Austria

Today I’d like to tell you something about

Austria:
The size is about 84. 000 km2 and has a
population of 7. 500. 000 people.
There are nine federal countries named
Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria,
Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Carinthia,
Styria and Burgenland.
Each of them has it’s own capital:
Vienna, St. Pölten, Linz, Salzburg,
Innsbruck, Bregenz, Klagenfurth, Graz
and Eisenstadt.

On the map you find Austria in middle

Europe. Now I want to show you the flags
of the countries.
Our country’s name was not always
Austria, but in former times Ostarrichi. It
is 1005 years old. At the 1st November 995
Emperor Otto III gave some land around
the place Niuvanhova to the Bishop of
Freising. This land was named Ostarrichi,
also by an document. The place was
renamed Neuhoven, and still today you
can see there the stone of memorandum.
There were two reigning dynasties, the
Babenberger, who ruled from 976 to 1246
and the Habsburger, who ruled from 1278
to 1918. The last ruler of the Babenberger
was Friedrich II who died in 1246. The
last austrian Emperor was Karl. His wife
Zita died only eleven years ago.

Emperor Franz-Joseph I reigned for 68

years (1848 – 1916) and was so the
emperor who had the power for the
longest time. His wife was the famous
Elizabeth, short Sisi. The couple had four
children: Sophie, who died at the age of
only two years, Gisela, Rudolph, the
crown prince, and Valerie. After the
suicide of Rudolph in Mayerling, his
cousin Ferdinand became the crown
prince. At the 28. 6. 1914 he was
murdered in Sarajevo, and for that reason
the first world war broke out. After the
war, at the 12. 11. 1918 the first republic
was proclaimed. The second world war
was from 1939 till 1945 and from that
year on until today we have the second
republic in Austria. At the 15. 5. 1955 the
Austrian State Contract was signed.
Leopold Figl, who was the minister of
foreign affairs, claimed the famous
sentence: “Austria is free”.
Thousands of people came to see this
historical meeting or bought a TV to see
this special event.
The name of our President today is Dr.
Thomas Klestil, Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel is
our Federal Chancellor and our Minister of
foreign affairs is Dr. Benita Ferrero-
Waldner.