sec cession movements

8/3/2019 Sec Cession Movements

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SECCESSIONMOVEMENTS

AROUND THE

WORLD

BY MILI SAVLA -84 KINSHUK VAIDYA -112


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are thankful to Mrs. Zeenat Aboli for giving us this opportunity to

improve our learning and understanding skills. Apart from gaining knowledge

on many important topics, it also helped us to become more aware and concern

about our surroundings.

Working on this project was a delightful experience.

Thank You.


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Summary:

The term "secessionist" functions as a noun and it refers to people or movements thatadvocate for the separation of a region from a larger country or state. The wordsecessionist originates from the Latin word "secessio" is synonymous with the term

separatist.

Movements that work towards political secession may describe themselves asbeing autonomy, separatist, independence, self determination,partition, devolution decentralization,sovereignty, self-

governance or decolonization movements instead of, or in addition to, being secessionmovement.

A secessionist movement is a nationalist group that is attempting to separate from anexisting state in order to form a newly independent state.

Secessionist movements are more likely to inspire violence or failure when the territorythey lay claim to contains a sizeable minority population whose political identitybelongs to the nation-state the secessionist movement desires to leave.

Some of the most prominent secessionist movements have functioned in places likeNorthern Ireland, where many Irish Catholics have long called for independence fromGreat Britain and eventual unification with the Republic of Ireland.

The second was the Tibetan movement, China had took over the Buddhist region inwestern China by force in 1950s. Tibets spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled in 1959and set up a government in exile in India. Recent separatist violence has been fueled

over Chinese immigration into the autonomous region and governments continuedrefusal to grand independence.

The third movement covered in this project was the one in Chechnya, a Muslim regionin southern Russia was briefly independent in 1992. It declared independence after thecollapse of the Soviet Union, but Russia opposed the secession and went to war withChechnya from 1994-1996 and again in 1991. It became an autonomous Russianrepublic after a 2003 referendum.

The last movement was the Vienna Secession which was formed in 1897 by a group ofAustrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in

the Vienna Knstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects.


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IntroductionSecession is the act of withdrawing from anorganization, union, or especially a political entity.Threats of secession also can be a strategy for

achieving more limited goals.

"Whenever any form of government is

destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the

people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government in such form as to

them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.Declaration ofIndependence, 1776

Secession theoryMainstream political theory largely ignored theories of secession until the dissolution ofthe Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s through secession.Theories of secession address a fundamental problem of political philosophy: thelegitimacy and moral basis of the state's authority, be it based on "God's will", consent ofthe people, the morality of goals, or usefulness to obtaining goals.

In his 1991 book Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter toLithuania and Quebec, philosophy professor Allen Buchanan outlined limited rights to

secession under certain circumstances, mostly related to oppression by people of otherethnic or racial groups, and especially those previously conquered by other peoples.

In the fall of 1994 the Journal of Libertarian Studies published Robert W. McGee's article"Secession Reconsidered". He writes from a libertarian perspective, but holds thatsecession is justified only if secessionists can create a viable, if minimal, stateon contiguous territory.

In April 1995 the Ludwig Von Mises Institute sponsored a secession conference. Papersfrom the conference were later published in the book Secession, State and Liberty byDavid Gordon. Among articles included were: "The Secession Tradition in America"

by Donald Livingston; "The Ethics of Secession" by Scott Boykin; Nations by Consent:Decomposing the Nation-State by Murray Rothbard; "Yankee Confederates: NewEngland Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States" by ThomasDiLorenzo; "Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act?" byJames Ostrowski.

In July 1998 the Rutgers University journal "Society" published papers from a"Symposium on Secession and Nationalism at the Millennium" including the articles"The Western State as Paradigm" byHans-Herman Hoppe, "Profit Motives in Secession"


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by Sabrina P. Ramet, "Rights of Secession" by Daniel Kofman, "The Very Idea ofSecession" by Donald Livingston and "Secession, Autonomy, & Modernity" by Edward A.Tiryakian. In 2007 the University of South Carolina sponsored a conference called"Secession As an International Phenomenon" which produced a number of papers onthe topic.

Types of secession

Secession theorists have described a number of ways in which a political entity (city,county, canton, state) can secede from the larger or original state:

Secession from federation or confederation (political entities with substantialreserved powers which have agreed to join together) versus secession froma unitary state (a state governed as a single unit with few powers reserved to sub-units)

Colonial aka "wars of independence" from a "mother country" or imperial state

National (seceding entirely from the national state) versus local (seceding from oneentity of the national state into another entity of the same state)

Central or enclave (seceding entity is completely surrounded by the original state)versus peripheral (along a border of the original state)

Secession by contiguous units versus secession by non-contiguous units (exclaves)

Separation or partition (although an entity secedes, the rest of the state retains itsstructure) versus dissolution (all political entities dissolve their ties and createseveral new states)

Irredentism where secession is sought in order to annex the territory to anotherstate because of common ethnicity or prior historical links

Minority (a minority of the population or territory secedes) versus majority (a

majority of the population or territory secedes)

Secession of better off regions versus secession of worse off regions

The threat of Secession sometimes is used as a strategy to gain greater autonomywithin the original state

Secessionist movement

Movements that work towards political secession may describe themselves asbeing autonomy, separatist, independence, self determination,

partition, devolution decentralization,sovereignty, self-governance or decolonization movements instead of, or in addition to, being secessionmovement.

A secessionist movement is a nationalist group that is attempting to separate from anexisting state in order to form a newly independent state. A secessionist movement isoperationally defined as any group that formally declared independence before 1931and continued on through 1931 or that began after 1931.


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In order to be considered a secessionist movement the group must have all of thefollowing characteristics:

1) A formal declaration of full-independence and intended separation from their homestate (in many cases these declarations are UDIs, or unilateral declarations ofindependence, signifying that they do not (yet) have the consent of the former

governing state),2) A national flag,

3) A claim to both territory and population over which the movement presides, and

4) The movement must last at least 7 (24 hour) days, include at least 100 individualsand claim at least 100 square meters of territory.

The success of secessionist movements seeking independence compared to the failureof those movements seeking unification with a kin state is an important point. One ofthe reasons for the success of secessionist movements seeking independence is that

they can often lay claim to a relatively compact and ethnically homogenous territorywhich is seen as a de facto nation.

Secessionist movements are more likely to inspire violence or failure when the territorythey lay claim to contains a sizeable minority population whose political identitybelongs to the nation-state the secessionist movement desires to leave.

As such, nation-states are less likely to accept secession if it means

abandoning a part of its population and territory to another nation they are incompetition with and who, they believe, will not protect the individual and group rightsof their members. Another major impediment to secession is whether the secessionist

movements holds claim over an economically prosperous region.


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Seccession In Tibet

TheTibetan sovereignty

debaterefers totwo political debates. The first iswhether the various territorieswithin thePeople's Republic ofChina that are claimed aspolitical Tibet should separate andbecome a new sovereign state.Many of the points in the debaterest on a second debate, aboutwhether Tibet was independent orsubordinate to China in certainparts of its recent history.

View of the Chinese Governments

The government of the China contends that it has had control over Tibet since the YuanDynasty (12711368).

The government of the Republic of China, which ruled mainland China from 1912 until1949 and now controls Taiwan, had a cabinet-level Mongolian in charge of theadministration of Tibet and Mongolia regions from 1912. The commission retained itscabinet level status after 1949, but no longer executes that function.On 10 May

1943, Chiang Kai-shek asserted that "Tibet is part of Chinese territory... No foreignnation is allowed to interfere in our domestic affairs". He again declared in 1946 thatthe Tibetans were Chinese. The Republic of China still claims sovereignty over Tibet andMongolia in its constitution.

In the late 19th century, China adopted the Western model of nation-state diplomacy. Asthe government of Tibet, China concluded several treaties (1876,1886,1890,1893) withBritish India touching on the status, boundaries and access to Tibet. Chinesegovernment sources consider this a sign of sovereignty rather than suzerainty.However, by the 20th century British India found the treaties to be ineffective due toChina's weakened control over the Tibetan local government. The British invadedTibet in 1904 and forced the signing of a separate treaty, directly with the Tibetan

government in Lhasa. In 1906, an Anglo-Chinese Convention was signed at Pekingbetween Great Britain and China. It incorporated the 1904 Lhasa Convention (withmodification), which was attached as Annex. A treaty between Britain and Russia(1907) followed. Article II of this treaty stated that "In conformity with the admittedprinciple of the suzerainty of China over Tibet, Great Britain and Russia engage not toenter into negotiations with Tibet except through the intermediary of the Chinese


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Government." China sent troops into Tibet in 1908. The result of the policy of both GreatBritain and Russia has been the virtual annexation of Tibet by China. China controlledTibet up to 1912. Thereafter, Tibet entered the period described commonly as defacto independence, though it was not recognized by any country as enjoying dejure independence.

Legal arguments based on historical status

The position of the People's Republic of China, which has ruled mainland China since1949, as well as the official position of the Republic of China, which ruled mainlandChina before 1949 and currently controls Taiwan, is that Tibet has been an indivisible

part of China de jure since the Yuan Dynasty of Mongol-ruled China in the 13thcentury,[10] comparable to other states such as the Kingdom of Dali and the TangutEmpire that were also incorporated into the Middle Kingdom at the time. The PRCcontends that according to the Succession of states theoryin international law allsubsequent Chinese governments (Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, ROC and PRC) havesucceeded the Yuan Dynasty in exercising de jure sovereignty and de facto power overTibet.

Unique ethnicity

According to the current government, successive Chinese governments have recognizedTibet as having its own unique culture and language; however, they believe that this

situation does not necessarily argue in favor of its independence, because China hasover 56 unique ethnic groups and is one of many multi-national states in the world.


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Secession in Ireland

The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinctterritories, now Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom) and the Republic ofIreland (an independent state). Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed

the Government of Ireland Act 1920. From 1801 to 1920 the whole island had formedan integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was governed asone unit. The Act of 1920 was intended to create two separate self-governing territorieswithin the UK, but partition was reinforced in 1922 when the greater part of Irelandwas separated from the United Kingdom.

Since partition began, a key aspiration of Irish nationalists has been to bring abouta united Ireland, with the whole island forming one independent state. This goalconflicts with that of unionists in Northern Ireland, whose objective is to remain part ofthe United Kingdom. The British and Irish governments have agreed, under the 1998Belfast Agreement, that the status of Northern Ireland will not change without the

consent of the majority there.Beginning in 1918, through the Irish Warof Independence, Irishrepublicans attempted to force thesecession of Ireland from the UnitedKingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.Meanwhile,Irish Unionists most ofwhom lived in the north-east of theisland were just as determined tomaintain the Union. Seeking perhaps todefuse the situation by introducing avariation of the Home Rule Act that hadlapsed with the onset of the Great War,

the British Government decided to establish two devolved administrations, dividing theisland into two territories: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The Government ofIreland Act 1920 entered into force on 3 May 1921 and provided that Northern Irelandwould consist of the six north-eastern counties, while the remainder of the island wouldform Southern Ireland. It was intended that each jurisdiction would be granted homerule but remain within the United Kingdom. The Government of Southern Irelandreceived limited acceptance: the war continued until the two sides agreed a truce in July1921, ending with the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921.

On 6 December 1922, the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom. The newstate had the status of a dominion of the British Commonwealth. The secession occurredin accordance with the Treaty, which was given legislative effect in the United Kingdomby the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922.

Under the treaty, Northern Ireland was permitted to remain outside of the new IrishFree State, provided that the Parliament of Northern Ireland chose to do so. However,under the form of words agreed upon, the Irish Free State was regarded as temporarilyincluding the whole island of Ireland, until Northern Ireland expressly chose whether tobe included or not. Therefore, in strict legal terms, Northern Ireland left the United


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Kingdom for a brief period along with the rest of Ireland, but then chose to opt-out ofthe Free State and rejoin the Union. However this had no practical effect, because in theinterim the powers of the Irish Free State to govern Northern Ireland were declared tobe suspended for up to a month, and Northern Ireland continued to be administered asa part of the United Kingdom.

On 7 December 1922 the houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland approved anaddress to the British King, George V, requesting that its territory not be included in theIrish Free State. This was presented to the King the following day, and then entered intoeffect, in accordance with the provisions of Section 12 of the Irish Free State(Agreement) Act 1922.

Following independence the southern state gradually severed all remainingconstitutional links with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland andthe British King. In 1937 the Free State was renamed to "Ireland" (a reflection of the factthat the state then claimed sovereignty over the whole of the island). In 1949 the statewas declared to be a republic, under the Republic of Ireland Act.

Government of Ireland Act

Under Britain's Government of Ireland Act 1920, Ireland was partitioned into twoautonomous regions, Northern Ireland (six north-eastern counties) andSouthernIreland (the rest of the island), on 3 May 1921.[1] The Parliament and Governmentalinstitutions for Northern Ireland were quickly established afterwards. In contrast,the Parliament and Governmental institutions for Southern Ireland failed to function ortake root. This was because of the political circumstances in Ireland at the time withthe very large majority of Irish Members of Parliament giving their allegianceto Dilireann and supporting the Irish War of Independence.


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Secession in Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

The Chechen Republic ofIchkeria is theunrecognized secessionist govern

ment of Chechnya. The republicwas proclaimed in late 1991by DzokharDudayev, and foughttwo devastating warsbetween separatists andthe Russian Federation whichdenounced secession. In late

2007, the President of Ichkeria DokkaUmarov declared that he renamed the republicto Noxiy and converted it into a province of the much larger Caucasus Emirate, withhimself as Emir. This change of status has been rejected by some members of the formerChechen government-in-exile.

Ichkeria was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Formerpresident of Georgia, ZviadGamsakhurdia, deposed in a military coup of 1991 and aparticipant of the Georgian Civil War, recognised the independence of Chechen Republicof Ichkeria in 1993. This recognition is no longer in effect. Diplomatic relations withIchkeria were also established by the partially recognized Islamic Emirate ofAfghanistan under the Taliban government on January 16, 2000. This recognitionceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite Taliban recognition, therewere no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria- Maskhadov rejected theirrecognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate. Ichkeria also received vocalsupport from the Baltic countries, a group of Ukrainian nationalists and Poland; Estonia

once voted to recognize, but the act never was followed through due to pressure appliedby both Russia and the pro-Russian elements within the EU.

History

19911994

In November 1990, DzhokharDudayev was elected head of the Executive Committee ofthe unofficial opposition All-National Congress of the Chechen People, whichadvocated sovereignty for Chechnya as a separate republic within the Soviet Union. InOctober 1991, he won the presidential election.

Dudayev, in his new position as president of Ichkeria, unilaterally declared therepublic's sovereignty and its secession from the Soviet Union andRussia. Notrecognized by any government except Georgia under ZviadGamsakhurdia, the countryhas maintained an unstable existence, due in part to constant threats of invasions fromthe Russian Federation.

Dudayev's government had created the constitution of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,which was introduced on March 1992. In the same month, the opposition attempteda coup d'tat, but their attempt was crushed by force. A month later, Dudayevintroduced direct presidential rule, and in June 1993, dissolved the parliament. Federal


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forces dispatched to the Ossetian-Ingush conflict were ordered to move to the Chechenborder in late October 1992, and Dudayev, who perceived this as "an act of aggressionagainst the Chechen Republic," declared a state of emergency and threatened generalmobilization if the Russian troops did not withdraw from the Chechen border. Afterstaging another coup attempt in December 1993, the opposition organized a ProvisionalCouncil as a potential alternative government for Chechnya, calling on Moscow for

assistance.

However, the issue of contention was not independence from Russia: even theopposition stated there was no alternative to an international boundary separatingChechnya from Russia. In 1992, Russian newspaper Moscow News made note that, justlike the most other seceding republics except for Tatarstan, ethnic Chechens universallysupported the establishment of an independent Chechen state. Again, in 1995, duringthe heat of the First Chechen War, Khalid Delmayev, an anti-Dudayev belonging to anIchkerian liberal coalition, stated that "Chechnya's statehood may be postponed... butcannot be avoided". Opposition to Dudayev came mainly due to his domestic policy, aswell as his personality: on one of the most notorious incidents being a declaration,referencing earthquakes experienced by Armenia and Azerbaijan, that Russia intended

to destabilize his nation by "artificially creating earthquakes". This did not go off wellwith most Chechens, who came to view him as a national embarrassment at times (ifstill a patriot at others), but it did not, by any means, dismantle the determination forindependence, as most Western commentators note.

19941999

After the war, parliamentary and presidential elections took place in January 1997 inChechnya and brought to power AslanMaskhadov, chief of staff and prime minister inthe Chechen coalition government, for a five-year term. Maskhadov sought to maintainChechen sovereignty while pressing Moscow to help rebuild the republic, whose formal

economy and infrastructure were virtually destroyed. Russia continued to send moneyfor the rehabilitation of the republic; it also provided pensions and funds for schoolsand hospitals. Most of these transfers were stolen by Chechen authorities and dividedbetween favoured warlords. Nearly half a million people (40% of Chechya's prewarpopulation) have been internally displaced and lived in refugee camps or overcrowdedvillages. The economy was destroyed. Two Russian brigades were stationed inChechnya and did not leave. He took effort to rebuild the country and its devastatedcapital Grozny by trading oil in countries such as the United Kingdom

Chechnya had been badly damaged by the war and the economy was in ashambles. AslanMaskhadov tried to concentrate power in his hands to establishauthority, but had trouble creating an effective state or a functioning economy.

The war ravages and lack of economic opportunities left numbers of armedformer guerrillas with no occupation but further violence. Kidnappings, robberies, andkillings of fellow Chechens and outsiders, most notably the killings of four employeesof British Granger Telecom in 1998, weakened the possibilities of outside investmentand Maskhadov's efforts to gain international recognition of its independence effort.Kidnappings became common in Chechnya, procuring over $200 million during thethree year independence of the chaotic fledgling state, but victims were rarely killed. In1998, 176 people had been kidnapped, and 90 of them had been released during the


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same year according to official accounts. There were several public executions ofcriminals. The Islamic Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in 1998 andthe Sharia system of justice was introduced.

President Maskhadov started a major campaign against hostage-takers, and on October25, 1998, ShadidBargishev, Chechnya's top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a

remote controlled car bombing. Bargishev's colleagues then insisted they would not beintimidated by the attack and would go ahead with their offensive. Maskhadov blamedthe rash of abductions in Chechnya on unidentified "outside forces" and their Chechenhenchmen, allegedly those who joined Pro-Moscow forces during the second war.

Some of the kidnapped (most of whom were non-Chechens) were sold into indenturedservitude to Chechen families. They were openly called slaves and had to endurestarvation, beating, and often maiming.

The years of independence had some political violence as well. On December 10 MansurTagirov, Chechnya's top prosecutor, disappeared while returning to Grozny. On June 21the Chechen security chief and a guerrilla commander fatally shot each other in anargument. The internal violence in Chechnya peaked on July 16, 1998, when fighting

broke out between Maskhadov's National Guard force led by SulimYamadayev (whojoined pro-Moscow forces in the second war) and militants in the town of Gudermes;over 50 people were reported killed and the state of emergency was declared inChechnya.

Maskhadov proved unable to guarantee the security of the oil pipeline running acrossChechnya from the Caspian Sea, and illegal oil tapping and acts of sabotage deprived hisregime of crucial revenues and agitated his allies in Moscow. In 1998 and 1999Maskhadov survived several assassination attempts, blamed on the Russian intelligenceservices.

Since the declaration of independence in 1991, there has been an ongoing battle

between secessionist officials and federally appointed officials. Both claim authorityover the same territory. Since the fall of Grozny in 2000 some of the Ichkeriangovernment was based in exile, including in Poland and the United Kingdom. On 23January 2000 a diplomatic representation of Ichkeria was based in Kabul duringthe Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

On October 31, 2007, the separatist news agency Chechenpress reportedthat DokkaUmarov had proclaimed the Caucasus Emirate and declared himself its Emir.He integrated the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as a Vilayat (Province). Within theCaucasus Emirate, Chechnya became known as the VilayatNoxiy (Ichkeria) of theCaucasus Emirate. This change of status has been rejected by some Chechen politiciansand military leaders who continue to support the existence of the republic. Since

November 2007, AkhmedZakayev says he is now the Prime Minister of Ichkeria'sgovernment in exile.


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Secession in Vienna

The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, KolomanMoser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, and others. Although OttoWagner is widely recognised as a fundamental member of the Vienna Secession he was

not a founding member.The Secession artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the ViennaKnstlerhaus with its traditional orientation toward Historicism. The Berlin and MunichSecession movements preceded the Vienna Secession, which held its first exhibition in1898.

The group earned considerable credit for its exhibition policy, which made the FrenchImpressionists somewhat familiar to theViennese public. The 14th Secessionexhibition, designed by Josef Hoffmann anddedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, wasespecially famous. A statue of Beethoven

by Max Klingerstood at the center, withKlimt's Beethoven frieze mounted around it.

In 1903, Hoffmann and Moser foundedthe Wiener Werksttte as a fine-arts societywith the goal of reforming the applied arts(arts and crafts).

On 14 June 1905 Gustav Klimt and otherartists left the Vienna Secession due todifferences of opinion over artistic concepts.

Style of the Secessionists

Unlike other movements, there is not one style that unites the work of all artists whowere part of the Vienna Secession. The Secession building could be considered the iconof the movement. Above its entrance was carved the phrase "to every age its art and toart its freedom". Secession artists were concerned, above all else, with exploring thepossibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition. They hoped to create anew style that owed nothing to historical influence. In this way they were very much inkeeping with the iconoclastic spirit of turn-of-the-century Vienna (the time and placethat also saw the publication of Freud's first writings).

The Secessionist style was exhibited in a magazine that the group produced, called VerSacrum, which featured highly decorative works representative of the period.

Architecture

Along with painters and sculptors, there were several prominent architects who becameassociated with The Vienna Secession. During this time, architects focused on bringingpurer geometric forms into the designs of their buildings.The three main architects of


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this movement were Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, and Otto Wagner.Secessionist architects often decorated the surface of their buildings with linearornamentation in a form commonly called whiplash or eel style.

In 1898, the group's exhibition house was built in the vicinity of Karlsplatz. Designed byJoseph Maria Olbrich, the exhibition building soon became known simply as "the

Secession" (die Sezession). This building became an icon of the movement. Thesecession building displayed art from several other influential artists such as MaxKlinger, Eugene Grasset, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Arnold Bocklin.

Otto Wagner's MajolikaHaus in Vienna (c. 1898) is a significant example of the Austrianuse of line. Other significant works of Otto Wagner include TheKarlsplatzStadtbahnStation in Vienna (1900), and The Austrian Postal Savings Bankor sterreichischePostsparkasse in Vienna (19041906).

Wagner's way of modifying Art Nouveau decoration in a classical manner did not findfavour with some of his pupils who broke away to form the Secessionists. One was JosefHoffmann who left to form the Wiener Werksttte, an Austrian equivalent of the Artsand Crafts movement. A good example of his work is the Stoclet

Palace in Brussels (1905).

Commemoration

The Secession movement was selected as the theme for a commemorative coin: the 100euro Secession commemorative coin minted on 10 November 2004.

On the obverse side there is a view of the Secession exhibition hall in Vienna. Thereverse side features a small portion of the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt. Theextract from the painting features three figures: a knight in armor representing ArmedStrength, one woman in the background symbolizing Ambition and holding up a wreath

of victory, and a second woman representing Sympathy with lowered head and claspedhands.

On the obverse side of the Austrian 0,50 or 50 euro-cent coin, the Vienna SecessionBuilding figures within a circle, symbolising the birth of art nouveauand a new age inthe country.

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