VIENNA - AUSTRIA

Vienna (German: Wien) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). It is situated on the river Danube, and is surrounded by the Austrian federal state of Lower Austria. With a population of about 1.6 millions, Vienna is the largest city and the cultural and political centre of Austria and within a radius of about 300 kilometers.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC and the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA are situated in Vienna, together with a lot of international institutions and companies.

Districts

Memorial against War and Fascism (1981-1991) by Alfred Hrdlicka at Albertinaplatz in Vienna's city centreThe city itself is composed of 23 districts (Bezirke), which although they all have their own names are numbered for the sake of convenience:

Innere Stadt (city centre)
Leopoldstadt
Landstra�e
Wieden
Margareten
Mariahilf
Neubau
Josefstadt
Alsergrund
Favoriten
Simmering
Meidling
Hietzing
Penzing
Rudolfsheim-F�nfhaus
Ottakring
Hernals
W�hring
D�bling
Brigittenau
Floridsdorf
Donaustadt
Liesing

Looking at the postal code one can easily find out in which district the given address can be found; 1XXA - 1 denotes Vienna, XX the district number (if it is a single digit then with a leading zero), A is the number of the post office (irrelevant in this case, usually zero). Example: 1070 for Neubau (which, incidentally, is the only place in Austria with a Green majority).

To the south-east of the city is the Prater amusement park. This park is the site of a large Ferris wheel, built originally in 1897, and made famous as the location where Orson Welles, in his role as Harry Lime in the film The Third Man, looked down upon the people beneath and compared them to ants.

Vienna has a large public tansportation system including subways, buses and trams, which are widely used in Vienna.

Intellectual Life

Turn of the century Vienna was home to a thriving intellectual scene. Most prominent was the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Other famous products were the philosophers Franz Brentano, Bernard Bolzano, Ernst Mach and Edmund Husserl.

The University of Vienna was the cradle of the Austrian School of economics. The founders of this school who studied here included Carl Menger, Eugen von B�hm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, Joseph Schumpeter,Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. von Hayek.

The Technical University is the first University of technology which was founded all over the world (1815). Well known scientists of this college were e.g. Viktor Kaplan (first turbine for power stations), Josef Ressel (first screw for ship's drive), Josef Strauss (composer and technician), Otto Wagner (architect) and Anton Zeilinger (neutron physics).

They were a somewhat more liberal crowd compared to other German speaking intellectuals in Prussia (indeed the very term Austrian was a term of abuse used to suggest a provincial outlook, see Methodenstreit). Simply put in Germany the influence of Hegel led academics to try to "overcome" the ideas of Western Europe, Austrian scholars used these ideas as a basis for their own theories.

Culture

For many centuries, Vienna has been a center of classical music and opera. Christoph Willibald Gluck, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner among others, worked in Vienna, and Antonio Vivaldi died there. Johann Strauss II and his family created their waltzes here. Later, the city became the home of the so called Second Viennese School, with Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern all being born there. It's also home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Vienna is also noted for its art and architecture. Many Baroque buildings exist although every time period is represented. The summer palace of the emperors, Sch�nbrunn, was built to rival Versailles but while huge and ornate, never quite became as large. Tiergarten Sch�nbrunn Zoo Vienna is located in the palace area. The Cathedral of St. Stephen (or Stephansdom), which was built in the 12th century, is also notable. The modern architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser has constructed some buildings in the city in his idiosyncratic style.

"Sezession" and Jugendstil were twentieth century art movements related to art nouveau important in Vienna. Gustav Klimt worked here.

Many of Vienna's great individuals are buried at the Zentralfriedhof. Members of the ruling Habsburg family are buried in the Kapuzinergruft.

Sports

Vienna has become a popular host of many different sporting events including the Vienna City Marathon, which attracts more than 10,000 participants every year and normally takes place in May. In 2005 the Ice Hockey World Championships will take place in Austria, with the final being played in Vienna. After already being the stage of four Champions League (originally European Champion Clubs' Cup) finals (1964, 1987, 1990, 1995) the final of Euro 2008, the European Football Championships, will take place in Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium.

Austria's capital is also the home of numerous sports teams. The best known of them are the local soccer clubs FK Austria Wien (22 time Austrian national champions) and SK Rapid Wien (30 time Austrian national champions). Other important clubs are the Chrysler Vikings Vienna (American Football), who won the Eurobowl titel as Europe's best American Football team in 2004, the Vienna Hot Volleys, one of Europe's premier Volleyball-organisations, and the Vienna Capitals (Ice Hockey).