1.
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
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Johann Schober
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Johann Schober was an Austrian police official and politician who served as the 3rd Chancellor of Austria as well as Foreign Minister from 1921 to 1922 and again from 1929 to 1930. Schober was born in the Upper Austrian town of Perg, the 10th child of an usher at the district administration. From 1894 he studied law at the University of Vienna, as Assistant Commissioner in Vienna, he largely contributed to the clarification of espionage affaire around Alfred Redl, head of the Evidenzbureau intelligence agency, in May 1913. His cabinet mainly consisted of government officials, while Schober himself combined his head of government role with that of Foreign Minister of Austria. In October 1921, Schober after local unrest in Sopron by the Venice Protocol agreed to decide the status by a local plebiscite. The Schober cabinet had to resign on 26 January 1922, while Vice-Chancellor Walter Breisky assumed responsibility of government affairs, back in the police service, Schober returned to his role as President of police in Vienna. At the meeting it was agreed to establish the International Criminal Police Commission, Schober was chosen as the President of the Executive Committee whilst his countryman Oskar Dressler, a noted lawyer and at the time the Austrian Federal Police chief, became Secretary. Nevertheless, Schobers reputation for moderation was hit hard in July 1927 when his orders resulted in the deaths of almost 100 labour protestors in Vienna, the noted satirist, Karl Kraus, was so incensed by the police actions that he started a poster campaign calling for Schobers resignation. On 26 September 1929, Schober returned as Chancellor and Foreign Minister, during his term the Federal Constitution underwent a revision significantly broadening the prerogatives of the President. In January 1930, he achieved the end of World War I reparations to ease the impact of the Great Depression and he also signed agreements with both the German Weimar Republic and the fascist Kingdom of Italy. Nonetheless, he failed to convert the paramilitary Heimwehr forces under Waldemar Pabst into a force for pro-government moderation, Schobers 2nd term in office ended, after his CS deputy Carl Vaugoin resigned on 25 September 1930. In the Austrian legislative election held on 9 November 1930, Schober led an alliance of the Greater German Peoples Party. From 4 December he served Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister in the cabinets of Otto Ender, Schober left Bureschs government on 29 January 1932. When in May President Wilhelm Miklas entrusted Engelbert Dollfuss the formation of a government, on 19 August 1932, a few days upon the death of his rival Ignaz Seipel, Schober suddenly died aged 57. He was buried in his hometown Perg, auÃenminister Johann Schober, Haager Konferenz on YouTube
5.
Walter Breisky
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Walter Breisky was an Austrian civil servant and politician of the Christian Social Party. Breisky started his career as an official of the Lower Austrian government in 1895, after World War I he was promoted to a ministry department chief. On 7 July 1920 Breisky joined the Mayr cabinet as State secretary for the Interior, on November 20 he also served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria. He held both posts even after Chancellor Mayr was succeeded by non-partisan Johann Schober on 21 June 1921, when Schober resigned on 26 January 1922, Breisky had one day as acting Austrian chancellor, before he again joined Schobers second cabinet as Culture Minister and Vice-Chancellor. With the election of Chancellor Ignaz Seipel on 31 May 1922, Breisky resigned and went on to serve as President of the Austrian Statistical Service from 1923 to 1931
6.
Ignaz Seipel
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Ignaz Seipel was an Austrian prelate and politician of the Christian Social Party, who served as Federal Chancellor twice during the 1920s. Seipel studied theology at the University of Vienna and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1899, from 1909 until 1917 he taught moral theology at the University of Salzburg. At that time he wrote and published a number of famous works, including Nation und Staat. In these writings, unlike most contemporaries swept up by Wilsonian rhetoric, he saw the state as the vindication of sovereignty. In October 1918 he was appointed Minister for Labour and Social Affairs in the last Cisleithanian cabinet under Minister president Heinrich Lammasch, Party chairman from 1921 until 1930, he served as chancellor between 1922 and 1924, and again from 1926 until 1929, then also as Foreign Minister. In order to fight the hyperinflation of the Krone currency the government at the same time re-implemented the independent National Bank of Austria with the task of securing monetary stability. However, these policies let to growing discontent by socialist workers organizations and this alignment led to an increase in street violence and armed conflicts with the left-wing Republikanischer Schutzbund, culminating in the Vienna July Revolt of 1927 claiming numerous casualties. The Social Democratic opposition thereafter referred to Seipel as the Bloody Prelate and he finally resigned in 1929 and was succeeded by his party fellow Ernst Streeruwitz. In the following year he again served in a short-time term as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Chancellor Carl Vaugoin. Seipel died during a stay at a sanatorium in the Vienna Woods and he is buried in an Ehrengrab at the Vienna Zentralfriedhof. Seipels antisemitic manners were the pattern for the character of Chancellor Dr. Schwerdtfeger in Hugo Bettauers 1922 novel Die Stadt ohne Juden, vol.12, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3580-7, p.142 f. Denken Ignaz Seipels zwischen Scholastik und Korporativismus, in F. S. Festa, E. Fröschl, T
7.
Rudolf Ramek
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Rudolf Ramek was an Austrian Christian Social politician, who served as Chancellor of Austria from 1924 to 1926. Ramek was born in Teschen in Austrian Silesia, a member of the National Council after the 1920 legislative election, he succeeded his party fellow Ignaz Seipel as Austrian chancellor on 20 November 1924. Under Rameks government, the Schilling became the official Austrian currency in 1925, the supervision of the countrys finances by a League of Nations Commissioner finished the next year, however, the depression continued and unemployment figures were rising. Ramek finally resigned during the crisis around the state-owned Österreichische Postsparkasse postal savings bank on 20 October 1926, upon the 1930 legislative election, Ramek became vice president of the National Council parliament. Ramek died in Vienna and was buried in the Salzburg Municipal Cemetery
8.
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
9.
Karl Seitz
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Karl Seitz was born in Vienna, then capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, as the son of a struggling small-time coal trader. Following the premature death of his father in 1875, the family was thrown into abject poverty, Seitz nonetheless received adequate education and earned a scholarship enabling him to enroll in a teacher training college in the Lower Austrian city of St. Pölten. In 1888, he took employment as an elementary school teacher in Vienna. Already an outspoken Social Democrat at that time, he was disciplined several times for his political activism, Seitz now turned to full-time politics and established himself as one of Austrian Social Democracys most eminent experts on educational policy. In 1901 Seitz was elected to the Imperial Council and in 1902 to the parliament of Lower Austria. Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Seitz developed pronounced pacifist leanings, Seitz entered history in 1918, when Austria-Hungary was breaking down and its disintegration into smaller independent nation states was becoming manifest. On October 21, the Imperial Council parliamentarians representing the empires ethnically German provinces moved to form a Provisional National Assembly for their paralyzed rump state, in its constituent session, the Provisional National Assembly appointed Seitz as one of its three chairmen. Barely more than a later, by October 30, Seitz had informally emerged as an acting head of state. By November 12, Emperor Karl had abdicated, the Republic of German Austria had been proclaimed, almost simultaneously, Seitz was also appointed provisional chairman of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria following the death of party nestor Victor Adler. In 1919, his positions both as President of Austria and as party chairman were formalized, following the implementation of the definitive Constitution of Austria on October 1,1920, Seitz declined to seek re-election, leaving office on December 9. He did, however, not retire from politics, retaining both his party chairmanship and his seat in the newly established National Council, Seitz now devoted his attention to Vienna local affairs, on November 13,1923, he was elected Mayor of Vienna. Having thus lost his party chairmanship, Seitz was also removed from his post as a mayor and taken into custody, even though a majority of Viennese considered his removal from office illegitimate, Seitzs political career had essentially been brought to an end. Continuing to live in Vienna, Seitz witnessed Austrias union with Nazi Germany in 1938, though by now of ill health, Seitz served the newly established Social Democratic Party of Austria as its honorary chairman and a nominal National Council member until his death at the age of 80. Media related to Karl Seitz at Wikimedia Commons
listen); 15 August 1858 – 26 February 1940) was an Austrian politician who served as the second President of Austria from 1920 to 1929, after the fall of the monarchy at the end of World War I.
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Hainisch, Michael". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
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