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Austria > Vienna > Introduction
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Vienna or Wien as the Austrians say,is the home of one
of the longest ruling dynasties in the world - the imperial Habsburgs - has been one of
the hotbeds of high culture in Europe, from the Renaissance to the wave of experimentalism
that arose in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fattened by the riches from the defeat of
Turkey, the Habsburgs lavished money on their beloved capital, with stunning effects there
for all to see today. Vienna has also produced some of the most sublime western classical
music in the world. From Mozart to Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Brahms - all these
musical bigwigs have furrowed their brows in creative consternation under a Viennese
ceiling at one point or another.
The status of Vienna as the centre of the sprawling Austro-Hungarian Empire also ensured
the birth and maintenance of a distinctly cosmopolitan culture over the ages. This culture
reached its zenith during the 18th and 19th centuries, when a combination of diverse
elements such as psychoanalysis, free form music, utilitarian architecture and Zionism
made it a breeding ground of avant garde ideologies and theories. However, the same spirit
of experimentation, combined with the traditional conservatism that imperial lifestyles
generated, led to Austrians experimenting with right wing, fascist and anti-Semitic
ideologies.
Today's Vienna is reinventing itself as a unique meeting ground of cultures, now that the
iron curtain has finally lifted.
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