Chancelleries

These days the Austrian Federal Government and the National Council of the Austrian Republic decided to cancel the current legislative period long before the end of the four-year term and announced new elections for September. Alfred Gusenbauer will then have the honour to be the Chancellor of the shortest government among all Austrian Chancellors of the 2nd Republic (after 1945). Until today, this was the privilege of Alfons Gorbach, who served as Chancellor only for 1087 days (from April 1961 to April 1964).

The longest chancellorship was the one of Bruno Kreisky, who had been Chancellor for 4781 days (1970-1983), followed by Franz Vranitzky (3878 days from 1986 to 1997) and Julius Raab (2931 days, 1953-1961).

Gusenbauer will be the only Chancellor who resigned before the age of 50 years. Nevertheless, he is not the youngest Chancellor in Austrian history (after the Second World War): Leopold Figl was only 43 when he became the first Federal Chancellor of the 2nd Republic on 20 December 1945.

Among all Chancellors, two out of ten were older than 60 years when they entered upon the chancellorship: Julius Raab (aged 61) and Alfons Gorbach (62). Kreisky was the only one who resigned after his 70th birthday (at the age of 72).

Five out of ten (former) Chancellors deceased already, but none of them during his chancellorship.
The list of Austrian Chancellors by longevity is led by Josef Klaus, who died in 2001, only 20 days before his 91st birthday. Fred Sinowatz is the oldest of the still living (former) Chancellors; he will celebrate his 80th birthday in 2009.

Four Austrian Chancellors were born in Vienna: Kreisky, Vranitzy, Klima and Schüssel.
Raab and Gusenbauer were born in the City of St. Pölten (Lower Austria), and also Figl was born in the state of Lower Austria. There was one Chancellor from the Tyrol (Gorbach), one from Carinthia (Klaus) and one from the Burgenland (Sinowatz). Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, and Vorarlberg still have the chance to “send” their first Chancellor next autumn.

By the way: Leopold Figl was born in the smallest among all villages where an Austrian Chancellor was ever born: Rust im Tullnerfeld had 454 inhabitants at the last census in 2001 (Unfortunately I don’t know the number of inhabitants at his year of birth in 1902).

And: None of the Austrian Chancellors was born on a Saturday; most of them are “Monday-children” (Klaus, Vranitzky, Gusenbauer).
Until today, no Austrian Chancellor was inaugurated on a Wednesday, but four of them on a Tuesday, four on a Thursday, and one on a Monday and a Friday (each).

Fred Sinowatz never had to campaign for an election during his career as Chancellor. Leopold Figl, Josef Klaus and Bruno Kreisky were the only ones who had an absolute majority in the National Council. Wolfgang Schüssel became Chancellor although his party got only 26.9% of all votes and ranked only third in the election of 1999.

By far the least votes got Viktor Klima (1999: 1.5 Mio), Wolfgang Schüssel (2006: 1.616 Mio) and Franz Vranitzky (1994: 1.618 Mio).

Vranitzky has the honour of both the longest and the shortest period between two ballots: from 1990–1994 the election period lasted for 1463 days, from 1994-1995 only for 434 days.

Leopold Figl was the only Chancellor until today who was a member of the government after his resignment as Chancellor (as the foreign minister during the Austrian Independence Treaty of 1955). Wolfgang Schüssel and Alfons Gorbach were the only Chancellors who went back into the National Council after they resigned. Gorbach and Gusenbauer had been Chancellors without holding any government position before or after that time. All the others had been Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, Foreign Affairs, or Minister of Education.

In 1998 Viktor Klima has been President-in-Office of the assembled European Council for 184 days. Wolfgang Schüssel held this position in 2006, but only for 181 days, as the presidency rotates every six months and the first term of a year is a little bit shorter than the second one.

(Please notice that I did not include Karl Renner in any of the above listings or statistics. Renner was leading the first Provisional Government from April until December 1945 until the first elections).

Geographic extremities

These days I came back from a trip to Lillehammer (Norway) and its surroundings. Located at 61°8'15''N, this was the northernmost point of Europe I have ever been.

The northernmost point of the entire mainland of Europe (though I have never been there) would be Knivskjellodden (71°11'07''N), 4 km northwest of the famous North Cape (which is often referred to as the northernmost point of Europe itself – especially by Tourists who sometimes travel thousands of kilometres all the way up to the far north, but then refuse to hike the last 8 kilometres to the actual northernmost point).

In this context, my definition of "mainland" is: any point which you can reach from, let’s say: Vienna, Paris or Berlin, without using a plane or a ship (and without swimming). While Knivskjellodden (and also the Nord Cape) are located on the island of Magerøya, they can be reached through a 7 km long subsea tunnel since 1999, and are therefore within reach without a plane or a ship.

The southernmost point of mainland Europe is then Isla de las Palomas in Spain. It is located at latitude 36°00'03''N. (Unfortunately the island is a military zone, but there are nice pictures on the net)

The westernmost point is Cabo da Roca in Portugal, 9°29'56'' east of Greenwich.

It is not so easy to determine the easternmost point of Europe, as there is no well-defined border like a shore-line between Europe and Asia. I think that the Russian Republic of Komi might be the easternmost part of Europe and therefore its easternmost point at 66°15'06" east of Greenwich also Europe’s easternmost point.

Austrian geographic extremities:

Austria’s northernmost point is located at 49°1'15''N, 8 km north of Litschau (Lower Austria).

The southernmost point is located at latitude 46°22'20"N, 13 km south of Bad Eisenkappel (Carinthia).

Westernmost point: 6 km north-west of Feldkirch (Vorarlberg): 9°31'51'' east of Greenwich.
By the way: This point is a so called tripoint where the borders of three countries meet (here: Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland).

Easternmost geographical point of Austria: located 4 km east of Deutsch Jahrndorf (Burgenland): 17°9'39" east of Greenwich.
Again this is a tripoint (between Austria, Slovakia and Hungary; there are 42 tripoints in Europa, 8 of which are at Austria’s borders).

More trivia:

It would be a 3.344 km trip by car from the northernmost point of Austria to Europe’s northernmost point. Or 2.530 km as the crow flies.

The most direct route by road from the southernmost point of Austria to the southernmost point of Europe is about 2.711 kilometres; the great circle route would be 2.037 km.

Distance between the westernmost point of Austria and the westernmost point of Europe: 1.808 km air-line distance, 2.383 km road distance.

It is 3.498 km as the crow flies from the easternmost point of Austria to the easternmost point of Europe. I don’t know the distance along the road, as there is no road map of Komi available (at least not for me).

At the easternmost point of Austria the sun rises 30 minutes earlier than at the westernmost point.

On June 21st (Summer solstice) the time from dawn to dusk at Austria’s northernmost point lasts for 16 hours and 12 minutes which is 24 minutes more than the 15 hours and 48 minutes daylight at the southernmost point on the same day.

Six month later, at the beginning of winter (December 21, normally the shortest day of the year), the southernmost point has daylight for 8 hours and 35 minutes, approximately 22 minutes more than at the northernmost point.

And the geographical centre?

If you calculate the arithmetic mean of the extreme values of both longitude and latitude, the centre would be 990 m north-west of the Königsbachalm in the municipality of St. Gilgen (Salzburg, near the Lake Wolfgangsee).

But there are different opinions about the definition of the centre of a country, based on different interpretations of the term itself, definitions of boundaries, and geometrical or mathematical measurement and calculation methods.

So we will discuss this elsewhere.

And the Oscar goes to ... Austria!

Every Austrian is in an unbelievable euphoric mood since we got our first Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film (The Counterfeiters by Stefan Ruzowitzky).

Several Austrians were honoured by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1936, when Viennese composer Max Steiner got his first Oscar. Steiner moved to the USA at the age of 26 and I don’t know if he would have labelled himself as Austrian or American. This is also true for a long list of other “Austrian” artists and performers who left Austria – for the well known reasons – before or during World War II.

From 1867 to 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a dual state, formed by Cisleithania (the later Austria) and Transleithania (the Kingdom of Hungary). I am quite sure that those who were born in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary would never agree to be included in a list of "Austrian" Oscar winners.

Still, there are 18 persons who won at least one Academy Award and who were born in Austria:
(The given years indicate the date of the ceremony at which the award was given)

6 Oscars:
Billy Wilder, born 1906 in Sucha, Galicia (today: Sucha Beskidzka, Poland):
1946 2 Oscars: Best Director and Best Writing (Screenplay) for The Lost Weekend
1951 Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for Sunset Boulevard
1961 3 Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for The Apartment
Additionally the Academy's Board of Governors awarded him with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1988.

4 Oscars:
Fred Zinnemann, born 1907 in Vienna:
1952 Best Documentary (Short Subjects): Benjy
1954 Best Director for From Here to Eternity
1967 2 Oscars: Best Director and Best Picture for A Man for All Seasons

3 Oscars:
Maximilian ("Max") Raoul Steiner, born 1888 in Vienna:
1936 Best Music Score for The Informer
1943 Best Music for Now, Voyager
1945 Best Music for Since You Went Away
Besides his 3 Oscars, Steiner had additionally 21 Oscar-nominations (among them: Best Music for Gone With The Wind and Casablanca).

3 Oscars:
Sam Spiegel, born 1901 in Jarosław, Galicia (today: Poland):
1955 Best Picture for On the Waterfront
1958 Best Picture for The Bridge on the River Kwai
1963 Best Picture for Lawrence of Arabia
Additionally he was awarded with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy's Board of Governors in 1964.

2 Oscars:
Harry Horner, born 1910, Holic (today: Czech Republic):
1950 Best Art Direction (Set Decoration) for The Heiress
1962 Best Art Direction (Set Decoration) for The Hustler
He is, by the way, father of James Horner (born 1953 in Los Angeles), who also got 2 Oscars: 1998 Best Music (Score) for Titanic and at the same time Best Music (Original Song) for the song My Heart Will Go On.

1 Oscar each:

1937: Paul Muni, born 1895 as Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in Lviv, Galicia (today: Ukraine): Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Story of Louis Pasteur

1938: Joseph Schildkraut, born 1896 in Vienna: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Life of Emile Zola

1938: Karl Freund, born 1890 in Dvůr Králové nad Labem (today: Czech Republic): Best Cinematography for The Good Earth. In 1955 he got the Technical Achievement Award (together with Frank Crandell) for the development of a special brightness meter.

1939: Erich Wolfgang Korngold, born 1897 in Brno (today: Czech Republic): Best Music Score for The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold was also the composer of the score for Anthony Adverse, which was awarded as Best Music Score in 1936. This was the first Oscar ever awarded in this category. However, it was not given to the composer but to Leo F. Forbstein, musical director and conductor of Warner Brothers’ music department.

1942: Nathan Juran, born 1907 in Gura Humorului (today: Romania): Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration for How Green Was My Valley. (Interesting enough, this was a black-and-white film. So we will never find out how green the valley really was.)

1943: George Froeschel, born 1891 in Vienna: Best Writing (Screenplay) for Mrs. Minive

1952: John Alton, born in 1901 as Johann Altmann in Sopron (today: Hungary): Best Cinematography for An American in Paris

1954: Walter Reisch, born 1903 in Vienna: Best Writing (Story and Screenplay) for Titanic (not to be mixed up with James Cameron’s Titanic, winning 11 Oscars in 1998)

1959: Frederick Loewe, born 1901 in Vienna: Best Music (Original Song) for Gigi. I am not quite sure if Loewe (who was also the composer of “My fair Lady”) really was born in Vienna (Austria) or Berlin (Germany), as other sources assume. (It seems to be certain that his parents were Viennese and he himself grew up in Berlin, moved to the USA and died in Palm Springs in 1988).

1961: Ernest Gold, born 1921 in Vienna: Best Music (Scoring) for Exodus

1962: Maximilian Schell, born 1930 in Vienna: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Judgment at Nuremberg. By the way, Schell was 31 years and 122 days (from the date of his birth to the date of the awards ceremony) and therefore the fourth youngest Best (male) Actor in a Leading Role.

1979: Peter Zinner, born 1919 in Vienna: Best Film Editing for The Deer Hunter

2008: Stefan Ruzowitzky, born 1961 in Vienna: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (The Counterfeiters)

Some famous Austrian non-winning nominees

3 nominations:
Otto Preminger, born in Vyzhnytsia (today: Ukraine) had 3 nominations as Best Director (1945, 1960, and 1964).

2 nominations:
Robert Stolz, born 1880 in Graz, was nominated for 2 Oscars: 1941 for the Best Original Song and 1945 for the Best Music Score.

1 nomination:
1962: Lotte Lenya, born as Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer 1898 in Vienna, nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1962). She was the first and only female Austrian nominee.

1966: Oskar Werner, born 1922 in Vienna, nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role in Ship of Fools.

1986: Klaus Maria Brandauer, born 1944 in Bad Aussee, nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Out of Africa. Furthermore he found himself 1982 on stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Centre (which hosted the Oscar ceremony then) when he was the leading actor in Mephisto and could not refrain from congratulating his director, István Szabó (Hungary), after he was presented with the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film.

1987: 38 Home to the Realm, directed by Wolfgang Glück (born 1929 in Vienna) was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film.

2006: Hubert Sauper, born 1966 in Kitzbühel, was nominated as the director of the Best Documentary (Features) for Darwin's Nightmare.

Maybe we also have to talk about a film, where you will find no Austrian participant, but still made Austria world-famous (and won 5 Oscars in 1966): The Sound of Music. You can see (the true) Maria Augusta von Trapp (born 1905 in Vienna) as actress in a short scene. And she was involved in writing the screenplay.

Last but not least we have to mention Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947 in Thal, Styria, Austria). Even if he never got an Oscar-Award, he was a presenter at four Annual Academy Awards ceremonies:
1984 he presented the Technical Achievement Award.
1995 he presented Clint Eastwood with the Irving G. Thalberg Award.
1998 he introduced the Best Picture nominee Titanic (which won 11 Oscars).
2000 he presented John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey with the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in Gladiator.

And the 81st Academy Awards next year?
"We`ll be back!"

In four days through Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the biggest of Austria’s nine states. There will be elections for the federal state parliament in two weeks. Today’s head of the government (who remains to be the old/new candidate) started his election campaign last Monday with a big happening and – among others – with the remark that this will be the shortest possible campaign. Well, believe it or not, it would be possible in a shorter time:

There are 21 political districts in Lower Austria (including the independent city of Waidhofen an der Ybbs). If the governor wants to visit all his districts, it will take him not longer than 12 hours (and he has not to break any speed limit). So, even if he wants to stump for, let’s say, one additional hour per district and stay for a couple of time with his grass roots, it will take him not longer than three days. Or four days if you include some sleeping hours.

That’s the route:

St. Pölten – Lilienfeld – Scheibbs – Waidhofen an der Ybbs – Amstetten – Melk – Krems – Zwettl – Gmünd – Waidhofen an der Thaya – Horn – Hollabrunn – Tulln – Klosterneuburg – Korneuburg – Mistelbach – Gänserndorf – Bruck an der Leitha – Mödling – Neunkirchen – Wiener Neustadt – Baden – St. Pölten.

If, for any reason, you want to enjoy a train journey, you have to leave St. Pölten with the 6.28-train (in the morning) and start a 1510-minutes-tour (the equivalent of 1 day, 1 hour, and 10 minutes). That’s pretty much the double burden (compared with a car ride)

I would recommend inviting all electors directly to the respective train stations and stay not longer than one hour there.

The OEBB (the Austrian Federal Railways) have no 24hr-Service within the minor train system of Lower Austria, so the “sleeping-problem” resolves itself: You have to stay overnight in Krems at 9.28pm of the first day, in Horn at 7.24pm on the second day and in Bruck an der Leitha at 9.38pm (3rd day). And you will return to your office in St. Pölten on the fourth day at 3.27pm

Human anatomical parts named after Austrians

There is a list of human anatomical parts named after people at Wikipedia. I think there are five Austrians among them. (As mentioned in a previous article, "Austrian" in this definition means: born at a place, which was part of Austria then, but could be part of another country today).
It ain’t the big and famous parts of the human body which are named after Austrians. For any reasons, everything has to do with digestion...

There are "pockets" in your gallbladder, the so called Rokitansky-Aschoff crypts, named after Karel Rokitansky, born 1804 in Koeniggraetz (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire then, today: Hradec Králové, Czech Republic).

Václav Treitz, born 1819 in Hostomitz (Austria-Hungary, today: Hostomice, Czech Republic), can claim at least two parts of the human body: The muscle that fixes the duodenum to the abdominal wall is named after him the ligament of Treitz and the fold of peritoneum between the caecum and the abdominal wall is Treitz's arch.

Carl Toldt, born 1840 in Bruneck (Austria-Hungary, today: Brunico, Italy): Toldt's fascia is also a part of the duodenum and has a similar role like the ligament of Treitz.

Anton Gilbert Victor von Ebner, Ritter von Rosenstein was born in Bregenz, Vorarlberg (1842) and is the internal Austrian record holder regarding the number of anatomical eponyms:
Ebner's glands are located on your tongue; Ebner’s Halbmonde (also known as Heidenhain's cells) are the cells at the base of the salivary glands; and Ebner's lines are incremental lines on your teeth that reflect variations in mineralization during the dentin formation and can therefore be used like the growth rings of trees.

Joseph Paneth, born 1857 in Vienna: Paneth cells are cells in your small intestine, sometimes also in your stomach and/or rectum.
His son, Friedrich-Adolf Paneth, gave name to a lunar crater and a rare mineral (Panethite), but that’s a completely different story…

Why people confuse Austria with Australia

President Bush was not the first (and for sure not the last) to confuse Austria with Australia. It seems that it is not so easy to distinguish the seven letters of the word Austria from the similar combination of seven plus two letters within Australia.

I am not sure if this term exits, but I would call Austria a syntactical enclave of Australia.

An enclave a territorial unit (a country, e.g.) enclosed completely within a foreign territory, like the State of the Vatican City or the Republic of San Marino, both completely surrounded by Italy. Syntactics on the other hand deals with the formal relations between signs. The sequence of characters in the word Austria is completely lying within the "boundaries" of the word Australia.
In a way Austria can be considered as a kangaroo word of Australia: A word that carries other words within itself. Per definition the kangaroo word not only contains letters of the other word in the same order but the two words also have the same meaning and etymology. Well, this is definitely not true for Austria and Australia.

The name Australia is derived from the Latin auster (= south). Since ancient Roman times people were looking for the legendary "terra australis incognita" – the "unknown land of the south".

On the other hand we have Austria, which also sounds like a Latin word, but originates from the Old High German word Ostarrichi – the "eastern march", first mentioned in 996. (The High German ôstar means "eastern"). The name was Latinized in 1147 by King Conrad III, who used the term Austria for the first time.
By the way: The German name of Austria is Österreich, still including the etymological connection with the "eastern realm".

It is not only English speaking people who run the risk of confusing Austria with Australia. Here is a list of "vulnerable" languages:

Albanian: Austri - Australi
Bulgarian: Awstrija - Awstralija
Croatian: Austrija - Australija
English: Austria - Australia
Estonian: Austria - Austraalia
Hungarian: Ausztria - Ausztrália
Indonesian: Austria - Australia
Italian: Austria - Australia
Japanese: ōsutoria - ôsutoraria
Latvian: Austrija - Australija
Lithuanian: Austrija - Australija
Malay: Austria - Australia
Polish: Austria - Australia
Portuguese: Áustria - Austrália
Rhaeto-Romanic: Austria - Australia
Romanian: Austria - Australia
Russian: Awstrija - Awstralija
Serbian: Austrija - Australija
Slovenian: Avstrija - Avstralija
Spanish: Austria - Australia
Turkish: Avusturya - Avustralya
Ukrainian: Awstrija - Awstralija
Welsh: Awstria - Awstralia

On the other hand there is no "danger" for Arabs, Scandinavians, Slovaks or Czechs, as you can see in the following list:

Afrikaans: Oostenryk - Australië
Arabic: Nimsā - Ustrāliyā
Armenian: Awstria - Australia
Czech: Rakousko - Austrálie
Chinese: Àodìlì - Àodàlìyà
Danish: Østrig - Australien
Dutch: Oostenrijk - Australië
German: Österreich - Australien
Faroese: Eysturríki - Avstralia
Finnish: Itävalta - Australia
French: Autriche - Australie
Greek: Afst'ria - Avstralía
Icelandic: Austurríki - Ástralía
Irish: An Ostair - An Astráil
Maltese: Awstrija - Awstralja
Norwegian: Österrike - Australien
Slovak: Rakúsko - Austrália
Somali: Osteeriya - Awstraaliya
Swedish: Österrike - Australien
Vietnamese: Áo - Úc

(see also www.geonames.org/AU/other-names-for-australia.html and www.geonames.org/AT/other-names-for-austria.html)

Austria’s first Cultural Village of Europe

Kirchheim im Innkreis (Upper Austria) will be Austria’s first Cultural Village of Europe.

In 2003 Graz (Styria) was the first city (of Austria) designated as the European Capital of Culture; Linz (Upper Austria) will be the European Capital of Culture in 2009 (together with Vilnius, Lithuania). Further cities (or at least countries) have been selected until 2019 – there will be no other Austrian city among them.

In 1999 eleven rural communities across Europe signed a "Charter of the villages" and since then proclaim a European VILLAGE of Culture in addition to the European CITY of Culture.

The municipality of Kirchheim im Innkreis was the first Austrian village which joined the Foundation of Cultural Villages of Europe (2000) (As of today there is one other Austrian village member of the foundation: the neighbouring Aurolzmünster, 12 km north-easterly of Kirchheim).

2010 Kirchheim will be the official Cultural Village of Europe.

Kirchheim im Innkreis is located 15 driving minutes to the west of Ried im Innkreis, Upper Austria.
It includes 233 buildings, distributed among the populated places of Ampfenham, Buch, Edt, Federnberg, Grub, Kirchheim, Kraxenberg, Ramerding, Rödham and Schacher.
Population: 701 (as of 2006).

Kirchheim is smaller than (Bad) Kleinkirchheim (the German klein means small or little in English, so one could think of “Little Kirchheim” being smaller than Kirchheim…) and smaller than Grosskirchheim (the German gross means big in English); there are another 12 Kirchheims within the GeoNames.org database (11 in Germany and 1 in France).