Customs and daily life

Language and customs

• Language: German is the official language. Croatian, Slovene and Hungarian are recognised as official languages in certain regions (recognised minority languages). English is the first foreign language taught in most schools.
• Austrian German: many words differ from German in Germany (Jänner for January, Sackerl for bag…). Official documents use this vocabulary.
• Greetings and formal address: in practice, people often greet with Grüß Gott (hello) or, among friends, Servus; you use the formal Sie with strangers and at work until you are offered the informal du. These are customs, not written rules.
• Religion and society: the culture keeps many traces of the Catholic tradition (public holidays, festivals), but the State and the law are secular; religious freedom is guaranteed.
• Punctuality, tipping: no official rule; custom is to be on time for appointments and to leave a tip in restaurants, with no set amount.
• Civic life: as an EU citizen, you can vote in municipal elections (in Vienna, district elections) and European elections. Each municipality has its own rules (dogs, waste, snow clearing): ask yours.

Daily life

• Shop opening hours (2003 federal law): Monday to Friday between 6:00 and 21:00, Saturday between 6:00 and 18:00, with a maximum of 72 opening hours per week. Closed on Saturday after 18:00, on Sundays, on public holidays and on Monday before 6:00. The Landeshauptmann (head of the Land government) can authorise exceptions by order (tourist municipalities, neighbourhood or street festivals, particular regional needs), and the law itself allows the opening of sales outlets in stations and airports (limited area) or in theatres, museums and cinemas: actual hours therefore vary by Land and place.
• 24 December: shops open from 6:00 to 14:00 if it falls on a working day.
• 8 December (Immaculate Conception): public holiday; the rest-at-work law allows employees to be employed in shops that day if it falls on a working day, and each employee can refuse to work without justifying it (§ 13a).
• National public holidays (13): 1 January, 6 January, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, 15 August, 26 October (national day), 1 November, 8 December, 25 and 26 December. Good Friday is not one of them. Each Land also celebrates its patron saint (Landespatron): this is not a statutory public holiday (shops open, normal work), but it is a day without school in the Land (school time law, § 2), as is 2 November (All Souls' Day). The hours of Land administrations that day should be asked locally.
• Waste sorting: the municipality organises collection (in Vienna, MA 48). Since 2025, plastics, other light packaging and metals go together in the Gelbe Tonne or the Gelber Sack (yellow bin or bag). Glass is sorted between white and coloured; to avoid noise, it is recommended to dispose of it only between 7:00 and 20:00. The Biotonne takes organic waste, without a plastic bag; what is accepted varies by municipality (in Vienna, no animal waste).
• Deposit: since 1 January 2025, plastic bottles and cans bearing the deposit logo (Einwegpfand) carry a deposit; take them back to a shop to get the deposit back: 25 cents per container, from 0.1 to 3 litres (Ministry of the Environment). Milk and dairy products as well as cartons carry no deposit; glass is not part of this system.

Emergencies

• 112: European emergency number, free, usable even without a PIN code.
• 144: ambulance (Rettung). 133: police. 122: fire brigade. 140: mountain rescue. 141: on-call doctor. 128: gas leak.
• 1450: national health line, to find out where to get treated.
• Poison control centre: 01 406 43 43.
• 142: helpline (Telefonseelsorge). 147: help for children and teenagers.
• Deaf or hard-of-hearing people: the DEC112 app allows you to contact emergency services in writing.

Work

• Statutory working time: 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week; many collective agreements (Kollektivverträge) provide less, for example 38.5 hours.
• Leave: 25 working days (5-day week) or 30 working days (6-day week) per year.

Common pitfalls

• Shopping on Sundays. Most shops are closed; only certain places (stations, tourist areas) are exceptions.
• Forgetting religious public holidays. Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi and 8 December close administrations and schools.
• Sorting badly. The rules and collection days depend on the municipality.
• Expecting everything to happen in English. Procedures and forms are in German.

What changes by country of origin

• German speakers (Germans, German-speaking Swiss…): same language, but administrative and everyday vocabulary sometimes differs.
• EU citizens: right to vote in municipal and European elections. Swiss and British nationals: do not have this right (reserved for EU citizens).