AUSTRIA - Republik Österreich

Austria , (German: Österreich), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich,), is a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe. It is composed of nine federated states (Bundesländer), one of which is Vienna, Austria's capital and its largest city. It is bordered by Germany to the northwest, Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km² (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of nearly 9 million people. While German is the country's official language, many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects.

Austria is a small, predominantly mountainous country in Central Europe, approximately between Germany, Italy and Hungary. It has a total area of 83,879 km² (32,385 mi²), about twice the size of Switzerland.

The westernmost third of the somewhat pear-shaped country consists of a narrow corridor between Germany and Italy that is between 32 km (19 mi) and 60 km (37 mi) wide. The rest of Austria lies to the east and has a maximum north–south width of 280 km (173 mi). The country measures almost 600 km (372 mi) in length, extending from Lake Constance (German Bodensee) on the Austrian-Swiss-German border in the west to the Neusiedler See on the Austrian-Hungarian border in the east. The contrast between these two lakes – one in the Alps and the other a typical steppe lake on the westernmost fringe of the Hungarian Plain – illustrates the diversity of Austria's landscape.

The first issues of the Republic of German Austria were overprints reading "Deutschösterreich" on stamps of the empire, issued beginning in December 1918. In 1919 the Republic of Austria issued stamps with new designs; a post horn, the coat of arms, a kneeling man representing the new republic, and the Parliament building, all done in a vaguely Art Nouveau style, and inscribed "DEUTSCHÖSTERREICH" ("ÖSTERREICH" appeared in 1922). In the Soviet occupation zone, starting on 2 May 1945, the stamps of Germany were overprinted. Initially the overprint consisted of just "Österreich", and a bar obliterating the "Deutsches Reich" inscription. Hitler's face remained visible, and this was objectionable, so after 4 June postal clerks were expected to blot out Hitler's face manually, until on 21 June a new series of overprints came out with a set of stripes over Hitler. In the meantime, some semi-postal stamps of Germany were also surcharged. In Graz, an additional set of overprints with "Österreich" vertical were issued on 22 May for use in Styria. New stamps inscribed "REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH" were issued on 3 July by the Soviet Union, for use in Vienna and surrounding areas, still denominated in German currency.

Lombardy-Venetia was a kingdom in the north of Italy that was part of the Austrian empire. The inhabitants used the Italian lira for money, so in 1850 the government issued stamps identical to those for the rest of Austria. Near the end of World War I, Italy captured the Austrian territories of Trentino and Venezia Giulia. In 1918, Italy issued overprinted stamps for these areas. Stamps sold at Trieste were overprinted "Regno d'Italia / Venezia Giulia / 3. XI. 18." on Austrian stamps of 1916, and then just "Venezia / Giulia" on Italian stamps, while in the Trentino the overprint was "Regno d Italia / Trentino / 3 nov 1918" on Austrian stamps and then just "Venezia / Tridentina" on Italian stamps. In January 1919 the Italians issued overprinted stamps for all of the occupied territories, the overprint consisting of, for instance, "5 / centesimi / di corona". This lasted until September, when the Trentino was permanently assigned to Italy and used Italian stamps thereafter, while Trieste became a free city.

Beautiful Christmas cover from my good friend Florian sent from Austria. He used nice Christmas thematic stamps and special postmarks too. Thank You Florian for the beautiful cover as Christmas gift.

This beautiful airmail cover sent by my good friend Dr.Florian from Austria. He is a cover collector too, Before I start cover collection i used to check his blog to see variety cavers from exotic countries. His collection inspired me a lot to start cover collection when I decided to stop banknote collection after reaching all countries currencies.He always send nice covers with variety postmark, I have received several.

Dr.Florian sent me another two perfect covers back with good postmark. Usually on Austrian stamps they write the country name as 'Osterreich' in German language. bute here you can see the country name is written as 'Austria' in English. There are some rare issues the country name written in English. Thank You Florian for the nice covers.