Famous people from Austria
Here is a list of famous people from Austria. Curious if anybody from Austria made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
Joseph Haydn
Opera Artist
Franz Joseph Haydn, known as Joseph Haydn, was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form. A lifelong resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe. Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Franz Liszt
Art song Artist
Franz Liszt, T.O.S.F., in modern use Liszt Ferenc; from 1859 to 1867 officially Franz Ritter von Liszt, was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age, and in the 1840s he was considered by some to be perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. Liszt was also a well-known and influential composer, piano teacher and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule". He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony. He also played an important role in popularizing a wide array of music by transcribing it for piano.
Niki Lauda
Racing driver
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver who was the F1 World Champion three times in 1975, 1977 and 1984. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines. He was also the manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years. He is currently working as a pundit for German TV during Grand Prix weekends and acts as non-executive chairman of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team. Lauda was seriously injured in a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, during which his Ferrari burst into flames and he came close to death after inhaling hot toxic gases and suffering severe burns. However he recovered and returned to race again just six weeks later at the Italian Grand Prix. Scars from the injuries he suffered have left him permanently disfigured.
Johann Strauss II
Operetta Artist
Johann Strauss II, also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 400 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well known as their elder brother. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, and the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.
Arnold Schoenberg
20th century classical Artist
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and painter, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. He used the standard German spelling Schönberg until after his move to the United States in 1934, whereupon he altered it to Schoenberg "in deference to American practice", though one writer claims he made the change a year earlier. Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, is among the major landmarks of 20th-century musical thought; at least three generations of composers in the European and American traditions have consciously extended his thinking or, in some cases, passionately reacted against it. During the rise of the Nazi Party in Austria, his works were labelled as degenerate music. Schoenberg was widely known early in his career for his success in simultaneously extending the traditionally opposed German Romantic styles of Brahms and Wagner. Later, his name would come to personify pioneering innovations in atonality that would become the most polemical feature of 20th-century art music. In the 1920s, Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone technique, a widely influential compositional method of manipulating an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also coined the term developing variation, and was the first modern composer to embrace ways of developing motifs without resorting to the dominance of a centralized melodic idea.
Christoph Waltz
Actor
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian and German actor. Internationally, he is best known for his works with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. He received acclaim for his supporting roles as SS-Colonel Hans Landa in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Tarantino's Django Unchained. For each performance, Waltz won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, he received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Landa.
Falco
Synthpop Artist
Johann Hölzel, better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian pop and rock musician and rapper. He had several international hits: "Rock Me Amadeus", "Der Kommissar", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home" and posthumously, "Out of the Dark". "Rock Me Amadeus" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, making him the only artist whose principal language was German to score a number-one hit in the United States. His estate claims he has sold 20 million albums and 15 million singles, which makes him the best selling Austrian singer of all time.
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Politician
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916. From 1 May 1850 until 24 August 1866 he was President of the German Confederation. In December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne as part of Ministerpräsident Felix zu Schwarzenberg's plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Austria, which allowed Ferdinand's nephew Franz Joseph to ascend to the throne. Largely considered to be a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. The Austrian Empire was forced to cede most of its claim to Lombardy–Venetia to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia following the conclusion of the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, and the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. Although Franz Joseph ceded no territory to the Kingdom of Prussia after the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, the Peace of Prague settled the German question in favour of Prussia, which prevented the unification of Germany under the House of Habsburg.
Erwin Schrödinger
Physicist
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics: he formulated the wave equation and revealed the identity of his development of the formalism and matrix mechanics. Schrödinger proposed an original interpretation of the physical meaning of the wave function and in subsequent years repeatedly criticized the conventional Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. In addition, he was the author of many works in various fields of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, color theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. In his book What Is Life? Schrödinger addressed the problems of genetics, looking at the phenomenon of life from the point of view of physics. He paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics and religion. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology.
Karl Popper
Philosopher
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century. Popper is known for his attempt to repudiate the classical observationalist/inductivist form of the scientific method in favour of falsifiability: a theory is deemed to be part of science if and only if, should it be false, it can be proved false. He is also known for his opposition to the classical justificationist account of knowledge which he replaced with critical rationalism, "the first non justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy". In political discourse, he is known for his vigorous defence of liberal democracy and the principles of social criticism that he came to believe made a flourishing "open society" possible.
Romy Schneider
Actor
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born film actress who achieved success in Germany and France. She started her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957 she played the central character of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Austrian Sissi trilogy. In 1958 she met Alain Delon and they became engaged; Schneider moved to France where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable film directors of that era. Her engagement to Delon ended in 1963 and Schneider subsequently married twice. The son from her first marriage died in an accident in 1981 when he was 14. In May 1982, aged 43, Schneider was found dead in her Paris apartment.
Gustav Klimt
Painting Artist
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body; his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Politician
Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central Powers and the Allies of World War I to declare war on each other, starting World War I.
Jürgen Melzer
Tennis Player
Jürgen Melzer is an Austrian tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of World No. 6 in September 2010. He is a left-handed tennis player, but is right-handed in everyday life. He has a younger brother, Gerald Melzer, with whom he has played doubles in several tournaments. In 1999, he won the boys' singles event at Wimbledon. For many years, he was known as one of the best players on the tour not to have progressed past the third round of a Grand Slam event. He ended this streak by reaching the semifinals of the French Open in 2010, losing to Rafael Nadal after coming from two sets down to defeat Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. He has also had success in doubles, winning the men's doubles event at Wimbledon in 2010 and the US Open in 2011 with Philipp Petzschner, as well as the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon in 2011 with his wife, Iveta Benešová. He endorses Adidas and Dunlop Sport. Melzer is currently coached by Galo Blanco.
Friedrich Hayek
Economist
Friedrich August Hayek CH, born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek and frequently known as F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian, later British, economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism. In 1974, Hayek shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and ... penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena". Hayek was a major political thinker of the twentieth century, and his account of how changing prices communicate information which enables individuals to coordinate their plans is widely regarded as an important achievement in economics. Hayek served in World War I and said that his experience in the war and his desire to help avoid the mistakes that had led to the war led him to his career. Hayek lived in Austria, Great Britain, the United States and Germany, and became a British subject in 1938. He spent most of his academic life at the London School of Economics, the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg. In 1984, he was appointed as a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his "services to the study of economics". He was the first recipient of the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize in 1984. He also received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 from president George H. W. Bush. In 2011, his article The Use of Knowledge in Society was selected as one of the top 20 articles published in the American Economic Review during its first 100 years.
Anton Bruckner
Composer
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. Unlike other musical radicals, such as Richard Wagner or Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick, and other supporters of Johannes Brahms, who pointed to their large size, use of repetition, and Bruckner's propensity to revise many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as "half simpleton, half God".
Peter Alexander
Singer
Peter Alexander Ferdinand Maximilian Neumayer, commonly known as Peter Alexander, was an Austrian actor, singer and entertainer. His fame emerged in the 1950s and 1960s through popular film comedies and successful recordings, predominantly of Schlager and operetta repertory. Later, Alexander established himself as the acclaimed host of television shows. His career as a live singer touring the German language countries lasted until 1991, while he continued his television work until 1996.
Maximilian I of Mexico
Noble person
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he entered into a scheme with Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico. France had invaded Mexico in 1861, with the implicit support and approval of other European powers, as part of the War of the French Intervention. Seeking to legitimize French rule, Napoleon III invited Maximilian to establish a new Mexican monarchy. With the support of the French army and a group of conservative Mexican monarchists, Maximilian traveled to Mexico where he declared himself Emperor of Mexico on 10 April 1864. Many foreign governments, including that of the United States, refused to recognize his administration. Maximilian's Second Mexican Empire was widely considered a puppet of France. Additionally, the Mexican Republic was never entirely defeated; Liberal forces led by President Benito Juárez continued to be active throughout Maximilian's rule. With the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States began to be able to more explicitly aid the democratic forces of Juárez; things became even worse for Maximilian's Empire after the French withdrew their armies in 1866. The Mexican Empire collapsed, and Maximilian was captured and executed in 1867. His wife Charlotte had left for Europe earlier to try to build support for her husband's regime; she suffered an emotional collapse after his death and was declared insane.
David Alaba
Soccer Midfielder
David Olatokunbo Alaba is an Austrian footballer who plays for Bayern Munich and the Austria national football team. He holds Austria's record as the youngest player to play for the team, debuting for them as a 17-year-old. He has played a multitude of roles, including central midfield, right and left wing, but as of spring 2012 has blossomed as a left back, a role that-then Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes stated he sees Alaba continuing in.
Thomas Muster
Tennis Player
Thomas Muster is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Austria. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, Muster won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was known as "The King of Clay." In addition, he won eight Masters 1000 series titles, placing him seventh on the all-time list. Muster is one of only three players to win Masters titles on three different surfaces.
Parov Stelar
Musical Artist
Marcus Füreder, better known by his stage name Parov Stelar is an Austrian musician. He performs with his band — the Parov Stelar Band — and as a DJ worldwide. Parov Stelar is the head of Etage Noir Recordings.
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Noble person
Maximilian I, the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky. He had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his father's reign, from c. 1483. He expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage in 1477 to Mary of Burgundy, the heiress to the Duchy of Burgundy, but he also lost the Austrian territories in today's Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy. By marrying his son Philip the Handsome to the future Queen Joanna of Castile in 1498, Maximilian established the Habsburg dynasty in Spain and allowed his grandson Charles to hold the throne of both León-Castile and Aragon, thus making him the first de jure King of Spain. Having outlived his father Philip, Charles succeeded Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, and thus ruled both the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire simultaneously.
Fritz Lang
Film Director
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was a Austrian filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. His most famous films include the groundbreaking Metropolis, and M, made before he moved to the United States, which is considered to be the precursor to the film noir genre.
Peter Drucker
Author
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, and he invented the concept known as management by objectives.
Maximilian Schell
Actor
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961. He is also a writer, director and producer of several films.
Gerhard Berger
Racing driver
Gerhard Berger is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver, who previously owned 50% of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team until he sold his share back to energy drink owner Dietrich Mateschitz in November 2008. Berger competed in Formula One for 14 seasons, twice finishing 3rd overall in the championship. He won ten Grands Prix, achieved 48 podiums, 12 poles and 21 fastest laps. With 210 starts he is amongst the most experienced Formula One drivers of all time. He led 33 of the 210 races he competed in and retired from 95 of them. Berger also has the unique distinction of taking Benetton's first and last victories, with eleven years separating them.
Felix Baumgartner
Award Winner
Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He set the world record for skydiving an estimated 39 kilometres, reaching an estimated speed of 1357.64 km/h, or Mach 1.25, on 14 October 2012, and became the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power on his descent. He is also renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones. Baumgartner's most recent project was Red Bull Stratos, in which he jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012. As part of this project, he set the altitude record for a manned balloon flight, parachute jump from the highest altitude, and greatest free fall velocity.
Viktor Frankl
Psychologist
Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D. was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the "Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy". His best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate which led him to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus, a reason to continue living. Frankl became one of the key figures in existential therapy and a prominent source of inspiration for humanistic psychologists.
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Visual Artist
Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial, by the end of the 20th century.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Monarch
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, and was the brother of Marie Antoinette. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism; however, his commitment to modernizing reforms subsequently engendered significant opposition, which eventually culminated in an ultimate failure to fully implement his programmes. He has been ranked, with Catherine II of Russia and Frederick II of Prussia, as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. His policies are now known as Josephinism. He died with no sons and was succeeded by his younger brother, Leopold.
Martin Buber
Philosopher
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family of observant Jews, but broke with Jewish custom to pursue secular studies in philosophy. In 1902, he became the editor of the weekly Die Welt, the central organ of the Zionist movement, although he later withdrew from organizational work in Zionism. In 1923, Buber wrote his famous essay on existence, Ich und Du, and in 1925, he began translating the Hebrew Bible into the German language. In 1930, Buber became an honorary professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main, but resigned in protest from his professorship immediately after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. He then founded the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education, which became an increasingly important body as the German government forbade Jews to attend public education. In 1938, Buber left Germany and settled in Jerusalem, Mandate Palestine, receiving a professorship at Hebrew University and lecturing in anthropology and introductory sociology.
Egon Schiele
Painting Artist
Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.
Alfred Adler
Psychologist
Alfred W. Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of inferiority—the inferiority complex—is recognized as isolating an element which plays a key role in personality development. Alfred Adler considered human beings as an individual whole, therefore he called his psychology "Individual Psychology". Adler was the first to emphasize the importance of the social element in the re-adjustment process of the individual and who carried psychiatry into the community.
Anton Webern
Composer
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative in the musical technique later known as total serialism.
Otto Skorzeny
Military Person
Otto Skorzeny was an Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny was also the leader of Operation Greif, in which German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using their opponents' language, uniforms, and customs. At the end of the war, Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement and the ODESSA network where he would serve as Spanish coordinator. Although he was charged with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention in relation with Operation Greif, the Dachau Military Tribunal acquitted Skorzeny after the war. Skorzeny fled from his holding prison in 1948, first to France, and then to Spain.
Konrad Lorenz
Academic
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, developing an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth. Lorenz studied instinctive behavior in animals, especially in greylag geese and jackdaws. Working with geese, he rediscovered the principle of imprinting in the behavior of nidifugous birds. In later life, his interest shifted to the study of humans in society. Lorenz's work was interrupted by the onset of World War II and in 1941 he was recruited into the German army as a medical man. In 1944 he was sent to the Eastern Front where he was captured and spent 4 years as a Soviet prisoner of war. After the war he regretted his membership of the Nazi party. He wrote numerous books, some of which, such as King Solomon's Ring, On Aggression and Man Meets Dog became popular reading. His last work "Here I Am - Where Are You?" is a summary of his life's work and focuses on his famous studies of greylag geese.
Natascha Kampusch
Person or entity appearing in film
Natascha Maria Kampusch is an Austrian woman known for her abduction at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998. Kampusch was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Přiklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006. The media attention later led to her giving select interviews, writing an autobiography and also signing a contract with Austrian channel Puls 4 for her own talk show, which had its premiere on 1 June 2008, but only ran for three episodes.
Amon Goeth
Military officer
Amon Leopold Goeth was an Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer and the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He was tried as a war criminal after the war by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków and was found guilty of personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people. He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for "personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people". He was executed by hanging not far from the former site of the Płaszów camp. The film Schindler's List depicts his practice of shooting camp internees.
Ernst Fuchs
Ophthalmologist
Ernst Fuchs was an Austrian ophthalmologist and physician best known for his contribution to description and identification of Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis in 1906, Fuchs's dystrophy, and his contributions in the field of ophthalmology including but not limited to Fuchs spot. In 1910, Fuchs reported 13 cases of bilateral central corneal clouding in elderly patients. Fuchs originally referred to it as "dystrophia epithelialis corneae." Fuchs' influences on the field of ophthalmology are well recognized and best exemplified in his many books including a book on the anatomy of the eye, titled Lehrbuch der Augenheilkunde which he published in Vienna around 1890. Fuchs was not only famous for his publications and books which earned the title "bible of ophthalmology" for at least 50 years, but also for his astute ability as a teacher and an educator influencing a new generation of German, Austrian, and indeed global ophthalmologists. During his period of clinical practice and education, Austria and particularly Vienna became the centre of ophthalmology world-wide. In fact, Fuchs' success was not limited to Austria-Hungary or Germany, but he was known globally and his works were published in Japanese, Chinese, and English languages. Fuchs also had many international patients, including the wife of Naser al-Din, the Qajar Shah of Persia and a group of his entourage, who came to Fuchs for treatment of cataracts.
Karol Martesko-Fenster
Film Producer
Karol Martesko-Fenster is an Austrian-born American entrepreneur and cross media executive. He has been active in the motion picture, publishing, music television and Internet industries for over two decades including leadership in the American independent film industry. Most recently Martesko-Fenster was the General Manager of the Film Division at Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures Entertainment Properties and President of Palm’s RES Media Group. During his five-year tenure he supervised the strategic re-organization of the film division and oversaw the company’s successful theatrical releases of Scratch and Sex and Lucia. While at Palm, he led all operations and brand positioning for the RES Media Group business unit, including its digital film festival RESFest, the world’s original digital arts and entertainment festival, which in its final year was a global touring event spanning six continents, 19 countries and over 40 cities worldwide. Prior to joining Palm, Martesko-Fenster was the President of Rising Tide Studios, an integrated media and convergence company founded by Jason Calacanis. As President & Publisher Martesko-Fenster supervised the growth and development of the Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter magazines and numerous high profile conferences on the Media, Finance and Technology Industries.
Krista Nell
Actor
Krista Nell was an actress.
Gerhard Liebmann
Actor
Gerhard Liebmann is an actor.
Markus Grössinger
Soccer Midfielder
Markus Grössinger is an Austrian football player currently playing for SV Ried.
Marko Arnautović
Soccer Midfielder
Marko Arnautović is an Austrian footballer who plays for as a forward for Premier League club Stoke City and the Austria national team. Arnautović began his career in his native Austria playing in the youth teams for a number of clubs in the Vienna area before he signed a contract with Dutch club Twente in 2006. He impressed at De Grolsch Veste and after a fine 2008–09 season he joined Italian giants Internazionale on loan. Arnautović's time at the San Siro was disrupted by injury and only managed three appearances for the Nerazzurri. He joined German side Werder Bremen in June 2010 and became a regular member of the first team as well with the Austria national team. In September 2013 Arnautović joined English Premier League side Stoke City.
Alexander Wurz
Racing driver
Alexander Wurz is an Austrian racing driver, driver training expert and businessman. He competed in Formula One from 1997 until 2007, and is also a two-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. He is currently under contract to race for the Toyota factory racing team in the WEC. He is linked to Formula 1 as consultant, expert for TV and media, Williams F1 Team's driver coach, member of FIA Institute safety group, FIA road safety ambassador, advisor to the GPDA, and works occasionally as F1 driver steward. Over the last 6 years he has established Test & Training International, a leading driver training and road safety expert group. He owns Piccini, a 155 year old restaurant and food import business in Vienna. He is the second son of former rallycross driver Franz Wurz, who won the European Rallycross Championship in 1974, 1976 and 1982.
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Monarch
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. He was a member of the House of Habsburg. Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.
Charles I of Austria
Monarch
Charles I of Austria or Charles IV of Hungary was, among other titles, the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the last Emperor of Austria, the last King of Hungary, the last King of Bohemia and Croatia and the last King of Galicia and Lodomeria and the last monarch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He reigned as Charles I as Emperor of Austria and Charles IV as King of Hungary from 1916 until 1918, when he "renounced participation" in state affairs, but did not abdicate. He spent the remaining years of his life attempting to restore the monarchy until his death in 1922. Following his beatification by the Catholic Church, he has become commonly known as Blessed Charles of Austria.
Max Steiner
Composer
Maximilian Raoul "Max" Steiner was an Austrian-born American composer of music for theatre and films. He was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, either composing, arranging or conducting, when he was fifteen. He worked in England, then Broadway, and moved to Hollywood in 1929 where he became one of the first composers to write music scores for films. Steiner is referred to as "the father of film music" and is considered one of the greatest film score composers in the history of cinema. Along with such composers as Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman and Miklós Rózsa, Steiner played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films. Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO and Warner Brothers, and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards, winning three: The Informer, Now, Voyager, and Since You Went Away. Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong, Little Women, Jezebel, Casablanca, and the film score for which he is possibly best known, Gone with the Wind.
Oskar Kokoschka
Playwright
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes.
Arthur Schnitzler
Playwright
Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.
Wolfgang Pauli
Physicist
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after being nominated by Albert Einstein, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle or Pauli principle," involving spin theory, underpinning the structure of matter and the whole of chemistry.
Gregor Schlierenzauer
Ski jumper
Gregor Schlierenzauer - Schlieri is an Austrian ski jumper. He began his senior career in 2005–06 with one win and three additional podiums in the Ski Jumping Grand Prix, and made his World Cup debut in 2005—06 World Cup. During the 2008—09 World Cup, which he won, he set a series of records, including breaking Janne Ahonen's record of 12 season victories with 13 victories, and also tying Ahonen, Matti Hautamäki and Thomas Morgenstern's record of six consecutive victories. Schlierenzauer also won gold medals, one team medal at 2007 World Championships, and both individual and team medals at the FIS Ski-Flying World Championships 2008 in Oberstdorf. His personal best is 243.5m, jumped in season 2010-2011, in Vikersund, Norway. On January 26, 2013, Schlierenzauer equalized Matti Nykänen's long standing record of 46 World Cup ski jumping victories, and currently holds at 50 victories.
Elfriede Jelinek
Novelist
Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004 for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power."
Johann Strauss I
Composer
Johann Strauss I, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty. His most famous piece is probably the Radetzky March, while his most famous waltz is probably the Lorelei Rheinklänge, Op. 154.
Richard Neutra
Architect
Richard Joseph Neutra was an Austrian American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered among the most important modernist architects.
Wolfgang Ambros
Folk rock Artist
Wolfgang Ambros is an Austrian singer-songwriter, most famously known for setting the then-new trend in the 1970s known now as Austropop. He is most famous for his song "Da Hofa" and "Schifoan".
Heinrich Harrer
Mountaineer
Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author. He is best known for being on the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland, and for his books Seven Years in Tibet and The White Spider.
Gottfried Helnwein
Painting Artist
Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, painter, photographer, installation and performance artist.
Theoderic the Great
Monarch
Theoderic the Great, often referred to as Theodoric, was king of the Germanic Ostrogoths, ruler of Italy, regent of the Visigoths, and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire. His Gothic name Þiudareiks translates into "people-king" or "ruler of the people". l Theoderic was born in Pannonia in 454, after his people had defeated the Huns at the Battle of Nedao. His father was King Theodemir, a Germanic Amali nobleman, and his mother was Ereleuva. Theoderic grew up as a hostage in Constantinople, receiving a privileged education, and he succeeded his father as leader of the Pannonian Ostrogoths in 471. Settling his people in lower Moesia, Theoderic came into conflict with Thracian Ostrogoths led by Theodoric Strabo, whom he eventually supplanted, uniting the peoples in 484. Byzantine Emperor Zeno subsequently gave him the title of Patrician and the office of Magister militum, and even appointed him as Roman Consul. Seeking further gains, Theoderic frequently ravaged the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, eventually threatening Constantinople itself. In 488, Emperor Zeno ordered Theoderic to overthrow the German Foederatus Odoacer, who had likewise been made patrician and even King of Italy, but who had since betrayed Zeno, supporting the rebellious Leontius. After a victorious three-year war, Theoderic killed Odoacer with his own hands, settled his 100,000 to 200,000 people in Italy, and founded an Ostrogothic Kingdom based in Ravenna. While he promoted separation between the Arian Ostrogoths and the Roman population, Theoderic stressed the importance of racial harmony, though intermarriage was outlawed. Seeking to restore the glory of Ancient Rome, he ruled Italy in its most peaceful and prosperous period since Valentinian, until his death in 526. Memories of his reign made him a hero of German legend as Dietrich von Bern.
Lise Meitner
Physicist
Lise Meitner, ForMemRS was an Austrian, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Meitner is often mentioned as one of the most glaring examples of women's scientific achievement overlooked by the Nobel committee. A 1997 Physics Today study concluded that Meitner's omission was "a rare instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist" from the Nobel. Element 109, meitnerium, is named in her honour.
Joe Zawinul
Jazz fusion Artist
Josef Erich "Joe" Zawinul was an Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of rock and world music. Later, Zawinul co-founded the groups Weather Report and the world fusion music-oriented Zawinul Syndicate. Additionally, he made pioneering use of electric piano and synthesizers. Zawinul was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" 28 times by the readers of Down Beat magazine. A number of prominent musical artists have honored Zawinul with compositions, notably Brian Eno's instrumental "Zawinul/Lava", John McLaughlin's instrumental "Jozy", Warren Cuccurullo's "Hey Zawinul", Bob Baldwin's "Joe Zawinul", Chucho Valdés's "Zawinul's Mambo", Biréli Lagrène's instrumental "Josef" and Toninho Horta's instrumental "Balada para Zawinul". Zawinul's playing style was often dominated by quirky melodic improvisations — traversing bebop, ethnic and pop styles — combined with sparse but rhythmic playing of big-band sounding chords or bass lines. In Weather Report, he often employed a vocoder as well as pre-recorded sounds played through a synthesizer, creating a very distinctive synthesis of jazz harmonics and "noise".
Robert Musil
Novelist
Robert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels. However, the novel has not been widely read both because of its delayed publication and intricate, lengthy plot. It is, nonetheless, a significant literary achievement that foresaw the impending disaster in Europe after the first world war.
Brian Laudrup
Soccer
Brian Laudrup is a Danish former football player and current football commentator, pundit and analyst on TV3+. Along with former international goalkeeper Lars Høgh, Laudrup manages a football academy for marginalized youth. During his playing career, Laudrup represented a number of European clubs. He started with Danish club Brøndby, winning two Danish championships in the late 1980s. He then played for German and Italian clubs, winning the 1994 Serie A as well as the 1994 UEFA Champions League title with AC Milan. He was a vital part of the Rangers team which dominated the Scottish Premier League in the 1990s, winning three championships among others. He won the 1998 UEFA Super Cup with English club Chelsea, had a brief stint with FC Copenhagen in Denmark, before ending his career with Dutch club Ajax in 2000. He played 82 games and scored 21 goals for the Danish national team, and was a vital part of the Danish teams who won the Euro 1992 and 1995 Confederations cup He won the Danish Footballer of the Year award a record four times. He was named by FIFA as the 5th best player in the world in 1992 and was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers at the FIFA 100 ceremony in March 2004, alongside his older brother Michael Laudrup.
Friedrich Gulda
Pianist
Friedrich Gulda was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Actor
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.
Georg Danzer
Blues Artist
Georg Franz Danzer was an Austrian singer-songwriter. Although he is credited as one of the pioneers of Austropop, he always refused to be part of this genre. Danzer was successful as a solo artist, but also in the group Austria3, along with Wolfgang Ambros and Rainhard Fendrich. Besides his music, he translated two books from Spanish into German, and was strongly involved in highlighting social inequalities, opposing racism and any form of societal discrimination, and the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie for all his life. Danzer was romantic, funny, socially engaged - and often a misfit. Having been a strong smoker for decades, he abstained from smoking after being diagnosed with lung cancer, but nevertheless died from the disease. His legacy includes some 400 songs.
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Monarch
Leopold II, born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa, thus the brother of Marie Antoinette. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Politician
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany during World War II. An Obergruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel, between January 1943 and May 1945 he held the offices of Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and President of Interpol. He was the highest-ranking member of the SS to face trial at the first Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and executed.
Helmut Berger
Actor
Helmut Berger is an Austrian film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award. He appears primarily in European cinema, but has also acted in films such as The Godfather Part III.
Thomas Morgenstern
Ski jumper
Thomas Morgenstern is an Austrian ski jumper. Having won the world cup twice, the Four Hills Tournament and the Nordic Tournament once each, the Grand Prix three times, and 12 gold medals at world championships and Olympic games, he is one of the most successful contemporary jumpers.
Fritz Kreisler
Violinist/Composer
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although he derived in many respects from the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich lifestyle of pre-war Vienna.
Edward Bernays
Author
Edward Louis Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". He combined the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.
Roland Ratzenberger
Racing driver
Roland Ratzenberger was an Austrian racing driver who raced in Sports prototype, Formula Nippon, Formula 3000 and Formula One. He died during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the same event at which three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna died the following day.
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
Noble person
Marie Louise of Austria was the second wife of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and later Duchess of Parma. As such, she was Empress of the French from 1810 to 1814, and subsequently ruler of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla from 1814 until her death. As the eldest child of Habsburg Emperor Francis I of Austria and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, Marie Louise grew up during a period of continuous conflict between Austria and revolutionary France. A series of military defeats at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte had inflicted a heavy human toll on Austria and led Francis to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. The end of the War of the Fifth Coalition resulted in the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise in 1810, which ushered in a brief period of peace and friendship between Austria and the French Empire. Marie Louise dutifully agreed to the marriage despite being raised to despise France. She was an obedient wife and was adored by Napoleon, who had been eager to marry a member of one of Europe's leading royal houses to cement his relatively young Empire. With Napoleon, she bore a son, styled the King of Rome at birth, later Duke of Reichstaedt, who briefly succeeded him as Napoleon II.
Peter Handke
Novelist
Peter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright. His body of work, though considered controversial by critics and scholars alike, has been awarded numerous European literary prizes.
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
Noble person
Rudolf, Archduke of Austria and Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. His death, apparently through suicide, along with that of his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, at his Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889 made international headlines.
Melanie Klein
Psychologist
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis. She was a leading innovator in theorizing object relations theory.
Ivan Illich
Philosopher
Ivan Illich was an Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and "maverick social critic" of the institutions of contemporary Western culture and their effects on the provenance and practice of education, medicine, work, energy use, transportation, and economic development.