Who we are Austria

Who are we? National identity and customs

Austria is a beautiful country in the middle of Europe. It is a small nation, with 8 millions citizens. Our country has many mountains, lakes, beautiful towns and impressive sceneries. One stereotype of Austria is, that we all live on the mountains in the alpine pasture, in a small house of wood and we all have a lot of cows and goats and we all yodel. But this is absolutely not the truth. There are few people, who live on the mountains, we use the mountains for the winter season for skiing. Austria is famous for skiing and one reason why Austria is such a rich country is that the mountains are very important for our tourism and economy.
Other countries think that we are easy going (I think that is true, family is very important for us, and we are not stressful) and that we are conservative. That we are not open minded is a half-truth, because the older people are very conservative and they do not want to change anything, but I think that older people are most of the time conservative in every country, but the younger generation is not conservative. Another stereotype is that we always wear traditional clothes, but that is not true either. Austrians normally wear these clothes on special days, for example when we celebrate a historical event. Some countries say that we are the country with the four “M”. Mountains and Mozart (one of the most famous composer of the whole world was born in Austria), Maria Theresia (the reigning Archduchess of Austria, Queen regnant of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia in the 18th century) and Music. Very often, the first association with Austria is so common because of the film “The Sound of Music”. This famous musical is about the famous Trapp family, who is very musical and lives in the time of the Second World War. Because of this musical Austria gets a lot of clichés and stereotypes. But many people of America or Japan often visit Salzburg (the town were the musical has its background), because they love the beautiful places where the musical has shot.
Austria is also famous because of the Viennese Schnitzel and the famous “Sacher Torte”. People everywhere in the world love our food.
Austrians speak German, but we speak a dialect, so for the people from Germany it is very hard to understand us or to understand us at all. In Austria we also speak different dialects, it is very hard for the Eastern Austrians to understand the Western Austrians for example. In school we should or we have to speak the “real German language” because it is standard in place like this.
The stereotype that Austria is a very friendly nation, is not a stereotype, it is the truth!

Katja Preuer, 3ACL, October 2008, Linz (AT)



Who are we?
National identity and customs


„Austria? Where is it?” This is the first question that many people ask.
Our country is a very small country in the middle of Europe. The stereotypes of Austria are many mountains, traditional costumes and yodelling.
We are popular for our “Wiener Schnitzel” and to be polite and friendly. Many people think, Austria is not a very modern country, but this only seems so. Well, Austria loves traditions, but we are also a modern country. For example we have one of the best healthcare systems many modern companies (“Red Bull” is produced in Austria) and everybody can go to school or to a university.
We also have many successful persons: First Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg/Austria, the worldwide known classical composer, then Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, was born in Austria and Falco, one of the most popular singers in the world also born in Austria.
The countryside of Austria is very beautiful. We have a lot of forests, river, lakes and large meadows and fields. In some particles of Austria we have conservation areas, so the animals can live in the wild nature and it is forbidden to kill them or to pollute these areas.
In winter you can go skiing in very big and beautiful skiing areas, and in summer you can go wandering in the mountains.
One of the best things here is the first class public transport connection. You can reach every town or city with train, bus or tramway.
We have nine federal states and the funniest is that in each federal state the inhabitants have other traditions and little differences in the dialect?
We in Austria are friendly and open-minded people. I think we try it at least. We like to be in good company and to celebrate.
Our national kitchen is really inimitable. Some typical Austrian foods are for example the “Wiener Schnitzel”, maybe you have heard about it, it is a veal cutlet dipped in raw egg and covered with breadcrumbs, baked in oil, or the “Kaiserschmarren”, this is a dough from milk, eggs and flour also baked in oil. The “Mozartkugeln” are also an Austrian delicacy, because as you know Mozart was born in Austria.
We have got a wonderful landscape, many mountains and clear watered lakes. In summer you can go hiking and swimming and in winter there are many skiing regions. The weather in summer is mostly warm and sunny and in winter we usually have snow in the mountains until easter in march or April. I think our national sport is skiing, nearly every Austrian is able to ski or to snowboard.
To some causes like the return of livestock from high alpine summer pastures in autumn, we wear a special costume (Tracht). That’s for women a dress and an apron and for men leather trousers and a chemise.
In some regions of Austria people produce wine, I think you know what this is, in some others they fabricate must, that’s the juice from apples and pears fermentationed some time in big vats.
Sometimes people from other countries mistake Austria for Australia. Austria is not the country with the kangaroos.
In the end I can say:
I like this country very much and I’m glad to live here.
…we are from Austria – what else?

In the end we can say:
we like this country very much and we are glad to can live here.

…we are from Austria - what else?

Grüneis Christina/Rechberger Birgit, 3ACL, October 2008, Linz (AT)



Who are we?
National identy and customs

At the beginning a few facts about Austria:
Country: Republic of Austria
Capitel: Vienna
Administrative divisions: 9 states
Area: 83.871 km²
Population: 8,22 Mio
Official language: German
National holidays: Christmas (24.12.)
Easter Sunday (23.3.)
National holiday (26.10.)
New Years day (1.1.)
Currency: Euro (€)

We are not the people, who wear traditional costumes every day or yodle the whole time!
Sometimes we are in groups like the Japanese, or our men can also be womanisiers like the Italians. Sometimes we have good dancers or bad drivers (not only women). And our women are also beautiful and gentle like the French. I can say that we are a friendly and polite nation, maybe occasionally a little bit loud.

Now about our culture.
Austrian offers a lot of operas, theatres and orchestras as well as traditions like the „Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker“ and large festival production (f. e. Linzer Klangwolke, …). On the culinary field we have a long tradition. The Vienna coffee-house-culture, the wine tavern and a lot of typical dishes.

Music: Composers of the classical epoch are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn.
Off the beaten track of the classical music are the Pop songs, bands like S.T.S. or Austria 3 and individual artists (Wolfgang Ambros, Rainhard Fendrich) as well as the at present most successful Austrian in the charts, Christina Stürmer.
International successful was Johann Hölzel alias Falco, Hubert von Goisern and DJ Ötzi.

The food: Typically Austrian dishes are „ Wiener Schnitzel“, „Backhendel“, „Brathendel“, „Gulasch“ and fish like „Forelle“ and „Karpfen“. World wide famous are our desserts, f. e. „Sacher Torte“, „Apfelstrudel“ or „ Kaiserschmarrn“.
Tourists like our wine tavern culture. Wine and cold desserts are on the menu.
Beer and wine have a huge meaning in Austria.

Sports: Owing to the geography Austria is top of the world in the winter sports, f. e. in alpine ski-competitions, ski-jumping and snowboarding. Known people: Hermann Maier, Renate Götschel, Benjamin Raich, Thomas Morgenstern,….
But also in the summer sports a lot of Austrian people are winners. Swimming: Markus Rogan, Mirna Jukic. Formel 1: Ex-driver Niki Lauda. Sailing: Roman Hagara.

Holidays: Our important holidays are Easter, Christmas and New Year‘s Eve. We celebrate all this.
On Easter we say to the young kids: „Look, the easter-bunny was here.“ They get presents, and on Easter-Sunday the whole family eat coloured easter eggs.
Two months before Christmas the people shop and shop. But the real day is on the 24th of December. The whole family sit under the Christmas tree and sing Christmas carols. In the evening we eat and then everybody gets a present. On the next day the children play with their toys.
On New Year’s Eve everybody looks forward to the New Year. All people celebrate, and drink a lot. On midnight we let rockets start and wish each other a Happy New Year.

I hope you know more about Austria now!

Schauer Nina, 3ACL, October 2008, Linz (AT)