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ECB, Frankfurt am Main

Since 1 January 1999 the European Central Bank (ECB) has been responsible for conducting monetary policy for the euro area - the world’s largest economy after the United States.
The euro area came into being when responsibility for monetary policy was transferred from the national central banks of 11 EU Member States to the ECB in January 1999. Greece joined in 2001, Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009 and Estonia in 2011. The creation of the euro area and of a new supranational institution, the ECB, was a milestone in the long and complex process of European integration.
To join the euro area, the 17 countries had to fulfil the convergence criteria, as will other EU Member States prior to adopting the euro. The criteria set out the economic and legal preconditions for countries to participate successfully in Economic and Monetary Union.
European Central Bank
The legal basis for the single monetary policy is the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. The Statute established both the ECB and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as from 1 June 1998. The ECB was established as the core of the Eurosystem and the ESCB. The ECB and the national central banks together perform the tasks they have been entrusted with. The ECB has legal personality under public international law.
European System of Central Banks
The ESCB comprises the ECB and the national central banks (NCBs) of all EU Member States (Article 107.1 of the Treaty) whether they have adopted the euro or not.
Eurosystem
The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the NCBs of those countries that have adopted the euro. The Eurosystem and the ESCB will co-exist as long as there are EU Member States outside the euro area.
Euro area
The euro area consists of the EU countries that have adopted the euro.
Since 1 January 1999 the European Central Bank (ECB) has been responsible for conducting monetary policy for the euro area - the world’s largest economy after the United States.
The euro area came into being when responsibility for monetary policy was transferred from the national central banks of 11 EU Member States to the ECB in January 1999. Greece joined in 2001, Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009 and Estonia in 2011.
The creation of the euro area and of a new supranational institution, the ECB, was a milestone in the long and complex process of European integration.
To join the euro area, the 17 countries had to fulfil the convergence criteria, as will other EU Member States prior to adopting the euro. The criteria set out the economic and legal preconditions for countries to participate successfully in Economic and Monetary Union.
European Central Bank
The legal basis for the single monetary policy is the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. The Statute established both the ECB and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as from 1 June 1998. The ECB was established as the core of the Eurosystem and the ESCB. The ECB and the national central banks together perform the tasks they have been entrusted with. The ECB has legal personality under public international law.

European System of Central Banks
The ESCB comprises the ECB and the national central banks (NCBs) of all EU Member States (Article 107.1 of the Treaty) whether they have adopted the euro or not.

Eurosystem
The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the NCBs of those countries that have adopted the euro. The Eurosystem and the ESCB will co-exist as long as there are EU Member States outside the euro area.

Euro area
The euro area consists of the EU countries that have adopted the euro.
The ECB is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro. The ECB’s main task is to maintain the euro's purchasing power and thus price stability in the euro area. The euro area comprises the 17 European Union countries that have introduced the euro since 1999.
Since 1 January 1999 the European Central Bank (ECB) has been responsible for conducting monetary policy for the euro area - the world’s largest economy after the United States.
The euro area came into being when responsibility for monetary policy was transferred from the national central banks of 11 EU Member States to the ECB in January 1999. Greece joined in 2001, Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009 and Estonia in 2011.
The creation of the euro area and of a new supranational institution, the ECB, was a milestone in the long and complex process of European integration.
To join the euro area, the 17 countries had to fulfil the convergence criteria, as will other EU Member States prior to adopting the euro. The criteria set out the economic and legal preconditions for countries to participate successfully in Economic and Monetary Union.
European Central Bank
The legal basis for the single monetary policy is the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. The Statute established both the ECB and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as from 1 June 1998. The ECB was established as the core of the Eurosystem and the ESCB. The ECB and the national central banks together perform the tasks they have been entrusted with. The ECB has legal personality under public international law.

European System of Central Banks
The ESCB comprises the ECB and the national central banks (NCBs) of all EU Member States (Article 107.1 of the Treaty) whether they have adopted the euro or not.

Eurosystem
The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the NCBs of those countries that have adopted the euro. The Eurosystem and the ESCB will co-exist as long as there are EU Member States outside the euro area.

Euro area
The euro area consists of the EU countries that have adopted the euro.
The mission of the Eurosystem
The Eurosystem, which comprises the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Member States whose currency is the euro, is the monetary authority of the euro area. We in the Eurosystem have as our primary objective the maintenance of price stability for the common good. Acting also as a leading financial authority, we aim to safeguard financial stability and promote European financial integration.


In pursuing our objectives, we attach utmost importance to credibility, trust, transparency and accountability. We aim for effective communication with the citizens of Europe and the media. We are committed to conducting our relations with European and national authorities in full accordance with the Treaty provisions and with due regard to the principle of independence.
We jointly contribute, strategically and operationally, to attaining our common goals, with due respect to the principle of decentralisation. We are committed to good governance and to performing our tasks effectively and efficiently, in a spirit of cooperation and teamwork. Drawing on the breadth and depth of our experiences as well as on the exchange of know-how, we aim to strengthen our shared identity, speak with a single voice and exploit synergies, within a framework of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all members of the Eurosystem.

The European System of Central Banks
The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) comprises
 the European Central Bank (ECB) and
 the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 EU Member States.
This means that the ESCB includes the national central banks of those EU Member States that have not yet adopted the euro, be it due to their special status (Denmark, United Kingdom) or because they have a derogation. The latter currently applies to Sweden as well as 7 of the 12 Member States that have joined the EU since May 2004. This means in consequence: these countries still have their own national currency, for which they still conduct their own monetary policy and their respective central banks keep for the time being their monetary sovereignty. This also means, of course, that they are not involved in the performance of the core activities of Monetary Union, such as the conduct of the monetary policy for the euro area.
The non-euro area NCBs are nevertheless committed to the principles of monetary policies which aim at price stability. Furthermore, ESCB membership implies at varying degrees active cooperation with the Eurosystem in several fields of activity, such as participation in the TARGET2 payment system and support in the collection of statistics. In addition, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II) provides a framework for monetary and exchange rate policy cooperation with the Eurosystem. The institutional forum for such cooperation is the General Council of the ECB.
The legal basis for the ESCB is the Treaty Establishing the European Community (renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in force since 1 December 2009) and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (ESCB Statute). The Treaty entrusts the ESCB in general with the performance of the central banking functions for the euro. The ESCB Statute defines more specifically the relative roles and functions of the ECB and the NCBs, respectively.

The national central banks as integral part of the Eurosystem
Each national central bank (NCB) has legal personality according to the national law of its respective country.
The euro area NCBs, which form an integral part of the Eurosystem, carry out the tasks conferred upon the Eurosystem in accordance with the rules established by the ECB's decision-making bodies. The NCBs also contribute to the work of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) through their participation in the various Eurosystem/ESCB Committees (see also separate slide "Eurosystem/ESCB Committees").
They may perform non-Eurosystem functions on their own responsibility, unless the Governing Council finds that such functions interfere with the objectives and tasks of the Eurosystem.
Such non-Eurosystem functions vary according to countries and mainly consist of various types of financial and administrative services to the governments of the respective countries. Most NCBs for example are involved in the supervision of financial institutions in their respective countries and some NCBs run their own printing works for the production of banknotes.

Key for subscription of the ECB's capital
The shares of the national central banks (NCBs) in the ECB's capital key reflect the shares of the Member States in the total population and gross domestic product of the EU, in equal weightings.
Eurosystem NCBs are required to pay up their subscribed capital in full. The non-euro area NCBs only have to pay up a minimal percentage of their subscribed capital as a contribution to the operational costs of the ECB.

Austria, with its well-developed market economy and high standard of living, is closely tied to other EU economies, especially Germany's. Its economy features a large service sector, a sound industrial sector, and a small, but highly developed agricultural sector. Following several years of solid foreign demand for Austrian exports and record employment growth, the global economic downturn in 2008 led to a recession that is likely to persist through 2009. The government's stabilization measures could increase the budget deficit to about 2.8% of GDP in 2009 and above 3% in 2010, from about 0.6% in 2008. The Austrian economy has benefited greatly in the past from strong commercial relations, especially in the banking and insurance sectors, with central, eastern, and southeastern Europe, but these sectors have been vulnerable to recent international financial instabilities, and some of Austria's largest banks have required government support. Even after the global economic outlook improves, Austria will need to continue restructuring, emphasizing knowledge-based sectors of the economy, and encouraging greater labor flexibility and greater labor participation to offset its aging population and exceedingly low fertility rate.


GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 1.9%
industry: 30.7%
services: 67.4% (2008 est.)

Labor force:

3.633 million (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 95


Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 5.5%
industry: 27.5%
services: 67% (2005 est.)


Population below poverty line:

5.9% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 3.3%
highest 10%: 22.5% (2004)


Inflation rate (consumer prices):

3.2% (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 39
2.2% (2007 est.)


Agriculture - products:

grains, potatoes, sugar beets, wine, fruit; dairy products, cattle, pigs, poultry; lumber



Industries:

construction, machinery, vehicles and parts, food, metals, chemicals, lumber and wood processing, paper and paperboard, communications equipment, tourism




Exports:

$179.1 billion (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 27
$162.1 billion (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities:

machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper and paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs

Exports - partners:

Germany 29.5%, Italy 8.6%, US 4.3%, Switzerland 4.2% (2008)

Imports:

$179.2 billion (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 24
$160.3 billion (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities:

machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal goods, oil and oil products; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:

Germany 44.5%, Italy 7.1%, Switzerland 5.2%, Netherlands 4.1% (2008)


















































Austria – Greening the European Economy: responses and initiatives by Member States and social partners
The Austrian government and the major social partner organisations agree that the country’s environmental technology industry is the most promising sector to secure environmentally sustainable economic growth. Therefore the government has launched several initiatives to stimulate this industry branch over the recent years. Since the social partners primarily deal with ‘core’ industrial relations issues rather than ‘green’ issues, their actual role in shaping a future ‘green economy‘ has remained unclear.
This mapping and inventory exercise will help to take stock of what the different Member States and social partners are doing to mitigate the effects of climate change and harness the potential of the green economy. It will also help to identify particularly interesting and successful initiatives which can be shared and disseminated as positive practice examples.
Mapping Member State responses, initiatives and tools
Please describe the main actions and policy strategies of your country in the following areas:
1) In the context of the current global recession, has an economic recovery program or strategy been launched by the national government in the last 12 months? If so, what coverage, attention, actions are envisaged with a view to greening the national economy, with a focus on employment, as a way of emerging from the present downturn? If there is a wide range of issues, please focus on the main issues.
In response to the financial crisis and the current economic downturn, the Austrian government has – since October 2008 – launched a series of measures, including easier access to state funds, credits, bank guarantees and loans, which, however, are all aimed principally at supporting investment and at increasing competitiveness rather than greening the economy. Only one measure introduced in February 2009 is dedicated explicitly to this goal – that is a € 100 million package for the thermal restoration of existing premises. Accordingly, owners of both private living room and company premises are granted special non-refundable loans for damming the exterior walls of buildings as well as the replacement of old heating systems and windows by new ones. The federal minister of economy, family and youth, Reinhold Mitterlehner, estimated that these subsidies are expected to trigger additional investments of € 650 million, which are thought to secure or create some 7,000 jobs throughout the country. The social partners in the construction sector have welcomed this initiative, although they consider this amount of subsidy as insufficient and called for additional means equivalent €1 billion per year.
2) Have there been any specific ministries or government departments set up to deal with green issues? If so, what is their mandate and remit?
In Austria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft, BMLFUW) has been set up. It administers about € 3 billion in 2009 for the purpose of subsidising the agricultural sector in Austria and for pursuing a wide range of environmental policies.
3) Have any tripartite social dialogue structures and/or procedures been set up to deal with green issues? If so, what is their aim and how do they operate? If there are a wide range of structures and procedures, please focus on the main ones.
In Austria, a number of more or less formal tripartite social dialogue structures have been set up; however, none of them primarily or exclusively deals with green issues. This is because these bodies have been established mainly to regulate the labour market and to pursue macro-economic and social goals. Green themes are frequently considered as horizontal issues in Austria, at least in the context of labour market policies. However, since 2007 so-called climate summits have taken place in Austria, on an ad-hoc rather than on a permanent basis. These climate summits gather representatives of the national government, spokespersons of environment protection organisations, experts of the Energy and Climate Protection Fund (Klima- und Energiefonds) as well as representatives of the main social partner organisations. At these summits, medium- and long-term strategies to cut down carbon emissions have been discussed and eventually concluded.
4) Have there been any of the following initiatives or actions in your country: Where the answer is yes, please provide a brief account of each one, focusing on the main ones.
• awareness-raising initiatives
No. Awareness-raising initiatives have been launched only with regard to green issues which are of general significance to the country, such as effective waste separation, rubbish avoidance or nature protection.
• actions targeting specific sectors
In 2007, the BMLFUW and the provincial government of Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) launched a joint initiative called Masterplan Environmental Technology (Masterplan Umwelttechnologie, MUT). The aim of MUT is to set up a joint strategy to be pursued by policy-makers, business and relevant research institutions to improve the competitiveness of the Austrian environmental technology industry. In detail, MUT is devised to help achieve the following objectives, as set by the government:
• doubling the GDP share and the number of persons working in the environmental technology industry to 8% and 40,000, respectively;
• achieving a 2.5% share in global trade;
• increasing the export share to 80% and building up direct investments;
• expanding or attaining international technology leadership; and
• raising the share of environmental technology in the manufacturing sector to 5%.
To coordinate the measures under MUT, a centre of excellence for environmental and energy technology and services called Austrian Clean Technology (ACT) was set up in 2008. ACT was founded by the BMLFUW and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKÖ) as a non-profit and non-party organisation in June 2008. Its main tasks are to coordinate and implement the measures formulated and developed under the MUT programme. In particular, its services are aimed to contribute to the acceleration of export and the dynamisation of the domestic market.
• actions involving green procurement
No information available.
• financial support and stimulus packages to boost eco-innovation
There is a special promotion scheme for environmental investments under the environment funding scheme set up and administered by the BMLFUW. Apart from this, general economy promotion schemes administered by the Austrian Business Agency (Austria Wirtschaftsservice, AWS) also cover measures which are aimed at subsidising environmentally significant investments.
In early 2009, the BMLFUW started another promotional programme to boost eco-innovation in the field of environmental technology. The ministry worked out a so-called Masterplan Sustainable Energy (Masterplan Erneuerbare Energie) according to which additional funds shall be granted to invest in alternative sources of energy with the aim to reach a 25% share of total energy supply by 2010. Moreover, in order to stimulate R&D activities in the field of environmental technologies, the recently established Energy and Climate Protection Fund has been provided with € 150 million in 2009 to finance research activities related to environmentally sustainable technological innovation.
• support for green start-ups and entrepreneurial schemes
No.
• training programmes to prepare the workforce for the transition to the green economy
The BMLFUW is seeking to readjust the vocational training system to meet the increasing business demand for highly skilled workers in the environmental technology sector. Against the background of rising unemployment rates due to the current crisis, the federal ministry has therefore initiated a pilot project providing for vocational training in a newly defined occupation – that is the worker trained in biomass technology (Biomassefacharbeiter/in). The ACT is also currently considering the introduction of a new occupation ‘environmental technology worker’ (Umwelttechniker/in).
• investment schemes in emerging products and services that could lead to the creation of green jobs in the future
Please see above.
• any other relevant initiatives or actions
Within the existing ‘go international’ campaign, the Export Initiative Environmental Technology (Exportoffensive Umwelt- und Energietechnologie) is currently being promoted jointly by the BMLFUW and the Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft, Familie und Jugend, BMWFJ), in close co-operation with the Foreign Trade Promotion Organisation (Außenwirtschaft Österreich), which is a division of the WKÖ, and its 106 foreign trade offices located throughout the world. Moreover, the ACT has been commissioned by the two ministries involved to develop a distinct and internationally recognised brand ‘Clean Tech made in Austria’. This marketing initiative is devised to realise the export potential of the country’s environmental technology sector.
Mapping social partner responses, initiatives and tools
Please summarise the main unilateral and bipartite initiatives in your country in the following areas:
5) Positioning and stance in relation to the green agenda (eg any position papers)
In general, all of the four main social partner organisations – i.e. the WKÖ and the Federation of Austrian Industry (Industriellenvereinigung, IV) on the employers’ side and the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB) and the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer, AK) on the employees’ side – support the environment and climate protection goals as set by the government. In particular, this holds true for the country’s commitment to reduce the carbon emissions from 2005 to 2020 by 16% and to raise the share of sustainable energy sources to 34% within the same time period. Strikingly, many elements of the national environmental and economic action plans (as outlined above) originate from joint social partner proposals, such as the implementation of the Masterplan Sustainable Energy and the distinct funding of the Energy and Climate Protection Fund. However, going into more detail shows of course differences between the social partners in the setting of priorities. For instance, the IV in its position paper ‘Energie-Effizient-Wachsen. Umwelt 2020’ emphasises the necessity of thoroughly considering the target of competitiveness of Austrian businesses when it comes to drafting and introducing environmental policies. By contrast, organised labour – although in favour of a better coordination of industrial and environmental policies – tends to focus on regulatory law rather than voluntary commitment to enforce environmental minimum standards. Even though distinct position papers on the green agenda could be found in the case of neither WKÖ nor the labour organisations, the AK issues a quarterly magazine ‘Wirtschaft und Umwelt’ exclusively addressing the green agenda, while the WKÖ places green issues on a separate sub-site of its webpage.
6) Attitudes and approaches of the social partners in relation to the green agenda
Please see above.
7) Any unilateral and joint strategies and actions, including:
• awareness-raising campaigns for members
No information available.
• bilateral dialogue structures, including those at sectoral level
In the run-up to the climate summits, the social partners have swapped their ideas on how to cope with the challenges of the climate change in Austria and eventually drafted joint proposals.
• capacity-building initiatives
No information available.
• training programmes for members
The WKÖ offers a course of instruction to its member companies which is aimed at helping them save on energy. For instance, the most recent course for the European Energy Manager (EUREM) brought about 25 new energy efficiency projects, resulting in a reduction of carbon emissions of 5,600 tons per year in total.
8) The main initiatives for reviving the economy and promoting the green agenda, both general and sector-specific
There are no social partner initiatives for reviving the economy and promoting the green agenda at the same time. Rather, the social partners have been consulted by the government in drafting both the economy boost programmes since autumn 2008 and the environmental policies of the recent years – at least as far as labour market issues and business promotion schemes of major importance are/were concerned. Although these two policy areas may coincide to some extent, they are largely treated separately when it comes to legislative initiatives. Nevertheless, social partner involvement is traditionally high in Austria.
9) Any relevant studies and research
Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig and Angela Köppl of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, WIFO) carried out a study on the development of the Austrian environmental technology industry from 1993 to 2007. The study which is titled ‘Österreichische Umwelttechnikindustrie. Entwicklung – Schwerpunkte – Innovation’ and published in 2009 reveals that the number of environmental technology enterprises increased from 248 to 375 within the period under consideration. Turnover of this industry grew from € 1.5 billion to € 6 billion, whereas employment doubled from 11,000 to around 22,000 workers. The trend towards internationalisation is manifested in a continuous increase in the export share. The authors also found outstandingly high R&D activities in the environmental technology industry – at least in comparison with most other industries.
10) Any other relevant responses, initiatives or tools
No.
Views of the national centre
The Austrian environmental and energy technology industry does not only contribute to sustainable growth and an improvement of the environmental situation in Austria and abroad, but also offers relatively secure jobs in the high qualification segment of the economy. Therefore the Austrian government has during the past years sought to strengthen this positive development of the environmental technology industry, by introducing tools such as the Master Plan Environmental Technology (MUT) and the Austrian Clean Technology (ACT) as the main agency to implement the master plan’s strategies, which are promotion of exports, research and qualification, financing and making the domestic market more dynamic. It is important to note that all these measures and other accompanying initiatives to stimulate environmentally sustainable economic growth are horizontal issues, which means that their implementation falls within the responsibility of distinct ministries and authorities. Therefore it is difficult to clearly assign such measures to the realm of economic or environmental policies. Likewise, as far as the social partners are concerned, it is often hard to assess their actual impact on decision-making in the field of environmental policy. This is because in Austria formalised tripartite structures have only been set up in policy areas directly related to the labour market and other ‘core’ industrial relations realms. Therefore position and strategy papers of the social partners explicitly dealing with green issues are lacking. Anyway, what can be said is that the major social partner organisations largely approve of the government approach to ‘greening’ the Austrian economy, even if they may differ in setting the priorities.
Georg Adam, Department of Industrial Sociology, University of Vienna

In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them.
The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) consists of three stages coordinating economic policy and culminating with the adoption of the euro, the EU's single currency.
All member states of the European Union participate in the EMU.
Member states of the European Union have entered the third stage and have adopted the euro as their currency.
Exception: The United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden have not accepted the third stage and the three EU members still use their own currency today.
Under the Copenhagen criteria, it is a condition of entry for states acceding to the EU that they be able to fulfil the requirements for monetary union within a given period of time.

Convergence Criteria for Participation in EMU
(According to the Maastricht Treaty)
Price stability. the average rate of consumer price inflation over the previous 12 months must not exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points that of, at most, the three best performing member states and this performance should be sustainable.
Public finance. The financial position of the member country's government must be sustainable, as evidenced by the country not being subject to an excessive deficit. In particular, the general government deficit should not exceed the treaty's reference value of 3 percent of GDP, or it should have declined substantially and continuously and have reached a level close to the reference value, or the excess over the reference value should be temporary and exceptional; and the gross debt total of the general government should not exceed the reference value of 60 percent of GDP or, if it does, it should be sufficiently diminishing and approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace.
Interest rates. Long-term government bond yields averaged over the previous 12 months should not exceed by more than 2 percentage points those of, at most, the three member countries with the lowest inflation.
Exchange rates. A country should have respected the normal fluctuation margins of the ERM for at least two years without severe tensions and without devaluing its currency against any other member's currency on its own initiative.

History of the EMU
First ideas of an economic and monetary union in Europe were raised well before establishing the European Communities. For example, already in the League of Nations, Gustav Stresemann asked in 1929 for a European currency against the background of an increased economic division due to a number of new nation states in Europe after WWI.
A first attempt to create an economic and monetary union between the members of the European Communities goes back to an initiative by the European Commission in 1969, which set out the need for "greater co-ordination of economic policies and monetary cooperation"( Barre Report), which was followed by the decision of the Heads of State or Government at their summit meeting in 1969 to draw up a plan by stages with a view to creating an economic and monetary union by the end of the 1970s.
On the basis of various previous proposals, an expert group chaired by Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Pierre Werner, presented in October 1970 the first commonly agreed blueprint to create an economic and monetary union in three stages ( Werner plan). The project experienced serious setbacks from the crises arising from the non-convertibility of the US dollar into gold in August 1971 and from rising oil prices in 1972.
The debate on EMU was fully re-launched at the Hanover Summit in June 1988, when an ad hoc committee of the central bank governors of the twelve member states, chaired by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, was asked to propose a new timetable with clear, practical and realistic steps for creating an economic and monetary union.
The Delors report of 1989 set out a plan to introduce the EMU in three stages and it included the creation of institutions like the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), which would become responsible for formulating and implementing monetary policy.

The three stages for the implementation of the EMU were the following:
Stage One: 1 July 1990 to 31 December 1993
• On 1 July 1990, exchange controls were abolished, thus capital movements were completely liberalised in the EEC.
• The Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 establishes the completion of the EMU as a formal objective and sets a number of economic convergence criteria, concerning the inflation rate, public finances, interest rates and exchange rate stability.
• The treaty enters into force on the 1 November 1993.
• completely free movement of capital within the EU (abolition of exchange controls);
• increasing the amount of resources devoted to removing inequalities between European regions (Structural Funds);
• economic convergence, through multilateral surveillance of member states’ economic policies.

Stage Two: 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1998
• The European Monetary Institute is established as the forerunner of the European Central Bank, with the task of strengthening monetary cooperation between the member states and their national banks, as well as supervising ECU banknotes.
• On 16 December 1995, details such as the name of the new currency (the euro) as well as the duration of the transition periods are decided.
• On 16-17 June 1997, the European Council decides at Amsterdam to adopt the Stability and Growth Pact, designed to ensure budgetary discipline after creation of the euro, and a new exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) is set up to provide stability between the euro and the national currencies of countries that haven't yet entered the eurozone.
• On 3 May 1998, at the European Council in Brussels, the 11 initial countries that will participate in the third stage from 1 January 1999 are selected.

• On 1 June 1998, the European Central Bank (ECB) is created, and in 31 December 1998, the conversion rates between the 11 participating national currencies and the euro are established.
• establishing the European Monetary Institute (EMI) in Frankfurt; the EMI was made up of the governors of the central banks of the EU countries;
• independence of national central banks;
• rules to curb national budget deficits.

Stage Three: 1 January 1999 and continuing
• From the start of 1999, the euro is now a real currency, and a single monetary policy is introduced under the authority of the ECB. A three-year transition period begins before the introduction of actual euro notes and coins, but legally the national currencies have already ceased to exist.
• On 1 January 2001, Greece joins the third stage of the EMU.
• The euro notes and coins are finally introduced in January 2002.
• On 1 January 2007, Slovenia joins the third stage of the EMU.

Introduction
All goods and services used on an every day basis today are a products of trade. Trade is the transaction between two people exchanging one set of goods or services for another (investorworld.com). The first recording of trade can be traced back to the 17th century where rice was being exchanged in Japan (Ellswort, 2006). However, archeologists have found evidence of evidence of obsidian and flint trade products that can be traced back to the Stone Age (Wikipedia). With the advanced technology of today, and the ability of goods from sugar to computers and services from banking to cell phone carriers that are able to be traded at a fast rate worldwide, trade of the past seems simple. In order to organize the complex trading today, an international organization needed to be created to help avoid conflicts.
In 1995, World Trade Organization (WTO) was born in order to govern a set of standard of rules between trading nations and to settle trade disputes on a global scale (WTO, 2003). Amongst the rules and agreements that the WTO preside over, the ultimate goal of the WTO is to work towards global “free trade” (wto.org). Within the short 12 years of the WTO, there has been has seen an increase in trade and a decrease in the number of tariffs and barriers (wto,org).The concept of free trade and the free flow of ideas and goods promote global development and globalization (Moore, 2003). The definition of globalization, the “increasing global connectivity, integration and interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political, and ecological spheres” sounds very positive (wikipedia.com). However, along with the WTO, globalization has become a “dirty word” and is viewed by many as the culprit to several global problems such as global poverty and human rights abuses (Moore, 2003). Mike Moore the former Director General of the WTO (1999-2002) noted, “Often anti-globalization is synonymous with anti-Americanism. Everywhere I go in the world the WTO is seen as an American conspiracy, except in the USA” (2003). Though the United States is a top player in global trade, the role the United States in the WTO may change in the near future because of the WTO’s increasing focus enhancing the economy of developing and least developing countries who make up a majority of the WTO membership. The purpose of this paper is to follow the historical development of the WTO learn about the current structure, policies, procedures of the WTO, and examine two particular conflicts within the WTO today in order to predict the future of the WTO.
History of Free Trade
Prior to the free trade market ideology, mercantilism was the principle economic trade ideology in Western Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th century (encyclopedia.com). This economic trade ideology was focused on accumulating an abundance of national wealth by exported more goods than they would import in order to gain gold and silver (encyclopedia.com). During this time, many governments allowed monopolies and granted subsidies to protect their local producers against “unfair” foreign competition (Adam Smith LLD, 2001). The mercantilism period saw more conflict between countries then ever before due to the common goal of the multiple countries: to gain a large amount of money to fund a strong army and navy in order to gain territory (LaHaye, 2002).
In 1776, Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher and economist of the time, published a book titled The Wealth of Nations. This book presented a theory that disproved the apparent success of mercantilism, and explained that the principles of free trade, competition and choice would lead to economic development and improvement of daily life (Adam Smith LLD, 2001). There were three main arguments that Adam Smith made in this book that supported free trade. First, he argued free trade results in a "positive-sum game” (LaHaye, 2002). This statement introduced the idea of all parties gaining in the act of trade rather than just one as was done during the mercantilism period. However, in order to create a win-win situation, the people were going to have to liberate their trade barriers. He also explained that product specialization leads to an improvement of efficiency and growth (LaHaye, 2002). This simple idea justified how people could enter a win-win trade agreement that results in economic prosperity. Lastly, he argued that the “collusive relationship between government and industry was harmful to the general population” (LaHaye, 2002). His idea of a separate government and industry helped explain the importance of liberal trade boarders, free of tariffs. Though The Wealth of Nations succeeded at educating the world about the benefits of free trade, it wasn't not until after World War II that mercantilism official ended (LaHaye, 2002).
Sungjoon Cho (2003), author of Free Markets and Social Regulations: A Reform Agenda of the Global Trading System, relates mercantilism period one of the major cause of the start of WWI. Cho explains, “the distorted trade flows in a mutually destructive manner eventually lead to mismanagement of the affluence to imperialism which played a critical role in the events leading to World War I.” He also holds mercantilism responsible for fostering a totalitarianism that in return contributed to the outbreak of WWII (Cho, 2003). The combination of the devastating affects of World War I and World War II and the understanding of the need for an international third party to regulate global trade economics, the International Trade Organization (ITO) was created (World Trade Organization, 2003). The founders of this Idea had two objectives in mind: to avoid a repeat of the non-liberal trade barriers that existed before the wars, and to promote economic recovery and growth through international trade (Capling, 2003) Of the 50 countries helped crate the ITO, 23 of them recognized a need to lower tariffs on trade and began a negotiation round. The rules and negotiations were formulated at a conference held in Havana and the resulting product became known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (World Trade Organization, 2003).
Economics of Free Trade
With the understanding of the economics behind free trade, it is easy to understand Adam Smith’s arguments and the reason why mercantilism has not been viewed as a successful trade policy. However, when Adam Smith published his book The Wealth of Nations, many people were unaware of the economic benefits of free trade (LaHaye, 2002). Today, Adam Smith's revolutionary ideas have been embraced by the WTO. For example, in Mike Moore's (2003) book, A World without Walls, he summarizes Adam Smith's Ideas by saying "The more open and democratic the economy, the better the results for ordinary people, the more space for freedoms to keep growing." To understand the economics behind the free trade theory, it is best to understand Adam Smith's point of product specialization.
The economic theory behind the benefit of trade is the “comparative advantage theory” (Understanding the WTO, 2003.) The Comparative advantage theory states that two companies (or any organization that is trading) can benefit greatly if they specialize in a product they are able to produce at the lowest opportunity cost when there are no tariffs implemented between trade (www.econlib.org). An opportunity cost is the expense (time, price, and value of experience) it would cost to produce the next best thing in the market (www.netmba.com). For example, an opportunity cost of buying a new computer would be the calculated cost and inconvenience of going to an internet café. The most successful trade results from each country producing the product at their lowest opportunity cost (www.netmba.com).
Take this example of a perfectly idea market free of trade barriers. Country A and B who produce both automobiles and boats. Every week, country A is able to produce 30 automobiles or 6 boats, where as country B is able to produce 32 automobiles or 8 boats in the same amount of time. If these two countries did not trade, and they spent half their time producing each good, then there would be a total of 21 automobiles and 7 boats in the market. However, the opportunity cost for country A to produce one boat is five automobiles, yet the opportunity cost for country B to produce one boat is only four automobiles. Thus, country A has a comparative advantage in automobiles and country B has a comparative advantage in boat production. If both countries decided to specialize in the product they have a comparative advantage in, they have increased their total combined output to 30 automobiles and 8 boats.
GATT to WTO
The development of the GATT after the World War II led to the development of trade policies of today. The GATT was the only “multilateral instrument” regulating global trade until the World Trade Organization was established in 1995 (World Trade Organization, 2003). For many years the agreements in the GATT established at the Havana Conference remained untouched except for a few technical changes. In 1973, the GATT launched a new negotiation round, the Tokyo Round, in which 102 countries took part to further reduce trade barriers. (World Trade Organization, 2003).
During this round of negotiations, key agreements such as the Antidumping Code which set rules on developed countries sending exports into developing countries at prices much lower than the domestic market price were created (WorldTradeLaw.net). The decisions during this round effectively cut international duties by one third (World Trade Organization, 2003). However, because this was only the first attempt to reform the GATT, there were many loopholes and not all of the GATT members agreed on the terms (World Trade Organization, 2003). As time passed new trade barriers eventually developed, and new trade products emerged that were not considered tradable under the GATT (Cho, 2003). On top of this, the lack of formal organization, way to settle disputes and the very small secretariat in the GATT lead to a new set of negotiations in the Uruguay Round and the creation of the WTO (Cho, 2003; Capling, 2003).
The Uruguay Round began in 1986 and set out to review the original GATT agreements as well as new topics such as tropical products and intellectual property. After many disagreements between ministers, and clarification of specific agreements, the final documents were signed on April 15, 1994 (World Trade Organization, 2003). Eight years later, decisions were made to broaden the trade items governed by the GATT to include “services, intellectual property, subsidies, textiles, agriculture" (news.bbc.co). On January 1, the WTO took the place of the GATT as the international organization governing trade (Understanding the WTO, 2003).
The WTO Today
The WTO is a multilateral trading system whose goals are to help international trade “flow as freely as possible” (www.unesco.org, www.wto.org). A multilateral trading system is a set of negotiation agreements between many nations (useonomy.about.com). Because of the complexity that can result from many nations negotiating at once, the WTO has to be able to do multiple things at a time. The role of the WTO can be divided into three different categories. First, the WTO acts as a negotiating forum which allows its member governments to discuss new or the revision of trade agreements (World Trade Organization, 2003). These negotiations and agreements signed by the WTO members act as the basis of the organization. Thus, the WTO also acts as a set of rules. These rules are derived from the binding contracts signed by the WTO members to help avoid conflict (World Trade Organization, 2003). Unlike the GATT that was made up of provisional agreements, the WTO agreements are “mandatory and permanent” (www.unesco.org).
Lastly, the WTO helps settle disputes between conflicting parties (World Trade Organization, 2003). A dispute settlement process did exist under the GATT, however, it followed a very diplomatic approach (Capling, 2003). Today it helps interpret agreements and settle differences through a legal ruling that cannot be blocked (World Trade Organization, 2003;www.unesco.org). Disputes are handled in five different stages. The first stage consists of a member requesting a consultation to try to resolve a trade matter. If the dispute isn’t settled within 60 days, the member may then request a panel, the second phase. The three “well-qualified” individual and neutral individuals on the panel are selected by the Secretariat and agreed upon by the two opposing parties. The panel gathers its information confidentially through documents and interviews then submits its findings and conclusions in a written interim report. If either party does not like the outcome of the panel’s conclusion, they are able to go on to the third step, the appeal review. Once the two parties have reached a consensus they must agree on the procedures and abide by the arbitration award. Finally, dispute board requires the implementation of the agreed change within a set amount of time (Mercurio, 2003).
Currently, the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland has membership from 150 different countries (www.news.bbc.co.uk, 2007). The organization is arranged into multiple levels of authority. The highest level is the Ministerial Conference (World Trade Organization, 2003). The Ministerial Conference meets every two years and makes the final decisions for the multilateral trade agreements (Wikipedia). The Ministerial Conference is also responsible for electing the director-general (the chief executive) who is seen as the “face of world trade”. The current director-general is Pascal Lamy, a French man, who started his position in September 2005 (www.new.bbs.co.uk, 2007). The second level, the General Council, is made up of representatives from all participating member countries. The General Council meets frequently in Geneva to help make everyday decisions within the WTO (Wikipedia.com). The General Council also acts as the Dispute Settlement Body, the enforcer of the agreed trade negotiations, and also as the Trade Policy Review Body. Lastly, under the General Council exists councils for the specific commodities traded. For example, there is the Council for Trade in Goods and the Council for Trade in Services, as well as specific committees that focus on aspects such as the budget and environmental issues revolving trade (World Trade Organization, 2003).
The WTO Agreements
In order to understand the current issues in the WTO in 2007, it is important to understand the agreements that define the international organization developed in 1995. The agreements created during the birth of the WTO consistes of about 60 documents and over hundreds of pages (wto.org). The WTO agreements act as the basis of the organization’s “liberal trading system.” These agreements are also what signify the WTO as an international organization (Cho, 2003). The agreements begin with defining the three borad principles of the WTO ( GATT, GATS, and TRIPs) and then is followed by special agreements and a list of commitments made by the member countries (wto.org). The General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) observed prior to the WTO is similar as it is today. However, The General Agreement on Trade in Service (GATS), and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) were newly added with the development of the WTO (World Trade Organization, 2003). The TRIPs agreement clearly defines minimum standards for the protection of property rights such as patents and copyrights (Capling, 2003). The observation of these standards is important in order to allow both domestic and international markets to benefit in international trade (wto.org). On the other hand, GATS encompasses all service related trade item. The WTO’s explanation of the GATS explains that it coverers “services supplied from the territory of one party to the territory of another; services supplied in the territory of one party to the consumers of any other (for example, tourism); services provided through the presence of service providing entities of one party in the territory of any other (for example, banking); and services provided by nationals of one party in the territory of any other (for example, construction projects or consultancies)” (wto.org). The GATS helps trading countries define the scope of their negotiations, and helps form a legal promise that these negotiations will be carried out.
There are five principles that underlie all agreements signed under the WTO (unesco.org). The first principle is to have trade without discrimination (unesco.org). A rule within this principle, Most Favored Nation Treatment, demands that each member treat all members on an equal basis (Cho, 2003). For example, if country A decides to improve or worsen its treatment for country B, then country A has to improve or worsen its treatment for all other countries. The Most Favored Nation principle was the first item in the GATT, and it has been adapted to work under the requirements of the WTO (unesco.org). The WTO does grant some exceptions to this rule. For example, if a country would like to improve the benefits that it gives to a developing country it can do so without having to lower the benefits for all of its other trading partners. Countries are also able to forbid trading goods that they think are traded unfairly (World Trade Organization, 2003). The Most Favored Nation principle is so important that it is found in the GATT, GATS, and TRIPS (World Trade Organization, 2003). Also under the trade without discrimination principle is the Nation Treatment clause (unsco.org). The Nation Treatment clause requires locally produced goods or services and international imported goods and services to be treated equally within the market. Like the Most Favored Nation principle, the Nation Treatment clause is also found in GATT, GATS, and TRIP, and only applies to goods that have entered the market and not imports being charged duty for customs (World Trade Organization, 2003).
The second principle that helps determine the agreements is the freer trade principle. In accordance with the ultimate goal of the WTO, this principle works to progressively lower trade barriers to encourage free trade (World Trade Organization, 2003). The principle of freer trade is carried out through negotiations. The WTO is currently sponsoring the ninth round of negotiations, the Doha Round. The past eight rounds have successfully lowered tariffs and other barriers on trade. Like the Most Favored Nation treatment, the WTO allows developing countries a longer time period to meet their trade agreements (World Trade Organization, 2003).
The predictable principle, the third principle, ensures member countries that their trade agreements will not suddenly change (World Trade Organization, 2003). This principle is upheld through signed contracts that act as strong commitments between countries (unseco.org). The number of countries that have secured bound tariffs has increased in both developed countries as well as developing countries. This insured security through bound tariffs makes it easier for businesses to predict their future earnings and invest in other sectors (World Trade Organiztion, 2003).
The fourth principle focuses on open and fair competition (unseco.org). An example of an item that would be regulated under this principle is “dumping” (Understanding the WTO, 2003). “Dumping” is when goods from a country are exported below the “normal value” or the goods in the country of export (www.customs.gov.au). One reason that countries may choose to “dump” their exports would be to drive their rival suppliers out of business (Wikipedia). Dumping reduces the sales of their rivals which can lead to a decrease in profit (www.chinadaily.com.cn). Though the WTO dose not “pass judgment” on determining whether or not “dumping” brings about unfair competition, they do have an anti-dumping regulation which controls how governments “take action against anti-dumping” (www.wto.org). One way that countries deal with dumping is to increase the import tax of that product to try and bring the price of the product back up to its “normal” value. However, the WTO only allows this if the country is not violating the Predictable principle or the trade without discrimination principle (World Trade Organization, 2003). GATT article 6 defines the specifics about the Anti-Dumping Agreement in detail explaining how to calculate the normal value of the dumped good and how the dumping case will be conducted (World Trade Organization, 2003).
The final principle allows more benefits to developing countries to encourage their individual economic growth (World Trade Organization, 2003). As stated above, the WTO permits developing countries a longer time period to adjust to their trade negotiations, and it also allows other countries to have special trade negotiations with developing countries. Currently developing countries make up three fourths of the WTO (World Trade Organization, 2003). Thus, the importance of their success is essential for the WTO to continue to succeed as an international organization.
Without these formal agreements, the WTO would encounter similar problems that the GATT did by not having am accepted formal structure. Also, without these specifically designed agreements, the WTO would not be able to help govern the complexity of multilateral trade. Thus, the organization of these agreements is essential to help the WTO progress towards its ultimate goal, a global free trade environment.
Made for China
One of the most recent issues in global trade is the acceptance of China into the WTO and their specific conflicts that have developed with the United States within the past few months. In 1948 China was on the original 23 countries to create the GATT. However, only one year latter, in 1949, the multilateral trading system lost one of its biggest players due to the China Revolution in which the People’s Republic of Chin required them to close their doors to international trade and dissociate themselves from the GATT (wto.org; Francis, 2003). As a non-member of the GATT, China experienced discrimination against their exports and were subjects to anti-dumping by other exporting countries (Baihua, 2005). In 1978, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to open its barriers to the outside would, and re-apply for WTO membership (wto.org). During this time, China was experiencing a decline in economic progression which without help, could have potentially lead to a detrimental effect on both the economy of China and its trading partners (Francis, 2003). The entry of China in the WTO would also open the international trade market to have products “Made for China’s” one billion citizens rather than just “Made by China” (wto.org).
The developing countries within the WTO had both excitement and concerns about China entering the WTO. As the world’s largest developing country, the other developing and least developed countries hoped that China would bring a stronger voice for these countries within the WTO (Kirby, 2001). On the other hand, the developing and least developed countries feared that Chins would become their biggest trade competitor, especially in the area of textile trade (Francis, 2003).
There were three basic two basic steps that China needed to accomplish before accession into the WTO. China had to first partake in bilateral trade agreements with current WTO members, then they had to trade on a multilateral level (United States Trade Representative, 2004). The key relationships that China needed to develop during while fulfilling these requirements was with the United States and the European Union. If China was able to build trading relationships with these two countries it would have been said that enough reforms had finally been developed to open its market (Healy, 2001). In 1999, the United States agreed to support China’s accession into the WTO and established official trade relations. The bilateral agreements signed by the Clinton Administration worked to reduce China’s tariffs with the United States from 24.6% to 9.4% by the year 2005 (Summary of U.S.- China Bilateral WTO Agreement, 1999). Once trade agreements were created between China and the European Union in 2000, “it became clear that China’s WTO accession process was being accelerated” (Baihua, 2005).
Eventually, on December 11, 2001 China’s accession into the WTO became official at the ministerial conference in Doha (Francis, 2003). The WTO developed a special “Multilateral Mechanism” named the “Transitional Review Mechanism” to evaluate China’s progress and to make sure their trade advancements stay on track. This review process was developed to occur for eight years following China’s accession with the final review on the 10th year (United States Trade Representative, 2004). This mechanism showed helped insure the current members of the WTO that China would follow through with its trade agreements and not perform outside of WTO regulations. The Chinese Premier Zhn Rongii stated, “WTO entry is a necessary choice for promoting China’s continuous rapid and health economic development,” and followed by warning his country that “we must realize industries, enterprises, and products will inevitable suffer in the short term. Whether benefits outweigh the disadvantages depend on our work” (Healy, 2001). This motivated the Chinese people and helped them to begin their membership in the WTO strong. It was noted by the United States Trade Representative (2004) in his report to congress that China had a very successful first year as a WTO member. In this year, China successfully updated more than 1000 laws and regulations to meet WTO standards (United States Trade Representative, 2004). Additionally, within the first quarter, 2000 Mercedies-Bendes were sold in China (People’s Daily, 2002). The success of Mercedies-Bends is in large part due to the liberation of China’s trade barriers leading to tariff reductions.
However, by 2003, the United States started to report a decline in implementation efforts made by the Chinese as well as numerous WTO-related problems. They key problems that were of particular concern to the United States was protection of Intellectual Property Rights of American goods in China (United States Representative, 2004). The United States was finding that there were many pirates selling illegal copies of American books, movies, videos, music, and textiles in China (Offices of the United States Trade Representative, 2007). The US-China Business Council reported a total $37,578,952 worth of seized counterfeit goods found in China in 2004. Though the United States encounters counterfeiting and piracy problems within other developing nations, the illegal goods in China far surpasses those sold in the other countries (The US-China Business Council, 2005) The continued severity of this problem could potentially put American companies in China whose products are being counterfeited out of business which would deify the agreements that China made with the WTO when they liberated their trade boarders.
Four years latter, and the lack of progress made on China’s part to reduce the amount of counterfeit produced in their country the United States began to think of ways to reprimand the country. As a result, the United States Treasurery Secretary Hank Paulson, called Chinese representatives into a meeting to try and avoid the potential idea of implementing a trade tariff on China (Garten, 2007). According to Jeffery Garten, a journalist and financial advisor, America has acquired an enormous trade deficit with China. As a result, Garten (2007) estimates that America’s exports will need to grow five times faster than China’s to avoid the bilateral imbalance that was quickly acquiring. In April 2007, the United States Trade Representative, Susan Schwab, “announced that the United States will make two request tomorrow for WTO dispute settlement consultations with the People’s Republic of China” (Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2007). Though the press statement released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative in April 2007 told the public that they recognized that the Chinese government had “has made the protection of intellectual property rights a priority and has taken active steps to improve IPR protection and enforcement,” the United States and China have not been able to agree upon specific changes that needed to be made to their bilateral trade agreement.
This is the first step under the dispute settlement process of the WTO. If China and the United States are unable to meet an agreement within 60 days, they will have the opportunity to request a panel to review their disagreement and move to the second stage of the dispute settlement process (wto.org). It will be interesting to see within the next few months the out come of the first round of the dispute settlements, and observe whether the outcomes are quickly made under the watch of the WTO, or if the dispute will carry on to the next round. The success of China in international trade would create an upset with the leaders of world trade today. However, they will first need to overcome these obstacles and continue to revise their trade measures in order for them to be trusted by the other members and in return succeed in the future.
The Doha Round
The most recent news posted on the WTO’s website is their progress towards completing the new round of negotiation (wto.org). Though the creation of the WTO in 1995 was a huge advancement towards a freer global trade market, many countries still wanted to see further advancements in trade policies (wto.org). Developing countries for example felt that further improvements could be made to the system to create a more equal playing field within the trading market (Buckley, 2003). In particular, developing countries were disappointment with the WTO for working on new topics rather than on “unfinished business” that was promised from the Uruguay Round. Two of the most concerning “unfinished business” promises was the enhancement of market access for farm, textile, and clothing exports (Capling, 2003). Thus, part of the agenda for the third ministerial meeting scheduled to be held in Seattle, Washington to commence the beginning of a new round of negotiations (www.wto.org).
Preparations for the new round began at the previous ministerial meeting in Geneva, which eventually resulted in more than 150 documents proposing different ideas to be brought up in the new negotiation round (www.wto.org). Prior to the meeting day in Seattle, the few week new director-general, Mike Moore, tried to postpone the meeting due to the need for further preparations and the rumor of “serious players” who were undecided about the topics of the meeting in Seattle and were possibly not going to attend. Mike Moore was advised not to worry because the past ministerial conferences had seen people “play chicken” with attendance and they had always shown up in the end (Moore, 2003). On the meeting day in Seattle, those “serious players” did not did not attend which lead to a blocking of the “explicit consensus” needed to make a final decision at the meeting (wikipedia.com). However, the main focus of the day was not on the voting block, but rather by the 50,000 to 100,000 protestors who traveled from around the world for the WTO to hear their opinion. The people who gathered in the streer were from various clubs, beliefs, and religions, but were all protesting for freer fair trade (www.globalissues.org). According to Mike Moore (2003), “Riots erupted, tear gas flowed and tanks roamed the street.” The ministerial meeting in Seattle is now known as a “victory for the anti-globalization movement” (Moore, 2003). This experience showed the WTO the capability of the people, and acted as an incentive to insure future Minstrel meetings go much soother (Capling, 2003).
Immediately after the protest in Seattle, the Minister from Qatar offered to host the next Ministerial Conference in his country (Moore, 2003). Thus, in November 2001 the Ministerial council successfully met in Doha, Qatar (www.ita.doc.gov). At this conference they agreed to launch a new negotiation round called The Doha Development Round (understanding the wto). The Ministerial Declaration released after the meeting in Doha proclaimed what was to be the focus for the new negotiations. In response to the out cry of the developing and least developed countries, the majority of the negotiations focused particularly on increasing support to enhance economic development and reduce the poverty level for these countries. The declaration directly stated, “The majority of WTO members are developing countries. We seek to place their needs and interests at the heart of the Work Programme adopted in this Declaration” (wto.org). An example of a proposed improvement for the new negotiations was improved market access for non-agriculture products especially for non developed countries, a direct measure to try and further integrate developing and least developed countries into becoming successful multilateral trade players (wto.org).Along with the negotiations focused around developing and least developed countries, the WTO also recognized their need to improve environmental standards in trade and support sustainable development (wto.org).
The Doha Development Round was projected to be completed four years latter in 2006. The Doha conference had successfully laid out what was to needed to be established, and it was then up to the individual countries to formulate agreements.
Unfortunately, the fifth Ministerial Conference held two years after the launch of the Doha Development Round in Cancon, Mexico, ended in a “standstill” for the advancement of negotiations (www.ita.doc.gov). After five days of negotiations, the member governments were unable to reach a consensuses. Many of the countries were disagreeing about the issue of unfair cotton issues proposed by four African countries and the lack of reform made on the agriculture agreement. Thus, on the last day of the conference, the then Director-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi, acknowledged that the disagreements had resulted in a “setback” and the proposed deadline for the negotiations were no longer realistic (wto.org;www.ita.doc.gov). He suggested that the members continue work on their negotiations, and to not give up hope for the future progress of the Doha Development Round. Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said, “it is important to ensure the negotiations are put back on track. If the Doha Development Agenda fails, the losers will be the poor of the world” (wto.org).
The next Ministereial Conference was held in Hong Kong in 2005. The agenda for this round was to agree upon the negotiations of the Doha Development Round that had been discussed thus far (www.ita.doc.gov). Going into the conference everyone understood that the meeting needed to get the negotiations back on track by pulling down the “logjam” that was causing the set back (trade.businessroundtable.org). By the final day in Hong Kong, the members had agreed on many of the issues. For example, the cotton debate ended with a cut in trade distorted subsidies on cotton and the allowance of developing countries to enter the markets of developed countries (wto.org).
Unfortunately, in July 2006, the progression towards the conclusion of the Doha Development Round reached another obsticle after the G6, Brazil, India, European Union, United States, Australia, and Japan were unable to reach a consensus about specific negotiations (wto.org; EuroActive.com). In particular, the United States and the European Union were disagreeing about the cut of tariffs and subsidies for farm products, and developing countries were declining to open their markets to services and industrial (EuroActive.com). In his press conference after the meeting, Director-General Pascal suggested the suspension of the Doha Development Round negotiations in order to “enable the serious reflection by participants which is clearly necessary. Time-out to review the situation, examine available options and review positions” (wto.org). Lamy suggested that a specific date to resume negotiations would not be set until “the negotiating environment is right” (wto.org).
Eventually, thirty key nations set January 27, 2007 as the date to resume negotiation of the Doha Development Round (EuroActive.com). After a meeting held in April 2007, the G6 agreed to finish the Doha Development Round by the end of 2007 (millenniumcampaign.org). However, in order to reach their goal, many key issues that had been disagreed upon before the suspension in 2006 had to be resolved.
In a recent press conference on May 9, 2007, Lamy proclaimed that “a successful outcome to the Round is possible, even in the small amount of time remaining until the end of the year” (wto.org). His optimistic outlook for the completion of the Doha Development Round streams from the progress towards a consensus that the members have made on agriculture agreements as well as the WTO’s “Aid for Trade” campaign (wto.org). With only about six more months to go to meet their deadline, the member countries are going to negotiate hard in order to reach a consensus on time and cover all of the topics proposed in 2001.
Director General Lamy suggested that “failure would mean foregoing the very significant trade package on the table and breaking the commitment for a more developing-friendly world trading system” (wto.org). This quote exemplifies the importance for the member countries to agree upon the negotiations quickly. Though the revisions of the GATT took many years, the future of many developing countries was not at stake as they are during these negotiations.
The Future of the WTO and World Trade
With the implementation of the Doha Development Round and the acceptance of China into the WTO, it is clear that the WTO can no longer be viewed as an organization for the rich or an Americanized association. Today over half of the WTO members are from developing or least developed countries, and the majority of the negotiations being made for the Doha Round are specifically aimed at benefiting these people. With the completion of the negotiation round just around the corner and developing power of China, it will be very likely to see developing and least developed countries begin to take enormous advantage of the benefits of global trade.
A major player blocking the progress of the Doha Development Round and the progressed success of China seems to be the United States. The United States is currently taking China to the dispute settlement court as well as one of the key players in the G6 that are having difficulty agreeing upon final negations for the Doha Development Round. Though the United States is rightfully challenging China as well as taking their time in the negotiation rounds to speak their opinions, their might be an alternative reasons. The rising economy of China and the perspective success of developing and least developing nations in the WTO means that the United States power within the international trade market may be at stake. In order to compensate for this decline in power, it seems the United States is now having to use of the WTO’s rule system to ensure that the United States will continue to take advantage of international trade benefits through the future. Interesting to note is China is only one of a few developing countries that are starting to make an up rise in world trade. Thus, the big players for the future of global trade may not be those that we see today, but upcoming developing countries who have taken advantage of the free trade benefits today.
As the “only international agency overseeing the rules of international trade,” the WTO is the perfect organization for people to look towards to solve all of the world’s problems (News.bbc.co.uk). However, after examining the structure of the WTO and the agreements that it encompasses, the organization was designed mealy to help settle trade disputes, not necessarily to solve globalization issues. Though the WTO is able to help increase trade with developing and least developed countries, it is up to the member countries to create a bilateral agreements with these specific countries. Thus, with the increasing awareness about environmental, social, and poverty issues in the world relating, to would make since that another international organization was developed to take on these global issues. However, if it has taken a world trade organization almost fifty years for only 150 countries to accept the WTO as a national necessity in being a global player, how long will it take for other organizations of this size to be created and become successful? Though predictions can be made, only time will tell.

Economic and Monetary Union
In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) consists of three stages coordinating economic policy and culminating with the adoption of the euro, the EU's single currency. All member states of the European Union participate in the EMU. Member states of the European Union have entered the third stage and have adopted the euro as their currency. Exception: The United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden have not accepted the third stage and the three EU members still use their own currency today. Under the Copenhagen criteria, it is a condition of entry for states acceding to the EU that they be able to fulfil the requirements for monetary union within a given period of time.
Convergence Criteria for Participation in EMU (According to the Maastricht Treaty)
Price stability. the average rate of consumer price inflation over the previous 12 months must not exceed by more than 1.5 percentage points that of, at most, the three best performing member states and this performance should be sustainable.
Public finance. The financial position of the member country's government must be sustainable, as evidenced by the country not being subject to an excessive deficit. In particular, the general government deficit should not exceed the treaty's reference value of 3 percent of GDP, or it should have declined substantially and continuously and have reached a level close to the reference value, or the excess over the reference value should be temporary and exceptional; and the gross debt total of the general government should not exceed the reference value of 60 percent of GDP or, if it does, it should be sufficiently diminishing and approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace.
Interest rates. Long-term government bond yields averaged over the previous 12 months should not exceed by more than 2 percentage points those of, at most, the three member countries with the lowest inflation.
Exchange rates. A country should have respected the normal fluctuation margins of the ERM for at least two years without severe tensions and without devaluing its currency against any other member's currency on its own initiative.
History of the EMU First ideas of an economic and monetary union in Europe were raised well before establishing the European Communities. For example, already in the League of Nations, Gustav Stresemann asked in 1929 for a European currency against the background of an increased economic division due to a number of new nation states in Europe after WWI. A first attempt to create an economic and monetary union between the members of the European Communities goes back to an initiative by the European Commission in 1969, which set out the need for "greater co-ordination of economic policies and monetary cooperation"( Barre Report), which was followed by the decision of the Heads of State or Government at their summit meeting in 1969 to draw up a plan by stages with a view to creating an economic and monetary union by the end of the 1970s. On the basis of various previous proposals, an expert group chaired by Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Pierre Werner, presented in October 1970 the first commonly agreed blueprint to create an economic and monetary union in three stages ( Werner plan). The project experienced serious setbacks from the crises arising from the non-convertibility of the US dollar into gold in August 1971 and from rising oil prices in 1972. The debate on EMU was fully re-launched at the Hanover Summit in June 1988, when an ad hoc committee of the central bank governors of the twelve member states, chaired by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, was asked to propose a new timetable with clear, practical and realistic steps for creating an economic and monetary union. The Delors report of 1989 set out a plan to introduce the EMU in three stages and it included the creation of institutions like the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), which would become responsible for formulating and implementing monetary policy.
The three stages for the implementation of the EMU were the following: Stage One: 1 July 1990 to 31 December 1993 On 1 July 1990, exchange controls were abolished, thus capital movements were completely liberalised in the EEC. The Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 establishes the completion of the EMU as a formal objective and sets a number of economic convergence criteria, concerning the inflation rate, public finances, interest rates and exchange rate stability. The treaty enters into force on the 1 November 1993. completely free movement of capital within the EU (abolition of exchange controls); increasing the amount of resources devoted to removing inequalities between European regions (Structural Funds); economic convergence, through multilateral surveillance of member states’ economic policies. Stage Two: 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1998 The European Monetary Institute is established as the forerunner of the European Central Bank, with the task of strengthening monetary cooperation between the member states and their national banks, as well as supervising ECU banknotes. On 16 December 1995, details such as the name of the new currency (the euro) as well as the duration of the transition periods are decided. On 16-17 June 1997, the European Council decides at Amsterdam to adopt the Stability and Growth Pact, designed to ensure budgetary discipline after creation of the euro, and a new exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) is set up to provide stability between the euro and the national currencies of countries that haven't yet entered the eurozone. On 3 May 1998, at the European Council in Brussels, the 11 initial countries that will participate in the third stage from 1 January 1999 are selected. On 1 June 1998, the European Central Bank (ECB) is created, and in 31 December 1998, the conversion rates between the 11 participating national currencies and the euro are established.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Ludwig van Beethoven received his musical education by his father Johann, who was a singer and instrumentalist in the service of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn. In 1787 Beethoven moved to Vienna where he worked and studied with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn. In 1795 he made his first public appearance at the Vienna Burgtheater. He was strongly bound to aristocracy and the Viennese society and Beethoven often dedicated his work to them. Their support or employment left Beethoven a lot of time to life and work as a free artist.

In 1794 he first noticed an impairment in his hearing, which was diagnosed incurable in 1802. Around this period he composed the "Eroica Symphonie" and the "Symphonie No.5" Beethoven hearing problem increased rapidly from 1801 to 1818. In 1814 he presented his one and only opera "Fidelio", in 1815 he conducted his last concert and around 1818 he went completely deaf. In his late period, nearly deaf he composed the "Choral Symphony, No.9".

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

At the age of 8 Joseph Haydn was sent to Vienna as a choirboy at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Until 1750 he studied violin and different keyboard instruments and started to compose his first work.

By 1766 he was assigned Kapellmeister for the Esterhazys in Eisenstadt, one of the leading Hungarian Families, where he was in charge of around 20 musicians. After the death of Prince Nicholas in 1790 and the dissolving of the Esterhazy orchestra, Haydn moved back to Vienna, where he became one of the leading musicians. From 1791 to 1792 he stayed in London, where Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctor of music.

In 1795 the Esterhazy orchestra was resurrected by Prince Nikolaus II and Haydn was given a lot of freedom, to work as a musical director. During this time he composed the string quartets "Rider" and the "Emporer Quartet" and the world famous song "God Save The Emperor Franz", today known as the German national anthem.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Throughout his childhood Franz Schubert developed a dedication to music and studied piano, organ, violin and singing. By 1814 he had already produced a lot of work, including piano pieces, string quartets, his first symphony and a three act opera.
Although Schubert was forced by his family to take on a job as a teacher in his father's school, he still continued to compose and he managed to produce more music. During this period he gathered with friends for domestic evenings dedicated to Schubert's music, later known as the "Schubertiads". Song like "Der Wanderer" and "Die Forelle" where introduced.

In 1822 he got infected by syphilis and was in deep financial needs, marking this time as a dark period. But Schubert still kept creating new work like "Schöne Müllerin" the "Eighth Symphony ("unfinished")" and a string Quartet d Minor ("Death and the Maiden"). Although he was known at his time as a songwriter, his work included a lot of Symphonies, String Quartets, piano sonatas and more.


Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899)

Johann Strauss Jr. was born on the 25th of October 1825, as the first son of Johann Strauss Sr. His father, a famous musician himself, forbid him a musical career. But Johann Strauss Jr. cared more for his violin lessons, than his schoolwork. In 1844 he performed his first concert at the Dommayer in Hietzing, a Viennese suburb. He was successful and soon rose to be the most dangerous competitor to his father.

When his father died in 1849, Strauss Jr. had already established himself as the Viennese Waltz King. He conquered big crowds of fans with his tours through Europe and America and trigged a world wide Strauss hysteria.

Jaque Offenbach's operettas inspired Johann Strauss Jr. to drift towards stagework himself categorizing his work as comical operas. His first operetta "Die Fledermaus" had its premiere in 1871, and in 1874 he released "Der Zigeunerbaron".

He was married three times, he wrote 17 operettas and an uncountable amount of waltzes and his "Schöne Blaue Donau" is kind of an unoffizial anthem for Austria to this day.

Johann Strauss Sr. (1804-1849)

Johann Strauss Sr. was born on the 14th of March 1804, as the son of an innkeeper. The location of his father's inn at the Danube Channel and the neighboring harbor with it's rafts and boats from different countries and the music played by the sailors, influenced Johann Sr. enthusiasm for popular dance music.

After the death of both parents he began working as an apprentice for bookbinding in 1816 and started studying the violin. He got hired for the chapel of Michael Pamer as violin player but soon Strauss decided to become independent with his own orchestra. After a longer period of existential and financial problems he managed his breakthrough. He started to tour through Europe where he celebrated his popularity and he even played at the crowning of Queen Victoria in London.
His success was enormous and he became conductor of the first civil regiment, where he composed the "Radetzky Marsch".

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Johannes Brahms was born near Hamburg. As a son of a musician, he obtained a good musical education. Brahms was traveling through Europe and gave concerts performing his own music. Later, he became the manager of the Vienna Singers' Academy in 1862 and in 1868. Vienna became his second home.

From 1872 to 1875 he conducted the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien". Although Brahms was employed a lot of times, he rather praised the life of a free musician, like most of the composers at this time. His work includes 4 Symphonies, 2 Serenades, vocal pieces with orchestra and a wide selection of chamber music.

Arnold Schönberg and the (second) Viennese School

Vienna's fascination with 'serious' music did not vanish with the end of the 19th century, nor did the Viennese confine themselves to the classic standards of Mozart, Beethoven or the Strauss family. At the beginning of the 20th century the masters of the second Viennese school (zweite Wiener Schule) started to investigate the principles of atonal music.

Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), one of Vienna's major composers, started out as a self-taught post-romantic performer and composer. More and more he grew interested in atonal music. His fascination with harmonic strangeness, contrapuntal density and complexity culminated in the development of twelve tone music. His music was greatly influenced by contemporary painting, by Kandinsky and other expressionists. The expressionist lyric of Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke played a major role in his oeuvre, too. The lyric of George inspired him to transcend traditional aesthetics and the cycle "Das Buch der hängenden Gärten". His ideas were loosely connected to those of the founders of the "Wiener Secession".
Being of Jewish origin and an ardent advocate of expressionist techniques he was forced to flee Austria and Germany in 1933. Arnold Schönberg emigrated to Los Angeles were he died in 1951 surviving his famous pupils Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945) and Alban Berg (1885 - 1935), the composer of "Wozzek".

Wiener Sängerknaben - Vienna Boys' Choir

Founded in 1498 as part of the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle by Emperor Maximilian I for private masses and concerts for the court. Countless famous composers and conductors like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have worked with the Choirboys.

After the breakdown of the Habsburg Empire in 1918 the fate of the Vienna Boys' Choir was undecided. The Austrian State took over Vienna State Opera and its adult musicians but was not interested in upholding the traditions of the boys' choir with its angelic voices. A private sponsor stepped in and managed the choir. In the 1920s sailor suit were all the rage and so the boys were dressed accordingly - a dress code that has been in use ever since.
To fight a shortage in funding the choir started to organize public concerts with great success. The choir enlarged their repertoire adding motets, secular songs and childrens' operas to their performances.

Today, there are 4 boys' choirs, who constantly tour the world. The choristers are aged 11 to 14 years, attend school together and receive an excellent musical education. Their concerts are usually sold out at an early stage.
On Sundays there is a special chance to admire the boys' choire: accompanied by Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus they celebrate mass at the Hofmusikkapelle at Vienna's Hofburg.

Wiener Philharmoniker - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1848 as the first professional orchestra in Vienna. While it is proud of its democratic structure it has taken the orchestra 155 years to get used to the idea of women taking an active role as philharmonic musicians. The first female was accepted in 1997 - a step, that the like-minded institution of the Spanish Riding School has yet to take!
The 'Wiener Philharmoniker' have collaborated with exceptional composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. The distinctly Viennese sound is guaranteed by the choice of instruments: Viennese woodwinds, brass instruments and strings vary slightly from their international counterparts. Vibrato is used only sparingly and mostly by strings.
One of the highlights of Vienna's cultural calendar is the 'Neujahrskonzert' of the Vienna Philharmonic. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is considered to be one of the best world-wide.

Austrian literature is the German language literature written in Austria. We can speak about Austrian literature in the strict sense from the year 1803 on when Francis II disbanded Holy Roman Empire and established Austrian Empire. A more liberal definition incorporates all the literary works written on the territory of historical Austria and German speaking authors who were tightly connected with the country. The Austrian literature must be considered in close connection with German literature in general and the borderline between proper German literature and the Austrian one is fuzzy.
There are and have been many tries to work out a complete definition of Austrian literature. Something most people can agree on is that there are certain differences and distinctive motives common in this literature which make it stand apart from other literary traditions.
The Austrian literature can be divided into two main divisions, namely the period up until the mid-20th century, and the period subsequent, in which both the Austro-Hungarian and German empires were gone. Austria went from being a major European power, to being a small country. In addition, there is a body of literature which some would deem Austrian, but is not written in German.
Complementing its status as a land of artists, Austria is a country where great poets, writers and novelists lived and created their literary works. It was the home of novelists / short-story writers Arthur Schnitzler, Friedrich Halm, Stefan Zweig, Franz Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Joseph Roth, or Robert Musil, of poets Georg Trakl, Franz Werfel, Franz Grillparzer, Rainer Maria Rilke or Adalbert Stifter. Famous contemporary playwrights and novelists are Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Handke.
The search for a definition
The main problem of defining a dynamic development may be that any definition will fall short of the various currents which lead to a certain type of literature. Through the centuries, there have been many different approaches, but most of them have been criticised to be biased - cultural, ideological or political. The Austrian literature developed out of a symbiosis of different regional traditions and languages.
In the Middle Ages, there was a homogeneous zone along the Danube river, spanning from Bavaria down to the eastern territories. Travellers and bards moved along this route, bringing with them new influences. At the same time Alps had their forbidding little valleys, which were virtually untouched - they developed their own regional culture.
This is important, because it remains characteristic through the centuries. On the one hand, there were writers strictly in the tradition of a region (like towns, countries etc.), language or culture, on the other hand there was a continuous influence on each others writing and thinking.
The multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire should therefore not be reduced to the German parts of the empire. There were large ethnic or religious minorities in nearly all regional capitals, like Prague, Budapest or Vienna - microcosmoses with their own traditions and characteristics.
Franz Kafka may be a good example: while in some of his writings he was declaring himself to be "German" this was meant more in relation to the ethnic minority living in Prague than as a declaration for another part of the empire. The official language in the school Franz went to was German, in private he spoke Czech, most of his works were written in German while private letters, like the ones to his lover Milena Jesenská were written in Czech. So perhaps he was a "German-speaking-secular-Jewish-born-in-Prague-Austro-Hungarian-Austro-Czech writer" - a term which best shows the difficulties that are to be faced.
Besides the national differences between the provinces, there were also different regions which influenced the writing style. There were Alps with their distinctive traditions, the deep woods, the coastal regions around Trieste (now Italy and Slovenia) and the Croatian islands, which served as the Austro-Hungarian equivalent to the French Cote d'Azur, a centre for writers, painters and other artists.

Literature through the centuries
Middle Ages
From the beginnings to the end of the early Middle Ages (about 750-1170)
Before and during the early Middle Ages poetry was spread verbally most of the time. Out of this reason it has been lost nearly completely. The texts conserved are limited to the scripts in monasteries.
Materials were expensive and their production difficult. Therefore nearly only works of value - and that often meant religious texts - were written down. In addition most texts were also translated into latin before the were put down (e.g. Germanic tribal laws).
Different sources however suggest that there also existed aristocratic historical records (like Heldenlieder), lyric folklore (dance, love songs, spells). Only by accident individual texts were preserved in monasteries. Examples for this are the "Merseburger Zaubersprüche", two Germanic spells being the only written proofs for pagan religion in the German speaking lands. The "Hildebrandslied" is important as voucher of Germanic hero literature.
The first German texts were written to translate Latin religious books around 750 in the early Middle Ages. The Benedictine communities in Melk and Salzburg were carrying on notable literary and religious activities. Ava (1060-1127), who was the first known female writing in German, wrote in this religiously inspired tradition and lived in the territories which were then and now within borders of Austria.

High and Late Middle Ages (1170 - 1500)
With the crusades around 1160, the knights became more important and prosperous. The oral minnesang was a new form, dealing with their live. The topics of the ballads were also more worldly with themes ranging from love and war to political criticism. There was a lot of travelling along the Danube river, with travelling bards (Minnesänger) bringing news and new songs. The towns were getting rich and independent. The first representants of this movement and first known male writers in German were Der von Kürenberg and Dietmar von Aist (12th century). At the end of 12th century one of the most important literary works of the times, Nibelungenlied, emerged. It was created by an unknown minnesang poet most probably in the territories of Austria. As the tradition of minnesang grew, the older poets started teaching younger ones. For example probably the most known German bard Walther von der Vogelweide (13ht century) learnt his craft from Reinmar von Hagenau at the court in Vienna. Among other known minnesang poets are Neidhart, Jans der Enikel, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, and Oswald von Wolkenstein.
In the 12th century, satire was also developing. Seifried Helbling was an example of a writer who wrote texts of this type.
Later on the minnesang, that was cultivated by knights, became a craft practised by burghers – meistersingers. Its centre was more to the west, in Nuremberg. Michael Beheim was a meistersinger poet strongly connected with the court in Vienna. Yet another form that developed at that time was drama. Especially, presentations of Passion were regularly played. Das Wiener Passionsspiel is worth mentioning here.

Renaissance
Around 1600, the humanism, with his rediscovery of the ancient cultures and ideals spread from Italy throughout Europe. Emperor Maximilian I was a big supporter of this movement. He managed to gather around his court in Vienna humanists such as Conrad Celtes – the founder of Collegium Poetarum or in the later time poet laureat Vadian (Joachim von Watt) who wrote in Latin. Eleonore of Austria translated to German a widely read French adventure novel Pontus et la belle Sidonie. Big figures of the Catholic Church of that time Nicholas of Cusa and Petrus Canisius were connected with Austrian court and a few of their works wrote in German.

Baroque
The 30 year war gripped Europe the and the writers reacted: while some of them dealt with the gruel situation or turned to God, others wrote about a beautiful and peaceful world readers could flee to. The humorous stories (Schelmenromane) brought smiles to the suffering people. Abraham a Sancta Clara (around 1650) wrote religious and comical works. Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (around 1650) wrote religious poems at that time.
As a reaction to the protestant movements of Renaissance, many catholic schools emerged on the territories of Austria. These colleges lead by the Jesuit order developed plays and operas that were based on Italian style and impressed most by their luxurious equipment. Sermon was an important genre of the catholic literature of baroque. The mentioned above Benedictine monk Abraham a Sancta Clara was a notable preacher of the times. A jesuit, Georg Scherer, is another example of a monk the sermons of whom were published and had a wider audience.
Another literaric form were improvised plays called "Hanswurstspiele". This direction was represented by Josef Anton Stranitzky, Gottfried Prehauser, Joachim Perinet and Josef Felix von Kurz-Bernardon.
Examples of baroque epic are the knight novels and "Schelmenromane" of Johann Beer, which represent a realistic description of the reality at that time.

Enlightenment
With the start of Enlightenment around 1720, philosophy and the need of literature to educate the reader (Lehrdichtung, Bildungsroman) were two new and strong motivations for literature.
Aristotle and his school of thinking was revived. These ideas developed on the territories of Austria during the rule of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II. Around 1790 the ideas of Enlightenment were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers. Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time.
The Austrian literature also was under the strong influence of Freemasonry and strongly connected with the criticism towards clergy. All these circumstences caused that the literature started to be more educative and instructional. The satire started to be one of the most frequently used literary genres.
The literary life of Enlightenment concentrated around an almanac Wienerischer Musen-Almanach. It was started in 1777 (from 1786 under a changed title Wiener Musen-Almanach) by Joseph Franz von Ratschky and Gottlieb von Leon. Aloys Blumauer was also its editor since 1781 (he even edited a few editions alone).
A notable place in the Austrian literature of this period has Johann Baptist von Alxinger who wrote chivalric epics Doolin von Maynz (1787) and Bliomberis (1791) which were inspired by the tradition of Freemasonry. Alxinger also wrote poetry based on anticlerical ideas.
The writings of a might-have-been monk Johann Pezzl also had a profile of this kind. He wrote journalistic and epic texts.
Classical vision of poetry promoted by Joseph Schreyvogel strongly influenced later authors (for instance Franz Grillparzer). Schreyvogel improved considerably the quality of the Austrian theatre. He was a dramatic adviser at the Wiener Burgtheater from 1814-32.
Another important dramatist was Johann Nepomuk von Kalchberg, but historical themes of his dramas give his work the flavour of Romanticism.

First half of 19th century
Around 1790 these ideas were firmly rooted and the ancient classic cultures (Greek and Roman) were the inspiration for poets, artists, architects and writers. Harmony and Beauty were some of the ideals of that time. There was a lot of philosophical and aesthetic writing which accumulated in the Romantic era around 1820 (mostly writers from the nobility). With the Napoleonic Wars going on, a lot of people wanted literature which took them away in a fantasy world. A lot of religious writing was also providing people with new hope. Klemens Maria Hofbauer, Eduard von Bauernfeld and Franz Grillparzer are but three of the writers influenced by these events. The German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel also lived and worked in Vienna around 1809.
Between the years 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions the Biedermeier contrasted with the Romantic era which preceded it. Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early nineteenth-century history.
The first trend is growing urbanisation and industrialisation leading to a new urban middle class. The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples. Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility. The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and the non-political.

Biedermeier
Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it.
Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early nineteenth-century German history.
The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class. The early Lieder of Schubert, which were performable at the piano without substantial musical training, serve as examples. Further, Biedermeier writers were mainly middle-class, as opposed to the Romantics, who were mainly drawn from the nobility.
The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and (at least in public) the non-political. The strict publication rules and the censorship had the consequence, that the main topics written about were unpolitical, eg Historical Fiction or Books about the quiet life in the countryside. This does not mean that there was not a lot of political discussion going on, but it happened at home and in the presence of close friends. This explosive situation finally lead to the revolutions in Europe in the year 1848.
Poets of that time in Austria-Hungary were Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850) or the poems of Adalbert Stifter und Franz Grillparzer.
Writers of that time were Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797-1848) ("Die Judenbuche"), who wrote some of their works at the lake "Bodensee" in the three country triangle Austria, Switzerland and Germany or Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868) in Austria.
Play-writers at that time were Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872), Friedrich Halm (1806-1871), also an accomplished writer of "Novellen" (novellas / short stories), Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801-1862) and Ferdinand Raimund (1790-1836). Grillparzer wrote tragedies in the tradition of the "Weimarer Klassik", Nestroy and Raimund were representatives for the "Wiener Volksstück" mainly played at the vienese theater "Volkstheater Wien".
The end of biedermeier is marked by the writings of Adalbert Stifter. His first work Nachsommer was published in 1857, but was still believed to be on of the finest works of biedermeier. Stifter not only influenced Rosegger or Ganghofer, Heyse, Freytag and Wildenbruch, but also later writers (the time of "Bürgerlichen Realismus") like Storm, Fontane and through them Thomas Mann and Hesse.
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Arthur Schnitzler (1862 - 1931)

Arthur Schnitzler is one of Austria's literary heavyweights. He received extensive training in medicine and was especially interested in psychology, an interest that influenced his writing a great deal. A contemporary of Sigmund Freud, Schnitzler was impressed by the idea of a repressed unconscious. His prose "Leutnant Gustl" (Ensign Gustl) wass written in stream of consciousness technique and was published in 1900, well before James Joyce wrote his 'Ulysses'.

His plays 'Reigen' and 'Liebelei' are possibly his best known works and scandalized the Vienna of the 1920's with a honest depiction of the lax moral manners behind a conservative surface. The characteres are types rather than individuals. In 'Reigen' they do not have names but are called after their function husband, wive, young man, sweet girl and so on. In all scenes two figures are clearly stating their amorous intentions. One figure is passed on to the next scene, until the last figure meets the first. Exactly as in dancing a round dance, a 'Reigen'.
By the way, the sweet girl ('das süße Mädel') is typical for the Viennese popular theater.

Arthur Schnitzler's view of the world and of society was critical and not very optimistic. Due to this, his writing met with heavy criticism.

His prose 'Traumnovelle' was taken up by Hollywood's dream engine and turned into a major movie starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise and directed by Stanley Kubrik. The name of the movie? Eyes Wide Shut.


Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-born German writer is best known for his short story Metamorphosis (1912) and the widespread familiarity of the literary term Kafkaesque, inspired by his nightmarishly complex and bizarre yet absurd and impersonal short stories.

Franz Kafka was born 3 July, 1883 in Prague, Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, into a Jewish middle-class, German speaking family; his mother Julie, (née Löwy), three younger sisters and his successful merchant father Hermann. Hermann owned a shop below where the family lived in Prague's House of the Three Kings. He was ill-tempered and disrespectful towards his son's escape into literature and pursuit of writing and proved to be an on-going source of conflict and despair in many of Kafka's works. Kafka became the eldest and only son when his two brothers died in infancy and he was excruciatingly aware of this role in the family for the rest of his life.

Kafka rebelled against his father's materialism and often wrote metaphorically of the struggle to overcome a dismayingly gargantuan, overpowering and practically suffocating force, much like his own timid and shy self in relation to his father. His Letter to Father (1919), never sent, is a plaintive attempt to explain his fear of and estrangement from his father and attempt to end the unceasing reproaches he received, as being the eldest son, he felt to be such a disappointment to his father.

Kafka's was visionary fiction, addressing three decades ahead of time the anxieties and change of the 20th century. While surrounded by some of the literati of the time such as Franz Werfel, he was isolated from the German community in Prague and he wrote of the ghetto before the urban renewal and rebuilding: "In us all it still lives -- the dark corners, the secret alleys, the shuttered windows, the squalid courtyards, the rowdy pubs, the sinister inns."

Kafka was also alienated from his own heritage by his parent's perfunctory religious practice and minimal social formality in the Jewish community, though his style and influence is sometimes attributed to Jewish folk lore. Kafka eventually declared himself a socialist atheist, Spinoza, Darwin and Nietzsche some of his influences.

In 1902 Kafka met Max Brod who would become his translator, supporter and most intimate friend. Kafka entered the German University in Prague in 1901 to study German literature and law, receiving his doctorate in 1906. Kafka was to lead a relatively inauspicious life, an exemplary employee with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute in Prague from 1907 to 1922. He would finally gain renown posthumously upon Max Brod's publication of his three major works, The Trial (1925) and The Castle in 1926 and Amerika (1927). Kafka's oeuvre is often filled with black humour in the style of parable, meditations, poetic fragments, and sketches. Though his works are often open to multiple interpretations, causing difficulty categorising his work in any single genre, existentialism and modernism are among them.

In 1911, Kafka was to spend his first of many curative periods in sanatoriums and spas for ill health. In 1912 he met and became engaged to Felice Bauer from Berlin. In 1912 he finished Metamorphosis his best-known short story, a masterpiece of stunning psychological, sociological and existential angst. From his third-floor room with a view of the Vltava river and the toll bridge crossing it, Kafka worked on Metamorphosis. "I would stand at the window for long periods," he wrote in his diary in 1912, "and was frequently tempted to amaze the toll collector on the bridge below by my plunge." He wrote Meditation in 1913, a collection of short prose pieces. In 1914 he finished Before the Law.

In 1916 Kafka wrote The Judgement, directly reflecting his struggle with his father; the prophetic In the Penal Colony and A Country Doctor (1919), another collection of short prose. In 1917 Kafka broke his second engagement to Felice Bauer, most likely precipitated by his continued failure to cut ties with his domineering father and set forth in his own life to get married and settle down. He was also diagnosed with tuberculosis after years of poor health. In 1923, finally escaping his paternal family he went to Berlin to write exclusively. He wrote A Hunger Artist in 1924, four stories illustrating the concise and lucid style of Kafka's writing in his later years.

Kafka's lack of confidence and personal misgivings about his work caused him to request that all his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed, however his friend, biographer and literary executor Max Brod didn't obey his wishes and in 1925 he published The Trial, indisputably Kafka's most successful novel in it's dark exploration of anxiety, paranoia and persecution. Joseph K, the protagonist, unsuccessfully confronts arbitrary rules and a hopeless court system without knowing the crime with which he is guilty of. Brod also published The Castle (1926) a wide-sweeping metaphor of authority and bureaucracy and the search for grace and forgiveness and Amerika (1927) with a light and amusing angle but also an examination of the symbolic horrors of modern life. The Great Wall of China was published in 1931.

3 June 1924, Franz Kafka died from complications of tuberculosis in Kierling, near Vienna, Austria. His remains are buried alongside his parent's under a two-meter obelisk in Prague's New Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske.

There is no epitaph, but Milena Jesenska, his lover and Czech journalist and writer, a few days after his death wrote: "He wrote the most significant works of modern German literature, which reflect the irony and prophetic vision of a man condemned to see the world with such blinding clarity that he found it unbearable and went to his death."


Thomas Bernhard (1931 – 1989)
Thomas Bernhard's relationship to Vienna and Austria was ambivalent. At the same time celebrated and abused by critics and audience Bernhard managed to throw light on the abysses of the Austrian soul, if such a thing exists. His texts often contain harsh descriptions of life in post war Austria, especially in conservative rural areas.
His language was minimal, sparse and to the point, it was also articulate in its forceful pessimism. But it is funny, too, in the same way as Kafka's sense of humor gets to you. Reading Bernhard is highly pleasurable, it is also unnerving.

In 1989 his play 'Heldenplatz' (square of heroes, the name of the square in front of Vienna's Hofburg) he focussed on the antisemitic atmosphere of contemporary Vienna. A Jewish family verbally abuses themselves and a good number of Austrian values. The ensuing scandall was legendary and Bernhard was the target of self-proclaimed defenders of Austria's honor. Critics and audience failed to see the underlying irony and the (black) humour of figur constellation and language.
It was not the first scandal caused by Berndhard's literature, but it was the most severe. The author retreated and died a year later with no friendly feelings towards his home country. His last will prohibited the staging of previously unstaged plays and the publication of unpublished prose in Austria.


Peter Handke is journalist, translater and highly successful writer of plays and prose. Many of his works have been translated into various languages.
His style is largely influenced by the aesthetics and theory of postmodernism. Especially in his early works Peter Handke loves to experience with language. Language is central to his literature rather than merely a means to further the plot. His early novel 'Die Angst des Tormanns vorm Elfmeter' (The Goalie's Anxiety at Penalty) explores the limitations and disintegration of language and reason.
In line with postmodern tradition Handke blurrs the limitations of literature and genre, freely mixing styles and disappointing conventional expectations of his readers and audience. Famous example is his early play 'Publikumsbeschimpfungen' (Scoldings of the audience), a play that scandalized Viennese theatre scene.
Handke's oevre is large and often characterized by long sentences and a distinct sense of utopia behind all the disintegration and criticism.
Handke also worked as translator and for radio and television. Wim Wenders turned one of Handke's screenplays into a legendary film: 'Himmel über Berlin' which was adapted for the American market as 'City of Angels' starring Meg Ryan and Nicolas cage. By the way, the plot of 'Himmel über Berlin' is based on Goethe's 'Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre' (Wilhelm Meister’s apprenticeship).

ELFRIEDE JELINEK

"Is writing the gift of curling up, of curling up with reality? One would so love to curl up, of course, but what happens to me then? What happens to those, who don’t really know reality at all? It’s so very dishevelled. No comb, that could smooth it down. The writers run through it and despairingly gather together their hair into a style, which promptly haunts them at night. Something’s wrong with the way one looks. The beautifully piled up hair can be chased out of its home of dreams again, but can anyway no longer be tamed. Or hangs limp once more, a veil before a face, no sooner than it could finally be subdued. Or stands involuntarily on end in horror at what is constantly happening. It simply won’t be tidied up. It doesn’t want to. No matter how often one runs the comb with the couple of broken off teeth through it - it just doesn’t. Something is even less right than before. The writing, that deals with what happens, runs through one’s fingers like the time, and not only the time, during which it was written, during which life stopped. No one has missed anything, if life stopped. Not the one living and not dead time, and the one who is dead not at all. When one was still writing, time found its way into the work of other writers. Since it is time, it can do everything at once: find its way into one’s own work and simultaneously into the work of others, blow into the tousled hairstyles of others like a fresh, even if malign wind, which has risen suddenly and unexpectedly from the direction of reality. Once something has risen, then perhaps it doesn’t lie down again so quickly. The angry wind blows and sweeps everything with it. And it sweeps everything away, no matter where, but never back to this reality, which is supposed to be represented. Everywhere, except there. Reality is what gets under the hair, under the skirts and just that: sweeps them away and into something else. How can the writer know reality, if it is that which gets into him and sweeps him away, forever onto the sidelines. From there, on the one hand, he can see better, on the other he himself cannot remain on the way of reality. There is no place for him there. His place is always outside. Only what he says from the outside can be taken up inside, and that because he speaks ambiguities. And then there are already two who fit, two whose faces are right, who warn, that nothing is happening, two who construe it in different directions, reach out to the inadequate grounds, which have long ago broken off like the fangs of the comb. Either or. True or false. It had to happen sooner or later, since the ground as building ground was quite inadequate. And how could one build on a bottomless pit anyway?
But the inadequacy that enters the writers’ field of vision, is still adequate enough for something, that they could also take or leave. They could take or leave it, and they do leave it. They don’t kill it. They merely look at it with their bleary eyes, but it does not become arbitrary because of this bleary gaze. The gaze is well aimed. Whatever is struck by this gaze says, even as it sinks down, although it has hardly been looked at, although it has not even been exposed to the sharp gaze of the public, whatever has been struck never says, that it could also have been something else, before it fell victim to this one description. It says exactly what had been better left unsaid (because it could have been better said?), what always had to remain unclear and groundless. Too many have already sunk into it up to their stomachs. It’s quicksand, but it doesn’t quicken anything. It is groundless, but not without grounds. It is as you like, but it is not liked.
The sidelines are at the service of the life, that precisely does not take place there, otherwise we would not all be in the thick of it, in the fullness, the fullness of human life, and it is at the service of the observation of the life, which is always taking place somewhere else. Where one is not. Why insult someone, because he cannot find his way back to the path of journeying, of life, of life’s journey, if he has borne it - and this bearing is no bearing someone, but nor is it any kind of bearing on - has simply fortuitously borne it, like the dust on a pair of shoes, which is pitilessly hunted down by the housewife, if a little less pitilessly than the stranger is hunted down by the locals. What kind of dust is it? Is it radioactive or active by itself, just like that, I’m only asking, because it leaves this strange trail of light on the way? Is what is running alongside and never meeting up with the writer again, the way, or is the writer the one who is running alongside, onto the sidelines? He has not yet passed away, but he’s already passed the line nevertheless. From there he sees those who have parted from him, but from one another too, in all their variety, in order to represent them in all their credulity, in order to get them on form, because form is the most important thing, anyway he sees them better from there. But that, too, is chalked up against him, so are those chalk marks and not particles of luminous matter, which mark the way of writing? At any rate it’s a marking out, which simultaneously shows and obscures and afterwards carefully covers up again the trail he himself laid. One was never there at all.





But nevertheless one knows what’s up. The words have come down from a screen, from blood-smeared faces distorted with pain, from laughing, made-up faces, with lips pumped up beforehand just for the make-up or from others, who gave the right answer to a question in a quiz, or born mouthers, women, who have nothing for and nothing against, who stood up and took off a jacket to point their freshly hardened breasts, which were once steeled and belonged to men, at the camera. In addition any amount of throats, out of which singing comes like bad breath, only louder. That is what could be seen on the way, if one were still on it. One goes out of the way of the way. Perhaps one sees it from a distance, where one remains alone, and how gladly, because one wants to see the way, but not walk it. Did this path make a noise just now? Does it want to draw attention to itself with noises now and not just with lights, loud people, loud lights? Is the way, which one cannot walk, afraid of not being walked at all, when so many sins are being constantly committed after all, torture, outrages, theft, threatening behaviour, necessary threat in the manufacture of significant world fates? It makes no difference to the way. It bears everything, firmly, even if groundlessly. Without ground. On lost ground. My hair, as already mentioned, is standing on end, and no setting lotion there, which could force it to firm up again. No firmness in myself either. Not on me, not in me. When one’s on the sidelines, one always has to be ready to jump a bit and then another bit to the side, into the empty space, which is right next to the sidelines. And the sidelines have brought their sideline pitfall along with them, it’s ready at any time, it gapes wide, to lure one even further out. Luring out is luring in. Please, I don’t want to lose sight now of the way, which I’m not on. I would so like to describe it honestly and above all truly and accurately. If I’m actually looking at it, it should also do something for me. But this way spares me nothing. It leaves me nothing. What else is there left for me? I am prevented from being on my way, I can hardly make my way at all. I am out, while not going out. And there, too, I should certainly like to have protection against my own uncertainty, but also against the uncertainty of the ground, on which I’m standing. It runs to make certain, not only to protect me, my language right beside me, and checks, whether I am doing it properly, describing reality properly wrongly, because it always has to be described wrongly, there’s no other way, but so wrongly, that anyone who reads or hears it, notices the falseness immediately. Those are lies! And this dog, language, which is supposed to protect me, that’s why I have him, after all, is now snapping at my heels. My protector wants to bite me.

My only protector against being described, language, which, conversely, exists to describe something else, that I am not - that is why I cover so much paper - my only protector is turning against me. Perhaps I only keep him at all, so that he, while pretending to protect me, pounces on me. Because I sought protection in writing, this being on my way, language, which in motion, in speaking, appeared to be a safe shelter, turns against me. No wonder. I mistrusted it immediately, after all. What kind of camouflage is that, which exists, not to make one invisible, but ever more distinct?
Sometimes language finds itself on the way by mistake, but it doesn’t go out of the way. It is no arbitrary process, speaking with language, it is one that is involuntarily arbitrary, whether one likes it or not. Language knows what it wants. Good for it, because I don’t know, no not at all. Talk, talking in general keeps on talking over there now, because there’s always talking, talking, without beginning or end, but there’s no speaking. So there’s talking over there, wherever the others are staying, because they don’t want to linger, they’re very occupied. Only them over there. Not me. Only the language, which sometimes moves away from me, to the people, not the other people, but moves away over to the real, genuine, on the well-signposted way (who can go astray here?), following their every movement like a camera, so that it at least, the language, finds out, how and what life is, because then it is precisely not that, and afterwards all of it must be described, even in what it precisely is not. Let’s talk about the fact, that we are supposed to go for a medical check-up once again. Yet all at once we suddenly speak, with due rigour, like someone who has a choice, whether or not to speak. Whatever happens, only the language goes away from me, I myself, I stay away. The language goes. I stay, but away. Not on the way. And I’m speechless.
No, it’s still there. Has it perhaps been there all the time, did it weigh up, whom it could weigh down? It has noticed me now and immediately snaps at me, this language. It dares to adopt this tone of command to me, it raises its hand against me, it doesn’t like me. It would gladly like the nice people on the way, alongside whom it runs, like the dog it is, feigning obedience. In reality it not only disobeys me, but everyone else, too. It is for no-one but itself. It cries out through the night, because no-one has remembered to put up lights beside this way, which are supplied by nothing but the sun and no longer need any current at all from the socket, or to find the path a proper path name. But it has so many names, that it would be impossible to keep up with all the naming, if one tried.


I shout across, in my loneliness, stamping across these graves of the departed, because since I am already running alongside, I cannot pay attention as well to what I’m treading on, whom I’m treading down, I would only somehow like to get to the place where my language already is, and where it smirks mockingly across at me. Because it knows, that, if I ever tried to live, it would soon trip me up, then rub salt in my wounds. Good. So I will scatter salt on the way of the others, I throw it down, so that their ice melts, coarse salt, so that their language loses its firm ground. And yet it has long been groundless. What bottomless cheek on its part! If I do not have solid ground under my feet, then my language can’t either. Serve it right! Why did it not stay with me, on the sidelines, why did it part from me? It wanted to see more than me? On the highway over there, where there are more people, above all more likeable ones, chatting nicely to each other? It wanted to know more than me? It has always known more than me, it’s true, but it has to know even more than that. It will end up killing itself by eating into itself, my language. It will overindulge on reality. Serve it right! I spat it out, but it spits nothing out, it’s good at keeping it down. My language calls over to me, over on the sidelines, it likes best of all to call over to the sidelines, it doesn’t have to take such careful aim, but it doesn’t have to, because it always hits the target, not by saying something or other, but by speaking with the “austerity of letting be”, as Heidegger says about Trakl. It calls me, language does, today anyone can do it, because everyone always carries their language around with them in a small gadget, so that they can speak, why would they have learned it?, so it calls me where I am caught in the trap and cry out and thrash about, but no, it’s not true, my language isn’t calling, it’s gone, too, my language has gone from me, that’s why it has to call, it shouts in my ear, no matter out of which gadget, a computer or a mobile phone, a phone booth, from where it roars in my ear, that there’s no point in saying something out loud, it already does that anyway, I should simply say what it tells me; because there would be even less point in for once speaking what was on one’s mind to a dear person, who has fallen down on the case and whom one can trust, because he has fallen and won’t get up again so quickly, in order to pursue one and, yes, to chat a little. There’s no point. The words of my language over there on the pleasant way (I know it’s more pleasant than mine, which is actually no way at all, but I can’t see it clearly, but I know, that I too would like to be there), the words of my language have, therefore, in parting from me, immediately become a speaking out. No, no talking it out with someone. A speaking out.


It listens to itself speaking out, my language, it corrects itself, because speaking can still be improved at any time; yes, it can always be improved, it is even entirely there to be improved and then to make a new linguistic ruling, but then only to be able immediately to overturn the rules again. That will then be the new way to salvation, of course I mean solution. A quick fix. Please, dear language, don’t you for once want to listen first? So that you learn something, so that you at last learn the rules of speaking ... What are you shouting and grumbling about over there? Are you doing it, language, so that I graciously take you in you again? I thought, you didn’t want to come back to me at all! There was no sign, that you wanted to come back to me, it would have been pointless anyway, I wouldn’t have understood the sign. You only became language to get away from me and to ensure that I got on? But nothing is ensured. And by you not at all, as well as I know you. I don’t even recognise you again. You want to come back to me of your own accord? I won’t take you in any more, what do you say to that? Away is away. Away is no way. So if my loneliness, if my constant absence, my uninterrupted existence on the sidelines came in person to fetch back language, so that it, well-looked-after by me, at last came home, to a beautiful sound, which it could utter, then it would only happen, so that with this sound, this penetrating, piercing howling of a siren, blown by the wind, it could drive me further, ever further back from the sidelines. Because of the recoil of this language, which I myself produced and which has run away from me (or did I produce it for that purpose? So that it immediately runs away from me, because I have not managed to run away from myself in time?), I am chased ever deeper into this space beyond the sidelines. My language is already wallowing blissfully in its muddy pool, the little provisional grave on the way, and it looks up at the grave in the air, it wallows on its back, a friendly creature, which would like to please human beings like any respectable language, it wallows, opens its legs, presumably to let itself be stroked, why else. It’s greedy for caresses, after all. That stops it from gazing after the dead, so that I must gaze after them instead, and of course in the end it’s down to me. So I had no time to curb my language, which now shamelessly rolls around under the hands of the caressers. There are simply too many dead, whom I have to see to, that’s an Austrian technical term for: whom I have to look after, whom I have to treat well, but then we’re famous for that, for always treating everyone well. The world is looking to us, no need to worry. We don’t have to take care of that. Yet the more clearly this demand, to gaze at the dead, sounds in me, the less am I able to pay attention to my words.

I must gaze at the dead, while meanwhile the strollers are stroking the good old language and chucking it under the chin, which doesn’t make the dead any more alive. No one is to blame. Even I, dishevelled as I and my hair are, am not to blame for the dead staying dead. I want the language over there to finally stop making itself the slave of strangers’ hands, no matter how good it feels, I want it to begin by stopping making demands, but itself become a demand, to finally face up to, not the caresses, but a demand to come back to me, because language always has to face up, only doesn’t always know it and doesn’t listen to me. It has to face up, because the people who want to adopt it instead of a child, it’s so lovable, if one loves it, people therefore never face up, they decide, they don’t answer calls, many of them even immediately destroyed, tore up, burnt their call-up order to sociability, and the flag along with it. So the more people who take up the invitation of my language to scratch its stomach, to ruffle something, to affectionately accept its friendliness, the further I stumble away, I have finally lost my language to those who treat it better, I’m almost flying, where on earth was this way, that I need in order to hurry down? How do I get where to do what? How do I get to the place, where I can unpack my tools, but in reality can right away pack them up again? Over there something bright is gleaming under the branches, is that the place, where my language first of all flatters the others, rocks them into a sense of security, only in order for itself to be lovingly rocked in the end for once? Or does it want to snap again? It always wants to do nothing but bite, only the others don’t know it yet, but I know it very well, it was with me for a long time. Beforehand there’s first of all cuddles and whispering sweet nothings to this seemingly tame creature, which everyone has at home anyway, why should they bring a strange animal into the house? So why should this language be any different from what they already know? And if it were different, then perhaps it might be dangerous to take it in. Perhaps it won’t get on with the one they already have. The more friendly strangers there are, who know how to live, but are nevertheless very far from knowing their life, since they pursue their caressing intents, because they always have to pursue something, the more my seeing no longer clearly sees the way through to the language any more. Miles and more. Who else should be able to see through things, if not seeing? Speaking wants to take over seeing as well? It wants to speak, before it has even seen? It wallows there, is groped by hands, buffeted by winds, caressed by storms, insulted by listening, until it stops listening altogether. Well, then: all listen here for once! Whoever doesn’t want to listen, must speak without being listened to. Almost everyone is not listened to, although they speak.
I am listened to, although my language does not belong to me, although I can hardly see it any more. Much is said against it. So it no longer has much to say for itself, that’s fine. It’s listened to, as it slowly repeats, while somewhere a red button is pressed, which sets off a terrible explosion. There’s nothing left to say except: Our Father, which art. It cannot mean me, although after all I am father, that is: mother, of my language. I am the father of my mother tongue. The mother tongue was there from the beginning, it was in me, but no father was there, who might have belonged to it. My language was often unbecoming, that was often made clear enough to me, but I didn’t want to take the hint. My fault. The father left this nuclear family along with the mother tongue. Right he was. In his place I would not have stayed either. My mother tongue has followed my father now, it’s gone. It is, as already mentioned, over there. It listens to the people on the way. On the father’s way, who went too soon. Now the language knows something, that you don’t know, that he didn’t know. But the more it knows, the less it says. Of course, it’s constantly saying something, but it’s saying nothing. And already the loneliness is taking its leave. It’s no longer needed. No one sees, that I am still inside, in the loneliness. I am not heeded. Perhaps I am honoured, but I am not heeded. How do I ensure that all these words of mine say something, that could say something to us? I cannot do it by speaking. In fact I cannot even speak, because my language is unfortunately not at home just now. Over there it says something else, which I didn’t ask it to either, but it has already forgotten my command from the start. It doesn’t tell me, although it belongs to me, after all. My language doesn’t tell me anything, how should it then tell others something? But nor is it saying nothing, you must admit that! It says all the more, the further away from me it is, indeed, only then does it dare say something, that it wants to say itself, then it dares to disobey me, to resist me. When one looks, one moves further away from the object, the longer one looks at it. When one speaks, one catches hold of it again, but one cannot hold onto it. It tears itself away and hurries after its own naming, the many words I have made and I have lost. Words have been exchanged often enough, the exchange rate is incredibly bad, and then it’s no more than: incredible. I say something, and then it’s already been forgotten from the start. That’s what it strove for, it wanted to get away from me. The unspeakable is spoken every day, but what I say, that isn’t to be allowed. That’s mean of what has been spoken. That is incredibly mean. The spoken doesn’t even want to belong to me. It wants to be done, so that one can say: said and done. I would even be satisfied, if it denied belonging to me, my language, but it should belong to me nevertheless. How can I ensure, that it is at least a little attached to me?
Nothing sticks to the others after all, so I offer myself to it. Come back! Come back, please! But no. Over there on the path it’s listening to secrets, that I’m not supposed to know, my language, and it passes them on, these secrets, to others who don’t want to hear them. I would want to, it would be my right, indeed, it would go down well, if you like, but it doesn’t stand still, and speak to me, it doesn’t do that either. It is in the empty space which is distinguished and differentiates itself from me, in that there are very many there. Emptiness is the way. I am even on the sidelines of emptiness. I have left the way. I have only said things after another. Much has been said about me, but hardly any of it is true. I myself have only said what others have said, and I say: that is now what is really said. As I said - simply incredible! It’s a long time since so much has been said. One’s listening can’t keep up any more, although one must listen, in order to be able to do something. In this respect, which in reality is a looking away, even a looking away from myself, there’s nothing to be said about me, there’s nothing to be said, nothing more to be said. I’m always only gazing after life, my language turns its back on me, so that it can present its stomach to strangers to caress, shameless, to me it only shows its back, if anything at all. Too often it doesn’t give me a sign and doesn’t say anything either. Sometimes I don’t even see it over there any more, and now I can’t even say “as has already been said”, because while I’ve already said it often enough, I cannot say it any more, I’m lost for words. Sometimes I see the back or the soles of the feet, on which they can’t really walk, the words, but faster than I have been able to for a long time and even now. What am I doing there? Is that why my dear language has lain down some distance away from me? That way it will, of course, always be faster than me, jump up and run away, when I go across to it from my place of work, to fetch it. I don’t know, why I should fetch it. So that it doesn’t fetch me? Perhaps it, who ran away from me, knows? Who doesn’t follow me? Who now follows the looking and speaking of others, and really can’t mix up them with me. They are other, because they are the others. For no other reason, except that they are the others. That’s good enough for my speaking. The main thing is, I don’t do it: speaking. The others, always the others, so that it’s not me, who belongs to it, sweet language. I would so much like to stroke it, like the others over there, if I could only catch hold of it. But then it’s over there, so that I can’t catch hold of it.
When will it silently make off? When will something make off, so there’s silence? The more the language over there makes off, the louder it can be heard. It’s on everyone’s lips, only not on my lips. My mind is clouded. I have not passed out, but my mind is clouded.
I am worn out from gazing after my language like a lighthouse by the sea, which is supposed to light someone home and so has itself been lit up, and which as it revolves always reveals something else from the darkness, but is there anyway, whether it is lit up or not, it’s a lighthouse, which doesn’t help anyone, no matter how hard that man wishes it would, so as not to have to die in the water. The harder I try to make it out, the more obstinately it doesn’t go out, language. I now put out this language light mechanically, I switch to the pilot light, but the more I try to clap myself over it, a snuffer on the end of a long pole, with which in my childhood the candles in the church were extinguished, the more I try to snuff out this flame, the more air it seems to have. And all the more loudly it cries out, rolling around under thousands of hands, which do it good, which unfortunately I have never done, I don’t know myself, what would do me good, so it’s crying out now, so it can keep away from me. It shouts at the others, so that they too join in and cry out like it, so that the noise grows louder. It shouts, that I shouldn’t come too close. No one should come too close to anyone at all. And what has been said should also not come too close to what one wants to say. One shouldn’t get too close to one’s own language, that is an insult, it is quite capable of repeating something after itself, piercingly loud, so that no one hears, that what it says, was earlier recited to it. It even makes me promises, so that I will stay away from it. It promises me everything, if I just don’t come close to it. Millions are allowed to get close to it, except me! Yet it’s mine! What do you think of that? I just can’t tell you, what I think of that. This language must have forgotten its beginnings, I’ve got no other explanation. With me it started small. No, how big it’s grown, I can’t tell you! Like this I don’t even recognise it. I knew it, when it was just so high. When it was so quiet, when the language was still my child. Now it has all at once become gigantic. That’s not my child any more. The child has not grown up, only big, it doesn’t know that it has not yet outgrown me, but it’s wide awake nevertheless. It is so wide awake, that it drowns itself out with its crying, and anyone else who cries louder than it. Then it spirals up to an incredible pitch. Believe me, you really don’t want to hear it! Also, please don’t believe that I’m proud of this child! At its beginning I wanted it to remain as quiet as when it was still speechless. Even now, I don’t want it to sweep over something like a storm, causing others to roar even louder and to raise their arms and throw hard objects, which my language can no longer even grasp and catch, it has, my fault, too, always been so unathletic. It doesn’t catch. It can throw, but it can’t catch. I remain imprisoned in it, even when it’s away. I am the prisoner of my language, which is my prison warder. Funny - it’s not even keeping an eye on me!
Because it is so certain of me? Because it is so certain, that I won’t run away, is that why it believes, it can leave me? Here comes someone, who has already died, and he talks to me, although that is not planned for him. He’s allowed to, many dead are speaking now in their choked voices, now they dare to, because my own language is not keeping any eye on me. Because it knows, it isn’t necessary. Even if it runs away from me, I won’t slip through its hands. I am at hand for it, but it has slipped through my hands. But I remain. But what remains, the writers do not make. What remains is gone. The flight of fancy was cut. Nothing and no one has come. And if nevertheless, against all reason, something that has not come at all, a little would like to remain, then what does remain, language, the most fleeting of all, has disappeared. It has replied to a new situations vacant advert. What should remain, is always gone. It is at any rate not there. So what is left to one."