Lichtenau in the Waldviertel

Lichtenau im Waldviertel is located in the Waldviertel in Lower Austria. The area of the market town covers 58.36 square kilometers. 33.56 percent of the area is forested.

Community structure

The municipality includes the following 18 localities and cadastral communities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

Allentsgschwendt (152)
Brunn am Wald (127)
Ebergerscher (63)
Engelschalks (28)
Earth White (74)
Gloden (80)
Großreinprechts (180)
Jeitendorf (93)
Kornberg (25)
Ladings (54)
Lichtenau (350)
Loi wine (270)
Obergrünbach (147)
Pallweis (104) with Steineck
Scheutz (63) including the brewery
Taubitz (98)
Wietzen (56)
Wurschenaigen (51)

The market town of Lichtenau is a member of the Kampseen region .

Neighboring communities

Waldhausen ( Zwettl )	Notch field
Sallingberg ( Zwettl )		Gföhl
	Albrechtsberg

history

Here, Hermann Ehrhardt , Freikorpsführer and founder of the Consul organization , which was responsible for female murders in the Weimar Republic, died .

In 1101 the name Lichtenau was first mentioned in a document (Konrad von "Lichtenowe"). The place was first mentioned as a parish in 1332. The Brunn am Wald palace archive records a schoolmaster in Lichtenau for 1428. From the 15th century Lichtenau was owned by the Neudeggers, several changes of ownership followed. Johann Hartmann von Trautmannsdorf was in Lichtenau in 1584, and the Brunn am Wald Palace was also rebuilt in that year. In 1678 Lichtenau came into the possession of the Sinzendorfer , before the Count Herberstein Lichtenau as well as several goods and castles in the area in 1684. Under this family, the Brunn am Wald estate was expanded (bulk box with cellar - imposing brick vault). Between 1755 and 1757, today's baroque church was built under Pastor Adam Hiesinger, and it was consecrated to St. Aegydius. In 1812 Joseph Michael von Ehrenfels acquired the Lichtenau castle and manor.

In 1932 the philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels , a co-founder of the “Gestalt theory”, died. Georg Hermann Erhardt (1881–1971, buried in the Lichtenau cemetery), a politically important Free Corps leader in Germany, acquired the castle and estate of Brunn am Wald in 1936. Lichtenau remained in the possession of the Ehrenfels family.

When the municipalities were first amalgamated in 1968, the municipalities of Lichtenau, Allentsgschwendt, Ladings, Loiwein and Taubitz merged to form the “market town of Lichtenau im Waldviertel”. In 1970, the first expansion stage of the Schweighofer wood industry followed in the area of KG Jeitendorf. This is the most important company, some of which is located in the municipality of Lichtenau. With the second amalgamation of the municipalities in 1971, when the municipalities of Brunn am Wald, Großreinprechts (with Gloden), Jeitendorf, Obergrünbach and Pallweis joined the market town, Lichtenau reached its present size.

In 1974 the Lichtenau office building was opened and the Loiwein elementary school was converted into the first one-group kindergarten. In the same year the Lichtenau sports club was founded and the first sports facility was set up. The tourism association (now the tourism and culture association) was founded in 1984. The Lichtenau sewage treatment plant was put into operation in 1984 as the first biological plant. The multi-function gym was completed in 1986. In 1987 a second group was set up in the Loiwein kindergarten. A partial bypass of Lichtenau was built in 1990 to the west of the village. In 1991/92 the main square of Lichtenau was redesigned. In 1993 the new elementary school building was opened in Lichtenau and the small region "Kampstauseen / Gföhlerwald", today "Kampseen", was founded . In 1995 the third kindergarten group was set up in Loiwein by an extension. Since the municipality bought building sites, a large-scale settlement expansion could take place in 1995. In 1998 the first village renewal association (Allentsgschwendt), which immediately implemented its first project ("Old School"), and the Lichtenau music association were founded. The Lichtenau settlement water supply system was also built in that year. In 1999 the new sports facility and the fire station opened in Lichtenau.

On November 1, 2001, the Lichtenau gendarmerie was closed. The expansion of wastewater disposal for all places in the community began in 2002 with the Loiwein-Brunn am Wald-Wurschenaigen project. The post office closed on June 10, 2002, and at the same time the community established the post office partner. In 2003, Loiwein was the first place to begin designing local spaces after the construction of canals and water pipes. In 2004 the Caritas and the social station in Lichtenau 8 were founded (2010 reopening in the office building). A dental practice opened in 2007 on the premises of the former gendarmerie. The business park was built in 2008–2009. In addition to the purchase of land, option contracts for the expansion and construction of the infrastructure in Lichtenau were concluded. In 2009 the museum "The farmer as self-sufficient" opened. The unbundling and expansion of the canal, the expansion of the water supply to the entire site and the cabling of all power and telephone lines took place in 2009-2010. During the same period, the district heating project on Hauptplatz Lichtenau was carried out for 12 houses. In 2010–2012, the “Caricature Garden” in Brunn am Wald, a worth seeing and already popular destination, was built. In 2012 the redesign of the main square in Lichtenau was completed. In the same year, photovoltaic systems for community-owned houses and systems with a total output of 81 kWp were put into operation. On December 1, 2012, the municipal office manager Richard Rauscher retired after more than 41 years of service. The digital recording of small monuments in 2013 includes 112 objects.

Population development

After a strong population decline in the second half of the 20th century, the number of inhabitants has stabilized. From 2001 to 2011 there was a slightly negative balance of migration , but a birth balance of +5.

politics

After the 2020 municipal council elections , there will be a total of 21 seats in the market council : ÖVP 18, SPÖ 2 and FPÖ 1.

mayor

1968–1970 Franz Stummer, Allentsgschwendt
1970–1981 Ferdinand Höbart, Lichtenau
1981–1992 Josef Schitzenhofer, Obergrünbach
1992–2009 Hubert Nöbauer, Lichtenau
since 2009 Andreas Pichler, Obergrünbach (ÖVP)

economy

There were 61 non-agricultural workplaces in 2001, and agricultural and forestry operations according to the 1999 survey 277. The number of people in work in the place of residence was 943 according to the 2001 census. In 2001 the activity rate was 47.36 percent.

Culture and sights

Parish church Großreinprechts
Heimatmuseum Brauhaus in Brauhaus

Personalities

Hans-Dieter Roser (* 1941 in Allentsgschwendt), historian, Germanist, music and theater scholar, dramaturge and dispatcher with a research focus on operas, operettas and musicals.

literature

Karl Exenberger: Chronicle of Lichtenau. Lecture notes, onA ( pdf , on lichtenau.at; web link to the community chronicle ).

Web links

Commons : Lichtenau im Waldviertel - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Website of the market community (lichtenau.at)
31324 - Lichtenau in the Waldviertel. Community data, Statistics Austria .

Individual evidence

↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
↑ Entry about Schloss Brunn at Lower Austria Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, University of Salzburg
^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Lichtenau, population development. Retrieved February 15, 2019 .

[Metadaten_Einwohnerzahl_AT_Ortschaft_QUELLE-1] Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )

[2] Entry about Schloss Brunn at Lower Austria Burgen online - Institute for Reality Studies of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, University of Salzburg

[3] Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Lichtenau, population development. Retrieved February 15, 2019 .