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Austria – 700th Anniversary of Gmunden
1978 Proof Silver 100 Schilling 36mm (24.03 grams) 0.640 Silver (0.4938 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 2938 | Engraver: Helmuth Gsolpointner
REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH 100 SCHILLING, Eagle.
+1978+700-JAHR- JUBILÄUM DER STADTERHEBUNG VON GMUNDEN, Town facade.
Edge Lettering:
-+ HUNDERT SCHILLING +- *
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 Gmunden is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation chambers, whey cure, etc. It is also an important centre of the salt industry in Salzkammergut.
Gmunden covers an area of 63.49 square kilometres (24.51 sq mi) and has a median elevation of 425 metres (1,394 ft). It is situated next to the lake Traunsee on the Traun River and is surrounded by high mountains, including the Traunstein (mountain) (5,446 feet or 1,660 metres), the Erlakogel (5150 ft), the Wilder Kogel (6,860 feet or 2,090 metres) and the Höllengebirge.
Gmunden is divided into the following boroughs: Gmunden, Gmunden-Ort, Schlagen, Traundorf, Unterm Stein.
As of 2001, Gmunden had a population of 13,336. Of that, 88.4% were Austrian in nationality, 1.5% are from other European Union states, and 10.2% are other foreigners. Citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina (3.6%) and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (2.7%) placed the strongest foreigner portion, followed by Turks (1.2%) and Germans (1.1%).
The majority (69.3%) confess themselves to the Roman Catholic Church. Evangelicals are next, which 7.3% of the population associate with. 5.9% are Muslims and 3.3% are Orthodox. 10.3% are nonreligious.
In 1000 BCE the Illyrians were mining salt here. A settlement was already in existence in the fifth century CE. By 1186 Gmunden was a fortified place surrounded by walls, although it did not receive a church until about 1300. In 1278 Gmunden became a town. On November 14, 1626 an army of rebellious peasants was completely defeated at Gmunden by General Pappenheim, who had been ordered by Maximilian I to suppress the peasant rebellion in Upper Austria. The dead peasant insurgents were buried in nearby Pinsdorf, where an obelisk styled memorial known as the Bauernhügel in their honour can still be seen.
Gmunden supplied battleships to Austria during the 17th century and helped wounded soldiers in hospitals in World War I. During World War II, an SS maternity home was located here, “to insure racial purity” in accordance with Nazi racial theories.
 Austria, officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.5 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,879 square kilometres (32,386 sq mi). Austria’s terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speak local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, and Austrian German in its standard form is the country’s official language. Other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.
 The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. From the time of the Reformation, many Northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. The Thirty Years War, the influence of the Kingdom of Sweden and Kingdom of France, the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Napoleonic invasions all weakened the power of the Emperor in the North of Germany, but in the South, and in non-German areas of the Empire, the Emperor and Catholicism maintained control. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria was able to retain its position as one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to the coronation of Napoleon as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1804. Following Napoleon’s defeat, Prussia emerged as Austria’s chief competitor for rule of a larger Germany. Austria’s defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary. After the defeat of France in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Austria was left out of the formation of a new German Empire, although in the following decades its politics, and its foreign policy, increasingly converged with those of the Prussian-led Empire. During the 1914 July Crisis that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Germany guided Austria in issuing the ultimatum to Serbia that led to the declaration of World War I.
 After the collapse of the Habsburg (Austro-Hungarian) Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austria adopted and used the name the Republic of German-Austria (Deutschösterreich, later Österreich) in an attempt for union with Germany, but was forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919. In the 1938 Anschluss, Austria was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany.[14] This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies and Austria’s former democratic constitution was restored. In 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral.
Today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $52,216 (2014 est.). The country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, and is a founder of the OECD. Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro in 1999.
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