History of East Tyrol
The name East Tyrol has been attested since the middle of the 19th century, but this name only became common for the Austrian political district of Lienz (East Tyrol) after South Tyrol was added to Italy in 1919 . East Tyrol is separated from North Tyrol between Salzburg in the north, South Tyrol in the west, the Italian region of Veneto in the south and Carinthia in the east.
prehistory
The oldest evidence of the presence of people in East Tyrol was discovered in 1987 at the so-called Hirschbichl in Defereggental at 2143 meters above sea level. The artefacts included a rock crystal bullet point and small flint blades , which refer to a seasonal hunter resting place of Mesolithic hunters from the 7th to 6th millennium BC. Indicate. With the Neolithic Age (Neolithic, 6th to 3rd millennium BC), agriculture and cattle breeding as well as pottery and house building established themselves in East Tyrol . The most important find of this time, a stone ax made of serpentine, dates from the 5th millennium BC. BC and was found on the Schlossberg in Lienz , but later stolen from Schloss Bruck . Further finds (ceramics) on the Breitegg ( Nußdorf-Debant ), Burg ( Obermauern ) and at the Lavanter Kirchenbichl point to Neolithic settlers. The Abri Gradonna near Kals am Großglockner , which probably served as a place of worship and sacrifice, is of particular importance . The oldest ceramics in East Tyrol (vessels with square openings) and flint stones were found here.
Bronze age
After a short copper transition period triggered by the Early and Middle Bronze Age (about 22 to the 13th century v. Chr.) The bronze to stone as determined from material. The ore used in East Tyrol is likely to come from the upper Isel valley in particular . It was initially mined in opencast mining , later also in underground mining. Cast in bars and as eyelet neck rings, the metal was then placed on the market or served as a premium means of payment. Individual metal finds from this period come mainly from the area around Virgen . There are more ceramics that were found on the Lienzer Schlossberg, in Matrei (Klaunzerberg), Heinfels (castle hill), Strassen (Jakobibichl) and Lavant (Kirchbichl). Scheduled settlement excavations and grave finds from this period are missing, however. In the late Bronze Age, the East Tyrolean area was characterized by a largely uniform culture that buried its dead in urns ( urn field culture ). The spread of the so-called Melauner or Laugner culture extended from the Alpine Rhine Valley via Tyrol to the Carinthian Drautal . In East Tyrol, the main areas of settlement could be demonstrated, especially through ceramic finds in the area that was already populated during the Stone Age. Showpieces are a stone multiple casting mold for sickles and axes from Virgen and a three-bulged sword from Assling . However, there are no grave finds from this period either.
Iron age
With the second half of the 8th century BC The older Iron Age began in East Tyrol as well , which is also called the Hallstatt Period because of the main location . This period was mainly characterized by the increased use of iron , which had hardly been used before. If only a few stray finds from the upper Iseltal are known from the earlier Hallstatt period, an entire grave field from the more recent Hallstatt period was discovered in Welzelach near Virgen. Between 1889 and 1891, Alexander Schernthanner uncovered 56 stone box graves here , which also contained weapons, jewelry, amber beads and a figuratively decorated sheet bronze bucket. Further settlement, grave and litter finds were made in the entire district, but their focus is in the Virgen Valley . During the following, younger Iron Age ( La Tène period ), East Tyrol was shaped by the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture of the Raetians , which spread around the Alto Adige around 500 BC. Developed on a largely domestic basis. Characteristics include the typical house shape (recessed houses with angled entrances) and the typical ceramics with lightly painted or stamped patterns. Around 100 BC The East Tyrolean area fell to the Celts ( Laianken ). However, this period lasted only a short time, as this area was around 15 BC. BC fell peacefully to the Roman Empire .
Roman times
Expansion of Roman rule
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Lured by the numerous metals of the Tauern, such as gold , galena , antimony and copper , the Romans appeared early in East Tyrol. In order to secure access to these mineral resources and to protect the northern Italian area from invasions by other tribes, the Romans closed in the first half of the 2nd century BC. A state friendship treaty (hospitium publicum) with the Kingdom of Noricum . This Celtic kingdom was at that time a loose tribal union among several small kings. When Drusus and Tiberius 16/15 BC BC conquered the Alpine region in mostly bloody campaigns, Noricum should have been little affected by it. Rather, under Emperor Claudius around 50 AD, things went peacefully in the Roman province of Noricum. The interest of the Romans in the rich metal deposits also brought prosperity to the local population, but at the same time they were subjected to a strictly organized Romanization . This is suggested by the not suddenly but rapidly decreasing excavation finds of the Celtic culture after the Romans came to power. The dominant center of East Tyrol during Roman times was the city of Aguntum with its hinterland. This hinterland roughly corresponded to today's East Tyrol and the Pustertal with its side valleys. The area of influence of the city extended in the north to the Felber Tauern , in the east to the Kärntner Tor , in the west to Mühlbachl (Pustertal) and in the south to the transitions to the Gailtal , Kreuzbergsattel and Enneberg .
Aguntum
With the appearance of the Romans, the previously established hillside settlements such as the Lavanter Kirchbichl or the Matreier Klaunzerberg lost their importance. Rather, Aguntum originated on the flood-prone valley floor of a basin, especially from a traffic-geographic point of view. Due to the location at the intersection of the Drautalstraße and the road over the Iselberg, Aguntum benefited from the metal trade from the Tauern and Glockner areas as well as from the copper trade from the inner Iseltal and its side valleys, the Virgen and Defereggental . Nevertheless, conditions such as an irregular, not right-angled street system speak in favor of a previous settlement in the urban area of Aguntum. The city's heyday was probably during the 1st and 2nd centuries. It received the Claudian town charter. Numerous excavations such as the city wall, an atrium house and a magnificent building still bear witness to the city's wealth. Although Germanic troops passed through the city several times in the 3rd century , the city recovered from the destruction. Nevertheless, from the 3rd century and especially in the early 4th century, the population withdrew more and more from the valleys to the hilltop settlements, giving them a boost in development. The mountain settlement in Lavant in particular flourished after a 200-year break in the 3rd century AD. In 400/406 Aguntum was seriously damaged and in 610 it was completely destroyed in a great battle between the Bavarians and the Slavs .
Other settlement areas
In addition to the Roman center of Aguntum, numerous other settlements in the Lienz basin were also settled during Roman times. The slopes inclined towards the south, such as those in Grafendorf, Oberdrum, Thurn and Oberlienz, were populated by Villae rusticae and noble houses. Further settlement centers can be found in Matrei and the surrounding area, which was considered the starting point for the copper-rich Virgental and played a role as the intersection with the mule track over the Felber Tauern . Roman finds can also be found in Kals, whereby the Tauern crossings were also geographically important here. Other finds are known from Mortbichl in the communities of Bannberg and Tristach , while from Lienz eastward to the Kärntner Tor archaeological sites from Roman times are rare. Due to the decline of Aguntum, the settlement on Lavanter Kirchbichl gained increasing importance again from the 3rd century onwards. It was only protected by its location on the inaccessible hill and was a center of iron and metal processing. Two early Christian churches were also located here. The local, mostly rural population lived primarily from cattle breeding and supplemented their menu with fishing and hunting. The prosperity of the population is particularly reflected in the numerous finds of imported glasses, glass beads, jewelry and tools. Around 610 this settlement was also extensively destroyed in the war between the Bavarians and Slavs, but did not completely lose its importance.
middle Ages
Great Migration
From the 5th century Germanic and Slavic peoples invaded the Roman provinces on a broad front (see especially late antiquity ). In the 6th century, the Bavarians also invaded Tyrol from the north and advanced into the Puster Valley . However, when the Slavs were threatened by the Avars , they pushed further and further west and settled the Drava and Isel valleys . The way to the east was blocked for the Bavarians. In the 8th century, however, the Slavic Carantania , which was much larger than today's Carinthia , came under the Duchy of Bavaria and was settled by Bavarian colonists. Christianity was now also spreading in these areas. The Romans in the Pustertal and the Slavs and Romans in the Drava and Isel valleys gradually assimilated culturally, and their languages probably died out in the High Middle Ages .
Christianization
Bavarian Duke Tassilo III. In 769 gave the abbot von Scharnitz a strip of territory in the central Pustertal with the task of evangelizing the Slavs. He then founded the San Candido Abbey , which was soon left to the Freising Monastery . In addition, two other dioceses tried to increase their influence in Carantania, the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia . In 811, Emperor Charlemagne finally established the diocesan border with the Drava , which lasted until the 19th century. The Archdiocese of Salzburg retained control over the Isel region and the area to the left of the Drau and also had an outpost in the Pustertal with the Parish Assling . While the diocese of Aquileia in East Tyrol was represented by the parish Lavant-Tristach, the Pustertal was controlled by the diocese of Brixen .
Early and High Middle Ages
The secular power structure in the region developed more slowly than the church. Often the formal power was undermined by rich aristocratic or ecclesiastical landlords. The first goal of the Roman-German kings and emperors was to weaken the influential Bavarians, which were weakened in 976 by the establishment of the independent Duchy of Carinthia. The new duchy reached in the west as far as the Tauern region and included the Lienz basin . In the Pustertal the area extended to the Lienzer Klause . The south-western sphere of influence of Bavaria was also thinned out by the transfer of the count's rights of the Pustertal county to the Bishop of Brixen. While the Counts of Tyrol prevailed in the west, a new center of power developed between Tyrol and Carinthia, the County of Görz , whose influence grew at the expense of the Diocese of Aquileia and the Hochstift Freising. The Counts of Gorizia came from the Bavarian nobility and appeared on the historical horizon in the 11th century. Their power base built on the Counts of Lienz , who were the administrative center of the Lienzer Gaues in the Carinthian county of Lurngau . When the Counts in Lurngau acquired the Bailiwick of Aquileia in 1100, they combined their possessions with the new lands and renamed themselves von Gorizia in 1120 due to the shifted focus of power . The archbishopric of Salzburg, in particular, was able to stand up to the Görzern in East Tyrol, which acquired the Matrei area, the Defereggental and around Nikolsdorf the lands of the Counts of Lechsgemünd around 1200 . The strategy of the Görzer, Salzburg and the Carinthian Spanheimer in alliance with the Counts of Tyrol to push back militarily, however, failed in 1252.
Late Middle Ages
Despite the defeat in 1252 ( Peace of Lieserhofen ), the Gorizia benefited from their alliance with Tyrol. Meinhard III. von Görz (later Meinhard I. von Tirol) had married Adelheid, one of the two daughters of Count Albert von Tirol , around 1237 and after his death in 1253 inherited the core areas of the later Tirol north and south of the Brenner Pass . After Meinhard's death in 1258, the extensive estates were finally divided between his sons in 1271. Meinhard IV of Görz received the county of Tyrol as Meinhard II , while Albert of Görz received the Görzian inheritance, increased by the Tyrolean rulership rights in the Puster Valley. However, the Meinhardin line could not hold its ground for long; Meinhard's granddaughter Margarete von Tirol handed over the County of Tirol to the Habsburgs in 1363 after the male line of her family had expired in 1335. In contrast, the Albertine brethren managed to consolidate and eventually increase their legacy. But they too reached their zenith around 1300. The main opponents of the Gorizia were the Habsburgs, who had already taken the Duchy of Carinthia from the Tyrolean Görz in 1335 and also took over the County of Tyrol in 1363. As a result, the Gorizia came between the territory of the Habsburgs, who now tried to close the territorial gap between their areas. The Gorizia Empire was also threatened in the south. Above all, the Republic of Venice tried to establish itself as a land power and the Habsburgs also threatened the interests of the Gorizia with their access to the upper Adriatic . The two halves of the Gorizia possessions (later the Vordere and Hintere Grafschaft Görz) were increasingly in danger. Since Venice's influence in the south was increasingly restricted, Lienz became the main residence of the Gorizia people. When the brothers Johann and Leonhard von Görz failed in the military conquest of the legacy of the Counts of Cilli in 1460 , Emperor Friedrich III wrested them from them . the rule of Lienz and all courts east of the Kärntner Tor in the Drautal as well as other possessions in the Gailtal and Central Carinthia. Although Leonhard still managed to recapture the rule of Lienz two years later by means of a popular uprising faked by mercenaries , the time worked for the Habsburgs. After Leonhard's marriage had remained childless, the Tyrolean territory of the Gorizia fell to Maximilian I after his death in 1500 .
Modern times
Incorporation into the County of Tyrol
Maximilian I was able to quickly defend the new area against Venice and sent a staff of officials from Innsbruck to the administration in East Tyrol. The connection to Tyrol, initially only a provisional arrangement, was a little later, however, a fact that the Carinthians could not change anything.
The area assigned to the County of Tyrol included the rule of Lienz with its five courts (City of Lienz , Regional Court Lienz, Virgen , Kals and Lienzer Klause ), (in today's South Tyrol) the Pustertal from the Mühlbacher Klause to the east, the courts of Schöneck with Burgfrieden, Ehrenburg , Uttenheim or Neuhaus, Sankt Michelsburg , Altrasen , Welsberg and (mostly already located in East Tyrol) Heinfels .
Despite this extensive area, substantial parts of what would later become East Tyrol were still in the hands of other powers. The Bressanone bishopric claimed the court of Anras, which lay between the courts of Heinfels and Lienzer Klause and the Carinthian border and comprised the area of today's communities Anras , (largely) Assling , Obertilliach and Untertilliach ; it stretched from the southern border of East Tyrol to the ridge of the Defereggen Mountains, where it bordered the Salzburg District Court of Windisch-Matrei , which also included parts of the Defereggen Valley . The eastern part of East Tyrol with Lienz was separated from the rest of the Tyrolean region by these spiritual territories. The eastern tip of today's East Tyrol was formed by the small lordship of Lengberg , also territory of Salzburg.
The integration of the Görzischen rule into the Grafschaft Tirol went without problems. For example, Tyrol was not only wealthier, but also considerably more progressive in constitution, administration and law. Furthermore, in contrast to Gorizia , the state estates in Tyrol had an important say. However, with the introduction of the hierarchical Tyrolean administration, the manorial access also increased. East Tyrol was incorporated into the land militia. In addition, unlike in the past, all landowners had to pay property tax and Lienz lost its position economically because it lost the manorial residence. In return, however, the citizens succeeded in raising the previously suppressed autonomy to the status of other Tyrolean cities.
16th to 18th century
East Tyrol was largely spared from the social unrest in the 16th century. While the Peasants' Wars raged in Central Europe in 1525, there was hardly any unrest in East Tyrol. However, Windisch-Matrei was briefly occupied by Tyrol to prevent the revolutionary tendencies from encroaching. The Reformation also met with little response in East Tyrol, and Protestant movements could hardly gain a foothold here. It was only in Defereggental, then in Salzburg, that the ideas brought with them by seasonal and traveling traders from Salzburg fell on fertile ground. The Archbishop of Salzburg, however, cracked down on them and in 1684 forced 900 Defereggers who insisted on their beliefs to emigrate.
Economically, this period meant a heavy burden on the area. Although war was spared, mining, trade and traffic declined. In addition, the Little Ice Age caused agricultural yields to decline. Only in the 18th century did the economy recover with an upturn. In addition, under Maria Theresa the state behaved much more willing to invest. The subjects came more and more to the fore as economic subjects and were needed as taxpayers or soldiers. But the reforms also hit the church. Under Emperor Joseph II , not only was the parish reorganized, but numerous orders that had no public benefit were also dissolved. For example, the Haller Damenstift was closed in 1783, and its courts came under state administration. The Carmelite Monastery in Lienz , which the Franciscans later moved into , was also hit . The reforms also affected the state organization. The traditional rights of the states, cities and guilds were abolished and a tight and centralized organization took their place. Uniform legal bases followed.
19th century
The state restructuring continued in the 19th century. In 1803 the ecclesiastical imperial principalities were dissolved and the territorial holdings of the Hochstifte secularized. The territories of the principalities of Brixen and Trient were annexed to the County of Tyrol, the Hofmark Innichen and the court Anras were also Tyrolean and the regional courts Sillian (Heinfels) and Lienz respectively .
East Tyrol under the French
However, the reform work was briefly interrupted by the Napoleonic wars. As a result of Austria's defeat in the Third Coalition War and the subsequent Peace of Pressburg in 1805/06, Tyrol was divided into three new Bavarian provinces, with southern Tyrol falling to the Eisackkreis . Then Bavaria began to carry out reforms in the new Bavarian province, whereby the disregard of the old Tyrolean military constitution ( Landlibell ) and the reintroduction of the Josephine church reform caused displeasure. The massive interventions led to the so-called church struggle of the clergy and the common people. The forced recruitment finally led to the uprising under Andreas Hofer in 1809 . Calling Hofer followed the East Tyrolean shooters from the Isel , Drau and Pustertal . They gathered at the Lienzer Klause and successfully blocked the advance of the French troops in the Puster Valley. In revenge, the French general Rusca set fire to some villages in the vicinity of Lienz. The last uprising of the East Tyroleans followed in December, when a contingent from the Isel valley chased the French out of his valley as far as Lienz. As a result of the uprising, Tyrol was divided into three states in 1810. The Tyrol east of Toblach (East Tyrol) was added to the Illyrian provinces and in 1811 expanded to include Windisch-Matrei in Salzburg.
reorganization
After Austria recaptured the south-east of Tyrol in 1813, the area was reorganized. From 1816 three administrative and judicial districts were introduced. These were the regional courts of Windisch-Matrei (with Virgen and Kals), Lienz (including Anras and Lengberg, who migrated to Tyrol in 1816 ) and Sillian (including Innichen and Tilliach). This was the first time that the later district of Lienz emerged. At the same time, the Catholic Church adapted to the new circumstances. After the withdrawal from Salzburg and Gorizia, East Tyrol became part of the diocese of Brixen from 1814 . In 1817, the municipal law in Tyrol created a uniform regulatory framework for the first time and removed the legal preference given to markets and cities. The municipal code of 1866 finally gave birth to today's political municipality. When in 1868 the judiciary and administration were separated at the local level in the Austrian half of the empire , the district courts of Lienz, Windisch-Matrei and Sillian were constituted as instances of justice and the district authority of Lienz as the comprehensive administrative body.
Economic change
The beginning of industrialization passed East Tyrol almost without a trace. Nevertheless, the economic and social structure shifted within the region. The growing population could no longer find a place in agriculture and had to migrate to trade or the service sector. The preferred areas were Lienz or outside the district. Smaller handicraft businesses settled in the rural communities, but the population stagnated here. The construction of the Pustertal Railway in 1871 gave a boost to investments. It brought the railway workers into the country and opened the region to tourism . Lienz, in particular, benefited from the summer visitors, which was able to increase its size from 2111 to 6045 inhabitants between 1868 and 1910, while the population of the district only rose from 30,000 to 33,000 inhabitants. Nevertheless, agriculture remained the most important branch of industry, around 1900 around two thirds of East Tyroleans lived on it. In the small-scale industry, the hospitality and construction industries played an important role.
Contemporary history
First World War and the interwar period
When Italy entered the war in May 1915, the Tyrolean hinterland was directly hit by the effects of the First World War . Tyrol became the operational area , the East Tyrolean communities in the west and south ( Sexten to Untertilliach ) were directly on the Italian front . After capturing the Porze summit on the crest of the Carnic Alps in June 1915, Obertilliach and Kartitsch in particular came under fire from the Italian artillery . Further artillery attacks concentrated mainly on the Pustertal Railway and thus on Sillian and Innichen . An air raid on the Lienz train station on September 7, 1918 also resulted in one death and four injuries. After the end of the fighting, a rapidly formed Lienz National Council tried to steer the post-war chaos in an orderly manner. The invasion of the Italians in November 1918 near Sillian and Tassenbach brought East Tyrol and the rest of Tyrol under Italian occupation. The Treaty of Saint-Germain , which was concluded on September 10, 1919 and came into force in 1920, resulted in the separation of South Tyrol into Italy. The district of Lienz, in the following more and more often referred to as East Tyrol, was given its final borders. The separation of South Tyrol additionally strengthened the peripheral location of the area, which is why one now moves more to the east, i.e. H. had to reorientate to Carinthia. For a short time in 1920 the connection to Germany was even proclaimed as the German Gau Osttirol .
The Tyrolean People's Party became the dominant political power during the interwar period . Only far behind did socialists and communists follow. Due to the Catholic-conservative character of East Tyrol, the establishment of the authoritarian Austro-Fascist corporate state received broad approval. The Great Depression had as performed similarly in the rest of Austria to high unemployment, which is counteracted with major projects. Projects such as the Grossglockner High Alpine Road between Carinthia and Salzburg, built between 1930 and 1935, were raised in the wake of the crisis. The construction of the Felbertauernstraße , which was supposed to establish the urgent connection between East Tyrol and Salzburg, could not be completed until 1967.
East Tyrol and National Socialism
The NSDAP came a little later in East Tyrol than in the rest of Austria, beginning with Hitler's rise to power in 1933. Even the ban on the NSDAP in June 1933 could not slow this growth. During the July coup of the National Socialists, things remained comparatively quiet in East Tyrol, but members of the armed forces and the Heimwehr were deployed in the suppression of the coup in neighboring Upper Carinthia as far as Spittal an der Drau . As a result, a monarchist tendency gained more and more influence, while the illegal National Socialists could only draw attention to themselves through appeals by the SA in Oberlienz. On March 11, 1938, immediately before the Anschluss , a torchlight procession by the National Socialists passed through Lienz, while the first positions were filled according to orders from Innsbruck . The first arrests of Jews and those responsible for the corporate state or the Heimwehr began immediately. The Wehrmacht , however, only reached East Tyrol a few days late. In the “referendum” on April 10th on the “Anschluss”, the district of Lienz achieved the lowest approval rate of all Tyrolean districts with 98.68% yes-votes, the municipality of Innervillgraten even had the lowest value in Austria with 73.7% approval .
An administrative change followed in July / October 1938, which was met with strong rejection in the East Tyrolean population. The Lienz district was assigned to the Gau Carinthia , and the name Osttirol disappeared for several years. The ecclesiastical organization of the area, however, remained unchanged during the Nazi era as " Apostolic Administration Innsbruck-Feldkirch " in the diocese of Brixen . During the Second World War , numerous men were called up for military service, 1,300 to 1,400 of which did not return. In addition, the access to the " home front " increased, which was directed against the church in particular and instrumentalized the customs . The massive action against the church and religion also triggered a certain resistance behavior in conservative East Tyrol, around 70 to 80 civilians from all walks of life, in particular resistance fighters, fell victim to the National Socialists. With the approach of the Allies , East Tyrol was hit by bomb attacks, especially in 1945. In April 1945, the main square in Lienz and the train station were almost completely destroyed. A total of 18 people died in air raids in East Tyrol. The invasion of British troops on May 8, 1945 meant the end of Nazi rule in East Tyrol.
The second half of the 20th century
First post-war years
Shortly after the end of the war, the Lienz Cossack tragedy occurred , the greatest tragedy in East Tyrol: At the beginning of May 1945, around 25,000 Cossacks who fought on the side of Hitler's Germany and were involved in war crimes in the Balkans and northern Italy in the course of fighting partisans , fled from the allies and partisan organizations via the Plöckenpass to Upper Carinthia and East Tyrol, where they set up their headquarters in Lienz. Contrary to other promises, the British put the Cossacks in railway wagons to deliver them to the Soviet Union . For this reason, numerous Cossacks committed suicide in the camps around Lienz and Oberdrauburg, while others resisted and were slain. However, the majority of the Cossacks were handed over to the Soviet troops in Judenburg , many of which did not survive the transport or died as a result of suicide or executions. The Cossack cemetery in Lienz still reminds of these events.
For the East Tyrolean population, in addition to food security and repairing the bomb damage, the solution of the administrative question also played an important role. In contrast to the French-occupied North Tyrol, East Tyrol belonged to the zone of occupation of the British, who, however, left the occupied area in October 1953 and not, as in general, until 1955. However, due to the temporary solution to the South Tyrol question ( Gruber-De-Gasperi Agreement ) and the relenting of the British, East Tyrol was resettled to Tyrol in September / October 1947. In 1948/49 an agreement with Italy also facilitated rail and road traffic through South Tyrol. In contrast, denazification was less successful in East Tyrol. In comparison with other regions of Austria, only a few former National Socialists were convicted here.
Tourism, major projects and power plant dispute
While tourism, which began at the end of the 19th century, was an important economic factor in the region during the interwar period, it soon gained even greater economic importance after 1945. Matrei in East Tyrol , for example, was able to double its number of overnight stays in 1948 compared to the interwar period. On the other hand, the connection between the Lienz district and the surrounding area caused problems. In this regard, the construction of the Felbertauernstrasse from 1962 to 1967 played an outstanding role, as East Tyrol got a better connection to Salzburg and Innsbruck and the Felbertauernstrasse was an important link for tourism. The Transalpine Oil Pipeline ( TAL ) Trieste - Ingolstadt was built parallel to the road . The construction of the Felbertauernstraße and the economic miracle ensured a further increase in the number of overnight stays, which almost doubled between 1965 and the 1990s, but remained strongly focused on winter tourism.
One event shaped East Tyrol like no other in the 1960s: the flood disaster of 1965/66, which reached its peak in August and November 1966. Warm south winds, which melted snow and glaciers, combined with heavy rainfall in all of East Tyrol, caused mudslides to leave and caused rivers and streams to overflow their banks. The natural disaster claimed a total of 23 lives and destroyed numerous bridges and houses.
The major projects and the elimination of the consequences of the flood disaster had led to an overheated construction industry in East Tyrol. The call for further major projects was therefore loud. In this context, a decade-old mega-project emerged in the early 1970s that provided for the drainage of 20 streams and the construction of Austria's largest dam (220 meters) in the Kalser Dorfertal . In the 1950s and 1960s, the lack of alternative pastures, financing problems and the construction of the Felbertauernstrasse had prevented the project, but the project has now become a serious opponent in the increasingly popular environmental movement. The first politicians of the Greens and federal representatives of the ÖVP and SPÖ also spoke out against the project, while ÖVP state and district politicians, the ÖGB , the energy industry and, for a long time, the affected communities campaigned for its implementation. The dispute over the Dorfertal paralyzed East Tyrol for a long time until the Kals population finally opposed the project in 1987 with 63.49%. In 1989, Minister of Economics and Energy Robert Graf finally announced the end of the Dorfertal power station.
National park and renewed power plant dispute
The reorientation towards nature conservation also made it possible to reposition East Tyrol. The Hohe Tauern National Park , founded in 1984, became part of East Tyrol's identity and also an important element of tourism advertising. At the same time, quality beds were increasingly expanded in the 1990s, while the number of overnight stays by private room renters decreased due to personal needs, growing prosperity and structural change. The decline in summer tourism was partially offset by winter tourism. Joining the EU also made it easier for the region to grow together with South Tyrol. The border controls were abolished and the first branches of South Tyrolean companies were established. In 2005 the dispute over the use of the East Tyrolean mountains broke out again. After the 2004 options report was published, four TIWAG 2005 power plant projects were shortlisted. East Tyrol is affected by the planned construction of the Matrei-Raneburg pumped storage power station . Against the construction of the power plant, which was unanimously rejected by the Greens, FPÖ and SPÖ, a network of the local population quickly formed, who reject the power plant construction on the edge of the national park. The planned pumped storage power plant would not only dam the Tauernbach , but also prepare for the construction of a power plant on the Isel , which according to numerous scientists and environmentalists should have long since been registered as a Natura 2000 area.
literature
- Andrej Werth: Memory and Region. Regional culture (s) of remembrance using the example of East Tyrol. Salzburg: University of Salzburg 2012.
- Harald Stadler, Martin Kofler, Karl C. Berger: Escape into hopelessness. The Cossacks in East Tyrol . Studien Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna / Bozen 2005, ISBN 3-7065-4152-1 .
- Martin Kofler: East Tyrol. From the First World War to the present. Studies Verlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 3-7065-1876-7 .
- Michael Forcher (Red.): Matrei in Osttirol. A parish book for the 700th anniversary of the first mention as market 1280–1980. Matrei 1980, 1996.
- Catholic Tyrolean Teachers' Association (Ed.): District Studies East Tyrol. Innsbruck 2001, ISBN 3-7066-2267-X .
- Martin Kofler: East Tyrol in the Third Reich 1938–1945 . Studies Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7065-1135-5 .
- Franz Miltner: Lavant and Aguntum. The prehistoric ruins near Lienz in East Tyrol. Lienz 1950.
- Josef Thonhauser: East Tyrol in 1809. Wagner, Innsbruck 1968.
Web links
- Entry on the history of East Tyrol in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- Wilfried Beimrohr: The Gorizia archive inventory . In: Tirol.gv.at.
