School and military service
As early as 1774, Empress Maria Theresa imposed six years of schooling. Today, schooling begins at the age of 6 and young Austrians must remain in school until they are 15. Austrian schoolchildren, unlike the French, go to school every day except Sunday, but their days are shorter. Classes start at 8am and usually end around 1pm. However, this system is criticised by many parents who cannot spare the afternoon. Co-education in public schools has been in place since 1975. The first school cycle lasts 4 years. Then, at the age of 10, the pupil can continue in one of two ways: either a short cycle which ends with a one-year polytechnic course followed by a one-year apprenticeship in a company, or a long cycle of 8 years which leads to the Matura, equivalent to our baccalaureate. However, there are bridges between these two courses and technical education is much less discredited than in France. The Austrian university year is divided into two semesters, regardless of the type of degree sought. For a long time, certain courses of study were reserved for Austrians. Foreigners were admitted subject to availability of places. Since 2005, under the pressure of the European Union, this is no longer the case. This new regulation led to a massive influx of German students and serious problems for their reception, which continue to this day.
Furthermore, Austria is one of the few European countries, including Cyprus, Denmark, Switzerland and Greece, that are committed to military service. In a referendum in January 2013, nearly 60% of Austrians voted to maintain it. Military service lasts 6 months and concerns 22,000 individuals each year. An alternative is offered to those who would like to avoid it with a 9-month civic service.
A few character traits and the Viennese difference
Austrians are Germanic. This implies a few specific character traits. In the professional and private sphere, we like things to be clear and rather square. Nevertheless, Austrians have a culture with many influences, from Slavic, Hungarian and Italian to Germanic. You should also know that in Austria, people like to take their time and not be rushed. Family is important, as is strictness, and the Catholic religion is still important. The number of common-law unions is lower than in France, even if the new generation is changing this. Moreover, the youth is characterized by fairly free morals and homosexuality is relatively well tolerated. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Austria in 1971. If lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people can encounter difficulties that non-LGBT people do not experience in Austria, this is much less the case in the capital. Vienna is a tolerant and open-minded city. The success of the Vienna Pride is one of the most visible expressions of this. If adoption is open to all, it is still not well accepted for a homosexual couple. In practice, nothing is different from what we know in France or Belgium. Furthermore, the legislation on abortion is comparable to that in France.
Xenophobia and sense of identity
The rise of the far right in Austria has caused controversy among the country's European neighbours. The media has been full of it, the judgments have been sweeping and the Austrians have been lumped together, which has not failed to offend many. According to some analyses, this rise in racism could have been halted if, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Austria had taken the full measure of its involvement in the Nazi extermination, just as Germany did. Xenophobia would therefore have remained muted until the 1980s, a decade in which unemployment rose sharply. Is there a more pronounced national identity in Austria than elsewhere? Austrians don't like to be confused with Germans, but they don't overly cultivate their sense of identity. The desire to belong to the same people seems to be much less obvious than the desire to assert one's regional identity.
Green citizens
It is one of the European countries where ecological awareness is the highest, like Sweden or Finland. The political weight of the Greens is also one of the strongest in Europe. The notion of sustainable development is not a fashionable phenomenon, but is well and truly anchored in people's minds. Sorting household waste has long been part of everyday life. Austrians are very careful in their selection of waste. Paper, plastic and everything else is separated. Cardboard packaging with metal foil on the inside, often containing milk or fruit juice, is separated and tied together. For glass, each colour has a special container. The collected waste partly produces the energy needed for district heating. The Spittelau incineration plant in Vienna, an urban art work designed by the artist and architect Hundertwasser, is a good example of this conversion. In addition, Austria has had a very active anti-nuclear policy for many years and has not used nuclear energy for its own consumption since 1978. The quality of life in Austria is remarkable: clean air, clear water, respect for pedestrians and cyclists. The country is definitely ahead in the environmental field, the other major component being its conviviality.
Green, social and exemplary urban planning
The capital of Austria is the first green metropolis for its public transport, its natural spaces, its soft paths, its incineration plant, etc. The capital of Austria is one of the most pleasant cities to live in, and remains at the forefront of social and eco-responsible housing.
Vienna houses 60% of its population in rent-controlled apartments and reserves two-thirds of new construction for subsidized housing. In addition, each housing project must comply with a charter of environmental standards.
Multiple roots and rapid urbanization
The city centre boasts medieval buildings, gothic edifices, baroque palaces, art nouveau buildings and grand squares. At the same time, skyscrapers rise in the business district and futuristic buildings in the historic MuseumsQuartier. Graffiti artists bring their modern and crazy artistic touch along the banks of the Danube.
This city is built in layers. After the Art Nouveau style that emerged at the end of the 19th century, joyful and flamboyant, a galloping urbanization animated the red Vienna of the 1930s under the social democracy. In just a few years, 60,000 homes were built, including the emblematic Karl Marx Hof, spread over a kilometre long, with 1,325 comfortable homes, averaging 40 to 45 m², a dream for working-class families of the time! Large courtyards and common rooms were used for meetings and exchanges, a model of urbanization that is still studied and inspiring. Thus Vienna succeeded in harmoniously blending centuries, populations and artistic trends. In the same way, achievements emerge which allow new citizenships.
Hundertwasser, utopian and visionary
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) is another reference that attracts tourists and students of urban planning, adding to the originality of his style, which is free of straight lines, colours, conviviality and an environmental component. This eco-friendly artist, who magnifies nature in a global art form and is a precursor in the defence of sustainable development, denounced consumer society in his own way of life and through his works. The building, which housed Austria's first Green Museum, inaugurated in 1991, is in itself a work of art by the artist. Hundertwasser rehabilitated the former Bugholz furniture factory into a warm and open space. And it is an enchantment of joyful, original and colourful architecture with vegetated spaces, flowing water, undulating floors, colours that pop, gold and silver, wood and ceramics, glass, bricks, stones, metal, spaces for dreaming, resting, and a roof terrace with trees, vegetable garden and beehives. Today, this Kunst Haus Wien
, Vienna's House of Artists, hosts a retrospective of its works and programs contemporary art exhibitions that denounce the threats to biodiversity. To complete your discovery of Hundertwasser, you should go nearby to see the famous "Hundertwasser House". Commissioned by the municipality of Vienna, this experimental, humanistic and ecological collective dwelling house was designed in 1983. On stage, colours, waves, gilding. Nothing regular or symmetrical, but curves to imitate nature, vegetation, common spaces. Something of the Viennese way of life remains.MuseumsQuartier and eco-neighbourhoods
Inaugurated in 2001, the MuseumsQuartier, a new cultural and popular space, harmonizes the centuries and is the result of a monumental construction project with a phenomenal budget. But what a success! Close to the city centre, this international art complex sees young locals and Viennese families enjoying the immense inner courtyard with large, colourful design benches. The harmony between the renovated buildings from the Baroque era, including the former stables and the imperial courtyard, which structure the complex, and the new constructions such as the Mumok, a museum of modern art with futuristic architecture, is noteworthy.
And new neighbourhoods are still being built to accommodate 10,000 to 20,000 new inhabitants per year. The Nordbahnhof, for example, was built in 2014 on an ex-railway zone around a green space. Each block has its own architect and project (see box). The residents of a building without cars or parking were thus able to free up space for their bicycle garage and collective spaces. In the Aspangbahnhof station area, the largest group of positive-energy houses in Europe is being built.
Wohnprojekt, an inspiring participatory housing project
In the new Nordbahnhof district, the most famous building is the Wohnprojekt, an 8-storey wooden participative housing with bay windows, roof terrace, guest rooms, kitchen, barbecue and collective vegetable gardens, district heating and photovoltaic panels.
Inaugurated in 2014, several times awarded, it has 39 affordable apartments (about 570 € perm2). Residents devote a dozen hours a month to collective work. Decisions are made not by democracy but by "sociocracy", a form of governance based on consensus. The formula works and delights the hundred or so residents, aged 2 to 76. Erich, a pensioner, is one of the initiators: "The result is even better than I imagined. We are a village within the city and have few problems. During the health crisis, the 40 resident children were educated in our seminar room."
Aspern Seestadt or the suburb rethought
But Vienna's latest major urban development project, which has won awards for its environmental quality and originality, is Aspern Seestadt, an eco-neighbourhood for housing, business and leisure, accessible by underground. All the streets are named after women, to restore a certain parity. A peaceful atmosphere around a large artificial lake, parks, pedestrian squares, shared gardens, playgrounds... Here, the residents leave the car behind. In addition to the soft roads, a small experimental electric shuttle without a driver runs through the district. Many innovative and inspired architects have been involved. The most original building is the elegant Hoho eco-building, the tallest wooden building ever built, with 24 floors of offices, a hotel and a restaurant. Romane Hofman, who worked with Günter Gerbler on this project, explains: "It is a hybrid eco-building, made of prefabricated elements, combining spruce and larch, supported by solid wood pillars and a concrete framework, with a photovoltaic roof, very well insulated and connected to the district heating Another construction that one comes to see from afar!
