Austria

[karl]

Pieter

A very educational, historic presentation I must say, your family history is full of surprises also I must say. For your grandmother, she must have been a real fire eater to survive all of the situations she found herself in. It must have been her internal strength to also survive the concentration camps that countless many lost their lives in.

Austrians are similar to German people of Bavaria, but yet different in their own manner. After all these years for the Nazi idea to be in Austrian politics is somewhat questionable, for with all the bluster, criminal responsibility that political faction was and still responsible for, and in the end, are avoided as leapers by Democratic factions.

Karl

[pieter]

Karl,

To be honest of the occupying forces of Poland between 1772 until 1918 the occupation of Southern Poland by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy was less bad than the Prussian occupation of Western Poland and the Russian Czarist occupation of Eastern and Central Poland (inculding Warsaw). The Prussians and Russians had their Germanisation and Russification policies between 1772 until 1918 while in the occupied lands of Poland, Czech Republic (Bohemia), Slowakia, Ukraine (Galicia), Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia the ethnic populations and mimorities like Jews, Sinti and Roman, Wend and Russyn peoples had a certain cultural and linguistic autonomy.

Article 19 of the 1867 "Basic State Act" (Staatsgrundgesetz), valid only for the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of Austria–Hungary, said:

All races of the empire have equal rights, and every race has an inviolable right to the preservation and use of its own nationality and language. The equality of all customary languages ("landesübliche Sprachen") in school, office and public life, is recognized by the state. In those territories in which several races dwell, the public and educational institutions are to be so arranged that, without applying compulsion to learn a second country language ("Landessprache"), each of the races receives the necessary means of education in its own language.



Economy

The heavily rural Austro-Hungarian economy slowly modernised after 1867. Railroads opened up once-remote areas, and cities grew. Many small firms promoted capitalist way of production. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The first Austrian stock exchange (the Wiener Börse) was opened in 1771 in Vienna, the first stock exchange of the Kingdom of Hungary (the Budapest Stock Exchange) was opened in Budapest in 1864. The central bank (Bank of issue) was founded as Austrian National Bank in 1816. In 1878, it transformed into Austro-Hungarian National Bank with principal offices in both Vienna and Budapest. The central bank was governed by alternating Austrian or Hungarian governors and vice-governors.

The gross national product per capita grew roughly 1.76% per year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared very favorably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%).[61] However, in a comparison with Germany and Britain, the Austro-Hungarian economy as a whole still lagged considerably, as sustained modernization had begun much later. Like the German Empire, that of Austria–Hungary frequently employed liberal economic policies and practices. In 1873, the old Hungarian capital Buda and Óbuda (Ancient Buda) were officially merged with the third city, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into Hungary's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period. Economic growth centered on Vienna and Budapest, the Austrian lands (areas of modern Austria), the Alpine region and the Bohemian lands. In the later years of the 19th century, rapid economic growth spread to the central Hungarian plain and to the Carpathian lands. As a result, wide disparities of development existed within the empire. In general, the western areas became more developed than the eastern ones. The Kingdom of Hungary became the world's second-largest flour exporter after the United States. The large Hungarian food exports were not limited to neighbouring Germany and Italy: Hungary became the most important foreign food supplier of the large cities and industrial centres of the United Kingdom. Galicia, which has been described as the poorest province of Austro-Hungary, experienced near-constant famines, resulting in 50,000 deaths a year. The Istro-Romanians of Istria were also poor, as pastoralism lost strength and agriculture was not productive.

However, by the end of the 19th century, economic differences gradually began to even out as economic growth in the eastern parts of the monarchy consistently surpassed that in the western. The strong agriculture and food industry of the Kingdom of Hungary with the centre of Budapest became predominant within the empire and made up a large proportion of the export to the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, western areas, concentrated mainly around Prague and Vienna, excelled in various manufacturing industries. This division of labour between the east and west, besides the existing economic and monetary union, led to an even more rapid economic growth throughout Austria–Hungary by the early 20th century. However, since the turn of the twentieth century, the Austrian half of the Monarchy could preserve its dominance within the empire in the sectors of the first industrial revolution, but Hungary had a better position in the modern industries of the second industrial revolution, in these modern sectors of the second industrial revolution (like machine building industry and electric industry) the Austrian competition could not become dominant.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeadlam191139-37