History of the Braunau am Inn district
The history of the Braunau am Inn district describes the history of the Braunau am Inn district .
prehistory
Younger Stone Age (5000–1800 BC)
The first human traces can be found in the Braunau district for the Early Stone Age . In particular, the river valleys of the Mattig , Engelsbach, Moosbach and Steckenbach were populated with preference because of the jungle that otherwise covers the district. Numerous finds from many communities prove the presence of the Neolith man in the district. Most of the found objects are now exhibited in the Herzogburg District Museum.
Bronze Age (1800–750 BC)
Finds from the Bronze Age were made in the Braunau district in Altheim near Feldkirchen, Schwand, Pischelsdorf, Lochen Munderfing and Leithen near Weng. The most important finds, however, were the burial ground consisting of 24 barrows near the Inn-Salzach-Blick (municipality of Überackern ), the burial ground near St. Peter am Hart and the urn field graves near the old rectory in Überackern.
Older Iron Age (Hallstatt Period 750–400 BC)
The most important find from the Hallstatt period was made in Uttendorf -Moos, where one of the pioneers of Upper Austrian archeology, Hugo von Preen , discovered a princely grave. The grave dates to around 550 BC. Similar gold necklaces were found in eastern France and southern Germany.
Younger Iron Age (400 - Birth of Christ)
In the younger Iron Age , the Celtic tribe of alums settled in the Salzburg-Upper Austrian region. The area belonged to the Celtic Kingdom of Noricum , which already comprised almost the entire national territory of today's Austria. There are individual finds from the district in Minning (Schnabelkanne from Sunzing), Osternberg, Frauenstein and St. Peter am Hart, almost all of which are grave furnishings.
Roman times
Under the imperial sons Drusus and Tiberius , the Regnum Noricum became 15 BC. Part of the Roman Empire . There are many finds from Roman times, 15 sites from Roman times can be found in the municipality of Braunau alone.
Streets
Soon the Romans began building roads. One of these roads was built from Juvavum (Salzburg) via Ovilava (Wels) to Lauriacum . A branch of this road went through the Mattig valley from Straßwalchen to Braunau, which is proven by a dense chain of accompanying sites. The route from Helpfau-Uttendorf to Innuferstraße is still unclear. Innuferstrasse was the second to run through the Braunau district. It led from Salzburg via Oberndorf to Tarsdorf , cut through the Weilhartsforst and ended in Boiotro (Passau-Innstadt).
Villa rustica
After his military service, a Roman soldier was entitled to a pension, Roman citizenship (if he did not already have one) and a piece of land. On this piece of land they built a house ( villa rustica ) with Roman achievements, such as underfloor heating, and an attached farmyard.
In Altheim , three such villas have been researched by the Institute for Classical Archeology at the University of Vienna since 1991 , in Simetsberg , Wagham and Weirading . They date from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries and are about three kilometers apart as the crow flies. Other manors are known from Lochen , Munderfing , Bogenhofen and Moosdorf . Individual houses are known from Überackern , Tarsdorf, Lengau , Gilgenberg and Braunau.
Great Migration
As in other areas, the time of the Great Migration until the Bavarian conquest of the Bavarians in the 8th century left only a few traces, and due to the lack of written evidence, these are mainly archaeological sources. Finds from graves in Teichstätt and Mining in particular tell the story of this time.
middle Ages
Places mentioned in documents before the year 1000
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Bavarian conquest - 12th century
During the great migration, the Bavarians settled the area. The settlement of the Bavarians can still be read from the so-called real -ing names (place names that are formed from a personal name and the suffix -ing, e.g. Franking - place of Franko; Fucking - place of Fuko etc. ). The Bavarians especially populated the fertile Inn , Salzach and Mattig regions . Since the Bavarians were led by a duke, whose claims to property were only secured by personal presence, large ducal courts were built in Hochburg, Mattighofen , Mining, Ostermiething and Ranshofen . Until 788 the dukes came from the family of the Agilolfinger , the last, Tassilo III. , was deposed by Charlemagne and the district came under Carolingian administration.
Since the Carolingians waged many wars and the free peasants were bound to military success, more and more of them came under the rule of a landlord. Thus began the downfall of the free peasants, who more and more fell into serfdom. From the time of the Magyar Wars in the 10th century, refuges for the population can still be seen in the district, for example on the Buchberg near Lengau and in Weilhart in the municipality of Überackern.
Since the old district administration was also destroyed, the Bavarian dukes enfeoffed vassals with goods, which they lent on. The district was part of the Mattiggau, which was administered from Mattighofen and later from Friedburg . An important event of the 12th century was the founding of the Ranshofen Monastery, which existed until 1811 and achieved important cultural achievements for today's district. In Ranshofen, for example, the "Ranshofner Evangeliar" was created, which is now kept in Oxford . In 1180 the Wittelsbachers were enfeoffed with Bavaria and thus also rulers in this area.
The Dukes of Landshut 12. – 15. century
The 12th and 13th centuries were marked again and again by feuds between secular and spiritual princes. In the third quarter of the 13th century, the verse epic Meier Helmbrecht by Wernher der Gartenaere was written , which, as was previously assumed, takes place near Gilgenberg. When finally soldiers of the Bohemian King Ottokar II Přemysl invaded the Braunau-Ranshofen area, Duke Heinrich XIII. Relocate toll and court from Ranshofen to the fortified Braunau and order "the walls to be repaired and a bridge to be built over the Inn". This document is the first mention of Braunau as a city. In 1331 the oldest document was issued, the seal of which shows the coat of arms of the city of Braunau.
There was a quiet time under the so-called rich Landshut dukes (Heinrich, Ludwig and Georg). In the 15th century, building activity began. Around a third of the parish churches in the district were built at that time. This is how the foundation stone of the parish church St. Stephan was laid, which was consecrated in 1466 by Bishop Ulrich of Passau.
List of palaces and castles in the Braunau district
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Engraving from Wildshut Castle from 1779
Wildshut Castle
Teichstätt Castle
Frauenstein Castle
Modern times
War of the Bavarian Succession - Reformation - Thirty Years War
In 1503 Georg von Landshut-Niederbayern died without a male heir. In the following war of succession between Albrecht of Upper Bavaria and Georg's son-in-law, Duke Ruprecht of the Palatinate, the acts of war took place mainly in the area of the Braunau district, which was badly affected by him. In the end, the city of Braunau received extensive privileges for standing up for Albrecht.
The Reformation came to Braunau in the 1530s. Braunau, Ranshofen and Mattighofen in particular were fertile ground for the new teaching. A feud broke out between Joachim von Ortenburg , lord of the Mattighofen rulership, and the duke, in which the duke ultimately prevailed.
During the Thirty Years War the Swedes and their allies did not come to Braunau, but the city was strongly fortified. The remains are still well preserved on the Inn and Enknach . Food deliveries, looting and violence increased. Shortly before the end of the war, the plague broke out and killed thousands of people (1647–1650). Triggered by the Turkish threat , Braunau was expanded into Bavaria's strongest fortress between 1672 and 1676.
Time of the wars of succession - Bavarian peasant uprising
In the War of the Spanish Succession , Bavaria and Austria stood on different sides. After the Second Battle of Hochstädt , Austria occupied large parts of Bavaria. When forced recruitment began, the Bavarian popular uprising broke out .
During the Bavarian people's uprising in 1705 and 1706, the State Defense Congress (" Braunau Parliament ") met in Braunau . In addition to the leader Johann Georg Meindl , who was born in Weng , Christian Probst reports on other leaders from the Braunau court: the old farmer from Wuerlach, the red-bearded Schwaiger, the Schienkhueber zu Mitterndorf, the Neuhauser zu Hochburg, the Meindlsberger in the Eggelsberg district, the innkeeper of Ibm and a Freiherr von Taufkirchen , who was an official there. The uprising was put down after the Murder Christmas of Sendling in early 1706.
During the War of the Austrian Succession , the Innviertel was badly affected by occupation, constant troop movements and payments in kind. The Braunau fortress was besieged twice, in the second siege Simbach was completely destroyed and Braunau was handed over to Austria after six weeks of siege. Peace was not made until 1745.
The Innviertel comes to Austria - time of the Napoleonic wars - the years until the end of the First World War
As with Maximilian III. Joseph the Wittelsbacher died out in Lower Bavaria in the male line, it came to the Bavarian Succession War . Joseph II and Karl Theodor , Elector Palatinate, each made claims to successors. Despite the military deployment, there were no battles. In 1779 peace was concluded in Teschen , Austria renounced its claim to the throne and received the Bavarian areas to the right of Inn and Salzach (Lower Office Burghausen). In autumn 1779 Joseph II traveled to the newly won lands and was already paid homage by the estates in Braunau in June.
During the Napoleonic War , the Innviertel and with it the Braunau district were often occupied by French troops. Napoléon Bonaparte stayed in Braunau in 1805 before continuing to Vienna. In 1806 the Nuremberg publisher Johann Philipp Palm was shot in Braunau for anti-French propaganda. Since the fortification of Braunau had repeatedly attracted acts of war, the population asked the emperor to demolish the complex, which was granted (1808). In 1810 the Innviertel and parts of the Hausruckviertel became French national territory, the so-called "Rieder government" operated a French-friendly policy. Napoléon handed the annexed areas over to the King of Bavaria in 1810. The Innviertel was Bavarian again until the Congress of Vienna .
The peaceful years after the Napoleonic Wars were marked by economic decline, high prices and poor harvests. The revolutionary year of 1848 brought the abolition of robotic duties and submission for the peasants .
The district was created in 1868. The compulsory school law was introduced in 1869 and the metric system in 1872 . In 1889, the future dictator Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, where he lived until he was three years old.
During the First World War there was a large prisoner of war camp in the city of Braunau with up to 15,000 inmates. A military cemetery where the victims of the prisoner of war camp were buried commemorates this camp. There was also the Braunau refugee camp , which housed people from South Tyrol and Poland . The First World War claimed 2,178 dead and missing in the district.
The first republic
As in the rest of the newly established republic, after the war, securing immediate livelihoods was the top priority. As a result of the war and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , there was hyperinflation that destroyed numerous fortunes. The political differences were just as pronounced in the Braunau district as anywhere else. Violent clashes were the order of the day. A police report from Mattighofen should illustrate this:
- At a meeting of the National Socialists, 180 to 190 people were present, including 80 "Nazis" and 40 Communists. One “soci”, five apolitical, seven communists and eight Nazis were injured. 103 beer glasses, six wine sockets, a half-liter mug, a lightbulb, five windows, twelve benches, two table skirting boards and two table bench backs were broken.
On the night of March 4th and 5th, 1933, there was even a political murder in Mattighofen; the unskilled worker Robert Zimmerbauer, a Social Democrat, was shot by the Nazis on the station premises. During the February uprising in 1934 , a Home Guard regiment of 600 men was moved to Mattighofen. The unemployed Robert Kainhofer was shot dead by a guard, otherwise things remained quiet in the district during the February uprising. Even during the July coup of the National Socialists , the situation remained under the control of government forces.
Braunau under Nazi rule
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In 1938 after the annexation , Adolf Hitler crossed the Inn Bridge to Braunau and immediately drove on to Linz. From 1939 to 1941 the aluminum factory was built in Ranshofen , the labor shortage caused by the war was compensated for by forced labor. In Weyer (parish of St. Pantaleon) the National Socialists set up a so-called “labor education camp”. The prisoners were used to regulate the Moosach; later, Sinti and Roma were brought together here, who after the dissolution came to Auschwitz via Lackenbach and were murdered there.
The defeat at Stalingrad cost the lives of many soldiers from the Braunau district. Shortly before the end of the war, on May 1, 1945, the Wehrmacht blew up the road bridge and the railway bridge over the Inn . The Second World War killed over 4,600 soldiers from the Braunau district. After the end of the war there were a large number of refugees in Braunau, including from Silesia and the Sudetenland . Only in 1951 did the population go back to the pre-war level of around 85,000.
A UN pioneer, Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer, came from the Braunau district . In 1941 he emigrated to the USA, where, together with Leopold Kohr , he was active as a journalist against the Nazi regime. His book "The International Secretariat - A Great Experiment in International Administration" made a significant contribution to the creation of the UN.
Victim (selection)
- The railway worker Franz Amberger was sentenced to death by a people's court and executed for collecting money for the communist party.
- Adolf Wenger was convicted of high treason and was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp , where he died on April 7, 1944.
- Richard Muhr from Mattighofen was sentenced to death because his name was on a donation list, he was pardoned to life imprisonment and survived the war.
- Corporal Georg Hauer had made his way from a military hospital in Vienna to his parents, where he wanted to wait for the war to end, he was betrayed and shot on April 30, 1945 in Braunau for high treason.
- Probably the best-known victim of National Socialism from the Braunau district is the sacristan of St. Radegund, Franz Jägerstätter , who was executed for undermining military strength and was later beatified by the Catholic Church.
The second republic
The district was under American occupation until the conclusion of the State Treaty in 1955 . The Ranshofen aluminum works had 900 employees again in 1946, and 2400 employees in 1955. Between 1949 and 1951 the road bridge between Braunau and Simbach, which was blown up by the Nazis, was rebuilt.
In 1963 the district museum in the Herzogsburg was established in Braunau. In 1966 the 500th anniversary of the parish church of St. Stephan was celebrated. With the establishment of a technical college and a commercial academy , Braunau became the educational center of the district.
Politically, the ÖVP has always been the dominant force in the district, just as it is in the province of Upper Austria; the SPÖ only provided the mayor in a few municipalities .
As the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, Braunau takes responsibility and organizes important contributions to coming to terms with the past. The Braunau Contemporary History Days are held annually together with the “Association for Contemporary History” . In 1989 a memorial stone made of Mauthausen granite was erected in front of Hitler's birthplace . The text on the stone reads:
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For peace, freedom
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and democracy
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Never again fascism
- Admonish millions of dead
The Cologne artist Gunter Demnig laid 13 stumbling blocks for victims of National Socialism in the district on August 11 and 12, 2006 .
Since 2009, the municipalities of the district have appeared as the Braunau am Inn Peace District. The municipality of Moosdorf had already officially integrated the designation Friedensgemeinde into the municipality name and thus provided the impetus for the idea of a peace district. The project was later initiated by District Captain Georg Wojak at the district level. Quite a few parishes have their own symbols of peace: in Moosdorf there is a peace monument in front of the parish church, in Franking the peace dove watches over the Holzöstersee, and in Geretsberg the peace panorama was inaugurated in 2011. From 2012 the symbolic center of the peace district will be the Franz Xaver Gruber-Weg in Hochburg-Ach with six bronze and steel sculptures over three meters high. It is intended to remind you that the composer of the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night comes from the Braunau district.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Adolf Stelzl: From Past Days I, in district book Braunau am Inn, Mooserbauer, Mattighofen 1992, pp. 219–229
- ↑ OÖN article about the golden choker from Uttendorf - accessed on November 7, 2010
- ↑ Archaeological Information System for Upper Austria ( Memento of the original dated December 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Römer im Innviertel, accessed on November 7, 2010
- ↑ a b c Eitzlmayr, Max (1997): Braunau - The historic trading town, Stadtamt der Stadt Braunau (ed.)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Max Eitzlmayr: From Past Days II, in district book Braunau am Inn, Mooserbauer, Mattighofen 1992, pp. 229–244
- ↑ Braunau am Inn district book, Mooserbauer, Mattighofen 1992, pp. 245–255
- ↑ Article Kriegerfriedhöfe in: District book Braunau am Inn, Mooserbauer, Mattighofen 1992, p. 309
- ^ Andreas Maislinger: Supplement to a local chronicle in: Austria in History and Literature with Geography, May 1988
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Braunau town history
- ↑ Homepage City of Braunau am Inn
- ↑ Stolpersteine - HRB.at ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Peace district of Braunau am Inn ( memento of the original from April 13, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ BH Braunau am Inn - News from the peace district Braunau am Inn
