Austria

E

4

Music

The Land of Music is a name often given to Austria. Composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Bruckner, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss the Elder and Younger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz von Suppé, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Franz Lehár, and Arnold Schoenberg, as well as conductors Felix Weingartner, Clemens Krauss, and Herbert von Karajan, are just a few who have enriched Austrian cultural life. The Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are celebrated organizations. Vienna has two famous opera houses, the Volksoper (People’s Opera), opened in 1904, and the Vienna State Opera, completed in 1869 and known for its beautiful architecture and fine performances. In addition, every provincial capital has its own theater, and the summer festivals in Vienna, Salzburg, and Bregenz are outstanding musical events.

IV

Economy

The Austrian economy is based on a balance of private and public enterprise. All the basic industries were nationalized in 1946, after World War II, to protect them from Soviet takeover as war reparations. Nationalization encompassed all oil production and refining; the largest commercial banks; and the principal companies in river and air transportation, railroad equipment, electric machinery and appliances, mining, iron, steel, and chemical manufacturing, and natural-gas and electric power production. However, government control was reduced through privatization efforts that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s and allowed for the sale of shares in many nationalized companies to private investors. Today, many of these companies are run as private businesses, although the government continues to own and operate utilities and other monopolies.

After the Allied occupation ended in 1955 and Austria regained its independence, Austria’s economy made a rapid recovery and Austria took its place among the developed countries of Europe. Austria joined the European Union in 1995, and in 2002, along with other EU members, made the euro its currency. Over the years, Austria has maintained close ties with countries in eastern Europe. Since the collapse of Communism in those countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 1,000 Western companies have chosen Austria as their base for new eastern European operations. Austria ships many of its exports to countries in central and eastern Europe.

In 2005 Austria’s estimated annual national budget included revenues of $128.8 billion and expenditures of $122.1 billion. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $306.1 billion in 2005. Agriculture accounted for 2.3 percent of GDP, and manufacturing for 32 percent. As in any developed country, services contributed the largest amount to GDP, 66 percent. Tourism is an important service industry in Austria.

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A

Agriculture

Of the total land area, 17 percent is cultivated. Many Austrian farms are under 10 hectares (25 acres) in size. Austria’s farms satisfy most of the country’s food needs, and some surpluses, such as dairy products, are exported. The principal agricultural regions are north of the Alps and in the Danube River basin. Farmers grow crops, raise cattle, and plant orchards and vineyards in these areas. Membership in the European Union required Austria to lower its agricultural prices, and farm income dropped as a result.

Major products in 2005 were sugar beets, maize, wheat, barley, potatoes, grapes, and other fruit. Annual milk production was about 3.3 billion liters (about 870 million gallons). Livestock included 3.2 million pigs, 2 million cattle (of which about one-fourth were milk cows), 325,700 sheep, and 85,000 horses.

B

Forestry and Fishing

Some 47 percent of the total land area is forest. A comprehensive reforestation and conservation program has been in progress since the early 1950s to compensate for damage inflicted during World War II and for postwar overcutting of forest trees. About three-fourths of the forests consists of conifers, mostly spruce, which are important in the paper and pulp industry as well as in building construction. In 2005 some 16.5 million cubic meters (582 million cubic feet) of roundwood were cut.

Processing and consumption of fish are low in Austria, and most table fish are imported. Sport fishing in the mountain streams is popular.

C

Mining

Austria is relatively limited in mineral resources. The major minerals extracted in Austria in 2004, with annual production (metal content), included iron ore (575,000 metric tons) and silver (1 metric ton). Fossil fuel production included crude petroleum (6.5 million barrels), coal (1.2 million metric tons), and natural gas (2.1 billion cubic meters/73.8 billion cubic feet). Other minerals commercially mined included magnesite, copper, lead, salt, graphite, gypsum, kaolin, and talc.

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