Literature
The delimitation of Austrian literature against German has often been the subject of discussion. In view of the historical conditions in Austria, which include: meant that the Austro-Hungarian monarchy within its borders housed several different population groups, the Austrian literature has a distinctive character that differs from the German one.
During the Middle Ages (1000-1200), the earliest literary monuments in the monasteries were added. Milk and Klosterneuburg. With poets such as Der von Kürenberg, Walther von der Vogelweide, Reinmar von Hagenau, Neidhart von Reuenthal and Ulrich von Lichtenstein flourished the polite memory song, which was then developed by Oswald von Wolkenstein into a love story in the modern sense. Heroic epics such as “Nibelungenlied” and “Kudrun” were recorded during this time, and Wernher der Gartenaere wrote the verse story “Meier Helmbrecht” (1250).
- Countryaah: Population and demographics of Austria, including population pyramid, density map, projection, data, and distribution.
During humanism up to and including the Baroque era (1300’s-1600’s), impulses emanated from the newly founded universities of Prague (1348) and Vienna (1365). So, for example, Johann von Saaz’s “Der Ackermann aus Bohemia” (“The Landman of Bohemia”, 1400) designed as a dispute between man and death about the meaning of life. Johannes von Neumarkt worked on a unified German writing language, and the brilliant Konrad Celtis seemed a versatile humanist.
During the 16th century, the master song was heard in the cities. Literature in Other – i.a. the school dramas – was strongly influenced by Protestantism, while the counter-Reformation led to the Jesuit drama flourishing during the 17th century Baroque. The most prominent writers of the time were the popularly inspired Abraham a Santa Clara and Johann Beer. The Austrian enlightenment was strongly supported and characterized by the imperial power, which also founded the national stage, Burgtheater, 1741. At the same time, a number of popular theaters emerged in Vienna’s suburbs. The most important literary work during this time was a contemporary satirical Vergiliustravesti by Aloys Blumauer.
The beginning of the 19th century was marked by Metternich’s censorship and police intervention. The authors retreated to private life. Adalbert Stifter, the foremost prose writer of this time, advocated in his works the still and modest life, while Anastasius Grün in political poems turned to Metternich. Other psychologically realistic narrators of rank in the latter half of the 19th century were Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Ferdinand von Saar and Peter Rosegger. In the lyrics, Nikolaus Lenau struck byron melancholy moods.
Around the turn of the century, Ludwig Anzengruber’s novels and popular dramas marked the transition to naturalism, which, however, did not come to play a major role in Austria. On the other hand, so did the decadently tuned and sensually refined so-called Viennese impressionism with writers such as the linguistically virtuoso Hugo von Hofmannsthal, but also Peter Altenberg, Hermann Bahr, Richard Beer-Hofmann and not least Arthur Schnitzler, whose scandal-ridden works preceded Freud’s psychoanalysis. Another literary pole at that time constituted the writers gathered around the magazine Der Brenner. Most important in this group was the expressionist Georg Trakl. Also included in this flow were the prose authors Alfred Kubin, AP Gütersloh and Franz Werfel, who are counted in the so-called Prague Circuit, as well as Max Brod, Gustav Meyrink, Johannes Urzidil, Ernst Weiss and, above all, Franz Kafka. Born in Prague was also one of the great German lyricist, RM Rilke.
The downfall of the Austro-Hungarian double monarchy in 1918 left deep traces in Robert Musil’s, Joseph Roth’s and Heimito von Doderer’s significant prose works. Important writers during the post-World War I period were also the polemic satirist Karl Kraus and Stefan Zweig, who were influenced by Sigmund Freud. Through the influence of James Joyce, Hermann Broch renewed the Austrian novel.
In the vacuum that emerged in the Austrian literature after 1945, the fascist past did not cease, nor did it seek to attract writers back into exile. Among those who still returned were Hans Weigel, Friedrich Torberg and Hilde Spiel, but writers such as the future Nobel laureate Elias Canetti and Fritz Hochwälder, Erich Fried and Ferdinand Bruckner remained abroad. Of crucial importance for the development of literature in Austria during the post-war period was the PEN chair FT Csokor. From the mid-1950’s, Austrian literature emerged through the language-experimenting Wiener Gruppe and “concrete poetry” as the avant-garde of German-language literature. Among these literary advocates were HC Artmann, Gerhard Rühm, Friedrich Achleitner, Oswald Wiener and Konrad Bayer. In close contact with these were also Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker. International recognition during the 1950’s and 1960’s was mainly given by lyricists Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, as well as novelist Ilse Aichinger.
In the 1960’s, the so-called Grazer Group with Alfred Kolleritsch was formed as a leading figure. The group united a number of writers who turned to a reactionary and tradition-bound cultural environment. These included names such as Wolfgang Bauer, Barbara Frischmuth, Wilhelm Hengstler and Gerhard Roth. The most renowned in the group are the Nobel Laureate 2004 Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke. Together with Thomas Bernhard, they represent the special drama and romance art for Austria, whose hallmark is a language skepticism inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein, with strong elements of merciless criticism of his own country.
Prominent writers from the decades before and after the turn of the millennium, who often provoke their disillusioning and authentic depictions of social ills, are Erich Hackl, Norbert Gstrein, Michael Scharang, Christoph Ransmayr, Robert Menasse, Marlen Haushofer and Brigitte Schwaiger. At the beginning of the 2000’s may also be mentioned Peter Rosei, Anna Mitgutsch, Felix Mitterer, Marlene Streruwitz, Robert Schneider, Walter Kappacher and Julian Schutting. New perspectives on history and contemporary Robert Schindel and Doron Rabinovici contribute as representatives of Jewish-Austrian literature, and in Bettina Balakka’s writing you can see a clear feminist profile.
Drama and theater
The theater in Austria dates from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance from the school and church games. Until the end of the 18th century it was Italian influenced and mainly under the auspices of the Jesuits. But even at the court, interest in the scene flourished and in 1776 Joseph II roseBurgtheater in Vienna (founded 1741) for the national stage. The emerging popular theater was influenced by commedia dell’arte and bypassing English theater companies. Out in the Viennese suburbs, e.g. at the Theater in der Josefsstadt (founded in 1788), the plays were usually far-fetched, coarse-grained and melodramatic. With Ferdinand Raimund’s and Johann Nestroy’s lust for Viennese dialect, the folk theater reached its consummation. Ludwig Anzengruber and Karl Schönherr set the Austrian province on stage, while Austria’s most significant, classic drama was written by Franz Grillparzer. Prominent playwrights before and around the turn of the century were the controversial Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Expressionist drama was written by Oskar Kokoschka and Anton Wildgans. The famous festival games in Salzburg began in 1920 at the initiative of Max Reinhardt and Hofmannsthal. Other important dramatists during this time were Max Mell, Franz Werfel and Ödön von Horváth. Under Max Reinhardt’s leadership, Theater in der Josefsstadt flourished in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and at the same time Burgtheater also revived.
After 1945, cold war also ruled in the theater area, with the sanction that e.g. Brecht was banned at Burgtheater. For the development of the Austrian post-war drama, FT Csokor took on great importance, and Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger, with the monologue “Der Herr Karl” (1962), sparked a great debate about the co-op during the Nazi era. Also hotly contested for the same reason was Claus Peymann’s set of Thomas Bernhard’s “Heldenplatz” (1989). In addition to Bernhard, the most prominent representatives of contemporary drama in Austria are the extremely versatile Peter Handke, the provocative Elfriede Jelinek (Nobel Laureate 2004) and the disrespectful social critic Wolfgang Bauer. Felix Mitterer and Peter Turrini are regarded as critical innovators of the popular theater tradition.
Film
An Austrian film industry grew during the 1910’s. The economic base was news films and, during the First World War, patriotic feature films. The first domestic film company of importance was Wiener Kunstfilm (later Vita-Film), founded in 1910–11 by the producers and directors Anton Kolm (1865–1922) and his wife Louise (1873–1950) and the photographer Jacob Fleck (1881–1953), who after Anton’s death, she married Louise. Their competitor Sacha-Film, founded in 1910 by the well-to-do Count Alexander “Sacha” Kolowrat (1886-1927), however, stood at the end of the war as the market’s dominant. He also designed the country’s first recording studio in 1916 in the Vienna suburb of Siebringen. There, Hungarians such as Sándor (Alexander) Korda (“A Modern Samson”, 1922) and Mihály Kertész (later Michael Curtiz, “Sodom and Gomorrah”, 1922) worked together with Austrians like Paul Czinner (1890-1972; “Inferno”, 1920). Around 1920, about 200 films were produced in Austria.
The disintegration of Austria-Hungary and the post-war economic crisis also affected the film industry, production dropped dramatically and drove many talents abroad, to the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Germany: directors such as Erich von Stroheim, Josef von Sternberg, Fritz Lang, GW Pabst, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Edgar G. Ulmer and Fred Zinnemann but also scenographers such as Artur Berger (1892–1981) and actors such as Paul Henreid, Fritz Kortner, Anny Ondra (really Ondráková, 1903–87), Oskar Homolka (1898–1978) and Hedy Lamarr.
During the accession to Nazi Germany 1936–45, the state took over Sacha-Film and converted it into Vienna-Film, which, like German parent company Ufa, mostly produced entertainment films in competition with Hollywood. Internationally available were musicals by Willi Forst and operatic films by the brothers Hubert (1882–1959) and Ernst (1893–1963).) Marischka. Musicals and listening games continued to be popular after World War II, including Ernst Marischka’s three films 1955–57 about the Empress Sissi starring Romy Schneider. Another popular post-war genre (also in Germany and Switzerland) was the home movie, idyllic rural films far from contemporary reality. But some worthwhile attempts were made to process the time during fascism and contemporary problems, e.g. “Angel with trumpet” (1949) by Karl Hartl (1899-1978) and Pabst’s “The Lost Son” (1948) and “The Truth of July 20” (1955). During the 1950’s, a wave of experimental films emerged with names such as Peter Kubelka (born 1934), Kurt Kren (1929-98) and Otto Muehl (born 1925) and later the video artist Valie Export (born 1940).
In the 1970’s, film production dropped to its lowest level ever, with only 5-10 films per year. The industry focused mainly on TV production, which included made the writer Peter Handke collaborate with German director Wim Wenders. With the international breakthrough for director Michael Hanekes form-conscious and civilization-critical trilogy “The Seventh Continent” (1989), “Benny’s Video” (1992) and “71 fragments” (1994), other directors have also been noticed abroad, including Ulrich Seidl (born 1952) with “Dog Days” (2002) and “Import / Export” (2007).
In recent years, a number of Oscar nominations have also put the spotlight on Austrian film, eg. Hubert Saupers (born 1966) documentary “Darwin’s Nightmare” (2004), Stefan Ruzowitzky’s (born 1961) Holocaust depiction “The Forgers” (2007), Götz Spielmann’s (born 1961) “Revanche” (2008) and Hanekes “The White Band” (2009)) and “Amour” (2012); the latter also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Both “The White Band” and “Amour” (2012) won the Gold Palm in Cannes.
Art
In the area that became Austria, human culture has manifested itself in various relationships ever since a fertility fetish that Venus from Willendorf came to there perhaps 25,000 years before our time. From the Late Antiquity many ornamental remains are preserved; with migrations and monasticism came objects and forms from different cultures. Strong Irish features are found in the book painting with the Cutbercht gospel from the end of the 7th century. Roman features are found in the frescoes of Mal’s and Naturn’s churches in the South Tyrol. Only in the 11th century, with the Romanesque, one can speak of a continuous and unified Austrian art culture. In the 1970’s, very important Romanesque murals from before 1089 were discovered in Lambach. In the St. Johann church in Pürgg there is from the following century a lively biblical fresco suite with elements of popular fable symbolism, and from that time also significant facade sculpture preserved at the mills in Millstadt and Gurk. Romanesque book painting reached a high level in Salzburg (Perikop book 1040, the giant Bible in Admont around 1150).
The Gothic came to Austria quite late, and with the beginning of the 1300’s the free-standing sculpture made its entrance; An early headline is the Madonna in Klosterneuburg, and it was followed by many Madonna images in Gothic’s highly elegant “soft style”, among other things. “Service Boat Madonna” in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The leading masters of Klosterneuburg, Vienna and Wiener Neustadt maintain the soft style of the 15th century, but the sculpture of Christ as a painkiller (in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, shortly after 1400) shows a more expressive drama, which then transpires in the next generation under increasing Italian and French influence. By the middle of the 15th century, artists such as Jakob Kaschauer and Niklaus Gerhaert seem to work in this spirit. The younger Michael Pacher traveled in Italy and learned, among other things. an increased realism. His altar in St. Wolfgang (1471–81) is dramatic and magnificent.
The following decade shows Rueland Frueauf d.ä. a developed realism, often with burlesque features. The Renaissance is underway as works by the Kefermarkt altar (1490–97) in Mauer at Melk, and struck all the way around 1500, when the Emperor’s need employed artists from all over the German-speaking area, among others. Albrecht Altdorfer, who had a great influence on Austrian artists. He was a leading name in the Danube School, to which painters are of German, Czech and Austrian origin; This also includes the sculptor Anton Pilgram from Brno (whose self-portrait in sculpture is under the pulpit in St. Stephen’s Cathedral). Later Lucas Cranach appeared in Vienna (born in Germany as well as Hans Maler), the first in a series of hired personal depictions. Once the Emperor’s head was established in Prague,
Austria received a vital Baroque art with distinctive features, although it was dependent on Italian Baroque and was mainly performed by German artists. The sculpture has rich volume depiction and lively rhythms, as with Balthasar Permoser, especially in his “Prince Eugene apoteos” in Vienna’s Belvedere. In the fresco painting, early Baroque style is mixed with rococo features. in Johann Michael Rottmayr’s rich and lively dome domes in Karlskirche in Vienna and in Daniel Gran’s dome domes in Vienna’s Hov Library. Paul Troger did, among other things. frescoes in the Cistercian monastery in Zwettl. Troger’s student Franz Anton Maulbertsch is famous for paintings in the Piarist Church in Vienna. In Raphael Donner’s sculpture, the new antics are foretold early; best known is the one for two square wells in 1739 and 1740 in Vienna. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt developed unique sculptural heads with extreme mimicry.
In the 19th century, the art has long been in the spirit of the Biedermeier style, with a number of personal and good artists born in Vienna: from portraits such as the miniature painter Moritz Michael Daffinger and Friedrich von Amerling, to creators such as Moritz von Schwind with inspirational genre paintings and fairy tales, Rudolf von Alt with significant urban landscape – and the born Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, who painted public life pictures and landscapes from Vienna’s surroundings, as well as Anton Romako. The latter became a central figure in art life; he connected with the outdoor painting even when painting historical scenes. History painter was also Hans Makart, but more bigoted and deliberately eclectic. Her student Gustav Klimt initiates a new distinctive direction on the frontier of modernism. Klimt developed his symbolism in connection with a magnificent Art Nouveau style. He was one of the founders of the secession in Vienna in 1897. In his footsteps began Egon Schiele, who soon developed his own more expressive figure with erotic signs. Oskar Kokoschka, who began in Art Nouveau, became one of the foremost names of expressionism. Alfred Kubin became known above all as a writer of suggestive and bizarre images.
A modernist circle formed Die Neukunstgruppe in 1909 in Vienna with Albert Paris Gütersloh, who later became a leader figure for the Vienna School. In an abstract direction, Fritz Wotruba worked with an expressiveness that returns with figurative elements of his pupil Alfred Hrdlicka, known for his powerfully provocative plays. Strong subjective and expressive tendencies are also dominant with Maria Lassnig, Wolfgang Hollegha and Josef Mikl, as well as with Arnulf Rainer. Hundertwasser’s colorful visual art links with its elements of gold to the turn of the century.
In the 1960’s, a number of artists within the so-called Vienna activism created violent performance performances with sadomasochistic elements that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in art. These included Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. Among artists in the 2000’s, Siegfried Anzinger, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Peter Kogler and sculptor Erwin Wurm have been noticed.
Crafts
The country’s very diverse size over the centuries has resulted in a relatively different design language. Most genuine was the old shepherd and peasant culture, which was at a high level but showed strong style retardation; yet in the 19th century there were lingering features of gothic and renaissance. The high-rise environments depended for a long time on the German interior art to develop during the Baroque an Italian-oriented, often overloaded splendor. Characteristic of rococo was a preference for white and gold, which, however, towards the end of the 18th century left room for a British influence, where objectivity and mastery constituted the concept of honors. During the 19th century, neococon was the dominant furniture style, represented by, among other things. Michael Thonet.
Among other branches of the craft, pottery became evident early on through the pottery ceramics, and the porcelain factory set up in Vienna in 1718 was one of the first and most significant in Europe (see Vienna, Arts and Crafts). Glass art is represented, among other things. by the still operating company Lobmeyr.
Around the turn of the century 1900, Vienna was a creative melting pot for the new ideas of the time. There, among other things, Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos pioneered architecture, and founded the Wiener Werkstätte, whose purist utility art predated the functionalist ideals. In 1925 Josef Frank together with Oscar Wlach opened the interior design firm Haus und Garten. During the 1930’s, Austria’s artistic soil was depleted when a whole generation of architects and designers disappeared into exile, including Josef Frank, who from 1934 was working at interior design firm Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm.
Architecture
With the increasing spread of Christianity during the 12th century, small round churches and round stones were built in stone on the Danube after Lombard and German influence. The judgment in Gurk in Carinthia (1140–1200) is a well-preserved Romanesque basilica, with rich sculptural decoration. Monastery and hall churches with simple exteriors were built from the end of the 13th century, including the Cistercian monastery in Heiligenkreuz in Burgenland and the Wallseerkapellet in Enns.
Through impulses from France, the spread of gothic began in Austria around 1300. The most remarkable monument of the style is the St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. The Austrian bedrock is characterized by the elegant and bright hall churches of the Cistercians. A prominent example of this is the cows of the convent church in Zwettl north of Linz (inaugurated 1383).
The Renaissance first appeared in Austria during the latter part of the 16th century and never fully developed. The initiative for building in Austria during this period went from the church to the imperial court as well as to the nobility and the bourgeoisie. One of Austria’s first profane buildings is the well-preserved late Gothic bourgeois Goldenes Dachl in Innsbruck (1494–96).
The Baroque began in Austria with the construction of the new cathedral in Salzburg (1614-28), designed by Italian architects. During this time, church building was strongly stimulated by the counter-Reformation. At the beginning of the 18th century, when domestic architects came to the fore, the Austrian Baroque emerged as the foremost in Europe and became of great importance to the architecture of southern Germany and Eastern Europe. The style is characterized by plastic mobility, the exuberant richness of the interiors and by oval volume and room formations. The leading architects of the era were JB Fischer von Erlach, JL von Hildebrandt and Jakob Prandtauer.
The construction works of neoclassical and historicalism were created almost exclusively in Vienna, in connection with the expansion of the new Ringstrasse. In response to historicism, JM Olbrich and Otto Wagner created a new art that led to the Art Nouveau style. Also the large social housing program of the 1920’s was mainly carried out in Vienna, with Adolf Loos as a significant idea generator.
After the Second World War, a new, experimental architect generation emerged. Its activities were concentrated around the new architecture colleges in Graz, Innsbruck and Linz. The leader figure in Graz was Günther Domenig, who designed the monastic school in Graz, whose dining room shows organic, sculptural forms (1978). During the 1970’s, Gustav Peichl designed a number of modernist radio houses. The artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, with his Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna (1986), created one of the country’s most distinctive buildings. Later architects in Austria are mainly Hans Hollein. Haas-Haus in Vienna (1990). Modern skyscrapers are largely missing in the capital; one exception is the 202 m high Millennium Tower (1999), designed by Gustav Peichl, Boris Podrecca and Rudolf Weber.
Music
Classical music
During the Middle Ages, the bishop’s seat in Salzburg (founded 739) became a center for church music cultivation. The memory song, the German-language troubadour art that emerged in the Austrian nobility environment in the 12th century with practitioners such as Dietmar von Aist, reached its peak with Walter von der Vogelweide, active at the court in Vienna around 1190. The Chapel of Vienna (founded 1296) and Salzburg (founded 1367) had mainly church musical details, and enabled a closer approximation of the late-medieval polyphonic style, as in the 15th century composers such as Herman Jacob Edlerauer. Dutch musicians, such as Heinrich Isaac, gained an increasingly strong position in court music under Emperor Maximilian I.
As a result of the increasingly marked role of the Habsburg Empire as the guardian power of the papacy, around 1600 the stylistic orientation towards Italy was shifted. The counter-Reformed Catholic orders (Jesuits and others) cultivated the oratory, and the court promoted the Italian opera. As the largest inhemske Baroque composer regarded Johann Joseph Fux, Court Conductor in Vienna from 1715. The Baroque period was also characterized by an extensive noble music activities. Families such as Eggenberger, Schwarzenberg and Esterházy held their own chapel and court composers. The feudal patronage system founded the high level of musical education that enabled the flourishing of the late 18th century. Fux pupil Georg Christoph Wagenseilrepresented another pre-classicist phase, but his symphonies and piano music precluded the main characters of Viennese classicism Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert (compare Viennese classicism).
After 1800, the cultural dominance of the nobility waned, and the bourgeois layers became the bearers of an increasingly public life of music. This social change was expressed partly in the creation of new music institutions (eg Wiener Philharmoniker 1842) and partly in an ever-richer development of dance music, with the through-composed Viennese roller as a characteristic form (composers such as Joseph Lanner, Johann Strauss d.ä. and Johann Strauss dy) and the operetta (composers such as Franz von Suppé and Strauss dy), which after 1850 gained an increasing popularity (compare operetta). Symphonics Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahlerretained strong ties to the popular musical tradition, while the so-called second Vienna school with representatives such as Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern in the 1910’s and 1920’s was characterized by intellectualist expressionism. The expressionist tendency of the time was also expressed in Hugo Wolf’s song art.
The fall of the Habsburg Empire in 1918 meant that Austria’s and especially Vienna’s first-floor role on the European music scene ended. During the First Republic, music life was dominated by traditionalist composers, such as Erich Korngold, Max von Oberleithner (1868–1935), Franz Salmhofer (1900–75), Franz Schreker and Franz Schmidt. Opera composers like Franz Lehár and Emmerich Kálmán had great success, but the genre was increasingly characterized by sentimentality and nostalgia. The accession to Nazi Germany in 1938 meant further provincialization through the ideological distance from modernism. The performance of Gottfried von Einemsopera “Danton’s death” in 1947 meant a renewed contact with contemporary international music creation. Composers who characterized the period after 1945 include Helmut Eder (1916–2005), Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Friedrich Cerha and Iván Eröd (born 1936).
The large ensembles and music institutions in Vienna – Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Staatsoper, Musikverein, Konzerthaus – have a prominent position in international music life. Among the numerous music festivals in Austria are the Wiener Festwochen (founded in 1946), Salzburger Festspiele (founded in 1920), Steirischer Herbst in Graz (founded in 1968) and Bregenzer Festspiele (founded in 1946).
Folk music and popular music
A rich interaction between popular, ecclesiastical and aristocratic music traditions has long characterized the feudal character of Austrian society. Ländlern, a rustic dance form from Upper Austria, won entry into the salons in the 18th century, where it developed into the bourgeois Viennese roll. Hovmusik’s string trio crews in turn became role models for the musicians of small towns and villages, who towards the mid-19th century sought increasingly to Vienna. Specific popular music was developed among the residents of Vienna’s suburbs in Vienna’s suburbs, which gained European distribution through the increasingly efficient music publishing system. The brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel (1850–93 and 1852–95, respectively) created a universally valid synthesis of this diverse Viennese public (scratch music with violins and guitar, later also clarinet and accordion). At the same time, the music traditions of the Alpine countries gained great popularity in Vienna, where the iodine cultivation developed into an estrad culture with professional artists. Central institution for folk music research in Austria is the 1919 Austrian Volksliedwerk founded.
Jazz influences were noticeable in the dance and drummer music of the 1920’s, but still strongly influenced by the popular cultural expression of the 19th century. Pure jazz music met political resistance during the 1930’s, and the genre was banned by the Nazi regime. Around 1950 Austria’s first jazz clubs were founded. Austrian jazz musicians include clarinetist and saxophonist Fatty George (actually Franz Pressler, 1928–82) and pianist Friedrich Gulda.
Prominent popular music artists after 1945 are the drummer and opera singer Peter Alexander (1926–2011), drummer Freddy Quinn (born 1931) and singer and pianist Udo Jürgens (1934–2014).
In pop and rock music, singer Falco (really Johann Holzel, 1957-98) with hit songs such as “Der Kommissar” (1981) and “Rock Me Amadeus” (1985) has had the greatest international success. Famous outside the country’s borders also became the group OPUS. with the song “Live Is Life” (1985).
During the 2000’s, some rock artists managed to get attention abroad, such as singer Christina Stürmer (born 1982) and the groups Whispers in the Shadow, L’Âme Immortelle, SheSays and Cornerstone and the electronicatrion Global Deejays. In heavy metal, Stahlhammer and the black metal group are Summoning.
Alpine punk is called a type of punk music from the Alpine region that combines punk energy with accordion-based folk music.
Austria has won twice in the popular Eurovision Song Contest music competition. In 1966 Udo Jürgens won with “Merci cherie” and in 2014, drag show artist Conchita Wurst (born 1988, actually Tom Neuwirth) won with “Rise Like a Phoenix”. The latter attracted a great deal of attention not least for her figure as bearded, long-haired woman and her appeal for diversity and tolerance.
Compare Vienna (Cultural Life).
Dance
Vienna was a metropolis in Europe’s early ballet history. In the 1600’s, magnificent court ballets were erected there. Horse ballets were also a great pleasure, which got a graduate in the Spanish riding school. Vienna went through the choreographer Franz Hilverding and his successors at the forefront of the transition from court ballet to professional dance theater in the 18th century. At Burgtheater, Gaspero Angiolini premiered in 1761 on Gluck’s “Don Juan” and Salvatore Vigano staged Beethoven’s only ballet “Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus” on the same stage in 1801. In the last half of the 19th century, famous children’s ballets were formed that toured internationally. Ballerina Fanny Elssler became one of the great of romance. However, the ballet ended up in the cloud of opera and operetta. Around the turn of the millennium, Austria had dozens of ballets attached to opera houses, mainly Wiener Staatsoper. During the 1970’s, Rudolf Nureyev (Austrian citizen 1982) was artistic advisor and engineer. In 2010, its ballet ensemble adopted the name Wiener Staatsballett.
Austria has a vibrant folk dance movement, whose repertoire includes pair dances such as polka, drum, mazurka, lemmas and scottish. Among group dances is Bandltanz. Many dances may be a few hundred years old, but even older is a Hexentanz, traced to the 16th century. The roller got a glamorous time in Vienna during the 19th century, when the dynasty Strauss wrote for bales and operetta. During the break, Grete Wiesenthal and her five sisters during the latter part of the 20th century became famous for their roller compositions for the stage.
Folk culture
Austrian folk culture is in many respects to be regarded as an offshoot of the South German, especially the Bavarian, and the transition between Bavarian and Tyrolean and non-Austrian respectively is not very conspicuous. However, it can generally be said that the Austrian peasant society, through the terrain forms created by the terrain forms, exhibits a richer and more varied type gallery. Especially in the 18th century, the Austrian countryside was very prosperous, which is reflected in the fact that later folk costumes often recur in that fashionable costume of the time. Some popular garments still survive, e.g. dirndl costume, the leader’s pants (leather shorts) and tyrolical hats.
The settlement consists mainly of solitary farms in western and northern Austria, while in the east and south the village dominates, in mountainous areas with the use of alpine meadows through livestock (Almwesen). Since then, agriculture is mainly focused on livestock management and milk production. In most of the country, the farm and house type is the one that also dominates in southern Germany, ie. the unit house under one roof, with the often richly decorated gable side in several floors and facing south, while the economy rooms occupy the rear of the building. The farmhouses often have impressive dimensions, which testify to the farmers’ housing. The medieval German built farm with separate lengths for different functions is located in the northeast, while a Slavic influence is prevalent in the south-east, with more open forms of goods and a long-preserved, more primitive heating with the help of smoke ovens. There previously also unpainted furniture dominated, while the country in general exhibits richly decorated interiors.
The party traditions are rich and – among other things. thanks to the church features – well preserved, which is not least used in tourism. Typical features include parades with carved and colorful masks in wood. Folk poetry is less well documented than in Germany, but during the inter-war years a diligent recording work was initiated, among other things. by Karl Haiding (1906–85). The unique and partly old-fashioned folk culture has inspired Austrian public life research, which through researchers and museum men such as Michael and Arthur Haberlandt, Viktor von Geramb (1884–1958) and Leopold Schmidt in the 1900’s took an internationally prominent position as well. The Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde is one of the most significant in Europe of its kind, and several large local museums are found, among others. in Graz and Innsbruck.
Sports
Austria has long been the dominant nation in alpine skiing, with countless triumphs in the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the World Cup. The top riders include Toni Sailer, Franz Klammer, Hermann Maier, Benjamin Raich, Annemarie Moser-Pröll and Renate Götschl (born 1975).
Austria has also achieved great success in other winter sports such as jumping, snowboarding, bob and tobogganing.
Football is the country’s biggest team sport. The Austrian national team was one of the world’s foremost during the first half of the 1930’s and received the epithet “Wunderteam”. Coach Hugo Meisl and center forward Matthias Sindelar (1903–39) are the best known of that period. Austria organized (together with Switzerland) European soccer championship for men 2008.
Race driver Niki Lauda is another of the country’s biggest sports profiles, three times world champion in Formula 1.
Austria has hosted the Winter Olympics 1964 and 1976, both times with Innsbruck as the host city.
