← Back to Articles | Original (German)
If you put both books next to each other, you may be reminded of David and Goliath. Here is a weighty magnum opus in the truest sense of the word by Martin Seger, which with its 648 pages weighs an impressive 3.7 kilograms, as the narrow format has 80 pages, a geological map of Austria (1:1.5 million) and a profile board. All of this together weighs just 460 grams, less than half a kilo. But it shouldn't be about size, weight and page numbers, but about content. The aim of both books, so far as can be said at this point, is to describe Austria from the perspective of the respective subject, with quality given the highest priority.
Martin Seger's book, one could also speak of the life's work of the Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Klagenfurt, is a collaboration between the Natural Science Association for Carinthia and the Austrian Geographical Society. Seger has divided the book into three large parts. "Space and Society" describes the state, the population in urban and rural areas, social processes, employment structures, landscape, agriculture and forests, and - from page 98 - tourism as an appreciation of landscape and culture.
The book is – as can be seen in the first chapter – very broad and diverse. Austria as part of the EU is shown as well as the historical development (page 21), where - starting with the Margraviate of Austria in 976, the country grows increasingly (maximum territorial expansion after 1815) up to the Republic, i.e. the size it is today.
To mention a few aspects, a few flashlights: the water balance (page 63) is also an issue, as are the oil and natural gas pipelines in and through Austria (page 68) or the development of tourism in the summer months 1980-2013 (page 103). Laa an der Thaya (Lower Austria), where the thermal baths were opened in 2002, shows increases of 300 percent or more.
Part two, "Measuring the landscape" from page 106 is dedicated to the Landcover Austria map series on a scale of 1: 200,000 (pages 116 to 177). When it comes to land use and land cover, settlement areas, agricultural areas, forest areas and the subalpine-alpine elevations as well as other things (standing and flowing bodies of water, moors, winter sports areas, airports, etc.) are shown in detail on double-sided maps using various legend entries.
The map part is followed by sections on the geology and geomorphology of the country, the landscapes of the climate elements, biotope types and finally environmental assessments. There are also interesting figures about the forest (page 226f): Spruce trees dominate 50.7 percent of the forest area. When it comes to hardwoods, the common beech is in first place with a surface share of ten percent, followed by the oak with two percent. The environmental assessments cover the areas of soil, water and their quality, as well as areas with nature conservation status. The latter ranges from landscape protection areas to UNESCO biosphere parks. The corresponding map on page 241 shows that many areas have multiple protections.
Part three (from page 244) is the largest part of the book and devotes a lot of space to the description of the federal states, starting with Vienna up to Vorarlberg. The respective presentation specifically addresses the special features of the federal states. While in Vienna the focus is on urban development with a focus from the Wilhelminian era to the 21st century, in Burgenland Lake Neusiedl and its surrounding area is a central topic (from page 354f.). In Tyrol the Tyrolean riflemen are introduced and also pictured (page 556), in Vorarlberg a burning "spark".
The subtitle of "Rocky Austria" quoted here, which has been available in the 5th improved edition since 2019, has a clear goal: "...to present the complex geological history of the mountainous country of Austria in an understandable way" and to do so in a short and compact form. This herculean task is not due to the size of the Alpine republic, but rather to the complexity of the Alpine country. The authors are seven geologists from the Federal Geological Institute (GBA; today GeoSphere Austria). For "Rocky Austria", which was first published in 1999, geological interest is an advantage.
The subject is introduced with "Austria's landscapes", which are presented from the north (Bohemian Massif) via the foothills of the Alps, the Northern Limestone Alps, the Central Eastern Alps to the south with the Southern Alps, each with characteristic landscape images on one page. The Waldviertel in Lower Austria and the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria are united under the title “Bohemian Mass”. The landscapes are not just limited to Austria; The Bohemian Massif extends through Germany and the Czech Republic to Poland.
The chapter "Geological Basics" contains three double pages with basic information about plate tectonics (pages 16f), the rock cycle and fossils, whose evolutionary development is presented as a time spiral. On page 16, essential elements of plate tectonics such as mid-ocean ridges, lithospheric plates, subduction and mountain formation are briefly and compactly explained with block diagrams. Then follow the main groups of rocks (magmatites / solidification rocks; sedimentary rocks / depositional rocks and metamorphites / transformation rocks) and geological processes such as erosion or solidification.
The chapter "Austria's geological building blocks" deals with tectonic units and initially with the relationship between "paleogeography and building blocks: continent against continent" before the major geological units (from page 26) are discussed. It starts again in the north with “Moldanubic and Moravian”. Here, in the Bohemian Massif, granites and gneisses dominate.
The very next unit, the "Helvetikum", shows the complexity of Austria's geological structure. "The Helvetic sediments were deposited from the Jurassic to the Late Paleogene in a shelf sea that was formed as the Pennine Ocean opened at the southern edge of Old Europe" (page 29). To understand this, you have to approach it step by step. Jurassic (201 to 145 million years) and Paleogene (66 to 23 million years) are geological periods that can be found on the inside front cover. One can assume that sediments are depositional rocks, or one can look in the register (page 78). The same applies to the Pennine Ocean, page 77: "Eastern branch of the Atlantic, which opened from the Jurassic to the early Cretaceous and was closed again with the Alpine orogeny."
You should have already read what “Old Europe” is all about on page 24 in the chapter “Continent against Continent”. Here you learn that - from a geological point of view - Austria consists of two continents and two oceans. The two continents are the aforementioned "Old Europe" in the north, which we find in the Bohemian Massif, and Africa in the south. More precisely, it is about the Adriatic Plate (also “Adriatic Spur”), which was an extension in northern Africa. The Adriatic Plate in question is now found in the subsoil of the Southern Alps, which consist of the Carnic Alps and Karawanks in Carinthia and East Tyrol.
Both oceans, the Tethys and the Pennine Ocean, lay between the continents in the Mesozoic period. To make a long story short: The deposits of both oceans, millions of years old marine mud, can now be found folded up as solidified mica schists, sometimes pushed on top of each other several times, together with remnants of the continents mentioned above, in the Alpine body.
How Austria came into being over the course of hundreds of millions of years can be found on page 48 under the title "Austria's geological development history". If you didn't know: The oldest rock in Austria is the 1.38 billion year old Dobra Gneiss (page 50), it comes from the Waldviertel (Lower Austria) and belongs to "Old Europe". As far as mountain building is concerned, it is far from over. The "Adriatic Plate is now moving toward Europe at a rate of about 1 millimeter per year, rotating slightly counterclockwise" and occasionally giving us earthquakes (page 70).
A good and clear summary of the creation of the mountainous country of Austria, "Five steps to the mountain formation of the Alps", can be found on double pages 71 and 72 with block images. A geological map (1:1,500,000) with parts of our neighboring countries and two profile sections showing the subsoil help with understanding.
Conclusion: "Austria: Space and Society" is a truly comprehensive representation of Austria and can be classified as a classic standard work. "Rocky Austria", a text-image volume, provides a condensed and compact representation of the complex geology of Austria. Anyone who wants to understand them will have to pick up the book again and again, because the last 1.38 billion years cannot be explained quickly and casually. (Thomas Hofmann, February 20, 2026)