Arnie.....Mozart.....Wiener Schnitzel.....Thomas Muster.....Hermann Mayer......
So, Austria then....pretty small country (about 7 million people), loads of tourists (most important industry), bang in the middle of Europe.
Oh yeah, and skiing of course. Old cliche: Youīre Austrian = Youīre a good skier. The truth: I bloody hate skiing!
What are Austrians like then?
Well, depends on where youīre going really. In the west of Austria (Vorarlberg and Tyrol), which is the region with the mountains and loads of German tourists, you get the arrogant unfriendly sort. In the south (Carinthia) you get the depressed unfriendly sort. And in the east (Vienna, Lower Austria) you get the just plain unfriendly sort.
Doesnīt sound too nice? Well, it isnīt.Still, please keep on coming skiing here, or otherwise our economy will go bankrupt. Thanks.
Alright, Austria was first mentioned 996 in a document and was basically a little shitty part of central Europe. The first important family to rule Austria back then were the Babenbergers, but they never got their shit together, so Austria didnīt grow much for a couple of centuries.
It was only when the Habsburgs came to power that Austriaīs importance grew. They were pretty clever fuckers actually, cos they managed to win even more power not through wars, but marrying other kings and queens all around Europe and therefore inheriting loads of small kingdoms. "Tu felix Austria nube", while everybody fights wars, you lucky Austria marry. So Austria grew and grew. Only problem was, with all this marrying everybody around Europe soon everybody was in some way related to each other and some Habsburgs turned out to be, well, a bit stupid really. They didnīt know too much about genes and all that back then. A couple of centuries ago Austria was one of the most important countries in Europe and even the world, it was the Empire where the sun never set. It was basically the whole of Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, bits of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, bits of Rumania, Slovenia, Croatia, bits of Italy), the Netherlands and Spain and its colonies.
But then they fucked up a bit in Spain and it got lost and the Dutch also didnīt like us much and kicked us out as well. A bit later on we kicked Napoleonīs butt and in the Wiener Kongress (the Viennese Congress, duh) in 1816 the borders of Europe were drawn pretty much as they are today. With one exception of course. Austria was still a pretty big place. But only for another 100 years. After the first world war it was reduced to its weird tennis-racket like shape it is today. The Habsburgs were kicked out and a government took over, most of whose members believed Austria wouldnīt survive on its own and the best idea would be to become a part of Germany. Some bastard called Hitler (he was a painter at the time) somehow heard of that idea and well, the rest is a sad long story.
However, Austria managed to emerge from the ashes as one of the richest countries in the world today (gross national product and that) and is a lovely place to live in. Ahem.
