Burgenland, Austria Overview

Burgenland, the easternmost and youngest federal state in Austria, 3,962 km ², (2017) 291,900 residents.

Burgenland stretches along the Hungarian border between the Slovak Republic in the north and Slovenia in the south, it has a north-south extension of almost 200 km and is on average 30 km wide, west of Sopron (German Ödenburg) only 4.5 km. Administratively, Burgenland consists of 7 districts with a total of 171 communities (including 13 town and 67 market communities); two cities have their own statute (Eisenstadt, Rust); The capital is Eisenstadt.

Law

According to the state constitutional law of September 14, 1981 (amended several times), the state parliament (36 members elected for 5 years) exercises the legislation. The executive power lies with the provincial government, which consists of the governor, the deputy governor and 5 provincial councilors. The constitution enables referendums and petitions.

Flag and coat of arms: The flag is red over yellow in two horizontal stripes of equal width with the coat of arms in the middle. – The coat of arms has been in use since 1922. It shows in a golden shield a red, gold-crowned and armored, red-tongued, looking back eagle with outstretched wings, which stands on a black rock, is accompanied in the upper corners by two black, broad-ended crosses (coats of arms of the Counts of Mattersdorf and Forchtenstein in different colors) and its chest is covered with a shield split three times by red and furrier (coat of arms of the Counts of Güssing and Bernstein).

According to ezinereligion, Burgenland lies in the transition area between the Hungarian Plain and the Eastern Alps, the foothills of which create three clearly delimited sub-areas. Northern Burgenland encompasses the fertile Eisenstadt basin (wheat, sugar beet and vegetable cultivation), the shallow tub (Neusiedler Bucht) of Lake Neusiedl, the southern part of which belongs to Hungary, and the “Salzlacken” and Pusztal landscape of the Seewinkel, which adjoins to the east North rises to Parndorfer Heide. Bounded to the west and north by the Rosalien and Leithagebirge, it opens up towards the Vienna Basin through the wide passageways of the Wiener Neustädter and Brucker Pforte. South of the Ödenburger Gebirgssporn adjoins the hill and terraced landscape of central Burgenland, framed in a semicircle by the foothills of the Bucklige Welt, the Bernsteiner and Günser Mountains (the highest point in Burgenland is the Geschrittenstein at 884 m above sea level). The third sub-area, the southern Burgenland hills and terraces with the broad valleys of Pinka, Strem, Lafnitz and Raab, is morphologically the eastern continuation of the East Styrian hill country and part of the Graz Bay.

Burgenland: administrative structure

Climate: The climate is continental: low annual precipitation of less than 700 mm, hot and dry summers and poor snow, but cold winters away from Lake Neusiedl. – In terms of plant geography, northern Burgenland already belongs to the Pannonian region, the south to the Illyrian region.

Population

Burgenland forms a border area in which Germans, Magyars, Croats and Roma have settled side by side for centuries. The proportion of non-German-speaking ethnic groups, however, fell sharply in the 20th century. The Burgenland Croats are the largest minority today; Overall, around 8.4% of Burgenlanders describe themselves as belonging to one of the minorities mentioned. On the edge of the mountains and in the wide valleys are mostly small settlements, among which the street and anger villages with stretching and hooked farms predominate.

Religion: The last census to collect data on religious affiliation was in 2001. At that time around 79% of the population were Catholic and around 13% Protestant. Since then, only the membership numbers of the religious communities themselves can be used as a basis. The Protestant Christians belong to the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg and Helvetic Confessions in Austria, while the Diocese of Eisenstadt is responsible for the Catholic Christians. In 2015 this diocese had 196 226 members according to church statistics. The number of Muslims living in Burgenland was around 7,000 in 2012 (source: statista).

Traffic

The main mode of transport in Burgenland is the road. A modern network of motorways, expressways and federal highways connects the individual parts of the country with each other and the state with the rest of Austria. The railway network in Burgenland is characterized by secondary lines, i. H. Routes without express train traffic. Only the north of the state is connected to the express route network near Neusiedl am See. The Pinkafeld and Punitz-Güssing airports are only of regional importance.