Styria
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Styria
Steiermark (German) | ||
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Votes in Bundesrat 9 (of 62) | | |
Website | Federal state government |
Styria (German: Steiermark [ˈʃtaɪɐˌmaʁk] ⓘ; Bavarian: Steiamårk, Slovene: Štajerska, Hungarian: Stájerország) is an Austrian federal state in the south-eastern part of the country. With an area of 16,401 km2 (6,332 sq mi), Styria is Austria's second largest federal state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, by the Austrian federal states Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The federal state's capital is Graz. In the European Union's vocabulary, Styria is a province.
Etymology
The March of Styria derived its name from the original seat of its ruling Otakar dynasty: Steyr, in today's Upper Austria. In German, the area is still called "Steiermark" while in English the Latin name "Styria" is used. The ancient link between Steyr and Styria is also apparent in their nearly identical coats of arms, a white Panther on a green background.
Geography
- The term "Bruck-Mürzzuschlag).
- The term "Western Styria" (Weststeiermark) is used for the districts west of Graz (Leibnitz). Because of the similar landscape with hills, valleys, wine and culture, the region in western Styria is also called "Styrian Tuscany".[3]
- The districts east of Graz (Weiz, Hartberg-Fürstenfeld, and Südoststeiermark) are referred to as "Eastern Styria" (Oststeiermark).
The western and eastern parts of the district
History
Styria was inhabited by
In 1180, Styria separated from the Duchy of Carinthia and became a Duchy of its own; in 1192 the Austrian Duke Leopold V also became Duke of Styria. Later, Styria formed the central part of Inner Austria.
Styria developed culturally and economically under Archduke John of Austria between 1809 and 1859.
In 1918, after
Economy
The federal state's gross domestic product (GDP) was 49.6 billion € in 2018, accounting for 12.9% of Austria's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 35,400 € or 118% of the EU27 average in the same year.[4]
In 2004, Styria had the strongest economic growth rate in Austria at 3.8%—mainly due to the Graz area, which saw strong economic growth that year and has continued to grow in economic and population terms since then.
Styria is home to more than 150 clean technology companies of which one dozen are world technology leaders in their field. The revenue of Styrian cleantech companies totals €2.7 billion. This equals 8 percent of the gross regional product (GRP) and is one of the highest concentrations of leading clean technology companies in Europe. The companies have an average (real) growth rate of 22 percent per year—well above the worldwide cleantech market growth of 18 percent per year. The region created roughly 2,000 additional green jobs in 2008 alone.[5]
The
Administrative divisions
The federal state is divided into 13 districts (Bezirke), one of them a statutory city. There are 286 municipalities.
Statutory city
Districts
- Bruck-Mürzzuschlag
- Deutschlandsberg
- Graz-Umgebung
- Hartberg-Fürstenfeld
- Leibnitz
- Leoben
- Liezen (with the subdistrict Gröbming)
- Murau
- Murtal
- Südoststeiermark
- Voitsberg
- Weiz
Largest cities in Styria
The following is a list of the nine largest cities and towns in Austria by population:[7]
name | district | population
(as of 2023)[8] |
---|---|---|
Graz | Graz (statutory city) | 298,479 |
Leoben | Leoben | 25,140 |
Kapfenberg | Bruck-Mürzzusschlag | 22,182 |
Bruck an der Mur | Bruck-Mürzzusschlag | 15,970 |
Feldbach | Südoststeiermark | 13,421 |
Leibnitz | Leibnitz | 13,014 |
Knittelfeld | Murtal | 12,781 |
Gratwein-Straßengel | Graz-Umgebung | 12,770 |
Seiersberg-Pirka | Graz-Umgebung | 12,112 |
Demographics
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
The federal state had been a stronghold of the
The governor (Austrian political term: Landeshauptmann) of Styria has typically been a ÖVP candidate.
In the 2021 municipal election in Graz, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) surprisingly took over first place from the ÖVP, thus pushing long-time mayor Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP) out of office. The result was noted internationally. Elke Kahr led the KPÖ for a third time in the 2021 Graz local election. Despite opinion polling suggesting a victory for the ruling ÖVP, the KPÖ became the largest party with 28.8% of votes and 15 seats. After the election, the KPÖ entered into coalition talks with The Greens – The Green Alternative and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).[9] On November 13, 2021, the KPÖ, the Greens and the SPÖ announced their coalition: Graz gets a communist mayor with Elke Kahr.
Recent elections
In the 2005 elections for the federal state's parliament the SPÖ under their regional chairman Franz Voves won the majority after the ÖVP had damaged its credibility through scandals and the secession of a high-ranking party member, who took part in the 2005 elections after setting up his own party. In these elections, the KPÖ also received many votes after it had gained much popularity through its role in local politics in Graz during the preceding years. The two right-wing populist parties, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), failed to win seats.
In subsequent elections in 2010 and 2015, the SPÖ, the ÖVP, and the KPÖ each lost between one fourth and one third of their shares of the vote relative to 2005. The FPÖ grew from 4.6 percent to 26.8 percent.[10][11] The current government of Styria is a coalition of SPÖ and ÖVP. The governor, Christopher Drexler, is a representative of the People's Party. His deputy, Anton Lang, is a SPÖ member.
Notable people
- Palman (fl. 1310–1363), knight and mercenary commander of the Serbian Empire
- Johann Joseph Fux (1660–1741), composer and music theorist, wrote Gradus ad Parnassum – a composition manual used by Beethoven and Mozart
- Archduke John of Austria (1782–1859)
- Peter Rosegger (1843–1918), honoured poet
- Johann Puch (1862–1914), founded Johann Puch Erste Steiermärkische Fahrrad-Fabriks-Aktiengesellschaft at Graz in 1899.
- Robert Stolz (1880–1975), composer born in Graz
- Karl Böhm, (1894–1981), conductor
- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909–1999), political scientist
- Bert Isatitsch (1911–1994), first president of the International Luge Federation
- Frank Stronach (b. 1932), founder of Magna International, billionaire
- Jochen Rindt (1942–1970), Formula 1 World Champion
- Helmut Marko (b. 1943), former racing driver
- Dietrich Mateschitz (1944–2022), founder and CEO of Red Bull
- Klaus Maria Brandauer (b. 1944), actor and director
- Elfriede Jelinek (b. 1946), Nobel Prize in Literature winner
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (b. 1947), bodybuilder, film actor and former Governor of California
- Hugo Eberhardt (1948) (b. 1948), leader in the field of technical safety
- Getty Kaspers (b. 1948), lead vocals of Dutch band Teach-In, who won the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.
- Eva Rueber-Staier (b. 1951), Miss Austria 1969, Miss World 1969
- Herbert Walzl (1959–2022), stage actor, theatre director and playwright
- Wolfgang Muthspiel (b. 1965), jazz composer and guitarist
- Ulla Weigerstorfer (b. 1967), Miss Austria 1987 and Miss World 1987
- Thomas Muster (b. 1967), former World No. 1 tennis player
- Renate Götschl (b. 1975), alpine skiing World Champion
- Elisabeth Görgl (b. 1981), professional alpine skier
- Christoph Strasser (b. 1982), champion ultra cyclist
- Conchita Wurst (b. 1988), singer and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014
See also
- Lower Styria
References
- ^ "Basisdaten Bundesländer" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-09-01.
- ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
- ^ "Die Steiermark ist da, wo es aussieht wie in der Toskana (in German)". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Archived from the original on November 13, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
- ^ "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat.
- ^ Lesser, Shawn. "Top 10 cleantech cluster organizations for 2010". Clean Tech Group. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ "Styrian Grand Prix 2021 - F1 Race". Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website.
- ^ "Städte / Gemeinden". www.bmi.gv.at. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ^ "Statistics". www.statistik.at. Statistics Austria.
- ^ "Graz: dark-red–green–red as good as fixed". ORF (in German). 23 October 2021.
- ^ "Landtagswahl 2010" (PDF).
- ^ "Landtagswahl 2015" (PDF).