Austrian culture

Sprache: österreichische Dialekte - kein Hochdeutsch

Musik: klassische Musik (Wien, Salzburg, Graz), Volksmusik, Musikvereine, Wiener Sängerknaben - Vienna Boys choir

Architektur: Hundertwasser, Otto Wagner, österreichische Schule der Architektur, Schlösser, Burgen, usw.

Theater, Opernhäuser

Malerei

Essen: Wiener Schnitzel, Kaiserschmarren, Mahlzeiten (Aufteilung), Kaffehäuser (Zeitung lesen, viel Zeit dort verbringen), Weinkultur Heuriger, Buschenschank (gemütliches Zusammensitzen)

Kleidung: Tracht (v.a. Tirol, Vorarlberg,...)

Kleine Dörfer - fast keine Großstädte (nur Wien & Graz) Zusammenhalt, Pflege von Traditionen, Kirche

Traditionelle Feste (rel. Feste, Silvester)

Umweltbewusstsein (Rücksichtnahme auf die Natur)

Verbundenheit zur Natur

Sport (v.a. Wintersport; Bergsteigen)

Berge (Alpen, Gletscher)

Bauern - Bergbauern, Weinbauern alles wird bewirtschaftet, was nicht Stadt od. Dorf ist

Multikulturell

Spanische Hofreitschule - Spanish Riding School

Opernball

(Prater)

Seen

What is Austrian culture? This is a question to which you can give a lot of answers because culture means different things to different people. I’ll try to give some general information about what Austrian culture means to me.

First, I want to mention some things concerning language in Austria. The official language is German, but everybody who comes to Austria will realize that “Austrian German” is not the same as the German spoken in Germany. In Austria there are many different dialects and depending on where you are born, you speak the dialect of your county.

A very important aspect in Austrian culture is music. All over the world, Austria is renowned for its classical music. Famous composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Hayden strongly shaped Austrian culture with their pieces of music. Although the younger generation doesn’t listen to this kind of music very much, everybody knows parts of the famous composers' work and grows up with it. Nearly all people have some CDs or records of classical music at home and in school you also learn about this important part of Austrian culture. But it is not only classical music that plays a big role in the culture of our small country. Also folk music is still quite popular in Austria. Especially people who live in the countryside and older people listen to this kind of music, which is in becoming more and more influenced by Pop music.

The third kind of music being popular and famous in Austria is instrumental music played by people in villages or small towns. Even young people play their instrument in a group of musicians and on special occasions they go from house to house in their hometown playing music. They don’t earn any money with it, but often get some food and drinks from people they play for. Most folk bands consist of wind instruments and drums.

Architecture is also very important for Austrian culture. Many famous architects like Otto Wagner, Hundertwasser and the so called “Austrian school of architecture”, built a lot of famous buildings in Austria, for example the “Haas-Haus” in Vienna. There is not only modern architecture in Austria, but you can also find very beautiful old buildings and many castles. These buildings are often used as museums, operas, theatres or as private residences. So if you are for example going to see a musical in the opera of Graz, you will see beautiful architecture outside and inside. Austrians spend quite a lot of money on restoring old buildings so that they always look very nice.

Austrian daily culture is shaped by family life. There are just two really big cities in Austria, Vienna and Graz. Most people live in villages or very small towns, where family life and also church and religion are very important. Some of the villagers wear the traditional clothes of Austria, the so called “Tracht”. In earlier times, nearly all people wore it, but nowadays it’s mostly worn on Sundays when going to church.

People who come to Austria will soon realize, that good food is very important for most Austrians. Breakfast is not very important in Austria, lunch is usually a big meal and for dinner, Austrians have cold food. The special Austrian meals like “Wiener Schnitzel”, “Kaiserschmarren”, “Sachertorte” and many more are known all over the world. Normally Austrian food is very nutritious and based on meat. There are special meals in the different counties. A very strange thing for foreign people, especially for English is, that you can go to a café, drink a coffee, read your newspaper and spend a lot of time there without ordering lots of drinks. Especially older people often go to cafes or “Gasthäuser”, the Austrian restaurants, to meet there and talk about their day.

Most Austrian people are very sporty and nearly everyone knows how to ski. Winter sport is very popular in Austria and I think it’s also a part of our culture, especially in areas where there are many mountains. And that’s the key word for the next point I want to explain.

The landscape of Austria is very versatile - there are many high mountains and glaciers in the West, but only a few hills in the East. So if you go from Eastern Austria to Western Austria, the landscape becomes more and more dominated by mountains. In Tyrol and Vorarlberg, there are many glaciers and very high mountains. But in spite of this, many people live there, also in the mountains. This means that there are many farmers because if you want to live in the mountains you have to cultivate the area. As a result of the different kinds of landscape, there are many different sorts of farmers in Austria. In the West there are so called “Bergbauern” (mountain farmers) that cultivate hills and mountains, in the East there are many “Weinbauern” (wine farmers) that plant wine on small hills where there is a lot of sun. So Austria is also very famous for its wine culture. People in Austria usually have a lot of time (apart from those living in big cities) and so sitting together, drinking a glass of wine and singing and talking plays an important role in their lives.

In my opinion, Austria is a very beautiful country with a great culture and Austrians are people who are nice and open to all new things.