Hans P. Schönlaub & Harald Lobitzer, Geological Survey of Austria

International aspects of geoscientific research have a long tradition in Austria. Already during the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy Earth scientists - including mining experts - contributed significantly to the geologic knowledge of remote and unexplored regions on all continents. Yet, any review and evaluation of the contributions of Austrian Earth scientists towards better knowledge of the geology in certain areas of the world is missing. In fact, most of the early fundamental geoscientific accomplishments by Austrian naturalists are still consigned to oblivion, even to the contemporary Austrian geoscientific community. For example, as early as in the late 18th and early 19th century pioneering geognostic studies of various areas of South America were carried out by Thaddäus Haenke, Virgil von Helmreichen and Johann Emanuel Pohl; Joseph Russegger, another Austrian, compiled one of the earliest printed geological map series of Egypt already in the 1840s, a fact not even mentioned in special bibliographies!

On the other hand, several expeditions of the Austrian-Hungarian Navy (k.u.k. Kriegsmarine) achieved an international reputation. In particular, the global cruise of the frigate "Novara" from 1857 to 1859 has never been forgotten. It was joined by Ferdinand v. Hochstetter, a geologist from the Geological Survey, to St. Paul, the Nicobar Islands and New Zealand. He left the "Novara" in New Zealand and subsequently carried out fundamental geologic research including mapping on these islands.

During the "Austrian-Hungarian North Pole-Expedition" (1872 - 1874) the two Austrian commanders of the polar vessel "Admiral Tegetthoff", Ltn. Carl Weyprecht and Ltn. Julius Payer, both officers of the Austrian army and natural scientists, discovered Franz-Josefs-Land, Arctic Russia, now a study area of Austrian geoscientists. On his return it was Ltn. Carl Wepyprecht who developed new ideas for polar research and initiated the First International Polar Year 1882/83.

Already in the last century the Alpine-type mountain chains of Asia attracted Austrian geologists. The studies by Emil Tietze (1873-75) and his co-workers in Iran have to be mentioned; in the Himalayas Austrian staff members of the Geological Survey of India contributed substantially towards a better understanding of tectonics and stratigraphy (e. g., Ferdinand Stoliczka since 1862, Ludolf Griesbach - who became Superintendant of the Indian Geological Survey); around the turn of the century, Carl Diener, Edmund von Mojsisovics, Alexander Bittner, Wilhelm Waagen (Salt Range) and several other Austrian geoscientists laid the foundations for the Mesozoic stratigraphy of the "roof of the world". Even a mountain chain in South Australia was named after Wilhelm Haidinger, the founding director of the Imperial Austrian Geological Survey.

Another forgotten figure is Richard von Drasche-Wartinberg a wealthy nobleman and staff member of the Geological Survey who sponsored very successful expeditions "for only geological purposes". For example, he investigated the island of Spitzbergen in 1873 and carried out volcanological studies on the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, Luzon (Philippines) and in Japan (1875/76). Cornelio Doelter, professor of mineralogy at Graz University, published monographic papers on the volcanic rocks of Cap Verde Islands (1882, 1884). Last but not least, the first geological traverse of the Saharan Desert from Morocco to the Senegal in 1879/80 by Oskar Lenz, also a staff member of the Geological Survey of Austria, deserves mention.
In the years 1873 and 1903, respectively, in Austria two major events addressed Earth science related issues: the first was the World Exhibition in Vienna during which the building and ornamental stone industry of Central Europe displayed their products; the remaining samples are still stored in the Survey's collection. The second was the organisation of the 7th International Geological Congress which was attended by scientists from many countries who discussed, among other things, the newly introduced nappe concept for the whole Alpine region. Previously, Eduard Suess the famous professor of geology at the University of Vienna, had first recognized the allochthonous nature of the whole Alps and described comprehensively the global geology in his "Face of the Earth" in 1885.

In the first half of the 20th century Earth scientists from Austria made widely recognized contributions in different fields of basic and applied geosciences, e.g., Alfred Wegener a native German teaching at Graz University, who much later was regarded as the forerunner of the plate theory; Otto Ampferer, one of the directors of the Geological Survey who invented the concept of subduction processes; Julius Pia and Othenio Abel, the two famous palaeontologists; Friedrich Becke and Gustav Tschermak, the two famous mineralogists; Josef Stini from the Technical University in Vienna and Leopold Müller from Salzburg, a private consultant both well known in engineering geology and geomechanics; and Bruno Sander from Innsbruck University, one of the pioneers of structural geology and carbonate sedimentology.

As early as 1960 a bilateral governmental Agreement between the Republic of Austria and the Republic of Czechoslovakia regarding cooperation in Earth Sciences was signed which only recently was confirmed by the succeeding independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both parties agreed to exchange geoscientific data of the border region and to cooperate in relevant issues including support of regular visits of experts between the involved institutions from the neighbouring states. In 1968, a similar agreement was reached between the Central Office of Geology of Hungary and the Geological Survey of Austria. So far all three agreements have been very successful resulting not only in numerous co-authored publications of geoscientific interest between the involved institutions but also providing fundamental new data for the geology of the neighbouring states as a whole. In the subsequent years the bilateral cooperation was further expanded to include also Germany and Slovenia.

In fact, Austria's historical role of bridging Western and Eastern Europe has always functioned even during the times of the Cold War: Besides numerous individual relations there were still official contacts between the member states of the Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association (CBGA) and later through the Central European Initiative (CEI). Moreover, in the early 1990s representatives from Austria suggested to broaden the former group of Western European Geological Surveys (WEGS) to include also Geological Surveys from the East. Finally, in 1997 this informal organisation comprised geological surveys from 35 independent states!
Since the formation of EuroGeoSurveys in 1996, the Association of the 15 Geological Surveys of the EC member countries, the Geological Survey of Austria has access to a comprehensive databank of Earth Science related data from Western Europe. In addition, the liaison function of the bureau at Bruxelles between EuroGeoSurveys and the different Directorate Generals of the EC and the exchange of expertise is significantly enhanced. In the long term national geological surveys will greatly benefit from this new association.
During the last decades international cooperation has been further promoted by various national and global institutions offering financial support for application of specific geoscientific projects such as the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), the National Committees for the International Geologic Correlation Program (IGCP) and the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), the European Science Foundation (ESF/Europrobe), the 4th EC-Framework Programme and others. In addition, many Earth scientists from Austria have not only been involved in such international programmes in different regions of the world but have also repeatedly invited the international scientific community to attend symposia and meetings held in Austria. In conclusion, the Austrian geoscientific community has not only fully recognized the benefits of international research but also its new challenges.