Austria

The Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich) is a landlocked country in central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. more...

Its capital is the city of Vienna.

Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy consisting of nine federal states and is one of two European countries that have declared permanent neutrality, the other being Switzerland. Austria is a member of the United Nations (since 1955) and the European Union (since 1995). For the first half of 2006, Austria holds the seat of the Presidency of the EU.

Origin and history of the name

The German name Österreich can be translated into English as the "eastern realm", which is derived from the Old German Ostarrîchi. Reich can also mean "empire", and this connotation is the one that is understood in the context of the Austrian/Austro-Hungarian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, although not in the context of the modern Republic of Österreich. The term probably originates in a vernacular translation of the Medieval Latin name for the region: Marchia orientalis, which translates as "eastern border", as it was situated at the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire, that was also mirrored in the name Ostmark applied after Anschluss to Germany.

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Austria.

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