BelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in Serbia BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
in Slovakia BrnoBrno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
in Czech Republic BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in Hungary IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in Turkey (since 2007) KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in Ukraine LjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
in Slovenia |
Moscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in Russia TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in Iran (since 2009)
name="Tabriz">http://www.azembassy.at/en/azau.htmAgreement between Vienna and Tabriz Municipality in Farsi]
{{Redirect|Wien||Wien (disambiguation)}}
{{About|the capital of Austria}}
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Vienna (icon; {{lang-de|link=no|Wien}} viːn; Viennese GermanViennese German is the city dialect spoken in Vienna, the capital of Austria and is counted among the Bavarian dialects. Even in Lower Austria, the state surrounding the city, many of its expressions are not used, while farther to the west they are often not even understood.- Linguistic...
: Wean) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and one of the nine states of AustriaAustria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...
. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan areaThe term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its culturalAustrian culture has largely been influenced by its past and present neighbors: Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bohemia.-Music:Vienna, the capital city of Austria has long been an important center of musical innovation. Composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were drawn to the city by the...
, economicAustria is one of the 12 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, has a well-developed social market economy, and a high standard of living. Until the 1980s, many of Austria's largest industry firms were nationalised; in recent years, however, privatisation has reduced state...
, and politicalThe Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...
centre. It is the 9th-largest cityThis is a list of the largest cities in the European Union by population within city limits which have more than 300,000 inhabitants. It deals exclusively with the areas within city administrative boundaries as opposed to urban areas or metropolitan areas, which are generally larger in terms of...
by population in the European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Vienna is host to many major international organizationAn intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...
s, such as the United Nations and OPECOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
.
Vienna lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, and HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. These regions work together in a European CentropeCentrope is an Interreg IIIA project to establish a multinational region in the Central Europe encompassing four European countries: Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic....
border region. Along with nearby BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants, and this region is referred to as Twin City.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vienna is often said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to one of the world's greatest interpreters of dreams, Professor Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
.
Vienna has its roots in early CelticThe words Celt and Celtic can refer to:In ethno-linguistics:*Celts, a people of the Celtic nations*Celts , the modern Celtic identity*Celtic languages...
and RomanAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
settlements that transformed into a Medieval and BaroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city is well known for playing 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, as well as the late-19th-century Ringstrasse lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.
In a 2005 study of 127 world citiesA global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
, the Economist Intelligence UnitThe Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...
ranked the city first (in a tie with VancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Canada) for quality of lifeThe world's most liveable cities is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. Two examples are the Mercer Quality of Living Survey and The Economists World's Most Livable Cities .Liveability rankings are designed for use by...
. This assessment was mirrored by the Mercer Survey in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Analytically, the city was ranked 1st globally for a culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and 2nd globally after Boston in 2009 from 256 cities on an analysis of 162 indicators in the Innovation Cities Index on a 3-factor score covering culture, infrastructure and markets. As a city, Vienna regularly hosts urban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners.
This city rates highly in popular opinion-based journalistic rankings from magazines such as the Economist Intelligence UnitThe Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...
, whom rated it the second best city in which to live according to their Global Livability Survey in 2011 as well as MonocleMonocle is a lifestyle magazine and website founded by Tyler Brûlé, a Canadian journalist and entrepreneur. Described by CBC News reporter Harry Forestell as a "meeting between Foreign Policy and Vanity Fair", the magazine provides a globalist perspective on issues as fashion, international...
, where it is rated 8th among the "Top 25 Livable Cities" in 2010.
In each single year since 2005 so far, Vienna has been the world's number one destination of international congresses and conventions, thus contributing to attracting at about five million tourists a year which makes up a record of roughly three tourists per city inhabitant.
Name
{{Hatnote|See also Other names of Vienna}}
The English name Vienna, the official German name Wien, and the names of the city in most languages, are thought to be derived from the CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
word "windu", meaning bright or fair – as in the Irish "fionn" – but opinions vary on the precise origin. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning "forest stream," which subsequently became Venia, Wienne and Wien. Others claim that the name comes from the Roman settlement VindobonaVindobona was originally a Celtic settlement, and later a Roman military camp on the site of the modern city of Vienna in Austria. Around 15 BC, the kingdom of Noricum was included in the Roman Empire...
, probably meaning "white base/bottom," which became Vindovina, Vídeň (CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
) and Wien.
The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), BosnianBosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Croatian and Serbian (Beč) and Ottoman TurkishThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
(Beç) appears to have a different, SlavonicThe Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. In Slovene, the city is called Dunaj, which in other Slavic languages means the Danube River, on which it is located.
History
{{Main|History of Vienna}}
{{-}}
Evidence of continuous habitation has been found since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s fortified the frontier city they called VindobonaVindobona was originally a Celtic settlement, and later a Roman military camp on the site of the modern city of Vienna in Austria. Around 15 BC, the kingdom of Noricum was included in the Roman Empire...
, to guard the empire against Germanic tribesThe Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
to the north.
Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued down through the ages with such figures as the eighth-century Irish monks like Saint Colman (or Koloman), who is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) who was Bishop of Salzburg for forty years, to the twelfth century monastic settlements founded by Irish Benedictines. Echoes of that time are still evident in Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery, once home to many Irish monks.
In the 13th century, Vienna came under threat from the Mongolian EmpireThe Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
, which stretched over much of present-day Russia and China. Due to the death of their leader Ogedei KhanÖgedei Khan, born Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father...
, the Mongolian armies retreated from the European frontier and did not return.
During the Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Vienna was home to the Babenberg dynasty; in 1440, it became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasties. It eventually grew to become the de facto capital of the Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
occupied the city between 1485–1490.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the OttomanThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
armies were stopped twice outside Vienna (see Siege of ViennaThe Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power, the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe, and was the result of a...
, 1529 and Battle of ViennaThe Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
, 1683). A plagueThe Great Plague of Vienna occurred in 1679 in Vienna, Austria, the imperial residence of the Austrian Habsburg rulers. From contemporary descriptions, the disease is believed to have been bubonic plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas associated with the black...
epidemic ravaged Vienna in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.
Austro-Hungarian Empire
In 1804, during the Napoleonic warsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, Vienna became the capital of the Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
and continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the 1814 Congress of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city was a centre of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese SchoolThe First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in Western art music in late-18th-century Vienna: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Franz Schubert is occasionally added to the list.In German speaking countries, the...
is sometimes applied.
During the latter half of the 19th century, the city developed what had previously been the bastionA bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
s and glacisA glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth used in late European fortresses so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment...
into the RingstraßeThe Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
, a new boulevardA Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the First Austrian RepublicThe Federal State of Austria refers to Austria from 1934 to 1938, according to its self-conception a non-party, in fact a single-party state led by the fascist Fatherland's Front...
.
From the late 19th century to 1938, the city remained a centre of high culture and modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. A world capital of music, the city played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, amongst many, the Vienna SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
movement, psychoanalysisPsychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, the Second Viennese SchoolThe Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
, the architecture of Adolf LoosAdolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...
and the philosophy of Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
. Within Austria, it was seen as a centre of socialist politics, for which it was sometimes referred to as "Red ViennaRed Vienna was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time.-Social situation after World War I:...
". The city was a stage to the Austrian Civil WarThe Austrian Civil War , also known as the February Uprising , is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between socialist and conservative-fascist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934, in Austria...
of 1934, when Chancellor Engelbert DollfussEngelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...
sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing occupied by the socialist militia.
The Anschluss and World War II
In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
spoke to the Austrian people from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
at the HeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
. Between 1938 (see AnschlussThe Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
) and the end of the Second World War, Vienna lost its status as a capital to BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
On 2 April 1945, the Soviets launched the Vienna OffensiveThe Vienna Offensive was launched by the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front in order to capture Vienna, Austria. The offensive lasted from 2–13 April 1945...
against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air raids and artillery duels between the WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and the Red ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water and power distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. Vienna fell two weeks later. Austria was separated from Germany, and Vienna was restored as the republic's capital city.
Four-power Vienna
After the war, Vienna was surrounded by the Soviet-occupied zone. As in Berlin, Vienna was divided into sectors by the four powers and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an international zone in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The Berlin BlockadeThe Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
of 1948 raised allied concerns that the Russians might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons,
{{quotation |1= "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin. It is surrounded by a Soviet Zone of occupation and we have our sector of responsibility in Vienna the same as the Americans and the French. What plans have the Government to deal with a similar situation arising in Vienna in the near future? I hope we shall have an answer, because this is of vital importance."
– Sir Anthony NuttingSir Harold Anthony Nutting, 3rd Baronet was a British diplomat and Conservative Party politician.-Early and private life:...
, Honourable Member for MeltonMelton was a county constituency centred on the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, 30 June 1948, House of Commons, London.}}
There were a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not embark on a wholesale blockade of the city. Some historians have argued that the Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hot-bed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Russians had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna.
They put up barbed wire fences around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Russians agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria, and East Vienna, as well as their sector in the fourth and tenth districts in South Vienna. In exchange they required a permanent neutrality clause to be enshrined into the new Austrian State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
. In 1955, the Russians pulled out of Austria.
The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is captured in the Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
screenplay for the film The Third ManThe Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
(1949), directed by Carol Reed. Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also colourfully depicted in the Philip KerrPhilip Kerr is a British author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Bernie Gunther series of thrillers, and of children's books, particularly the Children of the Lamp series....
novel, "A German RequiemA German Requiem is a detective novel and the last in the Berlin Noir trilogy written by Philip Kerr.-Plot overview:After spending the latter part of the war in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp, 1947 sees Bernhard Gunther now married to Kirsten, who seems to be trading sex with U.S. Army officers for...
."
Austrian State Treaty
The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
was signed in 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The State Treaty ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's late entry into the European Union.
In the 1970s, Austrian ChancellorThe Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...
Bruno KreiskyBruno Kreisky was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II....
inaugurated the Vienna International Centreright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained a part of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationThe United Nations Industrial Development Organization , French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria...
, United Nations Office at ViennaThe United Nations Office in Vienna is one of the four major UN office sites where several different UN agencies have a joint presence. The office complex is located in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and is part of the Vienna International Centre, a cluster of several major international...
and United Nations Office on Drugs and CrimeThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations agency that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations...
), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
and the United European Gastroenterology Federation.
Historical population
Due to the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was one of the six largest cities in the world.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} At the turn of the century, Vienna (Czech Vídeň, Hungarian Bécs) was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
). At the height of the migration, about one-third of the Viennese population was of SlavicThe Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
or Hungarian origin. After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population.
In 1923 there were 201,513 JewsThe history of the Jews in Vienna, Austria, goes back over eight hundred years. There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Vienna from the 12th century onwards....
living in Vienna, which had become the third-largest Jewish community in Europe. Most were deported and killed in concentration camps by Nazi and Austrian forces.
By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former YugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, primarily SerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were TurksTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
(39,000; 2.5%), PolesPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%).
| Year |
1754 |
1800 |
1850 |
1900 |
1910 |
1923 |
1939 |
Total
population |
175,460 |
271,800 |
551,300 |
1,769,137 |
2,083,630 |
1,918,720 |
1,770,938 |
|
| Year |
1951 |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
2001 |
2008 |
Total
population |
1,616,125 |
1,627,566 |
1,619,885 |
1,531,346 |
1,539,848 |
1,550,123 |
1,678,435 |
Geography and climate
Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the AlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
in the Vienna BasinThe Vienna Basin is a sedimentary basin between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains...
. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from 151 to 524 m (495.4 to 1,719.2 ft).
Vienna lies within a transition of oceanic climateAn oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
and humid continental climateA humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
according to the Köppen classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
. The city has warm summers with average high temperatures of 22 to 26 °C (71.6 to 78.8 F), with maxima exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) and lows of around 15 °C (59 °F). Winters are relatively cold with average temperatures at about freezing point, and snowfall occurring mainly from December through March. Spring and autumn are cool to mild. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging 620 mm (24.4 inches) annually, with the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part (700 to 800 mm (27.6 to 31.5 ) annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part(500 to 550 mm (19.7 to 21.7 ) annually).
{{Weather box
|location = Vienna
|metric first = Y
|single line = Y
|Jan high C = 2.9
|Feb high C = 5.1
|Mar high C = 10.3
|Apr high C = 15.1
|May high C = 20.5
|Jun high C = 23.4
|Jul high C = 25.6
|Aug high C = 25.9
|Sep high C = 20.3
|Oct high C = 14.2
|Nov high C = 7.5
|Dec high C = 4.0
|year high C =
|Jan low C = -2.0
|Feb low C = -0.9
|Mar low C = 2.4
|Apr low C = 5.8
|May low C = 10.5
|Jun low C = 13.5
|Jul low C = 15.4
|Aug low C = 15.3
|Sep low C = 11.7
|Oct low C = 7.0
|Nov low C = 2.4
|Dec low C = -0.5
|year low C =
|Jan precipitation mm = 37.2
|Feb precipitation mm = 39.4
|Mar precipitation mm = 46.1
|Apr precipitation mm = 51.7
|May precipitation mm = 61.8
|Jun precipitation mm = 70.2
|Jul precipitation mm = 68.2
|Aug precipitation mm = 57.8
|Sep precipitation mm = 53.5
|Oct precipitation mm = 40.0
|Nov precipitation mm = 50.0
|Dec precipitation mm = 44.4
|Jan precipitation days = 7.3
|Feb precipitation days = 7.6
|Mar precipitation days = 8.3
|Apr precipitation days = 7.5
|May precipitation days = 8.5
|Jun precipitation days = 9.1
|Jul precipitation days = 9.0
|Aug precipitation days = 8.0
|Sep precipitation days = 7.0
|Oct precipitation days = 6.0
|Nov precipitation days = 8.3
|Dec precipitation days = 8.2
|Jan sun = 55.8
|Feb sun = 79.1
|Mar sun = 127.1
|Apr sun = 171.0
|May sun = 220.1
|Jun sun = 222.0
|Jul sun = 244.9
|Aug sun = 229.4
|Sep sun = 171.0
|Oct sun = 136.4
|Nov sun = 63.0
|Dec sun = 52.7
|source 1 = World Meteorological Organization|date=September 2011
|source 2 = Hong Kong Observatory (sunshine hours only)|date=October 2011}}
Districts and enlargement
{{Main|Districts of Vienna}}
Vienna is composed of 23 districts (Bezirke). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratisches Bezirksamt) serve similar to those in the other states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaft), the officers being subject to the Landeshauptmann (which in Vienna is the mayor); with the exception of the police, which in Vienna is governed by the President of the Police (at the same time one of the nine Directors of Security of Austria), a federal office, directly responsible to the Minister of the Interior.
As had been planned in 1919 for all of Austria but not introduced, the district residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) are electing a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung) which chooses the District Head (Bezirksvorsteher) as political representative of the district on city level. City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that they are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councillor (amtsführender Stadrat).
The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere StadtThe Innere Stadt is the 1st municipal District of Vienna . The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Innere Stadt was congruent with the city of Vienna...
, was a fortress and surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor included 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, since 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city centre to expand.
In their place, a broad boulevard called the RingstraßeThe Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created until the turn of the century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
, the UniversityThe University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, the ParliamentIn the Parliament of Austria is vested the legislative power of the Republic of Austria. The institution consists of two chambers,* the National Council and* the Federal Council ....
, the twin museums of natural historyThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
and fine artThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
, and the StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
. It is also the location of New Wing of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly GothicGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
Stephansdom is located at the centre of the city, on StephansplatzThe Stephansplatz is a square at the geographical centre of Vienna. It is named after its most prominent building, the Stephansdom, Vienna's cathedral and one of the tallest churches in the world...
. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.
From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South have mainly followed another wall called Linienwall. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called GürtelThe Gürtel is a substantial city ring road of Vienna. Running parallel to the famous Ringstraße it encompasses the inner city districts .The road is officially called B 221 Wiener Gürtel Straße...
was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down from 1894 onwards. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.
From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 cities and villages into Vienna, 80 of which have returned to surrounding Lower AustriaLower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
in 1954. Since then Vienna has 23 districts.
Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere StadtThe Innere Stadt is the 1st municipal District of Vienna . The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Innere Stadt was congruent with the city of Vienna...
is situated away from the main flow of the DanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, but is bounded by the DonaukanalThe Donaukanal is a former arm of the river Danube, now regulated as a water channel , within the city of Vienna, Austria...
("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube RiverThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Centreright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
is located, and in the southernmost area are the newest parts of the city (districts 21–23).
Politics
Until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party, in particular long-term mayor Karl LuegerKarl Lueger was an Austrian politician and mayor of Vienna. The populist and anti-Semitic politics of his Christian Social Party are sometimes viewed as a model for Hitler's Nazism.- Career :...
. Vienna is today considered the centre of the Social Democratic Party of AustriaThe Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
. During the period of the First RepublicThe Federal State of Austria refers to Austria from 1934 to 1938, according to its self-conception a non-party, in fact a single-party state led by the fascist Fatherland's Front...
(1918–1934), the Vienna Social DemocratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
undertook many overdue social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red ViennaRed Vienna was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time.-Social situation after World War I:...
" (Rotes Wien). In February 1934 troops of the Conservative Austrian federal government and paramilitary socialist organisations were engaged in the Austrian civil war, which led to the ban of the Social Democrat party.
For most of the time since the First World War, the city has been governed by the Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
(SPÖ) with absolute majorities in the city parliament. Only between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascistAustrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...
and later by the NaziNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
authorities. The current mayor of Vienna is Michael HäuplMichael Häupl is the mayor of Vienna. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. He is married to Helga Häupl and has two children.-Biography:...
. The Social Democrats currently hold 55% of the seats with a 49% share of the vote. Many Austrian political experts{{Who|date=July 2009}} believe that if not for the Social Democrats' nearly unbreakable hold on Vienna, the rival Austrian People's PartyThe Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
(ÖVP) would dominate Austrian politics.
An example of the city’s many social democratic policies is its low-cost residential estates called GemeindebauGemeindebau is a German word for "municipality building". It refers to residential buildings erected by a municipality, usually to provide low-cost public housing....
ten.
Ever since Vienna obtained federal state (Bundesland) status of its own in 1921, the mayor has also had the role of the state governor (Landeshauptmann). The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor and the state government (Landesregierung). The city is administered by a multitude of departments (Magistratsabteilungen).
In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. In 1996 the Freedom Party of AustriaThe Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
(FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996–2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005 this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria.
Religion
Vienna is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna; its current ArchbishopAn archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
is CardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Christoph Schönborn. According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese are Roman Catholics, while 25.7% are of no religion, 7.8% are Muslim, 6.0% are members of an Orthodox denomination, 4.7% are Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% are Jewish, and 6.3% are either of other religions or did not reply.
Many Roman Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Roman Catholic churches, including the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), the Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church) and the Votivkirche.
The proportion of Viennese who identify as Roman Catholic has dropped over the last fifty years, from 90% in 1961 to under 50% in 2010.
Music, theatre and opera
{{See also|Music of Austria|Vienna State Opera Ballet}}
Music is one of Vienna's legacies. Musical prodigies like Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Ludwig Van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Joseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
have worked and the Classical style was born here under the influence of Johann Joseph Fux, the oldest teacher (sometimes regarded as inventor) of counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
.
Art and culture have a long tradition in Vienna, including theatre, opera, classical music and fine arts. The BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
is considered one of the best theatres in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater WienThe Volkstheater in Vienna was founded in 1889 by request of the citizens of Vienna, amongst them the dramatist Ludwig Anzengruber and the furniture manufacturer Thonet, in order to offer a popular counter weight to the Hofburgtheater...
and the Theater in der JosefstadtThe Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna...
also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theatres, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
.
Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der WienThe Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
, the StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
and the VolksoperThe Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
. Classical concerts are performed at well known venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Wiener KonzerthausThe Konzerthaus in Vienna was opened 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both tradition and innovative musical styles.In 1890 the first ideas for a Haus für Musikfeste came about...
. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music (particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Johann StraussJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
).
In recent years, the Theatre an der Wien has hosted premieres of musicals, although it has recently{{when|date=February 2011}} devoted itself to the opera again. The most successful musical by far was "ElisabethElisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
",{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} which was later translated into several other languages and performed all over the world. The Haus der MusikThe Haus der Musik in Vienna opened in 2000, and is the first museum of sound and music in Austria. Across an exhibition space of 54,000 sq...
("house of music") opened in 2000.
The WienerliedThe Wienerlied or Weanaliad is a song genre which has its roots in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Traditional Viennese songs, known as Wienerlieder are centred on the theme of life in Vienna and are almost exclusively sung in Viennese...
is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.
Musicians from Vienna
Many notable musicians were born in Vienna, including: Johann Strauss IJohann Strauss I , born in Vienna, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty...
, Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, FalcoJohann Hölzel , better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had several international hits: "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home " and posthumously, "Out Of The Dark"...
, Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Gerhard PotuznikGerhard Potuznik is an electronic musician of Vienna, Austria. He has been creating music since the early 1980s. His recording career began in 1988 with a release on Gig Records . Later he joined forces with Patrick Pulsinger to release a string of popular 12-inches on the influential Cheap...
, Louie AustenLouie Austen is an Austrian classically trained bar and jazz crooner who has been active in the electronic music scene.-Biography:Austen was born on 19 September 1946 in Vienna, Austria....
, Arnold Schönberg, and Fritz KreislerFriedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
.
Notable Musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Ludwig Van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Joseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
.
Museums
The Hofburg is the location of the SchatzkammerThe Imperial Treasury in Vienna, Austria is located in the Hofburg with its entrance at the Schweizerhof , the oldest part of the palace rebuilt in a Renaissance style under Emperor Ferdinand I...
(treasury), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of AustriaElisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...
) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
, which houses many paintings by old masters"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches MuseumThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
.
A number of museums are located in the MuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
(museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOKMUMOK is the abbreviation of "MUseum MOderner Kunst" Foundation Ludwig Vienna. It is located in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria....
(Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold MuseumThe Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
(featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon SchieleEgon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced...
, as well as works by the Vienna SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzWThe Architekturzentrum Wien is a museum in Vienna, in the Museumsquartier. It is conceived as a centre for exhibitions, events and research into architecture and related topics, particularly the architecture and urban design of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is the national architecture museum...
(museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains one of the world's largest private art collections of the baroque. Castle BelvedereThe Belvedere is a historical building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the 3rd district of the city, south-east of its centre. It houses the...
, built under Prinz EugenPrinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940...
, has a galleryThe Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.The art collection includes masterpieces from the Middle Ages and Baroque until the 21st century, though it focuses on Austrian painters from the Fin de Siècle and Art Nouveau period...
containing paintings by Gustav KlimtGustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
(The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver MesserschmidtFranz Xaver Messerschmidt was a German-Austrian sculptor most famous for his "character heads", a collection of busts with faces contorted in extreme facial expressions.-Early years:...
, and changing exhibitions too.
There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the AlbertinaThe Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings...
, the Military History MuseumThe Heeresgeschichtliches Museum is a military history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It claims to be the oldest and largest purpose-built military history museum in the world...
, the Technical MuseumThe Technisches Museum Wien lies in Vienna , in Penzing district, on the Mariahilferstraße 212....
, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art FakesThe Museum of Art Fakes opened in Vienna, Austria in 2005. This small, privately run museum in the Landstraße district is the only one of its kind in the German-speaking world....
, the KunstHausWienThe KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists. The KunstHausWien operates as a...
, the Sigmund Freud MuseumThe Sigmund Freud Museum is located in Freud's former practice and apartment in Vienna, and covers his life story and the history of psychoanalysis.-Museum:...
, and the Mozarthaus ViennaThe Mozarthaus Vienna was Mozart's residence from 1784 to 1787. This building in Vienna's Old Town, not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral, is his only surviving Viennese residence and is now a museum.-History:...
. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on KarlsplatzKarlsplatz is a town square on the border of the first and fourth districts of Vienna. It is one of the most frequented and best connected transportation hubs in Vienna. The Karlskirche is located here....
, the HermesvillaThe Hermesvilla is a palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten, in Vienna, a former hunting area for the Habsburg nobility. Emperor Franz Joseph I gave it to his wife Empress Elisabeth , and he called it the "castle of dreams.“ The name of the villa refers to a statue of Hermes made of white marble that is...
, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna MuseumThe Vienna Museum is a group of museums in Vienna consisting of the museums of the history of the city. In addition to the main building in Karlsplatz and the Hermesvilla, the group includes numerous specialised museums, musicians' residences and archaeological excavations.The permanent exhibit of...
. The museums dedicated to Vienna's districts provide a retrospective of the respective districts.
Architecture
{{See also|Category:Buildings and structures in Austria}}
A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the RomanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
RuprechtskircheThe Church of St. Rupert is a church in Vienna, Austria. Traditionally considered to be the oldest church in the city, it is dedicated to Saint Rupert of Salzburg, patron saint of the salt merchants of Vienna...
and the BaroqueBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
Karlskirche. Styles range from classicistClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
buildings to modern architectureModern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
. Art NouveauArt Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
left many architectural traces in Vienna. The SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn StationKarlsplatz Stadtbahn Station is a former station of the Viennese Stadtbahn. The buildings above ground on Karlsplatz are a well-known example of Jugendstil architecture. These buildings were included in The Vienna Secession, as they followed many of the artistic styles of that movement...
, and the Kirche am SteinhofThe Kirche am Steinhof in Vienna is the Roman Catholic oratory of the Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital...
by Otto WagnerOtto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world.
Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener ModerneThe Wiener Moderne or Viennese Modern Age is a term describing the culture of Vienna in the period between approximately 1890 and 1910. It refers especially to the development of modernism in the Austrian capital and its effect on the spheres of philosophy, literature, music, art, design and...
, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf LoosAdolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...
, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).
The Hundertwasserhausright|thumb|Hundertwasser House ViennaThe Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-author...
by Friedensreich HundertwasserFriedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian painter and architect. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial, by the end of the 20th century.-Life:Hundertwasser's father Ernst Stowasser died three...
, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractionA tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
s. Another example of unique architecture is the WotrubakircheThe Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit in Vienna, better known as the Wotruba Church, is located on the Sankt Georgenberg in Mauer in Liesing, the 23rd District of Vienna...
by sculptor Fritz WotrubaFritz Wotruba was an Austrian sculptor of Czecho-Hungarian descent. He was considered one of the most notable Austrian 20th century sculptors...
. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna). The 202 m-high Millennium Tower located at Handelskai is the highest building in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodelling and revitalisation of the old GasometerThe Gasometers in Vienna are four former gas tanks, each of 90,000 m³ storage capacity, built as part of the Vienna municipal gas works Gaswerk Simmering in 1896–1899. They are located in the 11th district, Simmering. They were used from 1899 to 1984 as gas storage tanks...
in 2001.
Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than 40 m. The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritageA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorisation and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.
Vienna balls
Vienna is the last great capital of the nineteenth century ballA ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' is derived from the Latin word "ballare", meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar", which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance . In Catalan it is the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.Attendees wear evening attire, which is...
. There are over 200 significant balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many beautiful palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace at HeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
. While the Opera BallThe Vienna Opera Ball is an annual Austrian society event which takes place in the building of the Vienna State Opera on the Thursday preceding Ash Wednesday. Together with the New Year Concert, the Opera Ball is one of the highlights of the Viennese carnival season...
is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball), Life BallThe Life Ball in Vienna is the biggest charity event in Europe supporting people with HIV or AIDS. The event is organized by the non-profit organization AIDS LIFE, which was founded in 1992 by Gery Keszler and Torgom Petrosian....
(AIDS Charity Event) and the Rudolfina Redoute are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime. For many, the ball season lasts three months and can include up to ten or fifteen separate appearances.
Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna Staatsoper often perform at the openings of the larger balls.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Viennese balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day.
{{wide image|Vienna Panorama at Night.jpg|800px|Panoramic view Vienna at night.}}
Sub and Youth Culture
Some known venues and art spaces of the city are Arena, Flex, Mo.ë, Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus and WUK. Arena and Flex are mainly focused on live of pop music acts (indie, techno, rock, etc.), while Mo.ë, Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus (EKH) and WUK have a stronger focus on contemporary visual artsThe visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, modern danceModern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
and experimental musicExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
. The Volxtheater Favoriten is based out of the Ernst Kirchweger Haus. Since May 2001, the Publixtheatre CaravanThe Publixtheatre Caravan is the English name for a travelling project of the Volxtheater Favoriten, a Vienna-based international theatrical troupe that has been creating site-specific theatrical interventions in public space as well as stage-based performances since 1994...
has been creating international travelling informational, media, and artistic campaigns, to squat reality by directly interposing theater and artistic installations into everyday life.
Education
Vienna is also Austria's main centre of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools)A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
.
Universities
- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria.- History :The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire...
- Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
- Medical University of Vienna
The Medical University of Vienna is a medical university in Vienna, Austria.Formerly the faculty of medicine of the University of Vienna, became an independent university on January 1, 2004...
- PEF Private University of Management Vienna
PEF Private University of Management in Vienna was accredited by the Austrian Accreditation Council as a private university in June 2002.PEF is focussed on master's programmes in the areas of social and economic science....
- University of Applied Arts Vienna
The University of Applied Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university status since 1970.-History:...
- University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
- University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
The University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna was founded in 1767 as the world's third school for veterinary medicine by Milan's Ludovico Scotti, originally named k. k. Pferde-Curen- und Operationsschule . Today, it has c...
- University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
- Vienna University of Economics and Business
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien or Vienna University of Economics and Business is the largest University focusing on business and economics in Europe and, in terms of student body, one of the largest universities in Austria...
- University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, or simply BOKU , founded in 1872, is a Vienna university. There are currently around 10500 students enrolled at BOKU.- Campus :The original campus was built in 1896 in the Türkenschanzpark in Vienna's 18th and 19th districts...
- Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology is one of the major universities in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Founded in 1815 as the "Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute" , it currently has about 26,200 students , 8 faculties and about 4,000 staff members...
- Webster University Vienna
Webster University Vienna is the Austrian branch of Webster University, and Webster's biggest campus outside the US. It was founded in 1981, since 9 January 2001 it is accredited as Austria's third private university...
- International Anti-Corruption Academy
The International Anti-Corruption Academy is an international organization , whose purpose is to address the current shortcomings in the fight against corruption...
(in Laxenburg, 24 km south of Vienna)
International schools
- American International School Vienna
The American International School Vienna is a non-profit school international school made up structurally of the parents of each student at the school, and located in Vienna, Austria. The school operates, in part, under the sponsorship of the United States Ambassador to Austria and awards the...
- Danube International School
Danube International School is a private international school in Vienna, Austria. located in the Second District, between the Danube Canal and the Prater. The school was previously situated in the 10th District but as it grew in numbers it was necessary to relocate...
- International University Vienna
The International University , Vienna was an unaccredited private university located in Vienna, Austria, with a subsidiary in Kiev, Ukraine. According to IU, it was chartered in 1980 by the U.S. state of Alabama as a private degree-granting postsecondary institution. The Vienna operation was...
- Lauder Business School
Lauder Business School is a business school in Vienna, Austria, operating as a Fachhochschule in the Austrian education system. There are currently 240 students enrolled in the School in two undergraduate and one graduate programs...
- Lycée Français de Vienne
Lycée Français de Vienne is a French curriculum secondary school in Alsergrund, Vienna.The Lycée Français de Vienne is one of the world's largest schools accredited by the Agency for French Teaching Abroad and has more than 2000 students.The private school shares its boarding school with...
- Vienna Christian School
The International Christian School of Vienna is an international school in Vienna, Austria that was founded in 1986. It is located in the Donaustadt district of Vienna....
- Vienna International School
The Vienna International School is a non-profit international school, located in Vienna, Austria. The school was built to accommodate the children of UN employees and diplomats when the UN decided to locate one of its offices in Vienna, and it remains affiliated to the UN...
- Wake Forest University - Flow House
Viennese parks and gardens
{{Wide image|Panorama-donaupark-2002.jpg|800px|}}
Vienna possesses many park facilities, including the StadtparkThe Viennese City Park extends from the Parkring in the First District of Vienna up to the Heumarkt in the Third District and is visited both by tourists and by native Viennese...
, the Burggarten, the Volksgarten (part of the Hofburg), the Schloßpark at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic GardensThe Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna is a botanical garden in Vienna, Austria. It covers 8 hectares and is immediately adjacent to the Belvedere gardens....
), the Donaupark, the Schönbrunner Schlosspark, the PraterThe Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district . The amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the .-Name:...
, the Augarten, the Rathauspark, the Lainzer TiergartenThe Lainzer Tiergarten is a 24.50 km² wildlife preserve in the southwest corner of Vienna, Austria, 80% of it being covered in woodland. It dates back to 1561, when Ferdinand I of Austria created it as a fenced-in hunting ground for his family to use. Since 1919, it has been open to the public...
, the Dehnepark, the Resselpark, the Votivpark, the Kurpark Oberlaa, the Auer-Welsbach-Park and the Türkenschanzpark. Green areas include Laaer-Berg (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the WienerwaldThe Vienna Woods are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The long and wide hill range is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese....
, which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as Beserlparks, are everywhere in the inner city areas.
Many of Vienna's famous parks include monuments, such as the StadtparkThe Viennese City Park extends from the Parkring in the First District of Vienna up to the Heumarkt in the Third District and is visited both by tourists and by native Viennese...
with its statue of Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, and the gardens of the baroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
palaceThe Belvedere is a historical building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the 3rd district of the city, south-east of its centre. It houses the...
, where the State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
was signed. Vienna's principal park is the PraterThe Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district . The amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the .-Name:...
which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheelA Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
. The imperial SchönbrunnSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
's grounds contain an 18th century park which includes the world's oldest zooTiergarten Schönbrunn or Vienna Zoo is a zoo located on the grounds of the famous Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria...
, founded in 1752.
The DonauinselThe Donauinsel is a long, narrow island, in central Vienna, Austria, between the Danube river and the parallel excavated channel Neue Donau . The island is 21.1 km in length, but is only 70–210 metres broad...
, part of Vienna's flood defences, is a 21.1 km long artificial islandAn artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.
Sport
Vienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City MarathonThe Vienna City Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of 42.195 km held in Vienna, Austria since 1984. The first edition was held on March 25, 1984 with a total of 794 competitors...
, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice HockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
World Championships took place in AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions LeagueThe UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany.
Austria's capital is home to numerous teams. The best known are the local football clubs FK Austria WienFußballklub Austria Wien is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. They are considered the most successful club in Austria, having won the highest Austrian Bundesliga 23 times, the Austrian Cup 27 times and the Austrian Supercup 6 times. They also reached the UEFA...
(21 whole-Austrian Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners) SK Rapid WienThe Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...
(record 32 whole-Austrian Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FCFirst Vienna FC is an Austrian association football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there...
. Other important sport clubsA sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American FootballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
), who won the EurobowlThe Eurobowl is both the final game and the trophy of the European Football League , a European American football contest.-Eurobowls:-Champions:...
title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row, the Aon hotVolleys Viennaaon hotVolleys Vienna is an Austrian volleyball club which is playing their home matches at the Budocenter in Vienna.The team participates in the Men's CEV Champions League 2007-08-Previous names:*....-1999 : Donaukraft Wien...
, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organisations, the Superfund Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2009 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna CapitalsVienna Capitals are a member of the Erste Bank Hockey League. They play their home games in Vienna, Austria, at Albert Schultz Eishalle.-Current roster:-References:...
(Ice HockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugbyRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
clubs; Vienna CelticVienna Celtic RFC is an Austrian rugby club in Vienna. They are the oldest team in Austria.-History:The club was founded on 19 January 1978 by a Scotsman, John Skinner, and two Austrians, Johann Schweiger and Bernhard Eigenberger.-Current squad:...
, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC DonauRC Donau is an Austrian rugby club in Vienna.-History:The club was founded in 1989 as a youth team of RC Wien. Later that year they won the first Austrian Youth Championships, which they won again in 1991...
, and Stade ViennoisRugby Club Stade Viennois, also referred to as Stade, is an Austrian rugby club from Vienna. Stade is one of the most prestigious rugby clubs in Austria, having been runner-ups in the Austrian Championship 2005 and 2010. Their home ground is the Sportareal Dirnelwiese...
Food
{{See also|Austrian cuisine}}
Vienna is well known for Wiener SchnitzelSchnitzel is a traditional Austrian dish made with boneless meat thinned with a mallet , coated in bread crumbs and fried. It is a popular part of Viennese, Austrian cuisine and German Cuisine...
, a cutlet of vealVeal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...
that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butterClarified butter is milk fat rendered from butter to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat. Typically, it is produced by melting butter and allowing the different components to separate by density...
. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisineViennese cuisine is the cuisine that is characteristic of Vienna, Austria, and its residents. Viennese cuisine is often treated as equivalent to Austrian cuisine, but while elements of Viennese cuisine have spread throughout Austria, other Austrian regions have their own unique variations...
. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include TafelspitzTafelspitz is boiled beef in broth Viennese style.- The dish :Tafelspitz - boiled tri-tip - is a typical Austrian dish. The beef is simmered along with root vegetables and spices in the broth...
(very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with Geröstete Erdäpfel (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, Apfelkren (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and Schnittlauchsauce (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and old bread).
Vienna has a long tradition of producing the finest cakes and desserts. These include Apfelstrudel (hot apple strudel), Millirahmstrudel (milk-cream strudel), PalatschinkenPalatschinke is the Austrian and Bavarian name of the thin, crêpe-like variety of pancake common in Central and Eastern Europe.-The pancake:...
(sweet pancakes), and Knödel (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots (MarillenknödelMarillenknödel are a pastry. They are found in the traditional Bohemian and Viennese cuisines. "Marillen" is the Austrian term for apricots and this pastry is found predominantly in areas where apricot orchards are common. Examples of such areas would include the Wachau and Vinschgau.Small...
). SachertorteSachertorte is a chocolate cake. It was invented by chance by Austrian Jewish Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The Original Sachertorte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and it is shipped from...
, a dry chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher HotelThe Hotel Sacher is a five-star hotel in the Innenstadt district of Vienna, Austria, next to the Staatsoper. It is famous for the specialty of the house, the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot filling. There is also an art gallery in the hotel with works from the 19th century...
, is world famous.
In winter, small street stands sell traditional Maroni (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.
Sausages are popular and available from street vendors (WürstelstandA Würstelstand is a traditional Austrian street food retail outlet.Würstelstands were initially created the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to provide a source of income for incapacitated former soldiers....
) throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as Wiener (German for Viennese) in the US and Germany is, however, called Frankfurter. Other popular sausages are Burenwurst (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), KäsekrainerKranjska klobasa is a Slovenian sausage most similar to what is known as kielbasa or Polish sausage in North America....
(spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and Bratwurst (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).
Kebab and pizza are, increasingly, the snack food most widely available from small stands.
The NaschmarktThe Naschmarkt is Vienna's most popular market. Located at the Wienzeile over the Wien River it is about 1,5 kilometers long.The Naschmarkt has existed since the 16th century when mainly milk bottles were sold...
is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc. from around the world. The city centre has many coffee and breakfast stores, such as the Julius MeinlJulius Meinl International , known also simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and retailer of coffee, gourmet foods and other grocery products. The company is based in Vienna, Austria. It is named after its founders Julius Meinl I, and Julius Meinl II.Julius Meinl III ceded control of the...
am GrabenDer Graben is one of the most famous streets in Vienna's first district, the city centre. It begins at Stock-im-Eisen-Platz next to the Palais Equitable and ends at the junction of Kohlmarkt and Tuchlauben. Another street in the first district is called Tiefer Graben...
.
Drink
Vienna, along with Paris, PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and London is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of DöblingDöbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...
(GrinzingGrinzing was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.- Geography :- Location :...
, Neustift am WaldeUntil 1892 Neustift am Walde was an independent municipality in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna...
, NußdorfNußdorf was a separate municipality until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna in the 19th district of Döbling.- Location :Nußdorf lies on both banks of the Nußbach , where the brook meets the Danube Canal...
, SalmannsdorfSalmannsdorf is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Salmannsdorf was an independent municipality until 1892, when it was incorporated into the Währing district of the city of Vienna. However, in 1938, Salmannsdorf was re-assigned together with Neustift am Walde to the district of...
, SieveringSievering is a suburb of Vienna and part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. Sievering was created in 1892 out of the two erstwhile independent suburbs Untersievering and Obersievering. These still exist as Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...
), FloridsdorfFloridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, Austria .Floridsdorf is located in the northern part of Vienna.The District Office and the centre of Floridsdorf are located round Am Spitz, at the junction of Prager Straße and Brünner Straße .Since 2004, Floridsdorf has had its own tower: the...
(Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), LiesingLiesing is the 23rd district of Vienna . It is on the southwest edge of Vienna, Austria.It was formed after Austria's Anschluss with Germany, when Vienna expanded from 21 districts to 26...
(MauerMauer is a former village of Lower Austria that since 1938 has been part of Vienna. Today it is part of the 23rd District of Vienna, Liesing. Its name literally means "wall".- History :...
) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner VeltlinerGrüner Veltliner is a variety of white wine grape variety grown primarily in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. It has a reputation of being a particularly food-friendly wine...
, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria.
Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, OttakringerThe Ottakringer Brauerei is the last large brewery remaining in Vienna, Austria and is located in Ottakring, the 16th district of Vienna.- History :...
, and more than ten microbreweriesThe Viennese microbrewery is a typical institution of Vienna. These microbreweries serve their own beer to the public. They also serve food, in many cases traditional Austrian dishes. In many cases the actual brew equipment is in the center of the place and the tables for the customers are located...
. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.
Viennese cafés
Viennese caféThe Viennese Coffee House is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part shaping Viennese culture.Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian inventory of the "National Agency for the Intangible Cultural...
s have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffeeDrip brewing, or filtered coffee, is a method for brewing coffee which involves pouring water over roasted, ground coffee beans contained in a filter. Water seeps through the coffee, absorbing its oils and essences, solely under gravity, then passes through the bottom of the filter...
from booty captured after the second Turkish siegeThe Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beansCoffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. The Emperor gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed the Austrians to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shopA coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
. Julius MeinlJulius Meinl International , known also simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and retailer of coffee, gourmet foods and other grocery products. The company is based in Vienna, Austria. It is named after its founders Julius Meinl I, and Julius Meinl II.Julius Meinl III ceded control of the...
set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.
Tourist attractions
{{further|Tourist attractions in ViennaThe tourist attractions of Vienna concentrate in three distinct areas. The largest cluster, centreed around Schönbrunn Palace, attracted around five million visitors in 2009, down from six million in 2008. Museums and exhibitions of Hofburg Palace accounted for nearly two million visitors in 2008,...
}}
Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
and SchönbrunnSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
(also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten SchönbrunnTiergarten Schönbrunn or Vienna Zoo is a zoo located on the grounds of the famous Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria...
) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
, the Wiener StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
, the LipizzanThe Lipizzan or Lipizzaner , is a breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, where the finest representatives demonstrate the haute école or "high school" movements of classical dressage, including the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements...
er horses at the spanische HofreitschuleThe Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses, which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg...
and the Vienna Boys' ChoirThe Vienna Boys' Choir is a choir of trebles and altos based in Vienna. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries....
, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.
{{wide image|Schloss schoenbrunn hdr panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of world famous Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
.}}
{{wide image|Wien_Panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
with Vienna in the Background.}}
{{wide image|Schlosspark Schoenbrunn Panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of world famous Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
.}}
There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are AlbertinaThe Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings...
, BelvedereThe Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.The art collection includes masterpieces from the Middle Ages and Baroque until the 21st century, though it focuses on Austrian painters from the Fin de Siècle and Art Nouveau period...
, Leopold MuseumThe Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
in the MuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
, KunstHausWienThe KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists. The KunstHausWien operates as a...
, BA-CA Kunstforum, the twin Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
and Naturhistorisches MuseumThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
, and the Technisches Museum WienThe Technisches Museum Wien lies in Vienna , in Penzing district, on the Mariahilferstraße 212....
, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.
There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven'sLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
various residences and grave at ZentralfriedhofThe Zentralfriedhof is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries.-Name and location:...
(Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous peopleA celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
. MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemeterySt. Marx Cemetery is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It was named after a nearby almshouse.-History:...
(where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, the most famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am GestadeMaria am Gestade church ranks among Vienna's oldest buildings and one of the few surviving examples of Gothic architecture in the city...
, the MinoritenkircheThe Minoritenkirche, formal name: Italienische Nationalkirche Maria Schnee is a church built in French Gothic style in the Altstadt or First District of Vienna, Austria.The site on which the church is built was given to followers of Francis of Assisi in 1224...
, the RuprechtskircheThe Church of St. Rupert is a church in Vienna, Austria. Traditionally considered to be the oldest church in the city, it is dedicated to Saint Rupert of Salzburg, patron saint of the salt merchants of Vienna...
, the SchottenkircheThe Schottenkirche is a parish church in Vienna attached to the Schottenstift, founded by Iro-Scottish Benedictine monks in the 12th century. In 1418, the Duke Albert V of Austria transferred it to the German-speaking Benedictine monks from the Melk Abbey during the Melker Reform initiated after...
and the Votivkirche.
Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhausright|thumb|Hundertwasser House ViennaThe Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-author...
, the United Nations headquartersright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
and the view from the DonauturmThe Vienna Donauturm[p] , opened in April 1964, is the tallest free-standing structure in Austria, at , the tallest structure in Austria, and among the 75 tallest towers in the world. The tower is located near the north bank of the Danube River in the district of Donaustadt. In the infobox there...
.
Transportation
{{Main|Transportation in Vienna}}
Vienna has an extensive transportation network. Public transport is provided by buses, trams and 5 underground metro lines (U-BahnThe Vienna U-Bahn is a rapid transit system consisting of five lines. It is the backbone of one of the best performing public transport systems worldwide according to UITP in June 2009. More than 1.3 million passengers use the Vienna U-Bahn every day...
). Trains are operated by the ÖBB. Vienna has multiple road connections including motorways.
Vienna is served by Vienna International AirportVienna International Airport , located in Schwechat and southeast of central Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the county it is in. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340...
, located 18 km (11 mi) southeast of the city centre next to the town of SchwechatSchwechat is a city south-east of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. It is also home to the refineries belonging to the Austrian national oil company OMV.- Geography :...
.
International organisations in Vienna
Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
(IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationThe United Nations Industrial Development Organization , French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria...
(UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
(OPEC), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty OrganizationThe Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. Its seat will be Vienna, Austria...
(CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
(OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space AffairsThe United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is an organization of the General Assembly charged with implementing the Assembly's outer space-related policies. It is located in the United Nations Office in Vienna. The Office implements the Program on Space Applications and maintains the...
(UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
Currently Vienna is the world's 4th "UN city" (after New York, GenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and The HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
).
Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of ViennaThe University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis MootThe Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a prestigious international moot court competition for law students. Since 1994, it is annually being held in Vienna, Austria....
, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.
Various special diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in various documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of TreatiesThe Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties is a treaty concerning the international law on treaties between states. It was adopted on 22 May 1969 and opened for signature on 23 May 1969. The Convention entered into force on 27 January 1980. The VCLT has been ratified by 111 states as of November...
, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in EuropeThe original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry...
(CFE).
{{See also|Vienna Convention (disambiguation)}}
Charitable organisations in Vienna
Alongside the international and intergovernmental organisations, there are dozens of charitable organisations based in Vienna; these organisations provide reliefRelief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
goods and assistance to tens of thousands of disadvantaged children and needy people in developing countriesA developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
.
One such organisation is the network of SOS Children's VillagesSOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...
, founded by Hermann GmeinerHermann Gmeiner was an Austrian philanthropist and the founder of SOS Children's Villages.- Life :...
in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCOHelp Afghan School Children Organization is a Vienna-based non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of education of Afghan disadvantaged children...
and the Childrens Bridge of Hope.
Another extremely popular, international event is The Life Ball in aid of AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendants at this now annual gala.
Twin towns – Sister cities
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Austria}}
Vienna is twinned with the following cities:
BelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in Serbia BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
in Slovakia BrnoBrno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
in Czech Republic BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in Hungary IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in Turkey (since 2007) KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in Ukraine LjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
in Slovenia |
Moscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in Russia TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in Iran (since 2009)
name="Tabriz">http://www.azembassy.at/en/azau.htmAgreement between Vienna and Tabriz Municipality in Farsi]
{{Redirect|Wien||Wien (disambiguation)}}
{{About|the capital of Austria}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2011}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
Vienna (icon; {{lang-de|link=no|Wien}} viːn; Viennese GermanViennese German is the city dialect spoken in Vienna, the capital of Austria and is counted among the Bavarian dialects. Even in Lower Austria, the state surrounding the city, many of its expressions are not used, while farther to the west they are often not even understood.- Linguistic...
: Wean) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and one of the nine states of AustriaAustria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...
. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan areaThe term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its culturalAustrian culture has largely been influenced by its past and present neighbors: Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bohemia.-Music:Vienna, the capital city of Austria has long been an important center of musical innovation. Composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were drawn to the city by the...
, economicAustria is one of the 12 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, has a well-developed social market economy, and a high standard of living. Until the 1980s, many of Austria's largest industry firms were nationalised; in recent years, however, privatisation has reduced state...
, and politicalThe Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...
centre. It is the 9th-largest cityThis is a list of the largest cities in the European Union by population within city limits which have more than 300,000 inhabitants. It deals exclusively with the areas within city administrative boundaries as opposed to urban areas or metropolitan areas, which are generally larger in terms of...
by population in the European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Vienna is host to many major international organizationAn intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...
s, such as the United Nations and OPECOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
.
Vienna lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, and HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. These regions work together in a European CentropeCentrope is an Interreg IIIA project to establish a multinational region in the Central Europe encompassing four European countries: Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic....
border region. Along with nearby BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants, and this region is referred to as Twin City.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vienna is often said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to one of the world's greatest interpreters of dreams, Professor Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
.
Vienna has its roots in early CelticThe words Celt and Celtic can refer to:In ethno-linguistics:*Celts, a people of the Celtic nations*Celts , the modern Celtic identity*Celtic languages...
and RomanAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
settlements that transformed into a Medieval and BaroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
city, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city is well known for playing 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, as well as the late-19th-century Ringstrasse lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.
In a 2005 study of 127 world citiesA global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
, the Economist Intelligence UnitThe Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...
ranked the city first (in a tie with VancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Canada) for quality of lifeThe world's most liveable cities is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. Two examples are the Mercer Quality of Living Survey and The Economists World's Most Livable Cities .Liveability rankings are designed for use by...
. This assessment was mirrored by the Mercer Survey in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Analytically, the city was ranked 1st globally for a culture of innovation in 2007 and 2008, and 2nd globally after Boston in 2009 from 256 cities on an analysis of 162 indicators in the Innovation Cities Index on a 3-factor score covering culture, infrastructure and markets. As a city, Vienna regularly hosts urban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
conferences and is often used as a case study by urban planners.
This city rates highly in popular opinion-based journalistic rankings from magazines such as the Economist Intelligence UnitThe Economist Intelligence Unit is part of the Economist Group.It is a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide and incorporates the former Business International Corporation, a U.S. company acquired by the parent organization in 1986...
, whom rated it the second best city in which to live according to their Global Livability Survey in 2011 as well as MonocleMonocle is a lifestyle magazine and website founded by Tyler Brûlé, a Canadian journalist and entrepreneur. Described by CBC News reporter Harry Forestell as a "meeting between Foreign Policy and Vanity Fair", the magazine provides a globalist perspective on issues as fashion, international...
, where it is rated 8th among the "Top 25 Livable Cities" in 2010.
In each single year since 2005 so far, Vienna has been the world's number one destination of international congresses and conventions, thus contributing to attracting at about five million tourists a year which makes up a record of roughly three tourists per city inhabitant.
Name
{{Hatnote|See also Other names of Vienna}}
The English name Vienna, the official German name Wien, and the names of the city in most languages, are thought to be derived from the CelticThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
word "windu", meaning bright or fair – as in the Irish "fionn" – but opinions vary on the precise origin. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning "forest stream," which subsequently became Venia, Wienne and Wien. Others claim that the name comes from the Roman settlement VindobonaVindobona was originally a Celtic settlement, and later a Roman military camp on the site of the modern city of Vienna in Austria. Around 15 BC, the kingdom of Noricum was included in the Roman Empire...
, probably meaning "white base/bottom," which became Vindovina, Vídeň (CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
) and Wien.
The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), BosnianBosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Croatian and Serbian (Beč) and Ottoman TurkishThe Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
(Beç) appears to have a different, SlavonicThe Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. In Slovene, the city is called Dunaj, which in other Slavic languages means the Danube River, on which it is located.
History
{{Main|History of Vienna}}
{{-}}
Evidence of continuous habitation has been found since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s fortified the frontier city they called VindobonaVindobona was originally a Celtic settlement, and later a Roman military camp on the site of the modern city of Vienna in Austria. Around 15 BC, the kingdom of Noricum was included in the Roman Empire...
, to guard the empire against Germanic tribesThe Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
to the north.
Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued down through the ages with such figures as the eighth-century Irish monks like Saint Colman (or Koloman), who is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) who was Bishop of Salzburg for forty years, to the twelfth century monastic settlements founded by Irish Benedictines. Echoes of that time are still evident in Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery, once home to many Irish monks.
In the 13th century, Vienna came under threat from the Mongolian EmpireThe Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
, which stretched over much of present-day Russia and China. Due to the death of their leader Ogedei KhanÖgedei Khan, born Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father...
, the Mongolian armies retreated from the European frontier and did not return.
During the Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Vienna was home to the Babenberg dynasty; in 1440, it became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasties. It eventually grew to become the de facto capital of the Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
occupied the city between 1485–1490.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the OttomanThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
armies were stopped twice outside Vienna (see Siege of ViennaThe Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power, the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe, and was the result of a...
, 1529 and Battle of ViennaThe Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
, 1683). A plagueThe Great Plague of Vienna occurred in 1679 in Vienna, Austria, the imperial residence of the Austrian Habsburg rulers. From contemporary descriptions, the disease is believed to have been bubonic plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas associated with the black...
epidemic ravaged Vienna in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population.
Austro-Hungarian Empire
In 1804, during the Napoleonic warsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, Vienna became the capital of the Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
and continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the 1814 Congress of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained the capital of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city was a centre of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese SchoolThe First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in Western art music in late-18th-century Vienna: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Franz Schubert is occasionally added to the list.In German speaking countries, the...
is sometimes applied.
During the latter half of the 19th century, the city developed what had previously been the bastionA bastion, or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification, situated in both corners of a straight wall , facilitating active defence against assaulting troops...
s and glacisA glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth used in late European fortresses so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment...
into the RingstraßeThe Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
, a new boulevardA Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became capital of the First Austrian RepublicThe Federal State of Austria refers to Austria from 1934 to 1938, according to its self-conception a non-party, in fact a single-party state led by the fascist Fatherland's Front...
.
From the late 19th century to 1938, the city remained a centre of high culture and modernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
. A world capital of music, the city played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, amongst many, the Vienna SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
movement, psychoanalysisPsychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, the Second Viennese SchoolThe Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
, the architecture of Adolf LoosAdolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...
and the philosophy of Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
. Within Austria, it was seen as a centre of socialist politics, for which it was sometimes referred to as "Red ViennaRed Vienna was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time.-Social situation after World War I:...
". The city was a stage to the Austrian Civil WarThe Austrian Civil War , also known as the February Uprising , is a term sometimes used for a few days of skirmishes between socialist and conservative-fascist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934, in Austria...
of 1934, when Chancellor Engelbert DollfussEngelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...
sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing occupied by the socialist militia.
The Anschluss and World War II
In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
spoke to the Austrian people from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
at the HeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
. Between 1938 (see AnschlussThe Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
) and the end of the Second World War, Vienna lost its status as a capital to BerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
On 2 April 1945, the Soviets launched the Vienna OffensiveThe Vienna Offensive was launched by the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front in order to capture Vienna, Austria. The offensive lasted from 2–13 April 1945...
against the Germans holding the city and besieged it. British and American air raids and artillery duels between the WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and the Red ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water and power distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. Vienna fell two weeks later. Austria was separated from Germany, and Vienna was restored as the republic's capital city.
Four-power Vienna
After the war, Vienna was surrounded by the Soviet-occupied zone. As in Berlin, Vienna was divided into sectors by the four powers and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the first district, constituted an international zone in which the four powers alternated control on a monthly basis. The Berlin BlockadeThe Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
of 1948 raised allied concerns that the Russians might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of Commons,
{{quotation |1= "What plans have the Government for dealing with a similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin. It is surrounded by a Soviet Zone of occupation and we have our sector of responsibility in Vienna the same as the Americans and the French. What plans have the Government to deal with a similar situation arising in Vienna in the near future? I hope we shall have an answer, because this is of vital importance."
– Sir Anthony NuttingSir Harold Anthony Nutting, 3rd Baronet was a British diplomat and Conservative Party politician.-Early and private life:...
, Honourable Member for MeltonMelton was a county constituency centred on the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, 30 June 1948, House of Commons, London.}}
There were a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn. The Soviets did not embark on a wholesale blockade of the city. Some historians have argued that the Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
included written rights of land access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors of Berlin. During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hot-bed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade, the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would be divided, the Russians had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and Vienna.
They put up barbed wire fences around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By 1955, the Russians agreed to relinquish their occupation zones in Eastern Austria, and East Vienna, as well as their sector in the fourth and tenth districts in South Vienna. In exchange they required a permanent neutrality clause to be enshrined into the new Austrian State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
. In 1955, the Russians pulled out of Austria.
The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is captured in the Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
screenplay for the film The Third ManThe Third Man is a 1949 British film noir, directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Many critics rank it as a masterpiece, particularly remembered for its atmospheric cinematography, performances, and unique musical score...
(1949), directed by Carol Reed. Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied Vienna is also colourfully depicted in the Philip KerrPhilip Kerr is a British author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Bernie Gunther series of thrillers, and of children's books, particularly the Children of the Lamp series....
novel, "A German RequiemA German Requiem is a detective novel and the last in the Berlin Noir trilogy written by Philip Kerr.-Plot overview:After spending the latter part of the war in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp, 1947 sees Bernhard Gunther now married to Kirsten, who seems to be trading sex with U.S. Army officers for...
."
Austrian State Treaty
The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
was signed in 1955. That year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The State Treaty ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is considered one of the reasons for Austria's late entry into the European Union.
In the 1970s, Austrian ChancellorThe Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...
Bruno KreiskyBruno Kreisky was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II....
inaugurated the Vienna International Centreright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
, a new area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained a part of its former international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationThe United Nations Industrial Development Organization , French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria...
, United Nations Office at ViennaThe United Nations Office in Vienna is one of the four major UN office sites where several different UN agencies have a joint presence. The office complex is located in Vienna, the capital of Austria, and is part of the Vienna International Centre, a cluster of several major international...
and United Nations Office on Drugs and CrimeThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations agency that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations...
), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
and the United European Gastroenterology Federation.
Historical population
Due to the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910, Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was one of the six largest cities in the world.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} At the turn of the century, Vienna (Czech Vídeň, Hungarian Bécs) was the city with the second-largest Czech population in the world (after PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
). At the height of the migration, about one-third of the Viennese population was of SlavicThe Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
or Hungarian origin. After World War I, many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the Viennese population.
In 1923 there were 201,513 JewsThe history of the Jews in Vienna, Austria, goes back over eight hundred years. There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Vienna from the 12th century onwards....
living in Vienna, which had become the third-largest Jewish community in Europe. Most were deported and killed in concentration camps by Nazi and Austrian forces.
By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom were from former YugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, primarily SerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
; the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna were TurksTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
(39,000; 2.5%), PolesPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%).
| Year |
1754 |
1800 |
1850 |
1900 |
1910 |
1923 |
1939 |
Total
population |
175,460 |
271,800 |
551,300 |
1,769,137 |
2,083,630 |
1,918,720 |
1,770,938 |
|
| Year |
1951 |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1991 |
2001 |
2008 |
Total
population |
1,616,125 |
1,627,566 |
1,619,885 |
1,531,346 |
1,539,848 |
1,550,123 |
1,678,435 |
Geography and climate
Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the AlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
in the Vienna BasinThe Vienna Basin is a sedimentary basin between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains...
. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from 151 to 524 m (495.4 to 1,719.2 ft).
Vienna lies within a transition of oceanic climateAn oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
and humid continental climateA humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
according to the Köppen classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
. The city has warm summers with average high temperatures of 22 to 26 °C (71.6 to 78.8 F), with maxima exceeding 30 °C (86 °F) and lows of around 15 °C (59 °F). Winters are relatively cold with average temperatures at about freezing point, and snowfall occurring mainly from December through March. Spring and autumn are cool to mild. Precipitation is generally moderate throughout the year, averaging 620 mm (24.4 inches) annually, with the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part (700 to 800 mm (27.6 to 31.5 ) annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part(500 to 550 mm (19.7 to 21.7 ) annually).
{{Weather box
|location = Vienna
|metric first = Y
|single line = Y
|Jan high C = 2.9
|Feb high C = 5.1
|Mar high C = 10.3
|Apr high C = 15.1
|May high C = 20.5
|Jun high C = 23.4
|Jul high C = 25.6
|Aug high C = 25.9
|Sep high C = 20.3
|Oct high C = 14.2
|Nov high C = 7.5
|Dec high C = 4.0
|year high C =
|Jan low C = -2.0
|Feb low C = -0.9
|Mar low C = 2.4
|Apr low C = 5.8
|May low C = 10.5
|Jun low C = 13.5
|Jul low C = 15.4
|Aug low C = 15.3
|Sep low C = 11.7
|Oct low C = 7.0
|Nov low C = 2.4
|Dec low C = -0.5
|year low C =
|Jan precipitation mm = 37.2
|Feb precipitation mm = 39.4
|Mar precipitation mm = 46.1
|Apr precipitation mm = 51.7
|May precipitation mm = 61.8
|Jun precipitation mm = 70.2
|Jul precipitation mm = 68.2
|Aug precipitation mm = 57.8
|Sep precipitation mm = 53.5
|Oct precipitation mm = 40.0
|Nov precipitation mm = 50.0
|Dec precipitation mm = 44.4
|Jan precipitation days = 7.3
|Feb precipitation days = 7.6
|Mar precipitation days = 8.3
|Apr precipitation days = 7.5
|May precipitation days = 8.5
|Jun precipitation days = 9.1
|Jul precipitation days = 9.0
|Aug precipitation days = 8.0
|Sep precipitation days = 7.0
|Oct precipitation days = 6.0
|Nov precipitation days = 8.3
|Dec precipitation days = 8.2
|Jan sun = 55.8
|Feb sun = 79.1
|Mar sun = 127.1
|Apr sun = 171.0
|May sun = 220.1
|Jun sun = 222.0
|Jul sun = 244.9
|Aug sun = 229.4
|Sep sun = 171.0
|Oct sun = 136.4
|Nov sun = 63.0
|Dec sun = 52.7
|source 1 = World Meteorological Organization|date=September 2011
|source 2 = Hong Kong Observatory (sunshine hours only)|date=October 2011}}
Districts and enlargement
{{Main|Districts of Vienna}}
Vienna is composed of 23 districts (Bezirke). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratisches Bezirksamt) serve similar to those in the other states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaft), the officers being subject to the Landeshauptmann (which in Vienna is the mayor); with the exception of the police, which in Vienna is governed by the President of the Police (at the same time one of the nine Directors of Security of Austria), a federal office, directly responsible to the Minister of the Interior.
As had been planned in 1919 for all of Austria but not introduced, the district residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) are electing a District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung) which chooses the District Head (Bezirksvorsteher) as political representative of the district on city level. City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools and parks, so that they are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councillor (amtsführender Stadrat).
The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere StadtThe Innere Stadt is the 1st municipal District of Vienna . The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Innere Stadt was congruent with the city of Vienna...
, was a fortress and surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the consent of the emperor included 34 surrounding villages, called Vorstädte, into the city limits (districts no. 2 to 8, since 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9). Consequently the walls were razed after 1857, making it possible for the city centre to expand.
In their place, a broad boulevard called the RingstraßeThe Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
was built, along which imposing public and private buildings, monuments, and parks were created until the turn of the century. These buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
, the UniversityThe University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, the ParliamentIn the Parliament of Austria is vested the legislative power of the Republic of Austria. The institution consists of two chambers,* the National Council and* the Federal Council ....
, the twin museums of natural historyThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
and fine artThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
, and the StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
. It is also the location of New Wing of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913. The mainly GothicGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
Stephansdom is located at the centre of the city, on StephansplatzThe Stephansplatz is a square at the geographical centre of Vienna. It is named after its most prominent building, the Stephansdom, Vienna's cathedral and one of the tallest churches in the world...
. The Imperial-Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.
From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South have mainly followed another wall called Linienwall. Outside this wall from 1873 onwards a ring road called GürtelThe Gürtel is a substantial city ring road of Vienna. Running parallel to the famous Ringstraße it encompasses the inner city districts .The road is officially called B 221 Wiener Gürtel Straße...
was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892 and transform them into districts no. 11 to 19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down from 1894 onwards. In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.
From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 cities and villages into Vienna, 80 of which have returned to surrounding Lower AustriaLower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
in 1954. Since then Vienna has 23 districts.
Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere StadtThe Innere Stadt is the 1st municipal District of Vienna . The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Innere Stadt was congruent with the city of Vienna...
is situated away from the main flow of the DanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, but is bounded by the DonaukanalThe Donaukanal is a former arm of the river Danube, now regulated as a water channel , within the city of Vienna, Austria...
("Danube canal"). Vienna's second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube RiverThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. Across the Danube, where the Vienna International Centreright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
is located, and in the southernmost area are the newest parts of the city (districts 21–23).
Politics
Until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by the Christian Social Party, in particular long-term mayor Karl LuegerKarl Lueger was an Austrian politician and mayor of Vienna. The populist and anti-Semitic politics of his Christian Social Party are sometimes viewed as a model for Hitler's Nazism.- Career :...
. Vienna is today considered the centre of the Social Democratic Party of AustriaThe Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
. During the period of the First RepublicThe Federal State of Austria refers to Austria from 1934 to 1938, according to its self-conception a non-party, in fact a single-party state led by the fascist Fatherland's Front...
(1918–1934), the Vienna Social DemocratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
undertook many overdue social reforms. At that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore referred to the city as "Red ViennaRed Vienna was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time.-Social situation after World War I:...
" (Rotes Wien). In February 1934 troops of the Conservative Austrian federal government and paramilitary socialist organisations were engaged in the Austrian civil war, which led to the ban of the Social Democrat party.
For most of the time since the First World War, the city has been governed by the Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
(SPÖ) with absolute majorities in the city parliament. Only between 1934 and 1945, when the Social Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascistAustrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...
and later by the NaziNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
authorities. The current mayor of Vienna is Michael HäuplMichael Häupl is the mayor of Vienna. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. He is married to Helga Häupl and has two children.-Biography:...
. The Social Democrats currently hold 55% of the seats with a 49% share of the vote. Many Austrian political experts{{Who|date=July 2009}} believe that if not for the Social Democrats' nearly unbreakable hold on Vienna, the rival Austrian People's PartyThe Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
(ÖVP) would dominate Austrian politics.
An example of the city’s many social democratic policies is its low-cost residential estates called GemeindebauGemeindebau is a German word for "municipality building". It refers to residential buildings erected by a municipality, usually to provide low-cost public housing....
ten.
Ever since Vienna obtained federal state (Bundesland) status of its own in 1921, the mayor has also had the role of the state governor (Landeshauptmann). The Rathaus accommodates the offices of the mayor and the state government (Landesregierung). The city is administered by a multitude of departments (Magistratsabteilungen).
In the 1996 City Council election, the SPÖ lost its overall majority in the 100-seat chamber, winning 43 seats and 39.15% of the vote. In 1996 the Freedom Party of AustriaThe Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
(FPÖ), which won 29 seats (up from 21 in 1991), beat the ÖVP into third place for the second time running. From 1996–2001, the SPÖ governed Vienna in a coalition with the ÖVP. In 2001 the SPÖ regained the overall majority with 52 seats and 46.91% of the vote; in October 2005 this majority was increased further to 55 seats (49.09%). In course of the 2010 city council elections the SPÖ lost their overall majority again and consequently forged a coalition with the Green Party – the first SPÖ/Green coalition in Austria.
Religion
Vienna is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna; its current ArchbishopAn archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
is CardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Christoph Schönborn. According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese are Roman Catholics, while 25.7% are of no religion, 7.8% are Muslim, 6.0% are members of an Orthodox denomination, 4.7% are Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% are Jewish, and 6.3% are either of other religions or did not reply.
Many Roman Catholic churches in central Vienna feature performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Roman Catholic churches, including the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), the Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church) and the Votivkirche.
The proportion of Viennese who identify as Roman Catholic has dropped over the last fifty years, from 90% in 1961 to under 50% in 2010.
Music, theatre and opera
{{See also|Music of Austria|Vienna State Opera Ballet}}
Music is one of Vienna's legacies. Musical prodigies like Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Ludwig Van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Joseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
have worked and the Classical style was born here under the influence of Johann Joseph Fux, the oldest teacher (sometimes regarded as inventor) of counterpointIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
.
Art and culture have a long tradition in Vienna, including theatre, opera, classical music and fine arts. The BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
is considered one of the best theatres in the German-speaking world alongside its branch, the Akademietheater. The Volkstheater WienThe Volkstheater in Vienna was founded in 1889 by request of the citizens of Vienna, amongst them the dramatist Ludwig Anzengruber and the furniture manufacturer Thonet, in order to offer a popular counter weight to the Hofburgtheater...
and the Theater in der JosefstadtThe Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna...
also enjoy good reputations. There is also a multitude of smaller theatres, in many cases devoted to less mainstream forms of the performing arts, such as modern, experimental plays or cabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
.
Vienna is also home to a number of opera houses, including the Theater an der WienThe Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
, the StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
and the VolksoperThe Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
, the latter being devoted to the typical Viennese operettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
. Classical concerts are performed at well known venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Wiener KonzerthausThe Konzerthaus in Vienna was opened 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both tradition and innovative musical styles.In 1890 the first ideas for a Haus für Musikfeste came about...
. Many concert venues offer concerts aimed at tourists, featuring popular highlights of Viennese music (particularly the works of Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Johann StraussJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
).
In recent years, the Theatre an der Wien has hosted premieres of musicals, although it has recently{{when|date=February 2011}} devoted itself to the opera again. The most successful musical by far was "ElisabethElisabeth is a Viennese, German-language musical commissioned by the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien , with book/lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. It portrays the life and death of the Empress consort of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I...
",{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} which was later translated into several other languages and performed all over the world. The Haus der MusikThe Haus der Musik in Vienna opened in 2000, and is the first museum of sound and music in Austria. Across an exhibition space of 54,000 sq...
("house of music") opened in 2000.
The WienerliedThe Wienerlied or Weanaliad is a song genre which has its roots in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Traditional Viennese songs, known as Wienerlieder are centred on the theme of life in Vienna and are almost exclusively sung in Viennese...
is a unique song genre from Vienna. There are approximately 60,000 – 70,000 Wienerlieder.
Musicians from Vienna
Many notable musicians were born in Vienna, including: Johann Strauss IJohann Strauss I , born in Vienna, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty...
, Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, FalcoJohann Hölzel , better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had several international hits: "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home " and posthumously, "Out Of The Dark"...
, Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Gerhard PotuznikGerhard Potuznik is an electronic musician of Vienna, Austria. He has been creating music since the early 1980s. His recording career began in 1988 with a release on Gig Records . Later he joined forces with Patrick Pulsinger to release a string of popular 12-inches on the influential Cheap...
, Louie AustenLouie Austen is an Austrian classically trained bar and jazz crooner who has been active in the electronic music scene.-Biography:Austen was born on 19 September 1946 in Vienna, Austria....
, Arnold Schönberg, and Fritz KreislerFriedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
.
Notable Musicians who came here to work from other parts of Austria and Germany were Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Ludwig Van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Johannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Joseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
.
Museums
The Hofburg is the location of the SchatzkammerThe Imperial Treasury in Vienna, Austria is located in the Hofburg with its entrance at the Schweizerhof , the oldest part of the palace rebuilt in a Renaissance style under Emperor Ferdinand I...
(treasury), holding the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. The Sisi Museum (a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of AustriaElisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...
) allows visitors to view the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinet. Directly opposite the Hofburg are the Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
, which houses many paintings by old masters"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
, ancient and classical artifacts, and the Naturhistorisches MuseumThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
.
A number of museums are located in the MuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
(museum quarter), the former Imperial Stalls which were converted into a museum complex in the 1990s. It houses the Museum of Modern Art, commonly known as the MUMOKMUMOK is the abbreviation of "MUseum MOderner Kunst" Foundation Ludwig Vienna. It is located in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria....
(Ludwig Foundation), the Leopold MuseumThe Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
(featuring the largest collection of paintings in the world by Egon SchieleEgon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced...
, as well as works by the Vienna SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism), the AzWThe Architekturzentrum Wien is a museum in Vienna, in the Museumsquartier. It is conceived as a centre for exhibitions, events and research into architecture and related topics, particularly the architecture and urban design of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is the national architecture museum...
(museum of architecture), additional halls with feature exhibitions, and the Tanzquartier. The Liechtenstein Palace contains one of the world's largest private art collections of the baroque. Castle BelvedereThe Belvedere is a historical building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the 3rd district of the city, south-east of its centre. It houses the...
, built under Prinz EugenPrinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940...
, has a galleryThe Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.The art collection includes masterpieces from the Middle Ages and Baroque until the 21st century, though it focuses on Austrian painters from the Fin de Siècle and Art Nouveau period...
containing paintings by Gustav KlimtGustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
(The Kiss), Egon Schiele, and other painters of the early 20th century, also sculptures by Franz Xaver MesserschmidtFranz Xaver Messerschmidt was a German-Austrian sculptor most famous for his "character heads", a collection of busts with faces contorted in extreme facial expressions.-Early years:...
, and changing exhibitions too.
There are a multitude of other museums in Vienna, including the AlbertinaThe Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings...
, the Military History MuseumThe Heeresgeschichtliches Museum is a military history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It claims to be the oldest and largest purpose-built military history museum in the world...
, the Technical MuseumThe Technisches Museum Wien lies in Vienna , in Penzing district, on the Mariahilferstraße 212....
, the Burial Museum, the Museum of Art FakesThe Museum of Art Fakes opened in Vienna, Austria in 2005. This small, privately run museum in the Landstraße district is the only one of its kind in the German-speaking world....
, the KunstHausWienThe KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists. The KunstHausWien operates as a...
, the Sigmund Freud MuseumThe Sigmund Freud Museum is located in Freud's former practice and apartment in Vienna, and covers his life story and the history of psychoanalysis.-Museum:...
, and the Mozarthaus ViennaThe Mozarthaus Vienna was Mozart's residence from 1784 to 1787. This building in Vienna's Old Town, not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral, is his only surviving Viennese residence and is now a museum.-History:...
. The museums on the history of the city, including the former Historical Museum of the City of Vienna on KarlsplatzKarlsplatz is a town square on the border of the first and fourth districts of Vienna. It is one of the most frequented and best connected transportation hubs in Vienna. The Karlskirche is located here....
, the HermesvillaThe Hermesvilla is a palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten, in Vienna, a former hunting area for the Habsburg nobility. Emperor Franz Joseph I gave it to his wife Empress Elisabeth , and he called it the "castle of dreams.“ The name of the villa refers to a statue of Hermes made of white marble that is...
, the residences and birthplaces of various composers, the Museum of the Romans, and the Vienna Clock Museum, are now gathered together under the group umbrella Vienna MuseumThe Vienna Museum is a group of museums in Vienna consisting of the museums of the history of the city. In addition to the main building in Karlsplatz and the Hermesvilla, the group includes numerous specialised museums, musicians' residences and archaeological excavations.The permanent exhibit of...
. The museums dedicated to Vienna's districts provide a retrospective of the respective districts.
Architecture
{{See also|Category:Buildings and structures in Austria}}
A variety of architectural styles can be found in Vienna, such as the RomanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
RuprechtskircheThe Church of St. Rupert is a church in Vienna, Austria. Traditionally considered to be the oldest church in the city, it is dedicated to Saint Rupert of Salzburg, patron saint of the salt merchants of Vienna...
and the BaroqueBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
Karlskirche. Styles range from classicistClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
buildings to modern architectureModern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
. Art NouveauArt Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
left many architectural traces in Vienna. The SecessionThe Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn StationKarlsplatz Stadtbahn Station is a former station of the Viennese Stadtbahn. The buildings above ground on Karlsplatz are a well-known example of Jugendstil architecture. These buildings were included in The Vienna Secession, as they followed many of the artistic styles of that movement...
, and the Kirche am SteinhofThe Kirche am Steinhof in Vienna is the Roman Catholic oratory of the Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital...
by Otto WagnerOtto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world.
Concurrent to the Art Nouveau movement was the Wiener ModerneThe Wiener Moderne or Viennese Modern Age is a term describing the culture of Vienna in the period between approximately 1890 and 1910. It refers especially to the development of modernism in the Austrian capital and its effect on the spheres of philosophy, literature, music, art, design and...
, during which some architects shunned the use of extraneous adornment. A key architect of this period was Adolf LoosAdolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...
, whose works include the Looshaus (1909), the Kärntner Bar or American Bar (1908) and the Steiner House (1910).
The Hundertwasserhausright|thumb|Hundertwasser House ViennaThe Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-author...
by Friedensreich HundertwasserFriedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian painter and architect. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial, by the end of the 20th century.-Life:Hundertwasser's father Ernst Stowasser died three...
, designed to counter the clinical look of modern architecture, is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractionA tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
s. Another example of unique architecture is the WotrubakircheThe Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit in Vienna, better known as the Wotruba Church, is located on the Sankt Georgenberg in Mauer in Liesing, the 23rd District of Vienna...
by sculptor Fritz WotrubaFritz Wotruba was an Austrian sculptor of Czecho-Hungarian descent. He was considered one of the most notable Austrian 20th century sculptors...
. In the 1990s, a number of quarters were adapted and extensive building projects were implemented in the areas around Donaustadt (north of the Danube) and Wienerberg (in southern Vienna). The 202 m-high Millennium Tower located at Handelskai is the highest building in Vienna. In recent years, Vienna has seen numerous architecture projects completed which combine modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodelling and revitalisation of the old GasometerThe Gasometers in Vienna are four former gas tanks, each of 90,000 m³ storage capacity, built as part of the Vienna municipal gas works Gaswerk Simmering in 1896–1899. They are located in the 11th district, Simmering. They were used from 1899 to 1984 as gas storage tanks...
in 2001.
Most buildings in Vienna are relatively low; in early 2006 there were around 100 buildings higher than 40 m. The number of high-rise buildings is kept low by building legislation aimed at preserving green areas and districts designated as world cultural heritageA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. Strong rules apply to the planning, authorisation and construction of high-rise buildings. Consequently, much of the inner city is a high-rise free zone.
Vienna balls
Vienna is the last great capital of the nineteenth century ballA ball is a formal dance. The word 'ball' is derived from the Latin word "ballare", meaning 'to dance'; the term also derived into "bailar", which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for dance . In Catalan it is the same word, 'ball', for the dance event.Attendees wear evening attire, which is...
. There are over 200 significant balls per year, some featuring as many as nine live orchestras. Balls are held in the many beautiful palaces in Vienna, with the principal venue being the Hofburg Palace at HeldenplatzThe Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
. While the Opera BallThe Vienna Opera Ball is an annual Austrian society event which takes place in the building of the Vienna State Opera on the Thursday preceding Ash Wednesday. Together with the New Year Concert, the Opera Ball is one of the highlights of the Viennese carnival season...
is the best known internationally of all the Austrian balls, other balls such as the Kaffeesiederball (Cafe Owners Ball), the Jägerball (Hunter's Ball), Life BallThe Life Ball in Vienna is the biggest charity event in Europe supporting people with HIV or AIDS. The event is organized by the non-profit organization AIDS LIFE, which was founded in 1992 by Gery Keszler and Torgom Petrosian....
(AIDS Charity Event) and the Rudolfina Redoute are almost as well known within Austria and even better appreciated for their cordial atmosphere. Viennese of at least middle class may visit a number of balls in their lifetime. For many, the ball season lasts three months and can include up to ten or fifteen separate appearances.
Dancers and opera singers from the Vienna Staatsoper often perform at the openings of the larger balls.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
A Vienna ball is an all-night cultural attraction. Major Viennese balls generally begin at 9 pm and last until 5 am, although many guests carry on the celebrations into the next day.
{{wide image|Vienna Panorama at Night.jpg|800px|Panoramic view Vienna at night.}}
Sub and Youth Culture
Some known venues and art spaces of the city are Arena, Flex, Mo.ë, Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus and WUK. Arena and Flex are mainly focused on live of pop music acts (indie, techno, rock, etc.), while Mo.ë, Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus (EKH) and WUK have a stronger focus on contemporary visual artsThe visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, modern danceModern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
and experimental musicExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
. The Volxtheater Favoriten is based out of the Ernst Kirchweger Haus. Since May 2001, the Publixtheatre CaravanThe Publixtheatre Caravan is the English name for a travelling project of the Volxtheater Favoriten, a Vienna-based international theatrical troupe that has been creating site-specific theatrical interventions in public space as well as stage-based performances since 1994...
has been creating international travelling informational, media, and artistic campaigns, to squat reality by directly interposing theater and artistic installations into everyday life.
Education
Vienna is also Austria's main centre of education and home to many universities, professional colleges and gymnasiums (high schools)A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
.
Universities
- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria.- History :The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire...
- Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
- Medical University of Vienna
The Medical University of Vienna is a medical university in Vienna, Austria.Formerly the faculty of medicine of the University of Vienna, became an independent university on January 1, 2004...
- PEF Private University of Management Vienna
PEF Private University of Management in Vienna was accredited by the Austrian Accreditation Council as a private university in June 2002.PEF is focussed on master's programmes in the areas of social and economic science....
- University of Applied Arts Vienna
The University of Applied Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university status since 1970.-History:...
- University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
- University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
The University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna was founded in 1767 as the world's third school for veterinary medicine by Milan's Ludovico Scotti, originally named k. k. Pferde-Curen- und Operationsschule . Today, it has c...
- University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
- Vienna University of Economics and Business
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien or Vienna University of Economics and Business is the largest University focusing on business and economics in Europe and, in terms of student body, one of the largest universities in Austria...
- University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, or simply BOKU , founded in 1872, is a Vienna university. There are currently around 10500 students enrolled at BOKU.- Campus :The original campus was built in 1896 in the Türkenschanzpark in Vienna's 18th and 19th districts...
- Vienna University of Technology
Vienna University of Technology is one of the major universities in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Founded in 1815 as the "Imperial-Royal Polytechnic Institute" , it currently has about 26,200 students , 8 faculties and about 4,000 staff members...
- Webster University Vienna
Webster University Vienna is the Austrian branch of Webster University, and Webster's biggest campus outside the US. It was founded in 1981, since 9 January 2001 it is accredited as Austria's third private university...
- International Anti-Corruption Academy
The International Anti-Corruption Academy is an international organization , whose purpose is to address the current shortcomings in the fight against corruption...
(in Laxenburg, 24 km south of Vienna)
International schools
- American International School Vienna
The American International School Vienna is a non-profit school international school made up structurally of the parents of each student at the school, and located in Vienna, Austria. The school operates, in part, under the sponsorship of the United States Ambassador to Austria and awards the...
- Danube International School
Danube International School is a private international school in Vienna, Austria. located in the Second District, between the Danube Canal and the Prater. The school was previously situated in the 10th District but as it grew in numbers it was necessary to relocate...
- International University Vienna
The International University , Vienna was an unaccredited private university located in Vienna, Austria, with a subsidiary in Kiev, Ukraine. According to IU, it was chartered in 1980 by the U.S. state of Alabama as a private degree-granting postsecondary institution. The Vienna operation was...
- Lauder Business School
Lauder Business School is a business school in Vienna, Austria, operating as a Fachhochschule in the Austrian education system. There are currently 240 students enrolled in the School in two undergraduate and one graduate programs...
- Lycée Français de Vienne
Lycée Français de Vienne is a French curriculum secondary school in Alsergrund, Vienna.The Lycée Français de Vienne is one of the world's largest schools accredited by the Agency for French Teaching Abroad and has more than 2000 students.The private school shares its boarding school with...
- Vienna Christian School
The International Christian School of Vienna is an international school in Vienna, Austria that was founded in 1986. It is located in the Donaustadt district of Vienna....
- Vienna International School
The Vienna International School is a non-profit international school, located in Vienna, Austria. The school was built to accommodate the children of UN employees and diplomats when the UN decided to locate one of its offices in Vienna, and it remains affiliated to the UN...
- Wake Forest University - Flow House
Viennese parks and gardens
{{Wide image|Panorama-donaupark-2002.jpg|800px|}}
Vienna possesses many park facilities, including the StadtparkThe Viennese City Park extends from the Parkring in the First District of Vienna up to the Heumarkt in the Third District and is visited both by tourists and by native Viennese...
, the Burggarten, the Volksgarten (part of the Hofburg), the Schloßpark at Schloss Belvedere (home to the Vienna Botanic GardensThe Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna is a botanical garden in Vienna, Austria. It covers 8 hectares and is immediately adjacent to the Belvedere gardens....
), the Donaupark, the Schönbrunner Schlosspark, the PraterThe Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district . The amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the .-Name:...
, the Augarten, the Rathauspark, the Lainzer TiergartenThe Lainzer Tiergarten is a 24.50 km² wildlife preserve in the southwest corner of Vienna, Austria, 80% of it being covered in woodland. It dates back to 1561, when Ferdinand I of Austria created it as a fenced-in hunting ground for his family to use. Since 1919, it has been open to the public...
, the Dehnepark, the Resselpark, the Votivpark, the Kurpark Oberlaa, the Auer-Welsbach-Park and the Türkenschanzpark. Green areas include Laaer-Berg (including the Bohemian Prater) and the foothills of the WienerwaldThe Vienna Woods are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The long and wide hill range is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese....
, which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as Beserlparks, are everywhere in the inner city areas.
Many of Vienna's famous parks include monuments, such as the StadtparkThe Viennese City Park extends from the Parkring in the First District of Vienna up to the Heumarkt in the Third District and is visited both by tourists and by native Viennese...
with its statue of Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, and the gardens of the baroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
palaceThe Belvedere is a historical building complex in Vienna, Austria, consisting of two Baroque palaces the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape in the 3rd district of the city, south-east of its centre. It houses the...
, where the State TreatyThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
was signed. Vienna's principal park is the PraterThe Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district . The amusement park, often simply called "Prater", stands in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the .-Name:...
which is home to the Riesenrad, a Ferris wheelA Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
. The imperial SchönbrunnSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
's grounds contain an 18th century park which includes the world's oldest zooTiergarten Schönbrunn or Vienna Zoo is a zoo located on the grounds of the famous Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria...
, founded in 1752.
The DonauinselThe Donauinsel is a long, narrow island, in central Vienna, Austria, between the Danube river and the parallel excavated channel Neue Donau . The island is 21.1 km in length, but is only 70–210 metres broad...
, part of Vienna's flood defences, is a 21.1 km long artificial islandAn artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
between the Danube and Neue Donau dedicated to leisure activities.
Sport
Vienna hosts many different sporting events including the Vienna City MarathonThe Vienna City Marathon is an annual marathon race over the classic distance of 42.195 km held in Vienna, Austria since 1984. The first edition was held on March 25, 1984 with a total of 794 competitors...
, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice HockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
World Championships took place in AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and the final was played in Vienna. Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium was the venue of four Champions LeagueThe UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
and European Champion Clubs' Cup finals (1964, 1987, 1990 and 1995) and on 29 June it hosted the final of Euro 2008 which saw a Spanish 1–0 victory over Germany.
Austria's capital is home to numerous teams. The best known are the local football clubs FK Austria WienFußballklub Austria Wien is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. They are considered the most successful club in Austria, having won the highest Austrian Bundesliga 23 times, the Austrian Cup 27 times and the Austrian Supercup 6 times. They also reached the UEFA...
(21 whole-Austrian Austrian Bundesliga titles and record 27-time cup winners) SK Rapid WienThe Sportklub Rapid Wien is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid is the most popular club in Austria and also record title holder having won the Austrian national football title 32 times...
(record 32 whole-Austrian Austrian Bundesliga titles), and the oldest team, First Vienna FCFirst Vienna FC is an Austrian association football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there...
. Other important sport clubsA sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
include the Raiffeisen Vikings Vienna (American FootballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
), who won the EurobowlThe Eurobowl is both the final game and the trophy of the European Football League , a European American football contest.-Eurobowls:-Champions:...
title between 2004 and 2007 4 times in a row, the Aon hotVolleys Viennaaon hotVolleys Vienna is an Austrian volleyball club which is playing their home matches at the Budocenter in Vienna.The team participates in the Men's CEV Champions League 2007-08-Previous names:*....-1999 : Donaukraft Wien...
, one of Europe's premier Volleyball organisations, the Superfund Wanderers (baseball) who won the 2009 Championship of the Austrian Baseball League, and the Vienna CapitalsVienna Capitals are a member of the Erste Bank Hockey League. They play their home games in Vienna, Austria, at Albert Schultz Eishalle.-Current roster:-References:...
(Ice HockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
). Vienna was also where the European Handball Federation (EHF) was founded. There are also three rugbyRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
clubs; Vienna CelticVienna Celtic RFC is an Austrian rugby club in Vienna. They are the oldest team in Austria.-History:The club was founded on 19 January 1978 by a Scotsman, John Skinner, and two Austrians, Johann Schweiger and Bernhard Eigenberger.-Current squad:...
, the oldest rugby club in Austria, RC DonauRC Donau is an Austrian rugby club in Vienna.-History:The club was founded in 1989 as a youth team of RC Wien. Later that year they won the first Austrian Youth Championships, which they won again in 1991...
, and Stade ViennoisRugby Club Stade Viennois, also referred to as Stade, is an Austrian rugby club from Vienna. Stade is one of the most prestigious rugby clubs in Austria, having been runner-ups in the Austrian Championship 2005 and 2010. Their home ground is the Sportareal Dirnelwiese...
Food
{{See also|Austrian cuisine}}
Vienna is well known for Wiener SchnitzelSchnitzel is a traditional Austrian dish made with boneless meat thinned with a mallet , coated in bread crumbs and fried. It is a popular part of Viennese, Austrian cuisine and German Cuisine...
, a cutlet of vealVeal is the meat of young cattle , as opposed to meat from older cattle. Though veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, most veal comes from male calves of dairy cattle breeds...
that is pounded flat, coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in clarified butterClarified butter is milk fat rendered from butter to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat. Typically, it is produced by melting butter and allowing the different components to separate by density...
. It is available in almost every restaurant that serves Viennese cuisineViennese cuisine is the cuisine that is characteristic of Vienna, Austria, and its residents. Viennese cuisine is often treated as equivalent to Austrian cuisine, but while elements of Viennese cuisine have spread throughout Austria, other Austrian regions have their own unique variations...
. Other examples of Viennese cuisine include TafelspitzTafelspitz is boiled beef in broth Viennese style.- The dish :Tafelspitz - boiled tri-tip - is a typical Austrian dish. The beef is simmered along with root vegetables and spices in the broth...
(very lean boiled beef), which is traditionally served with Geröstete Erdäpfel (boiled potatoes mashed with a fork and subsequently fried) and horseradish sauce, Apfelkren (a mixture of horseradish, cream and apple) and Schnittlauchsauce (a chives sauce made with mayonnaise and old bread).
Vienna has a long tradition of producing the finest cakes and desserts. These include Apfelstrudel (hot apple strudel), Millirahmstrudel (milk-cream strudel), PalatschinkenPalatschinke is the Austrian and Bavarian name of the thin, crêpe-like variety of pancake common in Central and Eastern Europe.-The pancake:...
(sweet pancakes), and Knödel (dumplings) often filled with fruit such as apricots (MarillenknödelMarillenknödel are a pastry. They are found in the traditional Bohemian and Viennese cuisines. "Marillen" is the Austrian term for apricots and this pastry is found predominantly in areas where apricot orchards are common. Examples of such areas would include the Wachau and Vinschgau.Small...
). SachertorteSachertorte is a chocolate cake. It was invented by chance by Austrian Jewish Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The Original Sachertorte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and it is shipped from...
, a dry chocolate cake with apricot jam created by the Sacher HotelThe Hotel Sacher is a five-star hotel in the Innenstadt district of Vienna, Austria, next to the Staatsoper. It is famous for the specialty of the house, the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot filling. There is also an art gallery in the hotel with works from the 19th century...
, is world famous.
In winter, small street stands sell traditional Maroni (hot chestnuts) and potato fritters.
Sausages are popular and available from street vendors (WürstelstandA Würstelstand is a traditional Austrian street food retail outlet.Würstelstands were initially created the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to provide a source of income for incapacitated former soldiers....
) throughout the day and into the night. The sausage known as Wiener (German for Viennese) in the US and Germany is, however, called Frankfurter. Other popular sausages are Burenwurst (a coarse beef and pork sausage, generally boiled), KäsekrainerKranjska klobasa is a Slovenian sausage most similar to what is known as kielbasa or Polish sausage in North America....
(spicy pork with small chunks of cheese), and Bratwurst (a white pork sausage). Most can be ordered "mit Brot" (with bread) or as a "hot dog" (stuffed inside a long roll). Mustard is the traditional condiment and usually offered in two varieties: "süß" (sweet) or "scharf" (spicy).
Kebab and pizza are, increasingly, the snack food most widely available from small stands.
The NaschmarktThe Naschmarkt is Vienna's most popular market. Located at the Wienzeile over the Wien River it is about 1,5 kilometers long.The Naschmarkt has existed since the 16th century when mainly milk bottles were sold...
is a permanent market for fruit, vegetables, spices, fish, meat, etc. from around the world. The city centre has many coffee and breakfast stores, such as the Julius MeinlJulius Meinl International , known also simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and retailer of coffee, gourmet foods and other grocery products. The company is based in Vienna, Austria. It is named after its founders Julius Meinl I, and Julius Meinl II.Julius Meinl III ceded control of the...
am GrabenDer Graben is one of the most famous streets in Vienna's first district, the city centre. It begins at Stock-im-Eisen-Platz next to the Palais Equitable and ends at the junction of Kohlmarkt and Tuchlauben. Another street in the first district is called Tiefer Graben...
.
Drink
Vienna, along with Paris, PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and London is one of the few remaining world capital cities with its own vineyards. The wine is served in small Viennese pubs known as Heuriger, which are especially numerous in the wine growing areas of DöblingDöbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...
(GrinzingGrinzing was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.- Geography :- Location :...
, Neustift am WaldeUntil 1892 Neustift am Walde was an independent municipality in the outskirts of Vienna, Austria and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna...
, NußdorfNußdorf was a separate municipality until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna in the 19th district of Döbling.- Location :Nußdorf lies on both banks of the Nußbach , where the brook meets the Danube Canal...
, SalmannsdorfSalmannsdorf is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Salmannsdorf was an independent municipality until 1892, when it was incorporated into the Währing district of the city of Vienna. However, in 1938, Salmannsdorf was re-assigned together with Neustift am Walde to the district of...
, SieveringSievering is a suburb of Vienna and part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. Sievering was created in 1892 out of the two erstwhile independent suburbs Untersievering and Obersievering. These still exist as Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...
), FloridsdorfFloridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, Austria .Floridsdorf is located in the northern part of Vienna.The District Office and the centre of Floridsdorf are located round Am Spitz, at the junction of Prager Straße and Brünner Straße .Since 2004, Floridsdorf has had its own tower: the...
(Stammersdorf, Strebersdorf), LiesingLiesing is the 23rd district of Vienna . It is on the southwest edge of Vienna, Austria.It was formed after Austria's Anschluss with Germany, when Vienna expanded from 21 districts to 26...
(MauerMauer is a former village of Lower Austria that since 1938 has been part of Vienna. Today it is part of the 23rd District of Vienna, Liesing. Its name literally means "wall".- History :...
) and Favoriten (Oberlaa). The wine is often drunk as a Spritzer ("G'spritzter") with sparkling water. The Grüner VeltlinerGrüner Veltliner is a variety of white wine grape variety grown primarily in Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. It has a reputation of being a particularly food-friendly wine...
, a dry white wine, is the most widely cultivated wine in Austria.
Beer is next in importance to wine. Vienna has a single large brewery, OttakringerThe Ottakringer Brauerei is the last large brewery remaining in Vienna, Austria and is located in Ottakring, the 16th district of Vienna.- History :...
, and more than ten microbreweriesThe Viennese microbrewery is a typical institution of Vienna. These microbreweries serve their own beer to the public. They also serve food, in many cases traditional Austrian dishes. In many cases the actual brew equipment is in the center of the place and the tables for the customers are located...
. A "Beisl" is a typical small Austrian pub, of which Vienna has many.
Viennese cafés
Viennese caféThe Viennese Coffee House is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part shaping Viennese culture.Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian inventory of the "National Agency for the Intangible Cultural...
s have an extremely long and distinguished history that dates back centuries, and the caffeine addictions of some famous historical patrons of the oldest are something of a local legend. Traditionally, the coffee comes with a glass of water. Viennese cafés claim to have invented the process of filtering coffeeDrip brewing, or filtered coffee, is a method for brewing coffee which involves pouring water over roasted, ground coffee beans contained in a filter. Water seeps through the coffee, absorbing its oils and essences, solely under gravity, then passes through the bottom of the filter...
from booty captured after the second Turkish siegeThe Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
in 1683. Viennese cafés claim that when the invading Turks left Vienna, they abandoned hundreds of sacks of coffee beansCoffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. The Emperor gave Franz George Kolschitzky (Polish – Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki) some of this coffee as a reward for providing information that allowed the Austrians to defeat the Turks. Kolschitzky then opened Vienna's first coffee shopA coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
. Julius MeinlJulius Meinl International , known also simply as Julius Meinl, is a manufacturer and retailer of coffee, gourmet foods and other grocery products. The company is based in Vienna, Austria. It is named after its founders Julius Meinl I, and Julius Meinl II.Julius Meinl III ceded control of the...
set up a modern roasting plant in the same premises where the coffee sacks were found, in 1891.
Tourist attractions
{{further|Tourist attractions in ViennaThe tourist attractions of Vienna concentrate in three distinct areas. The largest cluster, centreed around Schönbrunn Palace, attracted around five million visitors in 2009, down from six million in 2008. Museums and exhibitions of Hofburg Palace accounted for nearly two million visitors in 2008,...
}}
Major tourist attractions include the imperial palaces of the HofburgHofburg Palace is a palace located in Vienna, Austria, that has housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history, including the Habsburg dynasty, rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It currently serves as the official residence of the President of Austria...
and SchönbrunnSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
(also home to the world's oldest zoo, Tiergarten SchönbrunnTiergarten Schönbrunn or Vienna Zoo is a zoo located on the grounds of the famous Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria...
) and the Riesenrad in the Prater. Cultural highlights include the BurgtheaterThe Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...
, the Wiener StaatsoperThe Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
, the LipizzanThe Lipizzan or Lipizzaner , is a breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, where the finest representatives demonstrate the haute école or "high school" movements of classical dressage, including the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements...
er horses at the spanische HofreitschuleThe Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzan horses, which perform in the Winter Riding School in the Hofburg...
and the Vienna Boys' ChoirThe Vienna Boys' Choir is a choir of trebles and altos based in Vienna. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries....
, as well as excursions to Vienna's Heurigen district Döbling.
{{wide image|Schloss schoenbrunn hdr panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of world famous Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
.}}
{{wide image|Wien_Panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
with Vienna in the Background.}}
{{wide image|Schlosspark Schoenbrunn Panorama.jpg|1000px|Panoramic view of world famous Schönbrunn PalaceSchönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna...
.}}
There are also more than 100 art museums, which together attract over eight million visitors per year. The most popular ones are AlbertinaThe Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings...
, BelvedereThe Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.The art collection includes masterpieces from the Middle Ages and Baroque until the 21st century, though it focuses on Austrian painters from the Fin de Siècle and Art Nouveau period...
, Leopold MuseumThe Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
in the MuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
, KunstHausWienThe KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of other artists. The KunstHausWien operates as a...
, BA-CA Kunstforum, the twin Kunsthistorisches MuseumThe Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
and Naturhistorisches MuseumThe Naturhistorisches Museum Wien or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.The collections displayed cover , and the museum has a website providing an overview as a video virtual tour....
, and the Technisches Museum WienThe Technisches Museum Wien lies in Vienna , in Penzing district, on the Mariahilferstraße 212....
, each of which receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year.
There are many popular sites associated with composers who lived in Vienna including Beethoven'sLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
various residences and grave at ZentralfriedhofThe Zentralfriedhof is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries.-Name and location:...
(Central Cemetery) which is the largest cemetery in Vienna and the burial site of many famous peopleA celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
. MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
has a memorial grave at the Habsburg gardens and at St. Marx cemeterySt. Marx Cemetery is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It was named after a nearby almshouse.-History:...
(where his grave was lost). Vienna's many churches also draw large crowds, the most famous of which are St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Deutschordenskirche, the Jesuitenkirche, the Karlskirche, the Peterskirche, Maria am GestadeMaria am Gestade church ranks among Vienna's oldest buildings and one of the few surviving examples of Gothic architecture in the city...
, the MinoritenkircheThe Minoritenkirche, formal name: Italienische Nationalkirche Maria Schnee is a church built in French Gothic style in the Altstadt or First District of Vienna, Austria.The site on which the church is built was given to followers of Francis of Assisi in 1224...
, the RuprechtskircheThe Church of St. Rupert is a church in Vienna, Austria. Traditionally considered to be the oldest church in the city, it is dedicated to Saint Rupert of Salzburg, patron saint of the salt merchants of Vienna...
, the SchottenkircheThe Schottenkirche is a parish church in Vienna attached to the Schottenstift, founded by Iro-Scottish Benedictine monks in the 12th century. In 1418, the Duke Albert V of Austria transferred it to the German-speaking Benedictine monks from the Melk Abbey during the Melker Reform initiated after...
and the Votivkirche.
Modern attractions include the Hundertwasserhausright|thumb|Hundertwasser House ViennaThe Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-author...
, the United Nations headquartersright|250px|thumb|Vienna International Centre . The [[UNO-City|Austria Center Vienna]] can be seen at the far left in the middle distance....
and the view from the DonauturmThe Vienna Donauturm[p] , opened in April 1964, is the tallest free-standing structure in Austria, at , the tallest structure in Austria, and among the 75 tallest towers in the world. The tower is located near the north bank of the Danube River in the district of Donaustadt. In the infobox there...
.
Transportation
{{Main|Transportation in Vienna}}
Vienna has an extensive transportation network. Public transport is provided by buses, trams and 5 underground metro lines (U-BahnThe Vienna U-Bahn is a rapid transit system consisting of five lines. It is the backbone of one of the best performing public transport systems worldwide according to UITP in June 2009. More than 1.3 million passengers use the Vienna U-Bahn every day...
). Trains are operated by the ÖBB. Vienna has multiple road connections including motorways.
Vienna is served by Vienna International AirportVienna International Airport , located in Schwechat and southeast of central Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the county it is in. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340...
, located 18 km (11 mi) southeast of the city centre next to the town of SchwechatSchwechat is a city south-east of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. It is also home to the refineries belonging to the Austrian national oil company OMV.- Geography :...
.
International organisations in Vienna
Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the International Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
(IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationThe United Nations Industrial Development Organization , French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria...
(UNIDO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting CountriesOPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
(OPEC), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty OrganizationThe Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. Its seat will be Vienna, Austria...
(CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
(OSCE), the United Nations Office for Outer Space AffairsThe United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is an organization of the General Assembly charged with implementing the Assembly's outer space-related policies. It is located in the United Nations Office in Vienna. The Office implements the Program on Space Applications and maintains the...
(UNOOSA) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
Currently Vienna is the world's 4th "UN city" (after New York, GenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and The HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
).
Additionally, Vienna is the seat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's secretariat (UNCITRAL). In conjunction, the University of ViennaThe University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
annually hosts the prestigious Willem C. Vis MootThe Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a prestigious international moot court competition for law students. Since 1994, it is annually being held in Vienna, Austria....
, an international commercial arbitration competition for students of law from around the world.
Various special diplomatic meetings have been held in Vienna in the latter half of the 20th century, resulting in various documents bearing the name Vienna Convention or Vienna Document. Among the more important documents negotiated in Vienna are the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of TreatiesThe Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties is a treaty concerning the international law on treaties between states. It was adopted on 22 May 1969 and opened for signature on 23 May 1969. The Convention entered into force on 27 January 1980. The VCLT has been ratified by 111 states as of November...
, as well as the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in EuropeThe original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry...
(CFE).
{{See also|Vienna Convention (disambiguation)}}
Charitable organisations in Vienna
Alongside the international and intergovernmental organisations, there are dozens of charitable organisations based in Vienna; these organisations provide reliefRelief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
goods and assistance to tens of thousands of disadvantaged children and needy people in developing countriesA developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
.
One such organisation is the network of SOS Children's VillagesSOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...
, founded by Hermann GmeinerHermann Gmeiner was an Austrian philanthropist and the founder of SOS Children's Villages.- Life :...
in 1949. Today, SOS Children's Villages are active in 132 countries and territories worldwide. Others include HASCOHelp Afghan School Children Organization is a Vienna-based non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of education of Afghan disadvantaged children...
and the Childrens Bridge of Hope.
Another extremely popular, international event is The Life Ball in aid of AIDS. Guests such as Bill Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg were recent attendants at this now annual gala.
Twin towns – Sister cities
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Austria}}
Vienna is twinned with the following cities:
BelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
in Serbia BratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
in Slovakia BrnoBrno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
in Czech Republic BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in Hungary IstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in Turkey (since 2007) KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in Ukraine LjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
in Slovenia |
Moscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in Russia TabrizTabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
in Iran (since 2009)
name="Tabriz">http://www.azembassy.at/en/azau.htmAgreement between Vienna and Tabriz Municipality in Farsi]{{dead linkPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
Tel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
in Israel TunisTunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
in Tunisia WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in Poland (since 2001) ZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in Croatia (since 1994) |
Other forms of cooperation and city friendship similar to the twin city programmes:
NišNiš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
in Serbia |
In addition, individual Viennese districts are twinned with  Japanese cities/districts:
- Alsergrund
Alsergrund is the ninth district of Vienna, Austria . It is located just north of the first, central district, Innere Stadt. Alsergrund was incorporated in 1862, with seven suburbs. The area is densely populated, with a lot of government-built housing. According to the census of 2001, there were...
with Takarazukais a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.- Geography :Takarazuka is nestled between the Rokko Range to the west and Nagao Range to the north with the Muko River running through the center of the city....
, Hyōgois a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is Kobe.The prefecture's name was previously alternately spelled as Hiogo.- History :...
. (since 1994)
- Döbling
Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...
with Setagayais one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo in Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood within the ward. The ward calls itself the City of Setagaya in English...
, Tokyo. (since 1985)
- Donaustadt
Donaustadt is the 22nd district of Vienna, Austria .Donaustadt is the eastern fourth of Vienna.- Geography :The Donaustadt district is in the northeast part of Vienna and is the largest of the districts in area, occupying about one-quarter of the Vienna city area, 102.24 km².It borders the...
with Arakawais a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The ward takes its name from the river, the Arakawa, though the Arakawa River does not run through or touch the ward. Its neighbors are the wards of Adachi, Kita, Bunkyo, Taito and Sumida. In English, the ward calls itself Arakawa City.Arakawa has...
, Tokyo. (since 1996)
- Floridsdorf
Floridsdorf is the 21st district of Vienna, Austria .Floridsdorf is located in the northern part of Vienna.The District Office and the centre of Floridsdorf are located round Am Spitz, at the junction of Prager Straße and Brünner Straße .Since 2004, Floridsdorf has had its own tower: the...
with Katsushikais one of the special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It lies in the northeast of the ward area. The ward calls itself Katsushika City in English.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population of 429,289 and a density of 12,600 people per km²...
, Tokyo. (since 1987) |
HernalsHernals is the 17th district of Vienna, Austria .Hernals is in northwest Vienna.It was annexed in 1892 out of the townships of Hernals, Dornbach, and Neuwaldegg.- Geography :...
with Fuchuis a city located in western Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. As of 2010, the city has an estimated population of 255,394 and a population density of 8,700 persons per km². The total area was 29.34 km²...
, Tokyo. (since 1992)
HietzingHietzing is the 13th municipal District of Vienna . It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling...
with Habikinois a city located in eastern Osaka, Japan. It is particularly well-known for its grape production, as well as the many ancient burial mounds that dot its landscape.-Within Japan: Kameyama, Mie Gose, Nara...
, Osakais a prefecture located in the Kansai region on Honshū, the main island of Japan. The capital is the city of Osaka. It is the center of Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area.- History :...
. (since 1995)
Innere StadtThe Innere Stadt is the 1st municipal District of Vienna . The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Innere Stadt was congruent with the city of Vienna...
with Taitois one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. In English, it calls itself Taito City.As of April 1, 2011, the ward has an estimated population of 168,909, with 94,908 households, and a population density of 16,745.86 persons per km². The total area is 10.08 km².-History:The ward was founded...
, Tokyo. (since 1989)
MeidlingMeidling is the 12th district of Vienna . It is located just southwest of the central districts, south of the Wienfluss, west of the Gürtel belt, and east and southeast of Schönbrunn palace...
with Gifuis a city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the Sengoku period, various warlords, including Oda Nobunaga, used...
, Gifuis a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...
. (since 1992) |
Further, the Viennese district LeopoldstadtLeopoldstadt is the 2nd municipal District of Vienna . There are inhabitants over . It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau , forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor...
and the New York City borough BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
entered into a partnership in 2007.
See also
{{satop|Geography|Eurasia|Europe|Central Europe|Western Europe|European Union|Austria|Vienna}}
{{div col}}
- Donauinsel
The Donauinsel is a long, narrow island, in central Vienna, Austria, between the Danube river and the parallel excavated channel Neue Donau . The island is 21.1 km in length, but is only 70–210 metres broad...
- Donauinselfest
The Donauinselfest is an annual open-air free music festival happening on Vienna, Austria's Donauinsel. It usually happens in mid-June...
- History of Vienna
The history of Vienna has been long and varied, beginning when the Roman Empire created a military camp in the area covered by Vienna's city centre. From that humble beginning, Vienna grew from the Roman settlement known as Vindobona to be an important trading site in the 11th century...
- List of Freemen of Vienna
- List of mayors of Vienna
- List of Viennese
- Vienna (Billy Joel song)
"Vienna" is a song from Billy Joel's breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger, released as the B-side to his "She's Always a Woman" single. It was played in a 1981 episode of Taxi called "Vienna Waits." Marilu Henner's character Elaine Nardo refers to the song while on vacation in Europe with Alex...
- Vienna (Ultravox song)
- Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle was an association of philosophers gathered around the University of Vienna in 1922, chaired by Moritz Schlick, also known as the Ernst Mach Society in honour of Ernst Mach...
- Vienna International Airport
Vienna International Airport , located in Schwechat and southeast of central Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the county it is in. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340...
- Viennese German
Viennese German is the city dialect spoken in Vienna, the capital of Austria and is counted among the Bavarian dialects. Even in Lower Austria, the state surrounding the city, many of its expressions are not used, while farther to the west they are often not even understood.- Linguistic...
- Vienna Biennale
The Vienna Biennale is a biannual international art exhibition that takes places in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 2006.-History:The first Vienna Biennale was held in October 2006....
- Soviet war memorial (Vienna)
The Soviet War Memorial in Vienna, more formally known as as the Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee is located at Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz. The semi-circular white marble colonnade partially enclosing a twelve-metre figure of a Red Army Soldier was unveiled in 1945...
{{div col end}}
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External links
{{Sister project links|Vienna}}
Official websites
Pictures and videos of Vienna
History of Vienna
Further information on Vienna
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