collectively assumed the functions of head of state according to a resolution of the National Assembly, on 11 November, Emperor Karl I announced I relinquish every participation in the administration of the State. Likewise I have released the members of the Austrian Government from their offices, the next day, parliament proclaimed the Republic of German Austria. The assembly presidents continued to serve as acting heads of state until 4 March 1919, anton David and Seitz were the presidents of the National Constituent Assembly. Austrias first Bundespräsident proper thus was Michael Hainisch, Karl Seitz immediate successor, in a related note, many popular sources quote some more or less random date between October 1918 and March 1919 as the beginning of Seitz tenure. The constitution originally defined Austria to be a parliamentary republic, originally, the constitution was radically parliamentarian in character. The bicameral parliament, called the Federal Assembly, not only possessed legislative power, the cabinet was appointed by the National Council rather than the president, who in turn was elected by the both houses of the Federal Assembly rather than the people. The presidents term of office was four rather than six years, the president was answerable to the Federal Assembly and, in particular, had no authority to dissolve the National Council. Not even having much influence on the appointment of Constitutional Court justices. The role and nature of the President was the result of a compromise reached during the drafting of the constitution and it was under this constitutional framework that Michael Hainisch and Wilhelm Miklas assumed office on 9 December 1920 and 10 December 1928, respectively. The parliamentary system prescribed by the constitution was highly unpopular, however, the Heimwehr was in favor of a system granting more powers to the president. On 7 December 1929, under growing pressure from the Heimwehr and it also called for the office to be filled by popular vote for a term of six years. The first election was scheduled for 1934, however, owing to the growing worldwide financial crisis, all parties agreed to suspend the election in favour of having Miklas reelected by parliament. Though Austria now was a dictatorship in all but name, power was concentrated in the hands of the Chancellor, Wilhelm Miklas was stripped of the powers hed gained in 1929, but agreed to act as a figurehead of institutional continuity anyway
15.
Term of office
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A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office. Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdoms system of government are replicated in other countries. The monarch serves as head of state until his or her death or abdication, in the United Kingdom Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, an election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament, an MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election. The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned, prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the Prime Ministers request, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years. Early dissolution is possible, but under much more limited circumstances. Hereditary peers and life peers retain membership of the House of Lords for life, Lords Spiritual hold membership of the House of Lords until the end of their time as bishops, though a senior bishop may be made a life peer upon the end of their bishopric. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are variations on the system of government used at Westminster, the office of the leader of the devolved administrations has no numeric term limit imposed upon it. However, in the case of the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government there are fixed terms for which the legislatures can sit and this is imposed at four years. Elections may be held before this time but only if no administration can be formed, offices of local government other regional elected officials follow similar rules to the national offices discussed above, with persons elected to fixed terms of a few years. Federal judges have different terms in office, however, the majority of the federal judiciary, Article III judges, such as those of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and federal district courts, serve for life. The terms of office for officials in state governments according to the provisions of state constitutions. The term for state governors is four years in all states but Vermont and New Hampshire, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported in January 2007 that among state legislatures,44 states had terms of office for the lower house of the state legislature at two years. Five had terms of office at four years,37 states had terms of office for the upper house of the state legislature at four years
16.
Austrian Federal Constitution
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The Austrian Federal Constitution is the body of all constitutional law of the Republic of Austria on the federal level. It is split up over many different acts and its centerpiece is the Federal Constitutional Law, which includes the most important federal constitutional provisions. Apart from the B-VG, there are a number of other constitutional acts. For example, the B-VG does not include a bill of rights, over time, both the B-VG and the numerous pieces of constitutional law supplementing it have undergone literally hundreds of minor and major amendments and revisions. The B-VG was based on a draft by Hans Kelsen and first enacted on October 1,1920. Since political agreement over a bill of rights could not be reached, originally, the B-VG was very parliamentarian in character. The prerogative to enact law was to lie with a strong parliament. The responsibility for implementing law was to reside with a cabinet headed by a chancellor, a relatively weak president, who was elected by both houses, was to serve as head of state. In 1929, the constitution underwent a revision significantly broadening the prerogatives of the president, in particular, the president from then on was to be elected directly by the people rather than by the members of the legislature. The president was also to be vested with the authority to dissolve the parliament and he also had the authority to formally appoint the chancellor and the cabinet. Although the president was vested with powers comparable to those of the President of the United States, the Austrofascist constitution was in force until Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, ceasing to exist as a sovereign state. The Constitution of Austria was eventually reinstated on May 1,1945, the modifications enacted in 1929 were not then rescinded, and essentially remain in effect until this day, although the constitution has been heavily modified and amended since then. In area, the Republic of Austria is slightly smaller than Maine, Scotland, or Hokkaidō and home to an ethnically and culturally homogeneous population of eight and a half million people. Given that more than one fifth of its inhabitants are concentrated in the city of Vienna and its suburbs, the state constitutions congruently define the states to be unicameral parliamentary democracies, each state has a legislature elected by popular vote and a cabinet appointed by its legislature. The federal constitution defines Austria itself as a parliamentary democracy with near-complete separation of powers. Austrias government structure is highly similar to that of incomparably larger federal republics such as Germany or the United States. This is also true for the system, which is exclusively federal in Austria. Federal legislative powers are vested with a body the constitution refers to as a parliament, as a practical matter, however, it continues to function as a parliament anyway
17.
Karl Renner
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Karl Renner was an Austrian politician of the Socialist Party. Renner was born the 18th child of a German family of poor wine-growers in Unter-Tannowitz, then part of the Margraviate of Moravia, because of his intelligence, he was allowed to attend a selective gymnasium in nearby Nikolsburg, where one of his teachers was Wilhelm Jerusalem. From 1890 to 1896 he studied law at the University of Vienna, in 1895 he was one of the founding members of the Friends of Nature organisation and created their logo. In 1896 he joined the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria and his interest in politics also led him to become a librarian for the Reichsrat. During these early years, he developed new perspectives on law — all the while cloaking his innovative ideas under a variety of pseudonyms lest he lose his coveted post as parliamentary librarian. He was especially interested in the problems of the Austrian state, whose existence he justified on geographical, economic, as a theorist he was reckoned as one of the leaders of Austro-Marxism. e. This name, however, was prohibited by The Entente, they crushed the resolution of the Constituent National Assembly in Vienna that German-Austria was to be part of the German Weimar Republic. Germain where the Republic of Austria was acknowledged but was declared to be the successor to Imperial Austria. State aid was provided for the disabled, together with health insurance for public employees. In addition, a law was passed provided for collective bargaining. From 1931 to 1933, Renner was President of Parliament, the National Council of Austria, after the authoritarian Austrofascism period from 1934, when his party was prohibited, he even welcomed the Anschluss in 1938. During World War II, however, he distanced himself from politics completely, on April 27, by a declaration, this Provisional Government separated Austria from Germany and campaigned for the country to be acknowledged as an independent republic. Thus Austria, having been invaded by Germany, was treated as an unwilling party, in late 1945, he was elected the first President of the Second Republic. Karl Renner died in 1950 in Vienna and was buried in the Presidential Tomb at the Zentralfriedhof, for most of his life, Renner alternated between the political commitment of a Social Democrat and the analytical distance of an academic scholar. Central to Renners academic work is the problem of the relationship between law and private property. With his Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts und ihre soziale Funktion, Ein Beitrag zur Kritik des bürgerlichen Rechts, he became one of the founders of the discipline of the sociology of law. In this book, Renner developed a Marxist theory of the institution of private law, Renner argued that the separation of public and private law is a creation of capitalism, whereby the state enforces the interests of capital owners. His and Otto Bauers ideas about the protection of cultural minorities were taken up by the Jewish Bund
18.
Michael Mayr
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Michael Mayr was an Austrian politician, who served as Chancellor of Austria in the First Austrian Republic from July 1920 to June 1921. He was a member of the Christian Social Party, and by profession a historian, Mayr was born in Adlwang in Upper Austria, the son of a farmer. He studied history and geography at the University of Vienna and earned a doctorate in 1890, from 1897 through 1920 he served as director of the Tyrol State Archives. In 1900 he became a Professor of Modern History at the University of Innsbruck, mayrs political career began under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when from 1907 to 1911 he was a member of the Imperial Council legislature and from 1908 to 1914 of the Tyrolean Landtag assembly. With the breakup of the Empire at the end of World War I, State Chancellor Karl Renner appointed him a state secretary in his grand coalition government on 17 October 1919. From 10 November 1920, with the Constitutions coming into force, on 20 November 1920, the newly established National Council parliament elected Mayr Chancellor of a Christian Social minority government. Mayr was succeeded as chancellor by non-partisan Johann Schober, backed by the Christian-Socials and he died about a year later in Waldneukirchen
19.
Leopold Figl
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Leopold Figl was an Austrian politician of the Austrian Peoples Party and the first Federal Chancellor after World War II. He was also the youngest Federal Chancellor of Austria after the war, after the Anschluss, the Nazis deported Figl to Dachau concentration camp in 1938, from which he was released in May 1943. He then worked as an oil engineer, but in October 1944 Figl was rearrested, on 21 January 1945, he was brought to Vienna. The folder of his dossier was marked with the abbreviation VG indicating that a Volksgerichtshof trial was planned or in preparation. Figl was released on 6 April 1945, when troops of the Soviet Army advanced to the centre of Vienna in an operation which became known as the Vienna Offensive, after the defeat of the Nazis, the Allies occupied Austria at the end of World War II. The Soviet Military Commander, Tolbukhin, asked Figl to manage the provision of food for the population of Vienna, on 14 April 1945 he refounded the Bauernbund and integrated it into the Austrian Peoples Party, which was founded three days later. On 27 April he became interim Governor of Lower Austria and vice-minister, at the first free elections since 1934, held in December 1945, the ÖVP won a smashing victory, taking 49.8 percent of the vote and an absolute majority in the legislature. Figl was proposed as Chancellor, the Soviets agreed, because of his opposition to the Nazis and his managerial abilities, the coalition, remained in office until 1966 and did much to solve the serious economic and social problems left over from World War II. The USAs Marshall Plan was also a great help, after internal criticism, Figl resigned as Chancellor on 26 November 1953. His successor, Julius Raab, was less flexible towards the SPÖ, but was Chancellor when the Austrian State Treaty, however, Figl was strongly involved in its achievement, as he remained in the government as foreign minister. At the national elections of 1959 the SPÖ gained ground on the ÖVP, and this gave the SPÖ the bargaining power to demand that Bruno Kreisky succeed him as foreign minister. Figl then became president of the National Council 1959–1962, but soon returned to Lower Austria, Figl was patron of the Pfadfinder Österreichs between 1960 and 1964 and president of this Scout association from 1964 until his death. He died from cancer in 1965 in Vienna, and is buried in an Ehrengrab at the Zentralfriedhof. His son Johannes was International Commissioner of the Pfadfinder Österreichs and president of the Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs from 1994 to 2000
20.
History of Austria
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The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states, from the early Stone Age to the present state. The name Ostarrîchi has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria, Austria was dominated by the House of Habsburg from 1273 to 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire came to an end. When this empire collapsed in 1918, Austria was reduced to the main German speaking areas of the empire, however this union was forbidden by the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles. Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich, but in 1938 it was annexed by Nazi Germany with the support of the large majority of the Austrian people. After the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Republic in 1955, the history of Austria raises a number of questions. Should it be confined to the current Republic of Austria, or to all lands formerly ruled by the rulers of Austria, should Austrian history include 1938–1945 when it did not exist. Within Austria there are regional variations, and parts of Austria have at various times wished to become part of adjacent countries. Human habitation of current Austria can be traced back to the first farming communities of the early Stone Age. In the late Iron Age it was occupied by a Celtic culture, at the end of the 1st century BC this became part of the Roman Empires lands to the south of the Danube, and was incorporated as the Province of Noricum around 40 AD. The most important Roman settlement was at Carnuntum, in the 6th century, another Germanic people, the Bavarii occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire in the 9th century. Around 800 AD Charlemagne established the outpost of Avar March in what is now Lower Austria, to hold back advances from Slavs and Avars. In the 10th century an eastern outpost of the Duchy of Bavaria, bordering Hungary, was established as the Marchia orientalis or Margraviate of Austria in 976 and this Eastern March, in German was known as Ostarrîchi or Eastern Realm, hence Austria. The first mention of Ostarrîchi occurs in a document of that name dated 996 CE, from 1156 the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa created an independent duchy under the House of Babenberg, until its extinction in 1246, corresponding to modern Lower Austria. The 15th and early 16th century saw expansion of the Habsburg territories through diplomacy and marriages to include Spain. This expansionism, together with French aspirations and the resultant Habsburg-French or Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry were important factors shaping European History for 200 years, by 1526 Ferdinand had also inherited the kingdoms of Bohemia, and Hungary after the Battle of Mohács which partitioned the latter. However the Ottoman Empire now lay directly adjacent to the Austrian lands, even after the unsuccessful first Siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1529, the Ottoman threat persisted for another one and a half centuries. The 16th Century also saw the spread of the Reformation, from around 1600 the Habsburg policy of recatholicisation or Catholic Renewal eventually led to the Thirty Years War. Originally a religious war, it was also a struggle for power in central Europe, eventually the pressure of the anti-Habsburg coalition of France, Sweden, and most Protestant German states contained their authority to the Austrian and Czech lands in 1648
21.
Vice-Chancellor of Austria
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In Austrian politics, the Vice-Chancellor is a member of the Federal Government acting as a deputy to the Federal Chancellor. 69 of the Constitution of Austria states, The Vice-Chancellor stands in for the Federal Chancellor in his field of functions. If both Federal Chancellor and Vice Chancellor are hindered, the Federal President appoints a member of the government to represent the Federal Chancellor, in practice, the Vice-Chancellor is normally the leading member of the junior party within the current coalition government, frequently the party chairman. If only one party is represented in the government, the Vice Chancellor is often the Chancellors presumed successor
22.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
23.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
24.
Constitution of Austria
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The Austrian Federal Constitution is the body of all constitutional law of the Republic of Austria on the federal level. It is split up over many different acts and its centerpiece is the Federal Constitutional Law, which includes the most important federal constitutional provisions. Apart from the B-VG, there are a number of other constitutional acts. For example, the B-VG does not include a bill of rights, over time, both the B-VG and the numerous pieces of constitutional law supplementing it have undergone literally hundreds of minor and major amendments and revisions. The B-VG was based on a draft by Hans Kelsen and first enacted on October 1,1920. Since political agreement over a bill of rights could not be reached, originally, the B-VG was very parliamentarian in character. The prerogative to enact law was to lie with a strong parliament. The responsibility for implementing law was to reside with a cabinet headed by a chancellor, a relatively weak president, who was elected by both houses, was to serve as head of state. In 1929, the constitution underwent a revision significantly broadening the prerogatives of the president, in particular, the president from then on was to be elected directly by the people rather than by the members of the legislature. The president was also to be vested with the authority to dissolve the parliament and he also had the authority to formally appoint the chancellor and the cabinet. Although the president was vested with powers comparable to those of the President of the United States, the Austrofascist constitution was in force until Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, ceasing to exist as a sovereign state. The Constitution of Austria was eventually reinstated on May 1,1945, the modifications enacted in 1929 were not then rescinded, and essentially remain in effect until this day, although the constitution has been heavily modified and amended since then. In area, the Republic of Austria is slightly smaller than Maine, Scotland, or Hokkaidō and home to an ethnically and culturally homogeneous population of eight and a half million people. Given that more than one fifth of its inhabitants are concentrated in the city of Vienna and its suburbs, the state constitutions congruently define the states to be unicameral parliamentary democracies, each state has a legislature elected by popular vote and a cabinet appointed by its legislature. The federal constitution defines Austria itself as a parliamentary democracy with near-complete separation of powers. Austrias government structure is highly similar to that of incomparably larger federal republics such as Germany or the United States. This is also true for the system, which is exclusively federal in Austria. Federal legislative powers are vested with a body the constitution refers to as a parliament, as a practical matter, however, it continues to function as a parliament anyway
25.
Alexander Van der Bellen
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Alexander Van der Bellen is an Austrian politician and economist who is the 12th President of Austria since 26 January 2017. He was a professor of economics at the University of Vienna before he entered national politics, on 4 December 2016, he won the ensuing election, taking approximately 54% of the vote. Van der Bellen has described himself as a centrist liberal and supports green, as discussed in his 2015 book, he is supportive of the European Union and advocates European federalism. During the presidential election, he appealed to the centre and was endorsed by the leaders of both the conservative Austrian Peoples Party and the Social Democratic Party. Van der Bellen is the second president of a European Union country. Van der Bellen, who is known privately by the nickname Sascha, was born in Vienna, the son of Alexander Konstantin and his father was an aristocratic Russian-born banker of Baltic German, Russian German, Dutch, and Estonian descent, while his mother was Estonian. In Russia, the family was recognised as noble in the early 19th century, the surname was spelled von der Bellen in Imperial Russia, with von der being a nobiliary particle. In 1931, Van der Bellens divorced father married Estonian native Alma Siebold and he acquired naturalised Estonian citizenship in 1934. After Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940, the fled to Germany. They eventually settled in Vienna, where Van der Bellen was born, before fleeing the approaching Red Army in 1945 and arriving in Tyrol. He has described himself as a child of refugees, for practical purposes the Van der Bellen family was stateless following the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Together with his parents Van der Bellen was granted Austrian citizenship in 1958, although his parents spoke Russian with each other, Van der Bellen only learned a few words in the language. He explained that his parents wanted to avoid everything that indicated that they were refugees, in 1962, he graduated from the Akademisches Gymnasium in Innsbruck. He studied economics at the University of Innsbruck and received a doctorate in 1970 and he obtained his habilitation in economics in 1975. In 1976, he was appointed professor at the University of Innsbruck. In 1980, he became professor of economics at the University of Vienna, subsequently, he took over the chair for economics there. From 1990 to 1994 he was dean of the faculty for social sciences, a former member of the Social Democratic Party, Van der Bellen became Member of the National Council of Austria for the Austrian Green Party in 1994. On 13 December 1997 he became their spokesperson, and in 1999 became chairman of the Greens Parliamentary Party in the National Council
26.
Heinz-Christian Strache
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Heinz-Christian Strache is an Austrian right-wing politician, a member of parliament and former member of the Vienna city council, who has been Chairman of the Freedom Party of Austria since 2005. He prefers to call himself just HC Strache, Strache, who by training is a dental technician, has been active in the politics of Vienna since 1991. In 2004, he replaced Hilmar Kabas as the leader of the Vienna FPÖ and he had been considered a disciple of long-time national party leader Jörg Haider, but began to oppose him as the result of increased strife within the party in January 2005. After a series of losses in elections, rumours spread that Strache would run for the office of national party leader against Haiders sister. The high risk of Haubners defeat was one of the events that induced Haider to set up a new party. After the split, Strache was elected party leader of the FPÖ on 23 April 2005. Since the split, the FPÖs results in elections have been mixed. While it dropped out of the Styria Landtag and was reduced to 5. 7% in Burgenland, Strache himself was the leading candidate in Vienna, and the party received 14. 9% of votes. Straches campaign, included such as, Wien darf nicht Istanbul werden. A variation on an FPÖ slogan from the Haider era, Wien darf nicht Chicago werden, daham statt Islam Deutsch statt nix verstehen Pummerin statt Muezzin. Pummerin is the bell in St. Stephans Cathedral in Vienna. His support was strongest among young people under 35, the campaign included slogans such as, Zu viel Fremdes tut niemandem gut. Die SPÖ macht sie uns fremd
27.
Landeshauptmann
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Until 1933 the term was used in Prussia for the head of government of a province, in the modern-day states of Germany the counterpart to Landeshauptmann is here the Ministerpräsident. The Imperial-Royal government in Vienna was represented by a Statthalter or Landespräsident governor, the 1920 constitution of the First Austrian Republic unified the office of a Federal Government representative and head of the state government. The title is used in modern Austria as well as in South Tyrol and Trentino, autonomous provinces in Italy with strong linguistic. In the Czech Republic, a hejtman represents each of the 13 self-governing regions, the title was also used by the German Empire for governors during the early stages of its colonial rule over German South-West Africa, Togoland and German New Guinea. In modern Austria, the title is used for the head of the executive of the nine Austrian states, the Landeshauptmann is elected by the Landtag state parliament of the respective state and sworn in by the President of Austria. As representative of the state on state level he is also responsible for the enforcement of federal laws. The Mayor of Vienna also serves as a Landeshauptmann, elected by the municipal assembly, the head of government of South Tyrol is elected by the provincial Landtag legislature. The Landeshauptmann represents the province to the outside and in meetings of the regions with the Italian government and he is also entitled to attend the sessions of the Council of Ministers as far as South Tyrolean issues are discussed. His two deputies have to represent the Italian and German language group, from 1875 the territorial authority of the estates in the twelve administrative provinces of Prussia were re-organised as Provinzialverbände. Each of these bodies were represented in a Provinziallandtag assembly, whose members were delegated by the rural. The provincial administration was headed by a Landesdirektor, who was elected by the assembly for six-year terms. The holder of the office presided over the Provinzialausschuss, i. e, in the following decades, Landeshauptmann gradually replaced the earlier expression Landesdirektor in all but one of Prussias provinces. When the kingdom turned into a state in 1920, only the Landtag of Brandenburg had decided to keep the traditional expression. The head of government was given the title Landespräsident
28.
Austrian Parliament
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The Austrian Parliament is the bicameral legislature in Austria. It consists of two chambers, the National Council and the Federal Council, in specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets in the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, the National Council is composed of 183 members elected through proportional representation in a general election. The legislative period lasts five years, elections are held if the National Council prematurely moves for its own dissolution. The National Council is the dominant house in the Austrian Parliament, the Federal Council is elected indirectly, through the provincial assemblies of the nine States of the Federal Republic, and reflects the distribution of seats in the Austrian Landtage. The states are represented in the Federal Council roughly in accordance to the size of their populations, seats are redistributed among the states following each general census, and the overall size of the chamber varies slightly as a result. The current Federal Council is composed of 61 delegates, with regard to most issues, the Federal Council only possesses a dilatory right of veto which can be overridden by the National Council. However, the Federal Council enjoys absolute veto powers over bills intended to alter the powers of either the states, the Federal Assembly is a body whose function is mostly ceremonial in nature, and consists of the members of both houses of Parliament. The Federal Assembly convenes only rarely, for instance to witness the inauguration of the Federal President and it might be noted, however, that under exceptional circumstances the Austrian constitution endows the Federal Assembly with significant responsibilities. An example of this would be its pivotal role in the impeachment of a Federal President. Both houses of Parliament, as well as the Federal Assembly, constitution of Austria Austrian Parliament Building Imperial Council Imperial Diet The Austrian Parliament - Official Homepage
29.
Federal Council (Austria)
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The Federal Council (German, Bundesrat is the second chamber of the Austrian Parliament, representing the nine States of Austria on federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council, the Bundesrat has its seat at the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, in a conclave of the former Herrenhaus chamber of the Imperial Council. Moreover in most cases a Federal Councils veto is just suspensive, meaning the National Council can override it, therefore, the decisions of the Bundesrat can only delay legislation. Since its inauguration on 10 November 1920, the deputies of Bundesrat have never achieved the status of a counterbalance in relation to the National Council, so far, the concept has been maintained as a manifestation of Austrias federal system. The Federal Council and the National Council, if in joint session, form a parliamentary body. The 61 members of the Federal Council are elected according to proportional representation by each of the Austrian states legislatures for 5- to 6-year terms, the composition of the Bundesrat therefore changes after every state election and the distribution of seats in the Austrian Landtage. The second largest faction of the particular Landtag has the right to designate at least one deputy, the number of representatives delegated by each Bundesland ranges between three and twelve, depending on its population as ascertained by a regular census, it is fixed per presidential decree. Federal Assembly Politics of Austria List of legislatures by country
30.
Federal Assembly (Austria)
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The Federal Assembly is the name given to a formal joint session of the two houses of the bicameral Austrian Parliament, the National Council and the Federal Council. It is chaired by the presidents of the two parliamentary chambers taking turns presiding over its sessions, since 1945, the assembly has only met to swear the elected President of Austria into office. While during the pre-war First Austrian Republic, the Assembly convened to elect the Austrian president and this provision however did not become effective until 1951, when Theodor Körner became the first president directly elected by the Austrian people. Since then, the responsibility is to convene for the ceremonial swearing-in of the president. It recently met at the inauguration of Heinz Fischers second term as Austrian President on 8 July 2010, the assent of the Assembly would also be required for the presidents immunity against criminal prosecution to be withdrawn. Furthermore, it is responsible for declaring war. Neither of these powers, however, has so far been exercised
31.
Distribution of seats in the Austrian Landtage
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The Austrian Landtage are the unicameral legislatures of the nine Austrian states, according to the Constitution of Austria deciding in all matters unless explicitly subject of federal legislation. On federal level the Landtage are represented in the Federal Council, eight political parties are represented in the Landtage legislative assemblies. Currently the Austrian Peoples Party, the Social Democratic Party of Austria, the Freedom Party of Austria, the seats of ruling parties are in bold fonts. The state governments of Carinthia, Lower Austria and Upper Austria are formed according to the principle of proportional representation, the largest faction usually nominates the state governor
32.
Elections in Austria
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This article provides information on elections and election results in Austria. On a federal level, there are two elections, for head of state every six years, and for the 183 seats of the National Council every five years by proportional representation. From 1945 to 1986 Austria had two parties, with a third party also winning seats in the National Council. Since 1986 there have been generally four parties, for a few years even five, at least 4% of the popular vote, or a parliamentary seat in one of the regional constituencies, is needed for representation in the National Council. In some cases, a referendum can be called on by the Austrian Parliament, in 2007, the voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 in all federal elections, following some states which had lowered it for state and local elections before that. Austrian citizens who are 16 years or older may stand at elections, additionally citizens of European Union member states with a permanent residence in Austria may vote at European Union and municipal elections. Citizens who are sentenced to more than one year of imprisonment lose their voting rights, an exception to the rule is the presidential election, where the minimum age to stand as candidate is 35. Until 2011, members of current or former ruling houses were ineligible for the office, Austrian constitution defines two types of referendums on the federal level, binding referendum and non-binding referendum. Binding referendum is mandatory, if the President should be removed from office before the end of his term, binding referendum is facultative in case of non-comprehensive changes in the Federal Constitution. Such facultative referendum is to be conducted if at least one third of the members of the National Council or the Federal Council requests it, the National Council has the power to call on a non-binding referendum on matters of great importance. Such referendum is called by majority of members of the National Council, results of such a referendum are advisory. There was one referendum in post-1945 Austria, the conscription referendum in 2013 The no option won
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Austrian legislative election, 2008
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A legislative snap election for the National Council in Austria was held on 28 September 2008. The previous election was held on 1 October 2006, the election was caused by the withdrawal of Austrian Peoples Party leader Wilhelm Molterer from the governing grand coalition on 7 July 2008. The result of the election was seen as strong for the far-right, shortly after the election, BZÖ leader and Carinthian governor Jörg Haider died in a car accident. Leading candidates On 11 January 2007, the Gusenbauer cabinet was sworn into office, the SPÖ began to fall back in the polls almost immediately. The coalition partners also disagreed on the necessary health system reform. Following this, internal criticism within the SPÖ of Gusenbauer grew, according to the plans at that time, Gusenbauer would have remained the leading candidate in the 2010 elections. On 7 July 2008, ÖVP leader Wilhelm Molterer declared that he could not continue to work with the SPÖ, the term of the legislature was the third-shortest in Austrian history. Another change was that different list names in the different states were no longer possible, postal balloting was expected to make up 7%–8% of the total vote, due to postal votes, the final result of the election would not be known until a week after the elections. 9. 27% of the voters had requested postal ballots, which meant that postal ballots could decisively change the election outcome, another part of the 2007 electoral reform was that it was now possible to accommodate election observers in the election process. -Ing. Karlheinz Klement The previous records had been achieved in the 1994 election, analysts agreed that apart from LIF and FRITZ, all others would fail to enter parliament. Following the announcement that Haider would return to politics, analysts held different opinions on the likely effects of this change. The race for third place between the Greens and the FPÖ was seen to be balanced or slightly in favour of the Greens, stadler confirmed that this was the goal of the BZÖ. Strache explicitly ruled out such an alliance on 7 September 2008, the FPÖ was seen as strongly increasing their share of the votes when compared to the 2006 election and the BZÖ was seen as having secured its stay in the National Council. The Greens were seen to be stagnating, while the parties faced difficulties with entering parliament, with the chances of LIF. Only four possible coalitions were seen as likely to have a majority after the election, SPÖ–ÖVP, ÖVP–FPÖ–BZÖ, SPÖ–GRÜNE–BZÖ and SPÖ–FPÖ–BZÖ, all, for the first time in the history of Austrian elections, there were different ballots in all nine states. The ballots featured parliamentary parties in the order of votes received in the last election, i. e. SPÖ, ÖVP, Greens, FPÖ. The longest ballots could be found in Carinthia and Vienna, which broke the record of eleven lists with twelve lists. Burgenland, Salzburg, Tyrol and Upper Austria had eleven lists, National candidate lists had to be submitted by 8 September 2008 and were published on [12 September 2008 in the Wiener Zeitung, all lists except STARK and Klement submitted national candidate lists
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Austrian legislative election, 2013
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Legislative elections were held in Austria on 29 September 2013. All 183 seats in the National Council will be filled, with MPs elected by party-list proportional representation, the government is a grand coalition between Austrias two largest parties, the SPÖ and ÖVP, who rule with the SPÖs Werner Faymann as Chancellor. Support for both governing parties has fallen marginally since the 2008 election, additionally, nine of the BZÖs 21 elected members to the National Council changed their party affiliation during the term, five members joined the Team Stronach, while four joined the FPÖ. Team Stronach, funded by Austrian-Canadian businessman Frank Stronach, has emerged as an anti-euro alternative, the Greens have solidified their position as the fourth-largest party in opinion polls.600 valid signatures from eligible voters ahead of the election. Parties can also contest the election in individual states only, the state and federal election commissions will validate the signatures and announce the qualified parties on August 8. Issues included corruption scandals across the main parties and Austrias relative financial stability facing a probable crisis, the losses for the government parties resulted in strong gains for the far right, the election was seen as strong for the far-right and in support of Eurosceptics. In contrast, the former leading party BZÖ came fifth, with their share falling from 38. 5% to 10. 8%. However, in Styria the FPÖ came first with 24. 0%, in the other states no major changes of the leading party occurred. The grand coalition of SPÖ and ÖVP have retained their majority, while the SPÖ are keen to renew the coalition, the ÖVP are also considering the possibility of a coalition with the FPÖ and another smaller party. On October 14, the SPÖ and the ÖVP agreed to start talks with each other. On December 16, the second Faymann cabinet was formed
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Austrian presidential election, 2004
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Presidential elections were held in Austria on 25 April 2004. While the post of President of Austria is a ceremonial one. The victorious candidate was Heinz Fischer of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Austria and he defeated Benita Ferrero-Waldner, foreign minister in the ruling conservative coalition led by the Austrian Peoples Party. The turnout of slightly above 70% of registered voters was considered low by Austrian standards, in the 2002 parliamentary elections the conservative parties received 52 percent of the votes, compared to 46 percent for the SPÖ and the Greens. In this election, however, many conservative voters stayed at home, the campaign started in January 2004 with the announcements of Ferrero-Waldner and Fischer that they would run. A notable exception was Franz Fiedler, head of the National Audit Office, in late February he announced that he was considering a candidacy, and that he had the support of important but unnamed politicians. Conventional wisdom held that he had no chance of getting a majority, but since his financial supporters were unwilling to reveal their names, he decided not to run. The first complaint before the panel was brought by the SPÖ, the panel decided that this was not fair according to community standards, but not specifically forbidden by the Fairness Pact. Both parties hailed this decision as a victory for their own side, later, both sides complained that the other side had given out presents of tangible value at rallies, the panel refused to consider these claims. Fischers campaign praised their candidates experience as President of the Parliament, his expertise in constitutional law, ferreros campaign suggested that as a dedicated socialist Fischer might not always show the neutrality required from a Federal President. Ferreros campaign pointed to her connections, her language abilities. In the beginning of the campaign, polls suggested a 15% lead for Fischer, during the campaign Ferrero narrowed the margin, Austrian Ministry of Interior, results https, //web. archive. org/web/20040417104918/http, //www. benita-ferrero-waldner. at, 80/ http, //www. heinzfischer. at/
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Austrian presidential election, 2010
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The Austrian presidential election took place on 25 April 2010. It was the election of an Austrian head of state since 1951. The candidates were President Heinz Fischer, Barbara Rosenkranz and Rudolf Gehring, Heinz Fischer won with just under 80% of the valid votes. The turnout was on the low of about 54%. Incumbent President Heinz Fischer announced on 23 November 2009 that he seek a second term. According to a 27 June 2009, Gallup poll for the newspaper Österreich, there were rumours that the candidate of the Austrian Peoples Party would be either Governor of Lower Austria Erwin Pröll or president of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Christoph Leitl. On 13 October 2009 Pröll announced that he would not run for the Presidency, Leitl and former governor of Styria Waltraud Klasnic also declined a presidential run. On 25 February 2010, the Peoples Party announced that it would not nominate a candidate, the Freedom Party announced in June 2009 that it would definitely field a candidate to prevent Fischer. Possible candidates mentioned included Martin Graf, Norbert Steger, Siegfried Dillersberger, Norbert Gugerbauer, Dieter Böhmdorfer, after the Carinthian branch of the Alliance for the Future of Austria broke away to re-unite with the Freedom Party, it was rumoured that Barbara Rosenkranz would be their candidate. In early January 2010, Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party, on 28 February 2010, Strache announced in the Kronen Zeitung that the Freedom Party would nominate Barbara Rosenkranz as its presidential candidate. On 17 August, Haider announced that she would not run for president, on 26 February 2010, Bucher said that he might run as a candidate for his party, because he could appeal to voters. On 1 March 2010, the Alliance announced that Bucher would not stand as a candidate, as the odds were clearly against him and they did not want to waste taxpayers money. It was expected that former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen might stand in the election, in June 2009, however, Green party leader Eva Glawischnig stated that the Greens were considering fielding a candidate, and that Van der Bellen would be a very good candidate. By November 2009, there was no clear decision from the Greens. On 25 February 2010, the Greens announced they wanted to concentrate on state elections, the Christian Party nominated its chairman Rudolf Gehring as a presidential candidate. On 25 March 2010, they announced they had gathered the necessary signatures to run for president. A former judge from eastern Styria, Martin Wabl, who had previously tried to run for president. Bernhard Gregor Honemann also planned to run, none of these candidates obtained the 6000 signatures necessary to run for president
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European Parliament election, 2014 (Austria)
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The 2014 European Parliament election was held on 25 May 2014 in Austria. As a result of the Lisbon Treaty Austria held 19 seats in the European Parliament, three Members of the European Parliament decided to stand in the election again, but not for their original parties. They are Martin Ehrenhauser, Ewald Stadler and Angelika Werthmann, Ehrenhauser is now top candidate for the left-wing electoral alliance Europe Different, which includes the Communists and the Pirate Party. Stadler founded the eurosceptic Reform Conservatives, who intend to join the Europe of Freedom and she withdrew her NEOS-candidacy for the 2014 European election in January 2014. The Alliance for the Future of Austria initially planned to field Ulrike Haider-Quercia, daughter of the party founder Jörg Haider. She withdrew on 8 April, complaining that the party would not accept her independent policy, instead of her, the BZÖs new top candidate is Angelika Werthmann. She was also excluded from the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament after joining the BZÖ, the new liberal party NEOS is contesting the election. Angelika Mlinar was elected as its top candidate after its caucus in February 2014, team Stronach, another successful new party in the 2013 national election, announced on 8 April 2014 that they would not contest the election. On 25 March 2014 MEP Hans-Peter Martin, the leader of Hans-Peter Martins List, a small party called EU-STOP also managed to collect the 2600 signatures necessary to be included on the election ballot. Their main goal is Austrias exit from the EU resulting in a neutral and self-determined country. There were 9 parties contesting the election,3,322,498 women and 3,088,104 men were eligible to vote. Included in these totals are 34,773 Austrians living abroad and 33,184 foreign EU-citizens living in Austria, poll opening and closing times on election day were set individually by each municipality. Poll closing times can be no later than 5pm, voters who so chose were allowed to cast their vote either by absentee ballot or postal ballot. Postal ballots had to arrive at the voting commission no later than 5pm on election day. Before the 2009 election,309,200 voters requested absentee or postal ballots, for the 2014 election, the number was 444,057
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States of Austria
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Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder. Since Land is also the German word for country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity, the Constitution of Austria uses both terms. In English, the land is commonly rendered as state or province. The other five states, in contrast, are located in the Alps and their terrain is also relatively unfavourable to heavy industry and long-distance trade. Accordingly, the population of what now is the Republic of Austria has been concentrated in the four states since prehistoric times. Austrias most densely populated state is the city-state of Vienna, the heart of what is Austrias only metropolitan area, Lower Austria ranks fourth with regard to population density even though containing Viennas suburbs, this is due to large areas of land being predominantly agricultural. The wealthy alpine state of Vorarlberg is something of a due to its small size, isolated location. The following ranked list of Austrian states cites official Statistik Austria population on 1 January 2015, areas are given in square kilometres, population density is expressed in inhabitants per square kilometre. For the purpose of the above list, a city is a community defined to be a city by Austrian law, many of Austrias cities have population figures on the order of ten thousand inhabitants, some are even smaller. Elections are held five years. The Landeshauptmann is always elected by the Landtag, meaning that it may be necessary to form a coalition in order to secure the election of a particular candidate. Vienna, the capital of Austria, plays a role as city and Bundesland, meaning that the mayor serves as governor. Austrian federalism is largely theoretical as the states are granted few legislative powers, there is also no judiciary of the Länder, since the federal constitution defines the judiciary as an exclusively federal matter. This centralisation follows a model where central power during the time of the empire was largely concentrated in Vienna. However, the governor is in charge of the administration of much of federal administrative law within the respective state. Furthermore, state competences include zoning laws, planning issues and public procurement on the regional level, Austrian Länder are endowed formally and practically with a much smaller degree of autonomy than American or German states. Even so, Austrians tend to identify passionately with their respective Land and it is not unheard of for Austrians to consider themselves, for instance, Tyrolean first, Austrian second. Salzburg is coterminous with the former Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Salzburg, also, the state of Vorarlberg had been a semi-autonomous part of the County of Tyrol since 1861
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District (Austria)
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In Austrian politics, a district is a second-level division of the executive arm of the countrys government. e. District administrative authorities that only exist as a role filled by something that primarily is a city. As of 2015, there are 95 districts,80 districts headed by district commissions and 15 statutory cities, many districts are geographically congruent with one of the countrys 116 judicial venues. Statutory cities are not usually referred to as districts outside of government publications, a district headed by a district commission typically covers somewhere between ten and thirty municipalities. As a purely administrative unit, a district does not hold elections, the district governor is appointed by the provincial governor, the district civil servants are province employees. In the provincial laws of Lower Austria and Vorarlberg, districts headed by district commissions are called administrative districts, in Burgenland, Carinthia, Salzburg, Styria, Upper Austria, and Tyrol, the term used is political district. National law, including constitutional law, uses all three variants interchangeably. A statutory city is a city vested with both municipal and district administrative responsibility, town hall personnel also serves as district personnel, the mayor also discharges the powers and duties of a head of district commission. City management thus functions both as a government and a branch of the national government at the same time. Most of the 15 statutory cities are major population centers with residents numbering in the tens of thousands. The last community to have invoked this right is Wels, a city since 1964. As of 2014, ten other communities are eligible but not interested, the statutory city of Vienna, a community with well over 1.7 million residents, is divided into 23 municipal districts. Despite the similar name and the role they fill, municipal districts have a different legal basis than districts. The statutory cities of Graz and Klagenfurt also have referred to as municipal districts. Austria strictly speaking does not name districts but district administrative authorities, the German term for district commission and city, Bezirkshauptmannschaft and Stadt, respectively, is part of the official proper name of each such entity. This means that there can be pairs of districts whose two proper names contain the same toponym, several such pairs do in fact exist. There are, for example, two district administrative authorities sharing the toponym Innsbruck, the city of Innsbruck and the Innsbruck district commission. To avoid confusion, the names of the districts in these pairs are commonly rendered with the suffix -Land
40.
Foreign relations of Austria
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The 1955 Austrian State Treaty ended the four-power occupation and recognized Austria as an independent and sovereign state. In October 1955, the Federal Assembly passed a law in which Austria declares of her own free will her perpetual neutrality. The second section of this law stated that in all future times Austria will not join any military alliances, since then, Austria has shaped its foreign policy on the basis of neutrality. Also in 1995, it joined the Partnership for Peace, discussion of possible Austrian NATO membership intensified during 1996. ÖVP and the Team Stronach aim at moving closer to NATO or a European defense arrangement, SPÖ and FPÖ, in turn, believe continued neutrality is the cornerstone of Austrias foreign policy, and a majority of the population generally supports this stance. In February 2000, Austrias foreign relations cooled down when the ÖVP formed a coalition with the FPÖ after the 1999 election, European governments imposed diplomatic sanctions, and the United States called home its ambassador. The diplomatic sanctions were lifted in September 2000, after a three-member panel assessed human rights, in November 2000, the United States and Austria normalized their relations. Austrian leaders emphasize the role the country plays as an East-West hub. Austria is active in the United Nations and experienced in UN peacekeeping efforts, recently, Vienna added the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization and the Wassenaar Arrangement to the list of international organizations it hosts. Austria traditionally has been active in bridge-building to the east, increasing contacts at all levels with Eastern Europe, austrians maintain a constant exchange of business representatives, political leaders, students, cultural groups, and tourists with the countries of central and eastern Europe. Austrian companies are active in investing and trading with the countries of central, in addition, the Austrian Government and various Austrian organizations provide assistance and training to support the changes underway in the region. Austria maintains significant bilateral relations with several countries, List of diplomatic missions in Austria List of diplomatic missions of Austria Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs Visa requirements for Austrian citizens Horn, David Bayne. Great Britain and Europe in the eighteenth century covers 1603-1702, pp 111-43 and this article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of State website http, //www. state. gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/index. htm
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