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The aeiou Encyclopedia (www.aeiou.at) is a free online reference work in both German and English about Austria-related topics. All material is protected by copyright.

The project was launched in 1996 by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research as part of Austria's millennial celebrations (first mention of the name Ostarrîchi = Österreich = Austria in 996). The content was based on the German-language Österreich-Lexikon, first published in a printed version in 1995. Additional material was acquired, including more images and also audio and video files, and aeiou soon grew into a multimedia information system.

The title aeiou—the "Annotatable Electronic Interactive Oesterreich Universal Information System"—is an allusion to the old Habsburg motto, A.E.I.O.U.. Suggestions for the improvement of articles can be made by users; it should be noted though that the aeiou Encyclopedia is not a wiki.

With an ever-increasing number of Austrian classrooms having Internet access, the encyclopedia is today widely used by Austrian students at both high school and university levels and, generally, by people all over the world interested in Austria's history and culture. In the spring of 2005 there was a lot of concern and embitterment when the Ministry headed by Elisabeth Gehrer decided, for pecuniary reasons, to take the encyclopedia off the Internet—on, of all days, April 1. However, in the long run sanity prevailed, and after heavy protests the Ministry greenlighted the server being reactivated. There have been recent talks and negotiations on how in the future the encyclopedia could be regularly updated.

• The aeiou homepage | Table of Contents | Search
• The genesis of the project
• Copyright information