Austria Flag

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Flag of Austria

When we talk about the Austria Flag, what strikes our mind is the nation’s pride for Flag is something that symbolizes a country. Designed with specific meanings for its colours and symbols national flag may be worn by the citizens to showcase their patriotism. The design of the national Flag of Austria gets altered only in case of historical events and destruction of it is considered to be an offence.

The Austrian Flag gives insight to its history and identity and so is the Flag of Austria. The red and white stripes seen over the flag, but what do these colours signify? Let us see more about Austria Flag that is supposed to be one of the oldest in the world.

History of Austria Flag

The Austria's Flag adopted in the year 1918 is a red shield with a white central stripe placed horizontally and is attributed to Duke Leopold V. There are number of stories behind the origin of flags for different countries and for Austria flag the story is about blood and gore. It is believed that while fighting in the Siege of Acre in the year 1191 Duke Leopold V got terribly wounded and was bleeding to a larger extent, such that his tunic was drenched in blood. But later when he removed his blood a strip of unsoiled material was left over and this was the inspiration behind the creation of that horizontal white stripe in between the red ones.

However, the modern historians have disapproved this story behind the design of Austria Flag as well as the one known from the seal of Duke Frederick II in the year 1230. Though the Austria rulers held control over European Empire’s heartland the Austria territory made use of the coat of arms with the flag of associated design.

In the year 1806 when the Holy Roman Empire came to an end and in the year 1918 that brought to an end the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria then suffered a loss of its imperial banners and got reduced to its current borders. The new republic that appeared after about seven years of Austria’s amalgamation with the Nazi Germany adopted the simple red-white-red flag.

Austria Flag Meaning and Design

Austria comprised of very few flag designs in its lifetime, and at present it makes use of two different styles that you would often come across the city of Vienna. The most common design used to represent Austria, is simply the red and white striped flag with white being in the centre and it was officially adopted as country’s flag in the year 1945.

The alternative variety of Austria Flag usually known as the triband derives its roots from Babenberg dynasty and comprises of a spread eagle. Some take it as a symbol of River Danube, which is one of the emblems of royal family and also a nod to country’s past. Further, a broken chain was added to the eagle’s feet in the year 1945 to symbolize freedom from the Nazi party at the end of second world war.

Austria Country Information, Currency, Codes, Time Zone

Lying in the European continent Austria is a landlocked country that lies in the central Europe with approximately 8.7 million inhabitants. It has been surrounded by around 8 neighbouring countries namely Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west and Slovenia and Italy to the south. With the population density of 266 per sq. mi or 103 people per sq.km the Austria territory spreads across 83871 s . km or 32383 sq. mi. Austria is a semi-federal presidential republic with parliamentary representative democracy with the capital city being Vienna that exceeds the population of about 1.8 million. The official language of Austria is German and the currency is Euro.

Austria comprises of two letter country code i.e. AT which is also a top level internet domain and its three letter country code is AUT and in digits it is 040. The calling code is +43 and the UTC i.e. standard time followed in Austria is UTC+01:00 and UTC+02:00 in summer. Being a federal republic, Austria comprises a total of 9 independent federal states that are also called as provinces. These include: Burgenland, Lower Austria, Carinthia, Upper Austria, Styria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Vienna.