The birth balance of 2012 has been negative for the first time in three years. This was due to an increase in deaths. Another trend is that women give birth to their first child when they are older. Even though more children were born last year, there was a negative balance of 484 for the […]
An extraordinary housing project by VinziRast will start in the next couple of days in Vienna: students and homeless people will live and work together in a house at Währinger Straße. The idea emerged two years ago, when students contacted the constructor Hans Peter Haselsteiner. As he agreed that he would finance the project, it […]
For those who want to apply for citizenship in Austria have to overcome many obstacles. Even those people who fulfill all criteria are sometimes rejected. A case in Tyrol shows that this could be due to a controversial regulation of the Citizenship Act. Hesmat Hashemi has been living in Austria for twelve years. He escaped […]
Hotel Burgenland in Eisenstadt is under new management from this year. The famous four-star hotel was formerly part of Austria Hotels Betriebs GmbH for 10 years and has now been sold. The hotel will now be run in its own rights are not as part of the chain, say the management. The director of the […]
A huge crane left over from the war and mounted on top of one of Vienna’s massive Flak towers is set to be taken down after 70 years to make way for a new panorama viewing platform. During the war Vienna built six massive flak towers in which people could take shelter and which were […]
The region of Velden in Carinthia is the latest named as having been involved in risky financial investments after losing close to 500,000 Euros of taxpayers money. If correct it will mean Velden is the latest in a number of local government bodies that has tried to profit from speculative investments. Now that the tide […]
An Austrian tradition known as the Imster Schemenlaufen that takes place during the carnival period has been recognised as part of the world’s cultural heritage by UNESCO. It takes place every four years at Imst in Tyrol usually on a Sunday and lasts from early in the morning until exactly 1800. The next one takes […]
Austrian Canadian businessman Frank Stronach has invested another 1,000,000 euros in his political party which he founded recently to fight in the next election in Austria. According to a new law from the first of July any donations over 50,000 euros need to be registered with the Federal auditors. That means also any donations made […]
Austrian cellar monster Josef Fritzl has had his revenge on his long suffering wife Rosemarie with the granting of a divorce from her while serving life imprisonment. Rosemarie wanted nothing more to do with him after his terrible crimes against their daughter were exposed – but she wanted to keep his name in order to […]
A rare female Ibis that was named after its patron the British conservationist Jane Goodall has been shot by poachers in Italy. The Ibis has been extinct in Europe for 400 years but this year after a project spanning 10 years a team led by bird expert Dr Johannes Fritz had finally managed to reintroduce […]