Austria





Austria, officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a country in the central European Union. It borders Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. It comprises 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of the nine states is Vienna. It hosts the headquarters of the OSCE and OPEC. Its current head of state is President Alexander Van der Bellen, and its current head of government is Karl Nehammer.

A

 * A.E.I.O.U.
 * Initial letters of the following mottos of the Austrian Empire: 1. Austriæ Est Imperare Orbi Universo (It belongs to Austria to govern the world). 2. Austria Erit In Orbe Ultima (Austria will be last in the world). 3. Aquila Electa Juste Omnia Vincit (The elect eagle justly conquers everything). 4. Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Unterthan (The whole surface of the globe is subject to Austria). 5. Aller Ehren Ist Oesterreich Voll (Austria is full of all honours).
 * W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 47


 * Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube: Nam quæ Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.
 * Fight those who will, let well-starred Austria wed; And conquer kingdoms in the marriage-bed.
 * Quoted in Sir William Stirling-Maxwell’s Cloister Life of Charles V (1846), chap. i. p. 3, note. The first words of this distich are from Ovid’s Heroides, 13, 84 (Laodamia and Protesilaus), Bella gerant alii: Protesilaus amet. When and by whom the quotation was composed is unknown.
 * W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 215

C

 * There is not one of the peoples or provinces that constituted the Empire of the Hapsburgs to whom gaining their independence has not brought the tortures which ancient poets and theologians had reserved for the damned. The noble capital of Vienna, the home of so much long-defended culture and tradition, the centre of so many roads, rivers, and railways, was left stark and starving, like a great emporium in an impoverished district whose inhabitants have mostly departed.
 * Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm (1948), p. 9


 * Our difficulties with the Russians increased, but I never really blamed Konev. He obviously was merely carrying out instructions. He even had a sense of humor about it occasionally. Once when we were discussing Austrian politics, the name of the Communist party leader, Ernst Fischer, was mentioned. Jokingly, I said: "Well, I don't like him because he is a Communist." Konev grunted. "That's fine," he said. "I don't like him either because he's an Austrian Communist."
 * Mark W. Clark, Calculated Risk (1950), p. 477

E

 * Long live Germany. Long live Argentina. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.
 * Adolf Eichmann, before his execution in Jerusalem (1 June 1962), as quoted in Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a "Desk Murderer" by David Cesarani (2006), p. 321


 * The conduct of the Austrian people during the ten long years they have labored under the heavy burden of foreign occupation has commanded the profound respect of all the American people. I am confident that the many ties which bind our two peoples together will continue to constitute the basis for ever friendly relations between Austria and the United States. As a country dedicated to the fundamental principles of freedom and liberty, the United States will ever maintain an interest in the independence of Austria. The American people are proud and happy at the prospect of Austria being able to play her full part in world affairs with dignity, self-respect, and freedom.
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower; Message to President Koerner of Austria on the Signing of the Treaty Restoring Austrian Independence Online, The American Presidency Project; 13 May 1955

F

 * Is the Austrian government pursuing some sort of ‘enlightenment from above’ at the expense of a free and open inquiry? Do Austrian taxpayers need an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ to present them with a selection of trustworthy media reports and a public list of heretics, dissenters, and scapegoats?
 * Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe (FOREF) and Human Rights Without Frontiers (Brussels), "AUSTRIA: Federal Office of Sect Issues Targets COVID-19 Dissenters. An Orwellian “Ministry of Truth”?" (October 7, 2020)

H

 * Austria's two achievements were to have persuaded the world that Hitler was German and that Beethoven was Viennese.
 * Christopher Hitchens, "The 2,000-Year-Old Panic", The Atlantic (March 2008)

P

 * The situation is serious but not hopeless.
 * Alfred Polgar, as documented by the Viennese Kraus Archive; translation quoted by Gilbert Carr, "'Hopeless but not serious'", letter to The Irish Times (20 August 2019); see Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965)

S

 * There is no question of ever accepting Nazi representatives in the Austrian cabinet. An absolute abyss separates Austria from Nazism. We do not like arbitrary power, we want law to rule our freedom. We reject uniformity and centralization. ... Christendom is anchored in our very soil, and we know but one God: and that is not the State, or the Nation, or that elusive thing, Race. Our children are God’s children, not to be abused by the State. We abhor terror; Austria has always been a humanitarian state. As a people, we are tolerant by predisposition. Any change now, in our "status quo", could only be for the worse.
 * Kurt Schuschnigg, London Morning Telegraph (January 5, 1938), reprinted in Dorothy Thompson, Let the Record Speak (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1939), p. 135

W

 * I was born in Vienna, I grew up in Vienna, I went to school in Vienna, I graduated in Vienna, I studied in Vienna, I started my career in Vienna, I did theatre for the first time in Vienna, I did film for the first time in Vienna. There are also a few other Viennese details... But how much more Austrian can you get?
 * Christoph Waltz, as quoted in "'Austrians have humour, Germans not so much'" (28 February 2013), The Local


 * I'm not German, I'm Austrian and Austrians have a wonderful sense of humour, Germans, not so much.
 * Christoph Waltz, as quoted in "'Austrians have humour, Germans not so much'", The Local (28 February 2013)