STYRIA, formerly a province of Austria, and now a gau of greater Germany, covering 6,323 sq.m., is distinguished for its scenery and mineral wealth. It is divided into Upper Styria, the mountain and basin lands of the upper courses of the Enns and Mur-Miirz, and Lower Styria, the region of the middle Mur and the headwaters of the Raab. Upper Styria north of the Enns comprises detached groups of mountains which continue eastward, the huge limestone belt of the Salzburg Alps, generally exceed ing 7,000 ft. in height.
Despite the mountainous character little of the soil is unpro ductive, only 8% of the area being classed as barren land. Forests cover 54% of its productive area, cultivated land 2o% and the remainder is good grassland. In Upper Styria cultivation favours the fertile glacial moraines and alluvial fens of the stream terraces and basins, rye, oats and buckwheat being the most common cereals though wheat, barley and maize are also grown. In addi tion potatoes, flax, hemp and root crops are important. Lower Styria under more favourable conditions of soil and climate pro duces wine, fruit and hops. Cattle breeding is a flourishing activity supported by the breeding of draught horses in the marshy basins, pigs and poultry thrive in Lower Styria while sheep are on the increase everywhere ; large numbers of game of various kinds are also to be found on the highlands.
The Erzberg iron mines have been worked since the Roman pe riod and yield nearly the whole of the Austrian production. Styria supplies some 5o% of Austrian lignite production. In addition there are important deposits of magnesite, e.g., at Trieben, while other mineral resources include graphite, aluminium, salt, marble and building stone. The Tertiary basin of Leoben and Donauwitz, near coal and iron supplies, is the centre of the iron and steel industry; Graz (q.v.), the administrative, religious and intellectual
capital, is also the commercial centre of the province. In the Styrian around Aussee, near Graz at the spas of Gleichenberg and Tobelbad and in the Semmering district of Miirzzuschlag, an increasing revenue is derived from tourists. Styria is richly endowed with water power, notably in the valleys of the Enns, Mur and Miirz.
The population in 1934 was 1,012,086, equivalent to 160 persons per sq.m., but it is very unevenly distributed. In the more remote highland region of Upper Styria isolated houses or small villages are the rule, the inhabitants of villages and districts being often united in co-operative agricultural groups. Settlements in the valleys are small and strung like beads along the river courses. They are markets for the neighbouring mountain valleys and often busy manufacturing centres, but apart from Graz few towns exceed ro,000 inhabitants. The population is mainly German in speech with Slovene intermixture in the south-east, and Roman Catholic in faith. Despite a mountainous situation, the early fame of its metallic wealth attracted notice, from Roman times on wards, and it has been traversed by most of the migratory peoples of whom the Slays left the strongest imprint. Under Charlemagne it became part of the duchy of Carinthia, obtained separate ex istence as the mark of Styria in 1056 and passed to the Habsburgs in the late 13th century.
See also AUSTRIA and K. Kochi, Steirisch Land and Leute (Graz, 1923); Otto Reicher, Die Steiermark (Berlin, 1938).
(W. S. L.)