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Exploring Austria: A Quiz on History, Geography, and Culture

Test your knowledge about Austria's history, geography, and culture with this engaging quiz.

1 Name disputed by Greece; see ________.

2 What is the national anthem of Austria?

3 How many square miles is Austria in area?

4 In 1912, after the annexation of ________ in 1908, Islam was officially recognised in Austria.

5 Which of the following titles did Austria have?

6 In accordance with the Austrian constitution, armed forces may only be deployed in a limited number of cases, mainly to defend the country and aid in cases of national emergency, such as in the wake of ________.

7 The Austrian foothills at the base of the ________ and the Carpathians account for around 12% and the foothills in the east and areas surrounding the periphery of the Pannoni low country amount to about 12% of the total landmass.

8 [21] Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling dynasty, the ________.

9 Currently, larger contingents of Austrian forces are deployed in Bosnia, Kosovo and, since 1974, in the ________.

10 When was Austria established?

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Achenseebahn (pictured) in Austria is the oldest steam-operated rack railway in Europe.
  • the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was a Ukrainian military formation in the German armed forces during the World War II and that it fought against the Red Army in Graz, Austria.
  • the crown-cardinals of Austria, France, and Spain could exercise the jus exclusivae during papal conclaves from the 16th to 20th centuries.
  • the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track constructed for the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria, was the first permanent, combination artificially refrigerated track.
  • the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial (pictured) in Vienna commemorates the 65,000 Austrian Jews who were victims of the Holocaust.
  • the synagogue at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna, Austria was devastated during Kristallnacht in 1938 and converted into a transformer station after the war.
  • the RTÉ television series The Great Escape follows families as they relocate to countries such as South Africa, Australia, Austria, Italy, France and Spain.
  • the Austrian town of Fucking installed theft-resistant road signs in 2005 because the signs were frequently stolen by tourists.
  • the Austrian-born writer Gregor von Rezzori acted in several movies alongside stars such as Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni or Charles Aznavour.
  • the catfish genus Steindachneridion was named after its discoverer, the Austrian zoologist Franz Steindachner.
  • the European fascist alliance New European Order split in 1955 due to a dispute over the issue of whether South Tyrol should be Italian or Austrian.
  • the Lainzer Tiergarten (pictured) is a 2,450-hectare (6,054-acre) wildlife preserve in the city of Vienna, Austria, and is home to approximately 1,000 wild boars.
  • the Moon of Baroda, a 24.04-carat diamond, was worn by actress Marilyn Monroe and Empress Marie Therese of Austria.
  • the real objective of the 1732 Treaty of Three Black Eagles, where Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to support the Portuguese Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém in elections to the Polish throne, was to create a rift between France and Prussia.
  • the three major peaks of the Tofane were first reached in 1863, 1864 and 1865 by Austrian mountaineer Paul Grohmann.
  • there was a Czech section of the Austrian Republikanischer Schutzbund, associated with the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party in Austria.
  • with the inception of the Gauliga Ostmark in 1938, clubs from outside of Vienna were for the first time permitted to take part in Austria's premier football division.
  • the new 100-meter (330 ft) observation tower with a 66-meter (217 ft) slide planned to be built on the Pyramidenkogel, a mountain in Austria, will be the tallest wooden tower in the world.
  • the largest solar plant of the Alps was built on Loser mountain in Austria at 1,838 meters above sea level.
  • the Noric language is attested in only two inscriptions, one from Grafenstein, Austria, and the other from Ptuj, Slovenia.
  • the Wesselenyi conspiracy in Hungary aimed at removing Austrian influence had the reverse effect.
  • the Polish town of Dzierżoniów was the venue of a meeting between Poland, Prussia, Holland and Austria during the Great Turkish War.
  • the annual Pflasterspektakel ('pavement spectacle') in Linz, Austria, features over 400 international street artists and attracts some 200,000 visitors each year.
  • the Austrian government gave the American soprano Teresa Stich-Randall the title of Kammersängerin given to esteemed artists.
  • the Austrian Rieger Orgelbau and Czech Rieger-Kloss are two organ-building firms formed after World War II with origins in a single company.
  • Felix Salten's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria in 1923, is considered the first environmental fiction novel to be published.
  • Eugène de Beauharnais returned the territories of the Napoleonic Italy to provisional Austrian rule in 1814 by the Convention of Mantua.
  • German painter Ludwig Thiersch influenced the debate over Byzantine and Western influences in modern Greek art, and painted church frescoes in Greece, Austria, Germany, England, and Russia.
  • Arthur Raikes was a British army officer but received honours from Zanzibar, Austria and Portugal.
  • Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld was an Austrian aristocratic night fighter flying ace who fought for the German Luftwaffe in World War II.
  • Austrian film company Wien-Film was given its official mission statement in 1938 by Joseph Goebbels.
  • Austrian entrepreneur Richard Lugner has been nicknamed Mörtel ("Mortar", as in masonry) by the media.
  • Austrian Jewish author Elfriede Gerstl as a child had to hide in a wardrobe to avoid deportation to a concentration camp.
  • Austrian journalist Günther Nenning is nicknamed Auhirsch, meaning "meadow deer".
  • Austrian mathematician Wilhelm Wirtinger (1865–1945) showed how to compute the fundamental group of a knot.
  • Austrian socialist leader Robert Danneberg, one of the architects of 'Red Vienna', was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.
  • Archduke Felix of Austria was once barred from entering Austria, and he held a news conference to announce his illegal arrival the day after sneaking in from Germany in 1996.
  • Helen Bright Clark was one of the first British women to sign the Open Christmas Letter which sought to extend the hand of peace "To the Women of Germany and Austria" during World War I.
  • after Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, the parliamentarians of the German Christian Social People's Party in Czechoslovakia joined the Sudeten German Party.
  • after the non-profit Internet service provider Public Netbase began supporting websites that opposed his political party, Austrian politician Jörg Haider accused the organisation of sponsoring child pornography.
  • professional ice hockey player Duncan MacPherson disappeared in 1989 at the age of 23, and was found dead 15 years later on a mountain in Austria.
  • since 1978, countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States have compiled government reports on groups referred to as cults.
  • a cousin of curling, ice stock sport, is played primarily in Germany and Austria.
  • a shrew's fiddle was used to punish women who were caught fighting or arguing in Germany and Austria, often until both women agreed to stop bickering.
  • Julius Anton Glaser's 1873 code of criminal procedure was the first to introduce trial by jury in Austria.
  • Ludwig Schwarz, the Roman Catholic bishop of Linz, Austria, has a doctorate in classical philology and archeology from the University of Vienna.
  • Ruth Maier, an Austrian Jew who found refuge in Norway until her deportation and death at Auschwitz in 1942, has been called "Norway's Anne Frank".
  • Philippine Christmas lanterns, called Parols (pictured), are also used in Christmas celebrations in Austria, Canada and California.
  • Austrian Baroque painter Paul Troger was known for his frescoes in Austrian abbeys (example pictured).