Human beings have lived in what s now Austria for many thousands of years, but historians know little about the earliest inhabitants. A tiny stone statue found in central Austria is believed to be 30,000 years old. Called Venus of Willendolf, the statue is now displayed in the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

Shards of pottery and tools indicate that a prehistoric village – perhaps Austria’s first town – existed where the small city of Hallstatt now stands. Celtic people lived at Hallstatt at least as early as 800 B.C. The Celts were among the first people in Europe to make iron. Ancient iron figures and wooden tools from that long-ago village can be seen today at Hallstatt’s Prehistory Museum. In about 400 B.C., a Celtic tribe called the Vendi established an outpost on the Danube River. That tiny outpost later became Austria’s capital city of Vienna.

Soldiers and merchants from mighty Rome came, and by 15 B.C. the Roman Empire controlled what is now Austria. The Romans trekked through the Alps via the Brenner Pass and blazed a foot path over which the Brenner Autobahn runs today. For more than 400 years, Austria was a northern territory of the vast Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire collapsed in the AD 400’s, and people from Germany to the north and from Slavic lands to the east entered Austria. In 955, Austria came under the rule of the Germanic King Otto I, who later headed a loose confederation of states know as the Hold Roman Empire. Otto I, was the first of a succession of German kings to reign over Austrian lands. Under the rule of German king, the German language spread.

In an interview with the "Wie- ner Zeitung", Alfred Finz confirmed that the tax reform for 2005 was almost ready. "The whole package will cover 2.5 billion euros", Finz said. He stressed that is would make no sense to start smaller parts of the reform next year. "We will get away from taxing income to taxing wealth", Finz explained the system change.

A day later, Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser told the ORF that the outline for the tax reform was still in progress and not ready yet. Negotiations are continuing. The opposition parties, the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Greens, meanwhile welcomed Finz's statement on taxing wealth rathern than income. The Freedom Party (FPÖ), however, criticised that the concept had not been fully agreed with them. They want some taxes scrapped next year.

Labour Minister Martin Bartenstein (ÖVP) said that an easing of the jobless crisis will only occur after the reflation was successful. For details on the reflation package - especially the research section - see page 20.

11.11.2003

US-Austrian Cinema Connection

Austrian Culture in the USA Austria isn't just about waltzes, imperial palaces, war torn Vienna and the film The Sound of Music, but offers cutting-edge classical and contemporary music, literature and cinema", says Robert von Dassanowsky. Although he was born in New York, Dassanowsky has a strong sense of personal identification with Austrian culture, having just written the first English language book on the history of Austrian cinema from 1896 to the present. He is a film producer and Chair of Languages and Cultures and Director of Film Studies at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

He is also a co-founder of the Austrian American Film Association (AAFA) along with film historian Gertraud Steiner-Daviau, who is a member of the Federal Press Service for the Republic of Austria in Vienna. "So much of Golden Age Hollywood is based in Austrian or Austro-Hungarian talent and we felt it was important for the AAFA to recall the Vienna Hollywood connection through symposia and co-productions," he says. Austrian film directors such as Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder became Hollywood's undis- puted craftsman. Dassanowsky comments that so-called slap-stick comedy is an Austrian genre that one might see in silent films of the 1920's that were produced in Vienna.

"The hey-day of Austrian cinema was in the 1950's with the imperial epics like the 'Sissi' films about Empress Elizabeth and the Habsburg Monarchy. These films stick in the mind of people, yet Austria has an image that both Hollywood and Vienna constructed." According to Dassanowsky, Austrian cinema production fell dramatically in the 1960's due to funding problems, but financing from the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation since the 1970's helped the industry get back on track. "Austrian cinema is having a Renaissance at film festivals around the world and film critics are taking it seriously again. There is a re-education and awareness going on in Austria now of its cinema heritage and thanks should be given to the Filmarchiv Austria in Vienna."

Dassanowsky believes that Americans are taking a real interest in Austrian literature and Ariadne Press of Southern California highlights this by publishing English language translations of Austrian authors such as Arthur Schnitzler and Alexander Lernet-Holenia. "For me, he was an Austrian version of Thomas Mann and I founded a society in Lernet- Holenia's name to promote his works. Austrian literature has a lot to give to American readers."

18.03.2003