Austria

Situation of Austria and its borders

Austria borders in the north with Germany and the Czech Republic, in the south with Italy and Slovenia, in the west with Switzerland and in the east with Slovakia and Hungary.

Physical map: Rivers

The major river is the Danube in the north, entering Austria at Passau on the German border; through Linz and Vienna to Bratislava in the Slovakian border. In total 373 kilometers northeast of Austria. In Germany receives the Inn, which passes through the city, with its tributary the Salzach, Salzburg passing. To the west of the country is Lake Constance, which is the largest and forms the western border with Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. To the east is the Neusiedl, on the border with Hungary.

Administrative divisions

Austria has 9 states. They are divided into 84 districts and 15 statutory cities

Physical maps: Mountains

1.Grossglockner: 3798m

2.Wildspitze: 3772m

3-10.Glockner Group (Kleinglockner: 3770m)

The head of state: President

Heinz Fischer took office on 8th July 2004 and was re-elected for a second and last term on 25th April 2010. He was born in Graz, Styria. He studied law at the University of Vienna, earning a doctorate in 1961. In 1963, at the age of 25, Fischer spent a year volunteering at Kibbutz Sarid, northern Israel. Apart from being a politician, Fischer also pursued an academic career, and became a professor of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck in 1993.

The head of the state: Federal Chancellor

Werner Faymann (born 4th May 1960)is the foreing minister of Austria. From 1985 to 1988 Faymann was a consultant at the Zentralsparkasse, which he left to become director and provincial chairman of the Viennese Tenants' counselling. He was also provincial chairman of Socialist Youth Vienna (Sozialistische Jugend Wien) from 1985 to 1994, when he became a member of the Viennese state parliament and municipal council; where he held various positions concerning housing construction and urban renewal. On 16th June 2008 Faymann succeeded Gusenbauer as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and led the party in the snap legislative elections, held on 28th September 2008.

History

In prehistoric times the lands of Austria were once inhabited by various tribes of Celtic origin, first called Illyrians and later Celtic tribes from the north. Illyrians came from Epirus to the shores of the Baltic Sea, from what is now Switzerland to Poland. Upper Austria was where they got further development from the end of the Bronze Age to the first half of the Iron Age. They were engaged in piracy and finally fought and defeated by the Romans. It was the Romans who claimed the Celtic kingdom of Noricum turning it into a province from 15 b.C.

CultureAustrian education system has a very high level. Until recently, access to college was

practically free (referring to economic status). Today we must pay a tax, which is low compared with other countries. There are 20 universities spread across 8 cities in the Austrian geography.

In the past as an European power, Austria and its cultural environment generated a huge essential contribution to European culture through various forms of art, especially in music. Vienna was from the late eighteenth century until the First World War, the cultural capital of Europe.

Austria has been the birthplace of many famous composers such as Gluck, Mozart, Hayden, Schubert. There have also been famous filmmakers such as Stefan Ruzowitzky, he was the first Austrian to win an Oscar.

The End

Diego Fernández Torreira Alejandro Pérez Forján Rubén Esturado Mariño