Austria

The central European country of Austria was, until 1918, at the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was a part of Germany from 1938 to 1945. It has long had a high standard of living, but also a high cost of living, which has contributed to areas of poverty. In Austria, and especially in the major cities such as Vienna and Salzburg, many foreign visitors and writers have noted the great affluence, without reflecting on the city’s poor, or recognizing that the contrast between the wealth and poverty is so dramatic. Sigmund Freud wrote on a few occasions about the poverty of his parents, although some later historians have queried exactly how poor they were, and Freud was able to study at the University of ...