Austrians
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{{Infobox Ethnic group
|group=Austrians<br>''Österreicher''
|image=[[Image:Oestareichische-Voiksgrubbm.PNG|250px|The austrian ethnic groups]] [[Image:Wolfgang-amadeus-mozart 1-revert.jpg|85px|Mozart]][[Image:Kaiserin Maria Theresia (HRR).jpg|73px|Maria Theresia]][[Image:Haydn portrait by Thomas Hardy (small).jpg|85px|Haydn]] [[Image:Erwin Schrödinger.jpg|73px|Schrödinger]][[Image:Arnold Schwarzenegger.JPG|81px|Arnold Schwarzenegger]]
|caption=[[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] • [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]] • [[Joseph Haydn]]<br>[[Erwin Schrödinger]] • [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]
|poptime= Over 8.4 million people.<ref name="CIA">According to the [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html CIA World Factbook - Austria - People: Ethnic Groups] the percentage of ethnic Austrians in Austria is 91.1% meaning there are 7,463,714 ethnic Austrians in Austria.</ref><ref> [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdfUs Census 2000: Ancestry] - 730,336 people claimed Austrian descent; see also [[Austrian-Americans]]</ref><ref> [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=62911&APATH=3&GID=431515&METH=1&PTYPE=55440&THEME=44&FOCUS=0&AID=0&PLACENAME=0&PROVINCE=0&SEARCH=0&GC=99&GK=NA&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&FL=0&RL=0&FREE=0 Statistics Canada 2001: Ethnic Origins] - 147,585 claimed to be of Austrian ethnic origin.</ref>
|popplace=[[Austria]], Southern [[Germany]], [[Province of Bolzano-Bozen]] ([[Italy]]), [[United States]], [[Canada]] and [[Brazil]]
|langs= [[German language|German]] ''([[Austrian German]] varieties)'' <ref name="state"> [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3165.htm US Department of State - Austria]</ref>,[[Slovene language|Slovene]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
|rels= [[Roman Catholic]] ca. 75 %, [[Protestant]] ca. 5 %, other or no religion (ca. 20 %)
|related= other [[Germanic peoples]] <ref name="state"/>, [[Czechs]], [[Slovaks]], [[Hungary|Hungarians]], [[Slovenes]] and [[Croatians]]<ref name="economist">
[http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10128864 The sound of success, Economist, Nov 22nd 2007]</ref>
}}
'''Austrians''' ({{lang-de|Österreicher}}) are sometimes defined as an [[ethnic group]]<ref name="CIA"/> originating from the [[Austria|Republic of Austria]] and its historical predecessor states ([[March of Austria]], [[Archduchy of Austria]], [[Austrian Empire]], [[Austria-Hungary]]) who share a common [[Austrian culture]] and Austrian [[Kinship and descent|descent]]. Due to their common history and belonging to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] till 1806, [[German language|German-speaking]] Austrians were historically regarded as [[Germans]], but after the founding of a German [[nation]]al state, the [[German Empire]] in 1871, and after the events of [[World War II]] and [[Nazism]], this has fallen out of fashion and may be considered offensive.
Austrians have also been defined by their ''national'' [[citizenship]], which had, in the course of [[Austrian history]], varying relations to the above, for example referring to a native German-speaker of the one-time [[Habsburg]] empire, or in a wider sense to any citizen of any of the various lands of that empire that did not form the [[Transleithania|Hungarian half]] of [[Austria-Hungary]]. In the latter sense, the definition included many ethnic minorities and speakers of up to twelve different languages.
==Etymology==
The [[English language|English]] word ''Austrian'' is a derivative of the proper name ''Austria'', which comes, via [[Medieval Latin]], from the [[Old High German]] name ''[[Ostarrîchi]]'', meaning "Eastern Realm". The same word is the source for the New High German word ''Österreich''.
The oldest known mention in writing of ''Ostarrîchi'' dates from the year [[996]], when it was used to refer to a region in what is now [[Lower Austria]].
A [[Latin]] translation for Ostarrîchi, ''Marcha Orientalis'', was itself retranslated into German during the 19th century as ''[[Ostmark]]'', which was the official name applied to modern-day Austria for part of the time that it was incorporated into [[Nazi Germany]] from 1938 to 1945. ''Ostmark'' itself does not appear to have been used during the [[Middle Ages]].
== History ==
{{Main|History of Austria}}
===Ancient times===
{{main|Hallstatt culture|Noricum|March of Austria}}
During the migration period, [[Germanic peoples]] started to move from their original position in modern Denmark and Southern Sweden. In the end two Germanic peoples made the area which is now Austria their new homeland: The [[Bavarii]] and the [[Alamanni]].
The ''Bavarii'' were a large and powerful [[tribe]] which enters history from what is now the [[Czech Republic]]. They swiftly expanded their influence southward, and occupied modern Austria and the area which still bears their name: [[Bavaria]].
The ''Alamanni'', ''Allemanni'', or ''Alemanni'' were originally an alliance of [[Germanic tribe]]s located around the upper [[Main]]. The assembled warbands of the Alamanni frequently crossed the ''limes'', attacking Germania Superior and moving into the [[Agri Decumates]]. As a confederation, they occupied what is now Alsace and expanded into northern [[Switzerland]], as well as parts of what are now [[Bavaria]], [[Baden-Württemberg]] and Austria.
===Medieval times===
Over time the Bavarii and Alamanni were conquered by another Germanic people, the [[Franks]], and were incorporated in [[Frankish Empire|their empire]]. The Frankish Empire eventually evolved into the Holy Roman Empire, a vast multi ethnical Empire mostly located in Central Europe. Eventually [[Vienna]], Austria's capital, grew to become the secret capital of the Holy Roman Empire and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine.
In 1278 the territory, by then corresponding roughly to what are now [[Upper Austria|Upper]] and [[Lower Austria]], passed to the [[House of Habsburg]], with whose history it became closely associated until the early 20th century. Within a century the Habsburgs had added [[Duchy of Carinthia|Carinthia]], [[Duchy of Styria|Styria]], [[Carniola]], and [[Tyrol]] to their rule, thus effectively controlling most of the territory of the modern [[Republic of Austria]]. Being ruled from the Duchy of Austria, the name of the duchy came to be informally applied to all these territories collectively, and hence their inhabitants also became known as Austrians.
The Habsburgs greatly increased their political prestige and power with the acquisition of the lands of the crowns of [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]] and [[Bohemia]] in 1526. Hungary was more successful at retaining its cultural identity than Bohemia, which underwent a period of intense German colonisation, coupled with [[Germanization]]. However, the longer history under rule from Vienna, and the common German-speaking identity of lands such as Tyrol, created a sense of Austrian identity.
===Early Modern Times===
Although not formally a united state, the lands ruled by the Habsburgs would sometimes be known, at least to outsiders, by the name Austria. In reality they remained a disparate range of semi-autonomous states, most of which were part of the complex network of states that was the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (the imperial institutions of which were themselves controlled for much of their later existence by the Habsburgs). However, the second half of the 18th century saw an increasingly centralised state begin to develop under the regency of [[Maria Theresa of Austria]] and her son [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]]. After the [[French Revolution]] and the rise of [[Napoleon]], the emperor [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Franz II]] formally founded the [[Austrian Empire]] in 1804 and became as ''Franz I'' the first Austrian emperor. For the first time the citizens of the various territories were now citizens of the one same state, while the other German-speaking states still cultivated their [[Kleinstaaterei]] and didn't succeed in forming a homogenous empire before 1871 when the [[German Empire]] was founded.
A further major change resulted from a reorganisation of the empire in 1867 into a [[dual monarchy]], with the Kingdom of Hungary gaining a considerable amount of political autonomy as one of the two halves. The other half remained a patchwork of states, broadly coterminous with the modern-day Austria, the [[Czech Republic]], [[Slovenia]], and parts of [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]], [[Italy]], and [[Croatia]]. These non-Hungarian lands, formally known as "the Kingdoms and States Represented in the Imperial Council" were sometimes known as Austria, for want of a better name. An alternative label in this context is [[Cisleithania]].
===Modern times===
====19th-century nationalism====
{{Details|Pan-Germanism}}
The Austrian lands had also been members of the Habsburg-dominated [[German Confederation]] since 1815. This split political personality also reflected a cultural uncertainty as to whether the German-speaking peoples under Austrian rule were Austrian, or German, or both. The developing sense of a German nationality had been accelerated massively as a consequence of the political turmoil and wars that engulfed [[Central Europe]] following the [[French Revolution]] and the rise to power of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. Although the years of peace after Napoleon's fall quickly saw German nationalism largely pushed out of the public political arena, the [[Revolutions of 1848]] established it as a significant political issue for a period of over twenty years. Political debate centred on the nature of a possible future German state to replace the Confederation, and part of that debate concerned the issue of whether or not the Austrian lands had a place in the Germany polity.
Habsburg influence over the German Confederation was rivalled by the increasingly powerful [[Prussia]]n state. Political manoeuvering by the Prussian [[chancellor]] [[Otto von Bismarck]] resulted in military defeat of the Austrians in 1866 and the collapse of the Confederation, both effectively ending any future Austrian influence on German
political events. The so-called [[Franco-Prussian War]] and the establishment of a German Empire, headed by Prussia and pointedly excluding any of the Austrian lands, diminished the influence of pan-Germanism in the Habsburg territories, and worked to reinforce the sense of a distinctively Austrian identity as the state turned away from Germany and turned its gaze towards the [[Balkan Peninsula]].
====The 20th century====
The last year of the [[First World War]] saw the collapse of Habsburg authority throughout an increasingly greater part of its empire, and the military surrender in November 1918 finally brought with it the abdication of the last emperor. The creation of the [[Czechoslovakia|Czecho-Slovak]] and [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes|South Slav states]], full independence for a [[rump state|rump]] [[Hungary]], and the post-war treaties imposed by the victorious Allies combined to see the newly-established Austrian republic both with the boundaries it has today, and a largely homogeneous German-speaking population. However, German-speaking communities were also left scattered throughout the other new states, as well as in the southern part of Tyrol which now found itself part of Italy.
Initially the republic took the name [[German Austria]], initially reflecting the republic being the German-speaking part of the old Austria and showing the popular desire to unite with the new German republic. This hope was to be dashed by the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain]] in 1919, and the new state changed its name to Republic of Austria on [[21 October]] [[1919]].
Desire for unity with Germany was motivated both by a sense of common national identity, and also by a fear that the new state, stripped of its one-time imperial possessions, and surrounded by potentially hostile nation-states, would not be economically viable.
By 1938, with [[Nazi]] governments in control of both Berlin and Vienna, the country was annexed to Germany (''[[Anschluss]]'') as ''[[Ostmark]]''. In 1942 the name was changed to the Danubian and Alpine Districts, thus eradicating any links with an Austrian national past.
====Post World War II====
The end of World War II in 1945 saw the re-establishment of an independent Austria, although the [[Allied Powers]] remained in occupation until 1955.
Austrians, wishing to distance themselves from the [[Third Reich]], decided to develop a self-image unambiguously separate from its neighbour, basing itself on cultural achievements of the past and, though not without controversy, the centuries of Habsburgs rule.
Unlike in the early 19th century, in 1987 only 6 percent of the Austrians identified themselves as "Germans". Indeed, being (mis)identified as one can cause resentment. In 1993 80 percent of the Austrians called Austria an independent nation and 12 percent said, it is growing to one.<ref>[http://iiss210.joanneum.at/demokratiezentrum2/media/pdf/bruckmueller.pdf.]. Development of the Austrian identity .</ref> <ref>[http://www.photoglobe.info/ebooks/austria/cstudies_austria_0070.html Austria. Library of Congress Country Studies, 2004.]. Accessed 1 October 2006.</ref>
The logic of the existence of an independent Austrian state is no longer questioned as it was in the early years of its existence.
Austria's history and geographical location has resulted in recent immigration from [[Slovenia]], the [[Czech Republic]], [[Hungary]], [[Slovakia]], [[Romania]], and [[Poland]]. As with neighbouring Germany, there has also been immigration from [[Turkey]] and former [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] states such as [[Croatia]] and [[Serbia]].
==Culture==
{{Main|Austrian culture}}
[[Culture]] on the territory of what is today '''Austria''' can be traced back to around 1050 B.C. with the [[Hallstatt]] and [[La Tène culture|La Tène]] cultures. However, a '''culture of Austria''' as we know it today began to take shape when the Austrian lands were part of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], with the [[Privilegium Minus]] of 1156, which elevated Austria to the status of a [[Duchy]], marking an important step in its development. Austrian culture has largely been influenced by its neighbours, [[Italy]], [[Germany]], [[Hungary]] and [[Bohemia]].
==Language==
{{Main|Austrian German}}
{{See|German language}}
[[Austrian German]] is a variety of the [[German language]] spoken in Austria. There is no unitary Austrian [[language]], but a variety of [[High German languages|High German]] [[dialect]]s are spoken. Besides the Germanic languages discussed here, [[minority language]]s such as [[Slovenian language|Slovenian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] are spoken in parts of the country.
Ordinarily, the latter dialects are considered to belong either to the [[Central Austro-Bavarian]] or [[Southern Austro-Bavarian]] subgroups, with the latter encompassing the languages of the [[Tyrol]], [[Carinthia (state)|Carinthia]], and [[Styria (state)|Styria]] and the former including the dialects of [[Vienna]], [[Upper Austria]], and [[Lower Austria]]. The dialect spoken in Vorarlberg is more closely related to [[Swiss German]] than it is to other Austrian dialects, so Austrians from outside Vorarlberg can have difficulties understanding it.
While strong forms of the various dialects are not normally comprehensible to most German speakers, there is virtually no communication barrier along the border between Austria and Germany, since people on both sides of the border speak very similarly. The Central Austro-Bavarian dialects are more intelligible to speakers of Standard German than the Southern Austro-Bavarian dialects of [[Tyrol (state)|Tirol]]. [[Viennese language|Viennese]], the Austro-Bavarian dialect of Vienna, is most frequently used in Germany for impersonations of the typical inhabitant of Austria.
==Cuisine==
{{Main|Austrian Cuisine}}
Austrian cuisine, which is often incorrectly equated with Viennese cuisine, is derived from the cuisine of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]. In addition to native regional traditions it has been influenced above all by [[Hungarian cuisine|Hungarian]], [[Czech cuisine|Czech]], [[Jewish cuisine|Jewish]], and [[Italian cuisine|Italian]] cuisines, from which both dishes and methods of food preparation have often been borrowed. Goulash is one example of this. Austrian cuisine is known primarily in the rest of the world for its pastries and sweets. In recent times a new regional cuisine has also developed which is centred on regional produce and employs modern and easy methods of preparation.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
== See also ==
* [[Austro-Bavarian]]
* [[List of Austrians]]
* [[Demographics of Austria]]
* [[Germanic peoples]]
* [[Carinthian Slovenes]]
* [[Burgenland Croats]]
==References and sources==
{{reflist}}
* [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575697_2/Austria.html#s7 People of Austria (Encarta)]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/au.html#People Ethnic groups of Austria (CIA Factbook)]
* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Österreicher Austrians (German Wikipedia)]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Austria]]
[[Category:West Germanic peoples]]
[[be:Аўстрыйцы]]
[[bar:Östareicha (Voik)]]
[[cs:Rakušané]]
[[de:Österreicher]]
[[eo:Aŭstroj]]
[[hr:Austrijanci]]
[[it:Austriaci]]
[[hu:Osztrákok]]
[[nl:Oostenrijkers]]
[[ja:オーストリア人]]
[[pl:Austriacy]]
[[ru:Австрийцы]]
[[sk:Rakúšania]]
[[sl:Avstrijci]]
[[sh:Austrijanci]]
[[sv:Österrikare]]
[[tr:Avusturyalılar]]
[[uk:Австрійці]]