Cultural institutions

The Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera are Austria’s premier musical institutions. Other groups of note have included the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna, the Graz Philharmonic, the Linz Bruckner Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Alban Berg Quartet, and the Concertus Musicus. The Vienna Boys’ Choir, founded by the emperor Maximilian I in 1498, still sings at Sunday masses in the chapel of the Hofburg, or Imperial Palace.

The stages of Vienna and Graz are considered among the finest in the German-speaking world and rank with such German-language theatre centres as Berlin, Munich, and Zürich. The high citadel of the Austrian theatre is Vienna’s Burgtheater, in which the canon of German classical drama is performed by the leading actors of the German-speaking world. The Theater in der Josefstadt, also in Vienna, performs contemporary drama and German adaptations of foreign plays. All theatres are publicly subsidized.

The great museums of Austria are gathered in Vienna. Its Kunsthistorisches Museum, with holdings extending from antiquity through the great German, Italian, and Dutch masters, contains one of the world’s premier collections. The Austrian Gallery in Belvedere Palace exhibits Austrian art from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The Albertina Graphics Collection in Vienna is one of the world’s finest collections of prints. In the Hofburg, the Collection of Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasures contains jewelry and regalia of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Modern collections are found in the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation (mumok) and the Secession museum. Collections of scientific, technical, and industrial interest are found in the Museum of Natural History Vienna, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), the Museum of Ethnology, and the Technical Museum in Vienna.

The oldest Austrian academic research institution is the Austrian Academy of Sciences, whose traditions date to the early 18th century. More modern scientific foundations, notably the Körner Foundation, support scientific research and other cultural endeavours; their main support comes from government sources. A federal ministry of science and research was established in 1970; it is responsible for university institutions and for the advancement of scientific activities.

Sports and recreation

Austria’s situation in the Alps means that outdoor winter sports are a favourite pastime. Known as the birthplace of downhill skiing, the country is littered with ski areas. Mountain climbing and hiking also are popular, and thousands of well-marked trails crisscross the Alps. Residents of the lowlands enjoy thousands of venues—swimming pools, stadiums, riding arenas, bicycle paths, and other facilities—for a wide range of sports. Eastern Austria’s rivers and lakes attract countless swimmers and boaters in the warmer months and skaters in winter.

Austria has sent teams to every Olympic Games since 1896, except the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Austrian winter athletes have excelled in Alpine events, and in 1956, Austrian skier Anton Sailer was the first person to sweep the slalom, giant slalom, and downhill events in Olympic competition. The country hosted the Winter Games in 1964 and 1976, both times in the Alpine city of Innsbruck. At Innsbruck in 1976, a young Austrian skier, Franz Klammer, set a world record for the men’s downhill event. Since the time of Sailer and Klammer, many other Austrian Olympians—among them the skiers Mario Reiter, Petra Kronberger, Günther Mader, Anita Wachter, and Hermann Maier—have continued the country’s tradition of athletic excellence.

Media and publishing

Austria has several major independent newspapers, including three major dailies in Vienna, Neue Kronen-Zeitung, Kurier, and Die Presse. The leading provincial newspaper is Salzburger Nachrichten. Until the turn of the 21st century, radio and television were the monopoly of the Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), a state-owned corporation that enjoys political and economic independence. Several private local and regional radio stations have been licensed, although ORF still operates the country’s main radio stations. ORF also operates a number of television channels, and Austria’s terrestrial television signal was fully converted from analog to digital in 2011. The overwhelming majority of Austrians subscribe to cable or satellite services to expand their viewing choices.

Prehistory and Roman times

In the territories of Austria, the first traces of human settlement date from the Lower Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age). In 1991 a frozen human body dating from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) was discovered at the Hauslabjoch pass in the Ötztal Alps, on the Italian-Austrian border. At 5,300 years old, the so-called Iceman, nicknamed Ötzi, was the oldest intact mummy ever discovered. The archaeological material becomes richer and more varied for subsequent periods, giving evidence of several distinct cultures succeeding one another or coexisting. The Austrian site of Hallstatt gave its name to the principal culture of the Early Iron Age (c. 1100–450 bce). Celtic tribes invaded the eastern Alps about 400 bce and eventually founded the kingdom of Noricum, the first “state” on Austrian territory known by name. In the west, however, the ancient Raetian people were able to maintain their seat (see Raetian language). Then, attracted by the rich iron resources and the strategic importance of the region, the Romans began to assert themselves. After an initially peaceful penetration during the last two centuries bce, Roman troops finally occupied the country about 15 bce, and the lands as far as the Danube River became part of the Roman Empire, being allotted to the Roman provinces of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia. (See also ancient Rome.)

The Romans opened up the country by an extensive system of roads. Among the Roman towns along the Danube, Carnuntum (near Hainburg) took precedence over Vindobona (Vienna), while Lauriacum (Lorch; near the confluence of the Enns River and the Danube) belonged to a later period. Roman municipalities (municipia) also grew up at Brigantium (Bregenz), Juvavum (Salzburg), Ovilava (Wels), Virunum (near Klagenfurt), Teurnia (near Spittal), and Flavia Solva (near Leibnitz). North of the Danube the Germanic tribes of the Naristi, Marcomanni, and Quadi settled. Their invasions in 166–180 ce arrested the peaceful development of the provinces, and, even after their repulse by the emperor Marcus Aurelius, the country could not regain its former prosperity. In the 3rd century the Roman frontier defenses began to be hard-pressed by invasions from the Alemanni. Finally, in the 5th century, heavy attacks by the Huns and the eastern Germans put an end to the Roman provincial defense system on the Danube.

There is archaeological evidence of a Christian cult in this area from the 4th century, and the biography of St. Severinus by Eugippius constitutes a unique literary source for the dramatic events of the second half of the 5th century. At that time several Germanic tribes (the Rugii, Goths, Heruli, and, later, Langobardi) settled on Austrian territory. In 488 part of the harassed Norican population was forced to withdraw to Italy.