 | This section is missing information about history.(September 2021) |
Greeks in Austria number between 5,000 and 18,000 people. They are located all around the country, but the main community is located in Vienna.
| | This section is missing information about history.(September 2021) |
Greeks in Austria number between 5,000 and 18,000 people. They are located all around the country, but the main community is located in Vienna.
Contacts between the Greeks and the Austrians can be led back in the aristocracy of the Middle Ages. All the Babenberg dukes from Leopold V onward were descended from Byzantine emperors.
The Armenian Johannes Theodat opened on 17 January 1685 Vienna's first coffee house in Haarmarkt. As a reward for his services, he was granted the privilege of being the only trader in the city to sell coffee as a drink for 20 years. Following, by 1700, four Greek merchants had the privilege to serve coffee in public.
In the 18th century, Vienna was the centre of Greek diaspora where persons like Rigas Feraios, Anthimos Gazis, Neophytos Doukas and the Ypsilantis family prepared the Greek War of Independence. There were also various institutions founded in Vienna that promote the Greek language and learning, contributing to the Modern Greek Enlightenment. In 1814, the Count Ioannis Kapodistrias, at that time Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire, in collaboration with Anthimos Gazis, founded in Vienna the Philomuse Society, an educational organization promoting philhellenism, such as studies for the Greeks in Europe. [1]
Additionally, ethnic Aromanians coming mostly from Moscopole, and generally from the Balkans, who self-identified as Greeks, have also been considered as part of the Greek diaspora. [2] [3]
Furthermore, of great economic importance and social acknowledgment attained the Greeks in Austria in the 19th century. The first Greek newspaper was printed there and the Hellenic National School in Vienna is today the oldest such in the world that has remained continuously in operation. In 1856, after a request by Simon Sinas, Johann Strauss II composed the Hellenen-Polka (Hellenes Polka) op. 203 for an annual ball of the Greek community in the Austro-Hungarian empire. [4]
In 20th century, Austria (and especially Graz and Linz) was a popular destination for Greek students.
The Austrian magnate of Greek origin Georgios Sinas (father of Simon Sinas) invited the Danish architect Theophil Hansen who worked in Athens (and had designed there major public buildings like the Zappeion and the Academy of Athens) to design for him some new buildings for his companies in Austria. Other Greek Austrians like Nikolaus Dumba and Ignaz von Ephrussi also gave Hansen contracts for buildings in the Classical Greek style and the Gräzisierter-Neorennaissance-Stil. After Works like the Palais Ephrussi and the Palais Dumba Hansen was famous and build many other public buildings in Austria like the Parliament of Austria and the Musikverein.
In the former Greek Quarter of Vienna at the Fleischmarkt there are the two historical Greek Orthodox parishes (St George and Holy Trinity). A traditional Austrian Restaurant there is called Griechenbeisl ("Greek Tavern", because of its Greek visitors since the 18th century) and a street Griechengasse ("Greek Lane").
The Vienna New Year's Concert is an annual concert of classical music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on the morning of New Year's Day in Vienna, Austria. The concert occurs at the Musikverein at 11:15. The orchestra performs the same concert programme on 30 December, 31 December, and 1 January but only the last concert is regularly broadcast on radio and television.
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and during World War II he conducted at the Berlin State Opera. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a controversial but dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. Part of the reason for this was the large number of recordings he made and their prominence during his lifetime. By one estimate, he was the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time, having sold an estimated 200 million records.
The Wiener Musikverein, commonly shortened to Musikverein, is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.
Rigas Feraios or Velestinlis ; 1757 – 24 June 1798), born as Antonios Rigas Velestinlis, was a Greek writer, political thinker and revolutionary, active in the Modern Greek Enlightenment. A victim of the Balkan uprising against the Ottoman Empire and a pioneer of the Greek War of Independence, Rigas Feraios is today remembered as a national hero in Greece.
Moscopole or Voskopoja is a village in Korçë County in southeastern Albania. During the 18th century, it was the cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians. At its peak, in the mid 18th century, it hosted the first printing house in the Ottoman Balkans outside Constantinople, educational institutions and numerous churches. It became a leading center of Greek culture but also with elements of Albanian and Aromanian culture, all with great influence from Western civilization.
Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was a Danish architect who later became an Austrian citizen. He became particularly well known for his buildings and structures in Athens and Vienna, and is considered an outstanding representative of Neoclassicism and Historicism.
Konstantin TheodorDumba, was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat serving as its last accredited Ambassador to the United States and famous for having been expelled during World War I following accusations of espionage.
Anthimos Gazis or Gazes was a Greek scholar, revolutionary and politician. He was born in Milies (Thessaly) in Ottoman Greece in 1758 into a family of modest means. In 1774 he became an Eastern Orthodox deacon; his career later brought him to Constantinople where he was promoted to archimandrite. He left for Vienna in 1789, where he preached at the Church of Saint George, while simultaneously pursuing his academic interests. His efforts to promote education in Greece through the Filomousos Eteria, translation work and contributions to the first Greek philological periodical, Hermes o Logios, played a significant role in the development of the Greek Enlightenment.
The Ephrussi family is a Ukrainian Jewish banking and oil dynasty. The family's bank and properties were seized by the Nazi authorities after the 1938 "Anschluss", the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.
Simon von Sina or Simon Sinas was an Austrian-Greek banker, aristocrat, benefactor and diplomat. He was one of the most important benefactors of the Greek nation together with his father Georgios Sinas.
Carl Rahl, sometimes spelled Karl Rahl, was an Austrian painter.
Georgios Sinas was an Austrian-Greek entrepreneur and banker. He became a national benefactor of Greece and was the father of another Greek national benefactor, Simon Sinas. He was also the founder of the National Observatory of Athens.
Macedonians, also known as Greek Macedonians or Macedonian Greeks, are a regional and historical population group of ethnic Greeks, inhabiting or originating from the Greek region of Macedonia, in Northern Greece. Today, most Macedonians live in or around the regional capital city of Thessaloniki and other cities and towns in Macedonia (Greece), while many have spread across Greece and in the diaspora.
Hermes o Logios, also known as Logios Ermis was a Greek periodical printed in Vienna, Austria, from 1811 to 1821. It is regarded as the most significant and longest running periodical of the period prior to the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, containing contributions by key scholars and intellectuals. Hermes o Logios aimed at creating intellectual contacts between the Greek communities of the Ottoman Empire and the Diaspora in Western Europe, as well as the preparing national awakening of the Greek people.
Leonidas Drosis was a Greek neoclassical sculptor of the 19th century.
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is a Greek Orthodox Church Cathedral in the first district of Vienna, Austria, in the historic Greek neighborhood of Vienna's Innere Stadt. The neighborhood has also been known as the "Fleischmarkt".
Nikolaus Dumba was an Austrian industrialist and liberal politician. He is considered to have been an important patron of the arts and music and a benefactor of Greece.
Baron Konstantinos Bellios or Vellios was a Greek merchant and benefactor from the Ottoman Empire, the modern region of Greek Macedonia.
The Aromanian diaspora is any ethnically Aromanian population living outside its traditional homeland in the Balkans. The Aromanians are a small Balkan ethnic group living scattered throughout Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Historically, they also used to live in other countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, although they have ever since been assimilated.
Mihail George Boiagi was an Aromanian grammarian and professor in the Habsburg monarchy and the Austrian Empire. He was born on 3 February 1780 in Buda, today Budapest in Hungary. Boiagi was one of the first grammarians from the Balkans and a professor in a school in Vienna, where he taught Greek. He had origins from Moscopole, today in Albania. Boiagi was one of the main figures of the Aromanian diaspora in Austria and Hungary, the capitals of which, Vienna and Budapest respectively, became gathering centers for members of this community in the 19th century. Boiagi introduced the Aromanian historian Dimitrie Cozacovici to the Aromanian community of Austria and Hungary after Cozacovici's migration from Metsovo, today in Greece, to Buda.
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