COUNTRIES IN A NUTSHELL: AUSTRIA. It contains: interesting facts and information about Austria and the most famous Austrians: Joseph Strauss, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sigmund Freud.

2. Austria is officially called the Republic of Austria.
In German it is called Osterreich which means
"eastern kingdom" or "eastern empire".

3. Austria is a landlocked country, with a land area of 83,855 km².

4. German is the official language of Austria and is spoken by over
88% of the population. Other local languages include Hungarian,
Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Turkish and Polish.

5. Austria has a population of over 8.7 million people
as of July 2016.

6. Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria,
with a population over 1.7 million

7. Austria is bordered by 8 countries,
Germany and the Czech Republic to the north,
Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west,
Slovenia and Italy to the south,
and Hungary and Slovakia to the east.

8. Austria is a mountainous country due to its location
in the Alps, two-thirds of the country sits over 500m
above sea level. The highest point is the mountain
of Grossglockner at 3,798 metres.

9. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries,
Austria was one of the great powers of Europe
under the Habsburg ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire.

10. In 1938, Austria was incorporated into Nazi Germany
and ceased to exist as an independent country
until 1955 when it officially became independent again.

11. Austria has some of the highest standards of living
in the world. Austria joined the European Union in 1995,
and the Euro currency in 1999.

12. As of 2013, Austria has 20 Nobel Prize laureates
including seven in Physiology or Medicine,
five in Chemistry, three in Physics and one in Economy.

13. Austria is home to some of the most famous classical
music composers the world has ever seen including
Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner,
Johann Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

14. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born and raised in Austria
before moving to America to become a Hollywood actor.
Christoph Waltz who won an Academy Award
in 2010 is also from Austria.

15. The Sound of the Music movie was filmed in Salzburg
(Mozart’s city) in 1965.

16. Many famous scientists have come from Austria,
including Ernst Mach, Christian Doppler and the most
famous psychologist on the planet, Sigmund Freud.

17. Alpine skiing is a very popular sport in Austria,
as are snowboarding and ski-jumping.
The city of Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics
in 1964 and 1976.

18. Football is a popular team sport in Austria,
the national team came 4th in the 1934 World Cup Finals
and 3rd in 1954. The country also co-hosted
the 2008 European Championships with Switzerland.

19. Wiener Schnitzel is a typical Austrian main dish
and the dessert "Strudel" or "Apfelstrudel"
(filled with apple) was created in Austria.

20. Founded in 1752 as an animal menagerie
by Emperor Franz Stephan, Vienna’s
Schönbrunn Tiergarten is the oldest zoo in the world.

21. Austro-Hungarian Baroness Bertha von Suttner
was the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905.

22. The Austrian Adolf Hitler was related to the Jews he tried
to exterminate during the Holocaust. Samples of saliva taken
from 39 relatives of Austrian-born Hitler in 2010 showed that he
had a chromosome Haplogroup E1B1B1, which is commonly found
in the lineages of the Jewish population.

23. In 1820, the Austrian Imperial Court welcomed the waltz.
The dance, which had its origins in the popular
triple-time dance, appeared first in the inns and then in the
theaters on the outskirts of Vienna before it appeared
at the Imperial Court.

24. The assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on Sunday,
June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, were the
direct cause of the outbreak of World War I,
in which Austria was to suffer 1,567,000 dead.

25. The Ringstraße in Vienna is one of Europe’s most
unusual streets. This circular boulevard of magnificent
state buildings, palaces, and hotels was carved out of
the fortifications once protecting Vienna from the invading
Turks in the 16th century.

26. Probably the best known of all Austrian artists is Gustav Klimt.

27. The Vienna New Year's Concert is the most famous concert
of classical music on the planet, performed by the Vienna
Philharmonic each year in the morning of New Year's Day in Vienna.
It is broadcast live around the world to an audience of more
than 100 million in 93 countries in 2017.

28. GOOD BYE AUSTRIA!
AUF WIEDERSEHEN ÖSTERREICH!