History of the Marchfeld
The Marchfeld , which geologically represents the northern part of the Vienna Basin , shows some differences in early history to the parts of Lower Austria south of the Danube due to the natural border in the south, which the Danube forms.
Early history to ancient times
The first Marchfeld residents lived in pits , farmed and ranched animals. Bronze Age finds near Wagram , Orth an der Donau and Mannsdorf speak of this early period . The Marchfeld belongs to the Aunjetitz culture .
"With the end of the Diluvium , permanent settlement begins, for example along the lowest Wagram and along a traffic arm of the Danube that has been important for centuries and has now disappeared: Leopoldau , Kagran , Hirschstetten , Aspern , Eßling , Groß-Enzersdorf , Sachsengang , Wittau , Orth , Wagram , Eckartsau and Markthof should be mentioned here. The Orther Heimatmuseum (...) contains a number of found objects, especially from the full Neolithic , which were ascribed to the ' Lengyel type ' of the younger Stone Age. "
The ancient amber road split near Draßburg in Burgenland, then on the one hand via Baden , Vienna and today's high-speed rail route towards Angern and on the other hand via Carnuntum and along the Marchtal to enclose the Marchfeld; The branches meet again at Stillfried , one of the most important archaeological sites in Austria.
The first settlers known to us by name were around the 4th century BC. BC, the Illyrians , who left a hill fort on the Braunsberg across the Danube.
Celtic graves from the La Tène period were found in Untersiebenbrunn and Marchegg , as well as a living pit in Untersiebenbrunn with “ a large silver coin with the inscription COBROVOMARUS. The influence of the Romans , which was undoubtedly increasing towards the turn of the century, is manifest, the Untersiebenbrunner Münze clearly bears the Latinized name of a down-to-earth tribal, perhaps Gau prince , who possessed the right of mint and required silver money to trade with the Romans on an equal footing. "(Plechl)
In the year 6 AD the Romans tried to cross the Danube in two places near Carnuntum and formed bridgeheads : At Stopfenreuth there was the "Öde Schloss" in the Au, actually a material store; Remains can still be found. To the northwest of Engelhartstetten the outlines of a marshland (wall circumference: 700 × 700 m) were discovered. The Marcomanni under King Marbod rise at the same time as the Pannonians , but in the year 8 there is a friendship treaty with Marbod, the Marcomanni become " clientele ".
During the Marcomann Wars (166–180), quads , Lombards , Marcomanni and Sarmatian Jazygens broke through the Roman Danube Front from the north to Aquileia . Marc Aurel crosses the Danube in 171, and in 174 the Romans finally triumph in the “ rain wonder battle ”. Fortresses were built in Stillfried, Sachsengang, Siebenbrunn and Stopfenreuth , at times with a total of 20,000 men.
But already after the end of the Marcomann Wars in 180, the forts were abandoned and peace was made with the Marcomanns. There follow (258-260) re-fights with Marcomani and Quades to 350 penetrate the Herulians in the area of the field March a follow other Germanic strains. Around 370 the forts were rebuilt.
The Roman Empire is now falling apart. In 395 Marcomanni, Quads and Alans penetrated the Adriatic , while north of the Danube around 400 the Ostrogoths , especially Rugians , who were retreating from the Huns , penetrated the Limes - today's Wein- and Waldviertel becomes " Rugiland " by 488 , the name remains common until the 10th century.
The "Treasure of Untersiebenbrunn" can be viewed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum . Found in a sand pit northeast of the Untersiebenbrunn Church in 1910 (and partly plundered), it is the grave of the "lame princess", buried between 400 and 420.
In 433 the Huns settled in the Marchfeld, in 453 the Huns fell apart after Attila's death and the Heruli invaded. In 488 the Roman civilian population was deported to Italy , in 508 the Lombards (immigrated from Central Germany in 489) ousted the Heruli and were in turn ousted by the Ostrogoths after the migration . In the early 6th century, Bishop Jordanes wrote in the "History of the Goths" of the "Margo plano" , the flat marrow.
Then the Lombards came from Bohemia , but gave up the area in 567 due to a treaty with the Avars , an equestrian people from Inner Asia, and moved to Italy in 568. The Avars, in turn, were driven off in three campaigns (791–796) by Charlemagne .
The first planned settlement of Marchfeld around 800 is also due to Karl; the population is Bavarian and Saxon: soldiers were stationed on an arm of the Danube, "Gang", which is still called Sachsengang today (the castle did not appear until 1160).
According to legend, Sachsengang was originally a lake in which a dragon later killed by an apostle , perhaps St. Severin , would have lived; the people then piled stones and earth over the cattle until the lake was filled in. The artificial mountain on which the castle stands probably comes from an earth castle. A picture of a lindworm was found on an inn wall near Groß-Enzersdorf ... and in 1021 the Bavarian Weihenstephan monastery received Sachsengang.
Archbishop Adalwin of Salzburg is believed to have opened the first Orther church in 865 .
In 881 the Magyars and Bavarians meet near Vienna, in 901 the first attack by the Magyars on the peasants dates from ; 907 Battle of Pressburg ; the Magyars rule the Marchfeld in the first half of the 10th century. In 955 they were defeated in the battle on the Lechfeld .
middle Ages
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Between 996 and 1000 the Marchfeld and the area around Baden ("Neumark", also: "Hungarian Mark") come to the Mark Ostarrichi and the Marchfeld is one of the core areas of Austria.
After the final repulsion of the meanwhile Christianized Hungarians in 1042/1043, the Marchfeld was settled again: The Babenbergs , of East Franconian origin, bring their compatriots over. “ All places in the district with the exception of Kämpfendorf ( belonging to Leopoldsdorf ), Franzensdorf (after 1830), Fuchsenbigl (1787), Strasshof (1908) and Silberwald (1923) date back to the colonization period of the 11th and 12th centuries . “(Signs). Strasshof, first mentioned in 1280, disappeared again in the 15th century, Franzensdorf was rebuilt in place of Kimmerleinsdorf, which had been destroyed by a flood disaster .
The Marchfelddorf is characterized by the Franconian settlement. " The Franke loves as opposed to Bayern not the farmstead, but always sought the merger in the village. The Franconian does not know the large four-sided courtyard of the Bavarian farmer, this true fort of rural pride. He is more sociable and lives in the local association. (...) (That) makes the landscape so lonely, everywhere there is no animation from the individual courtyard. If these occur frequently today, they are then ingredients of the 19th century and lack ethnographic affiliation. The Franconian farmhouse is at ground level and the gable side is parallel to the street. The residential wing, connected to the stable and (or) threshing floor, is thus perpendicular to it. In the typical Franconian street village, gabled houses are lined up next to gabled houses, often of uniform length. But then there is a revival when the courtyard is developed into a double hook courtyard, that is, when two such buildings are parallel to each other and thus also perpendicular to the street and are connected by a wall with a large round arched gate. Characteristic of the Franconian village is the extension to the Anger raised from the longitudinal street . “(Schaffran).
In many places one can see sunken villages: Between “ 1012 and 1899 there were 152 floods, 48 of which had catastrophic consequences. 13 places fell victim to the Danube floods ”(signs). “ The settlements on the line (...) from Groß-Enzersdorf via Orth and Pframa to Stopfenreuth are among the oldest that still exist. The fifteen villages further south, facing the Danube, perished completely ... ”(Mander). There was an Eitzelsau between Orth and Eckartsau (in a legend it says “ The spire of the church of Eitzelsau is visible in a pond next to the Orther brick kiln when the water level is low ” (Hörler)), and Gang (Matthias Mander) was between Orth and Pframa describes expeditions to Gang and Wolfswerde in his novel “Wüstungen”), Matzneusiedl was one of Groß-Enzersdorf , and in 1830 the village of Kimmerleinsdorf was completely destroyed during a two-day flood as a result of an ice rush , and later to the southwest, at a higher point than Franzensdorf built up. March and Russbach were also threats that had to be expected. Many other places were bulldozed in one of the countless wars or simply fell into disrepair, depopulated by the plague . A total of 72 places known by name are deserted.
In 1058 a princely wedding took place on the "Mahara Field": Judith , the daughter of Emperor Heinrich III. , is married to the Hungarian Prince Solomon .
After the Imperial War of Solomon and Gezas in 1064 , castles were built in Marchfeld, among others in Jedenspeigen , Angern, Weiden , Engelhartstetten, Orth, Eckartsau, Gänserndorf, Stopfenreuth and Kopfstetten , as well as fortified churches.
The 13th century made the Marchfeld a battlefield again. With the death of Frederick II the Arguable in 1246, the Babenbergs died out and robber barons - anarchy - prevailed .
On July 12, 1260, Ottokar II of Bohemia beats Bela of Hungary near Groißenbrunn , Marchegg is built in 1268 as a commemoration of this victory: The 10,000 people for whom the city (and the far too large city wall) was designed never followed Marchegg. In 1336 the city was almost deserted.
And on August 26, 1278 Rudolf von Habsburg wins against Ottokar in the famous battle on the Marchfeld (in fact, it is the greatest knight battle of all time), which established the 650-year rule of the Habsburgs in Austria: 30,000 men each crash into three Battles together and prompt Franz Grillparzer to make the most famous literary mention of the area:
- “The field that spreads around is called Marchfeld
- A battlefield that cannot easily be found
- But also a harvest field, thank God! "
In 1291 the Hungarians advance as far as Vienna. A tradition from Markgrafneusiedl reports on the horror that these incursions spread: “Once upon a time, knights and twigs of a Count Bamberg kept vigil against the incursions of the Magyars in this Wartburg . The knights and riders on watch lived from the yield of the 600 yoke farmland that also belonged to this count. When the Magyars broke into the flat land over the Marchwasser and announced their migration routes and their approach through smoking villages, then the new settlers left their huts and took refuge through underground passages (earth stables) in the Wartburg, which was occupied by knights and brushwood ... " ( after Weyrich).
This castle is not identical to the ruins of St. Martin's Church, which can still be seen today, which gained importance during the Napoleonic wars, was converted into a windmill in 1817 and burned down in 1862. Erdststall are also attested in other ways, for example in Oberweiden, Unter- and Obersiebenbrunn, as hiding places from enemies or as places of worship. (More details can be found in Karl Lukan: Das Weinviertelbuch. Vienna 1992.)
In the first half of the 14th century, the Marchfeld was ravaged by floods, ice rushes, locusts and finally by the black death. “When the plague raged in Marchfelde, the people of Stripfing found an unclean shirt on the cemetery wall. Remembering old news, the night watchman buried it under a field cross, and from that hour the plague was gone. But when night fell, an eerie, pitch-black fellow strode through the deserted streets. He was thin as a scarecrow and wore a blood-red rooster feather on his hat. Without asking for long, he crept from house to house looking for the shirt he had left behind. But he didn't find it. He was about to leave the village when the night watchman met him. He quickly attacked him and tore his shirt off his body. With that he went to the well, washed it there and burned his red hot claws into it. Thereupon he called with a thunderous voice through the quiet place:
- 'Stripfing, stripfing, you should know
- now there is severe bloodshed. '
The next day the Hussites came to the village and killed those who had been spared from the plague. But the shirt with the devil's mark was hanging on the night watchman's halberd. " (From: Pöttinger)
Incidentally, the dates of the Hussite incursions do not coincide with the plague epidemics - were there any smaller ones, is another epidemic meant or just poetic freedom? Nevertheless, the plague and war are linked in the sagas with good reason.
“If heaven has now inflicted epidemics, famine or war on people, it announces this with the slurping ball. They were seen in Marchfelde in the Turkish and Swedish times, then in the terrible plague years, in the Hutsul trouble and finally in the unfortunate year of nine. It is a ball of fire about the size of a child's head, and days and weeks before the onset of the disaster it slurps through the streets and alleys. Some also want to have understood this babbling: It is a prophecy for the pious how long the misery will last and how it will end. ” (Schukowitz). The Kuruzen are called Hutsuls here . The rolling, often flaming balls that appear in some legends, Johann Wenzel explains as the "juggler", "a perennial that can be up to a meter in diameter with many sparse twigs from the genus ' Raphanus Raphanistrum ', which, driven by the autumn wind, as a result of them spherical shape rolls over the fields and paths, whereby the hard twigs cause a noise that is probably audible in the stillness of the night ”, another theory speaks of ball lightning .
At the beginning of the 15th century the country fell into chaos as a result of the previous divisions. “In 1407 the falcon Johann Sokol von Lamberg seized the city of Laa , defied a siege by the Duke ( Albrecht V ) and even captured a group sent against him. The power of this Moravian knight grew, he built a small empire in Marchfeld with the cities of Zistersdorf and Marchegg as the center and ruled the country up to the gates of Vienna. (...) It almost seems as if adventurers from all over Europe flocked to Austria back then. Every little nobleman waged his private war, many did not hesitate to send feuding letters to the sovereign, it was complete chaos. The inhabitants of the flat country in particular suffered terribly from these conditions, because the cities and fortified markets could at least secure the lives of the inhabitants behind their walls. But the farmer never knew whether he would be robbed at night or slain in the field. ” (Gutkas)
The Sokol ("falcon"), Johann von Lamberg , was not the only robber in Marchfeld: The others include the Moravian knight Hynek von Kunstadt auf Jaispitz , the "Dürrteufel", and Leonhard Arberger, who was not expelled until 1450. The Orther Gamareth Fronauer entrenched himself for four weeks in the Groß-Schweinbarther Church and finally made his career from robber baron to imperial council.
In 1409 Kaspar Schwemmsdeich from Hungary plundered Schönkirchen , and Herr von Scharfeneck set fire to the places from Marchegg to Vienna.
The vernacular reports about the robber baron abuses: “From the former kk hunting lodge Niederweiden you can get to the ruins of the old Grafenweiden in 15 minutes if you have crossed the pheasant garden. A pile of rubble several meters high, which is now completely overgrown with forest, offers us the remains of a once strong castle. The fact that the castle was well fortified can be seen from the fact that there are three large and four smaller moats and ramparts around it in a wide area, which can still be clearly distinguished today. At the castle there was a parish with a parish church. There is nothing left of count willows except ruins. Of the many robbers at the time of Emperor Friedrich III. One of them - Leonhard Arberger and his wife Gertraud, née von Rohr - had seized the castle and plundered the land all around until the castle was finally conquered in 1450 and the robbers, with 900 heads, were killed. What did not perish during the repeated sieges became the prey of the Hungarians and also the Turks. ” (After: Blätter für Landeskunde 1886) The couple was finally put through the embarrassing process, but nobody wanted the castle for a hundred years.
In 1446 the Orther church was conquered by Baron Ulrich von Eitzing and Georg von Kuenring and set on fire. “In 1448, the robber's castle of Pankraz in Nierenden (between Marchegg and Dürnkrut) was stormed and destroyed, a year later his brother and many robbers were hanged." (Hörler). Not until 1450 did a campaign by Count Ulrich von Cilli bring relief.
In between, from 1426 to 1432, the Marchfeld villages were also at the mercy of the Hussites.
In 1450 the first Viennese bridge over the Danube was built. New traffic routes and opportunities are opened up, toll collection is becoming less important and Sachsengang at the Fischamend- Schönau Danube crossing (“ Only at Schönau and Deutsch-Altenburg is the 20 to 50 m high steep edge of the right bank of the Danube exposed , which is why the crossings for the Long-distance trade and for military operations. ”(Signs)) becomes a quiet country castle.
Modern times to 1800
The Marchfeld can now be considered Christianized. The Church of Kopfstetten about is, the drive-through ends not visible at the end of a dead-end street , surrounded by a loosely wooded meadow on a medieval mountain : Until 1462 stood here a marked "Postal" castle ; only then did the church follow and settle the holy virgin. The current church was built in 1769. Was once Kopfstetten a Marian shrine , and the hl. The church consecrated to Bartholomäus was called "Maria Schutz"; Way stations can still be recognized. This is enough to become attentive: Marian veneration often developed at formerly pagan places of worship. According to legend, Attila, the king of the Huns, was buried in it, but the Huns soon dug him up again and took him to an unknown place. Later we hear that a Turkish general was supposed to be lying here and his soldiers had piled up the hill with their turbans. Even if both stories can be referred to the realm of legend without further ado - in all probability, Attila rests in his heartland, far in today's Hungary - there is no question that it is an ancient cult site. In fact, when a cellar was excavated in 1966, a Roman altar stone was found - remarkable for a place north of the Danube - which indicates a spring sanctuary: there used to be a swamp here.
Other places of worship of Mary can be found near Zwerndorf (Marieneiche) and, the most important, at Marienbründl in Groißenbrunn.
“ When Schloss Hof was looted by the Turks , the soldiers also penetrated the old Lady Chapel of the castle and one of them measured himself to throw his spear at the miraculous image, so that the nose of the Infant Jesus was pierced. But immediately warm blood flowed out of the wound and the next day the picture hung on a beech in the forest near Groißenbrunn. The place, however, had been consecrated since ancient times, and healing water gushed from the hill, which was useful against all kinds of eye diseases. Once a very distinguished woman recovered through the 'Wunderbrünnl' and had a worthy church built on the spot, which was called 'Our Lady in Need'. As a result, pious pilgrims came from all parts of the Marchfeld and also far up from Hungary, pleading for mercy from Our Lady. The child Jesus, however, which the woman in love carries in her arms, still bleeds from his wound from time to time, especially when the country is threatened with misfortune. "(Hörler, Sagen)
Groißenbrunn received the district's first aqueduct in 1929 - Prince Eugen had already diverted the water from the ponds to the Niederweiden fountain - although the place was rich in water for a Marchfeld village. In Gänserndorf, on the other hand, construction began in 1956.
In 1477, the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus destroyed 40 places in the Marchfeld, five years later again.
In 1529 the Turks crossed the Danube near Deutsch-Altenburg and subsequently set Orth and Marchegg Castle on fire - both possessions of Count Niklas von Salm , who defended Vienna. His right thigh was smashed by a stone throwing him and he continued to give orders from the stretcher: The Turks retreated on October 16, but Salm suffered a fire in his leg and died in 1530 in his ancestral palace, the Salmhof. The legend reports: “In addition to Marchegg, there is an old building, the Salmhof, which is uncomfortable at night. If the country is in danger, ghostly flames flare up in front of the manor house and frighten everyone who has to pass there. At times the murmur of many voices reaches the ear of the nocturnal wanderer. But if the dull clang of weapons and wild horse stomps can be heard, silver knights in shining armor appear in the full moonlight and storm out of the old walls towards sunset. Then the people say that Count Salm is again in command of his brave cuirassiers and is marching against the Turks. However with the battle cry: 'Save Vienna!' then the horrible war noise dies away. Sometimes you can also see four men carrying a coffin down Todererweg to Salmau. They bury it there under an old trembling poplar and return the way they took. “(Pöttinger) Todererwege are called after Pöttinger“ die toten, d. H. grassless paths where the Turks are said to have moved. "(Where is Salm's grave? Possibly under a poplar?)
The Turks also came to the water: “ More than 400 ships, the notorious 'Nassaren', came up the Danube, and their crew without exception fed on what they were able to take from the people on the banks. In the Orther parish memorial book you can read that most of the localities were laid in ashes, most of the country's people were wiped out by the sword or carried away in captivity, whereupon after the peace this almost devastated area was restored by the settlers called from Bosnia and Croatia was occupied. “(Plechl) We know from Obersiebenbrunn that 186 people were taken into slavery.
In 1530 the rulership of Orth began with the settlement of Croats who had fled the Turks, the so-called Marchfeld Croats : 50 places in Marchfeld were Croatian. The depopulated Marchegg is revitalized with Swabian settlers the following year.
The peasant uprisings around 1524–1526 and 1596/97 did not penetrate into Marchfeld, but the religious disputes also found room here: around 1540 Marchfeld was predominantly Protestant, around 1600 largely Catholic again.
In 1603 a woman from Weikendorf was burned by the Marchegg district court for sorcery. (In 1604 a woman from Obersiebenbrunn is said to have been burned as a witch in Marchegg. The same?)
Witches live (or nest) in trees. A "proud pine" near Marchegg is said to have housed a good fairy, another, at Strasshof, died and felled in 1871, " had no summit, but the branches stood upwards and formed a surface at the top as if they had been pruned with pruning shears " (Pöttinger) - an ideal dance floor.
“ In the family of a house in Wagram ad Donau there was a daughter who was not entirely at ease (that is to say: she was a witch). At the Wagramer Mühle there is still an old pear tree, which according to legend is said to be several hundred years old, and on which the evil spirits lived and the witches danced. Once a boy was tending horses under this tree when the witches were up to mischief on it. The other witches took out a rib from the girl mentioned above, who was among them as a witch, and 'stuck with it' (that is, threw a ball with it). The rib fell off and the guy picked it up. (Of course he was also bewitched, otherwise he would not have been able to find her.) The next day the girl let the sheep out and stopped in the alley. The lad passed by and asked, 'How are you doing with the elderly ribs?' (The witches had replaced the girl with an elderberry rib.) Then the girl fell over and was mouse dead. But the boy was not allowed to show up in the evening. "(Weyrich)
1605 incinerate Hungarian hajdús a Haringsee.
On 11/12 August 1621, during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Hungarian troops devastated the area around Zistersdorf. 20 villages are said to have been cremated so that the firelight was visible as far as Vienna.
The Swedes invaded on April 4, 1645, and the military leader Lennart Torstenson advanced as far as Vienna. Eckartsau went up in flames, Orth was looted. They did not leave until August 1646. “ An inventory of the devastation shows that at the end of the Thirty Years War 58% of the houses in the Weinviertel were lost, in Marchfeld 8065 houses are said to be deserted. "(From: Chronicle Leopoldsdorf)
In addition, there was another plague epidemic in 1679–1682 (140 people died in Lassee, only 3 in Leopoldsdorf), so that at the end of the 17th century the whole Marchfeld only had around 6,000 inhabitants, while it was 65,000 in its heyday; in turn, Croatians are settled in Marchfeld.
1683: Siege of the Turks - and the Poles (who came to Vienna for relief) plunder and pillage Gänserndorf on August 2nd .
In 1685, Count Starhemberg acquired the rule of Grafenweiden: in 1693 Niederweiden was built.
Jakob Prandtauer built the church and rectory of Weikendorf in 1700 - the Marchfeld Museum is located in the castle.
Prince Eugene , who as thanks for the Turkish victories of Karl VI. Obersiebenbrunn Castle , soon complained that the rulership contained too little game, and moved to Hof and Niederweiden Castle ( Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach , Lucas von Hildebrandt ).
The Hungarians are now rising up against the Habsburg rule: They regard their struggle as a sacred cause and are called Kuruzen (curuczi = crusaders). From 1703 Kuruzen incursions under Rakoczy also take place over the Danube ("Kruzitürken": Kuruzen und Türken), on August 27, 1705 "they attacked Breitstetten , Loimersdorf as well as Ober- and Untersiebenbrunn and drove in about 8,000 head of cattle Direction March. Already at Groißenbrunn , Colonel Dillherr, the commandant on the March, and 500 men took all the robbery off the Hungarians after a short banter. "(From: Chronicle Leopoldsdorf)
In 1706 Hungarians under Count Simon Forgatsch storm the town of Zistersdorf and murder 400 people in the castle. According to estimates, 80% (!) Of the Marchfeld population perished by the Kuruzen. In the years 1712 to 1714 the plague follows again .
Even in peacetime the world was no better. Hörler paints a time picture from 1721: “ In October Simon Böhm, a Gänserndorfer from house no. 51, went home from Auersthal. Since he was walking across the fields and perhaps not quite sober, he came into the nets that Peter Deodat, Baron Beckher von Wallhorn, had set up for catching larks. The baron, already admitted to the Lower Austrian gentry in 1702, a powerful gentleman, irascible on top of that, had the farmer caught, beaten and chained in a dog pen. A confirmation has been received from the pastor from Schönkirchen that he gave Simon Böhm the sacraments of death in the dog pen, and there are certificates from the surgeons from Wolkersdorf on the type of injuries. Böhm recovered and had to be released by order of the judge. "
September 24, 1754: On the occasion of a splendid hunt in the castle courtyard, 800 deer, 1,000 rabbits, 130 foxes and 60 wild boars were provided as prey.
Large-scale reforestation began under Maria Theresa in 1770: locust trees, ash trees and (allegedly 98,000) poplars were planted ("Gänserndorfer Wald") to prevent earth drifts. But in 1829 the “Church Topography” still says: “ In the four-hour-long stretch from Margrave Neusiedl to Oberweiden there is no tree, no spring, no house except for a shepherd's farm located almost in the middle; nothing shows itself to the eye in this sandy desert as reddish heather grass. Just a few years ago, as though through Egypt's deserts, nobody passed through this area alone; always, and at least at night, several people gathered together, because the name of the shepherd's farm Siehdichfür (this is where a monastery sunken because of its sinfulness is said to have been located) reminded every traveler to be on his hat in front of the terrible clouds of sand and dust and the bad rabble lurking here. "(Quoted from Lukan) And:" A part of the Marchfeld is (...) barren and arid (...) that one believes to be in a desert rather than in the granary of the capital. Hardly any bad heather grows on this ungrateful soil, let alone other plants (...). “(WCW Blumenbach, Latest regional studies of Lower Austria, (1834)). Only the later black pine plantings were successful.
The area between Obersiebenbrunn and Gänserndorf is now afforested, the huge Gänserndorf-Süd settlement is expanding more and more, the safari park is taking up more space. The soil in this area is still sandy, and the soil is sometimes incredibly thin. To the north of the Gänserndorf forest, the fields are stony and not very fertile; the term “granary” can only apply to the southern Marchfeld. 1761 Pastor Johann Eberhard Jungblut from Prinzendorf near Mistelbach imports potatoes from Holland; these fruits quickly gain acceptance.
1800-1900
In 1809, two battles will take place of war between France and Austria: at Aspern and German-Wagram , the first of Austria, the second of Napoleon I is obtained. The Napoleon beech stood near Engelhartstetten, where, according to legend, an old woman prophesied the imminent defeat of Aspern to the emperor.
With the establishment of the kk privileged First Danube Steamship Company in 1829, it was possible to build an own landing stage for the imperial family in Eckartsau .
In 1830 an ice rush formed on the Danube , which led to a 10-day flood. The place Kimmerleinsdorf, which was on the site of today's Franzensdorf , was completely destroyed.
1831: Cholera epidemic . A German-Altenburg chronicler reports: “ Our neighbors, the otherwise good-natured Stopfenreuther, waited on the other bank with sabers and pickaxes when someone came over to kill him. "
November 23, 1837: The kkap (imperial and royal only privileged) Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn goes into operation at a speed of 34 km / h. It initially drove between Floridsdorf and Deutsch-Wagram (40 minutes), from 1839 to Gänserndorf , and later between Vienna's Nordbahnhof and Brno . 10,000 workers were involved in building the railway. Two trains ran daily on weekdays and four on Sundays.
1844: Opening of the Dürnkruter sugar factory, followed in 1902 by Leopoldsdorfer . The sugar beets were imported from Moravia .
1862: Floods and the start of Danube regulation , which had been in planning since 1810.
In 1866 the Rußbach in Marchfeld was the demarcation line between the attacking Prussians and the defending Austria during the German War :
- “ Between Weikendorf and Oberweiden there is a wrought-iron cross in the open Aehrenfeld, around which Prussian soldiers are buried who died of cholera in 1866. As often as maneuvers are held in Marchfeld, you can hear battle chants echoing from these soldiers' graves, the people say. It is as if the warriors cannot rest here idly. They will all be resurrected armed one day when the time comes. The country girls like to plant wild flowers on these hills. But the wind carries them away overnight. The grave flowers don't want to thrive here either. They must have come from home soil! "(Schukowitz)
1870: Opening of the Vienna – Laa an der Thaya and Vienna – Marchegg railway lines . (A ready-to-build project to develop the southern Marchfeld with a line Jedlesee - Thebes failed because of the stock market crash of 1873.)
1886: Opening of the first steam tramway: Vienna - Kagran - Groß-Enzersdorf (later tram 317, today bus 26 A).
1899: First Austrian cycle path from Floridsdorf via Deutsch-Wagram to Bockfließ .
1899: first warehouse cooperatives. In the same year, a flood destroyed the Marchfeld protection dam, which was under construction, and half of the town of Wagram ad Donau ... the first complaints from municipalities about the reduction in groundwater can already be heard. In 1905 the dam ("Hubertusdamm") was completed.
1901 until today
1901 Gänserndorf becomes the seat of a district administration . The Gänserndorf district then took up the eastern half of the Marchfeld, bounded to the west roughly along the Witzelsdorf – Bad Pirawarth line. The western half formed the Floridsdorf-Umgebung district .
In 1904 Floridsdorf and other communities on the western edge of the Marchfeld, such as Kagran , Stadlau , Aspern and Hirschstetten, are incorporated into Vienna, which means that Vienna also has areas on the left bank of the Danube for the first time. The previous communities will be combined to form the new 21st district, Floridsdorf . Today the left bank of Vienna (enlarged in 1938) is divided into districts 21 and 22 .
1908: Opening of the Siebenbrunn – Engelhartstetten line belonging to the Lower Austrian State Railways , which branches off from the Marchegger Ostbahn . From this "wing path" later a branch branches off to Orth near Breitstetten. These branch lines are replaced by post buses and road freight transport after the Second World War .
1913: The film “ The Secret of the Skies ” is shot in Marchfeld (book: Erich Klein), the first production of the “Viennese Authors Film” directed by Erich Pommer . In the " Fackel ", Karl Kraus quotes and comments on a newspaper advertisement in the Wiener Fremdblatt under the title "The secret of bad air - a mysterious find on the Marchfeld",
- which, among other things, contained the following “heads”: The investigation. - concern among the rural population. - A judicial commission from Vienna. - The case remains a mystery. - The local inspection. - The dead man must have fallen from a colossal height. - The research was unsuccessful. - An interview with detective B. - Master Illner will support detective B. - The hangar of the mysterious airship - on the Hungarian border. - A confession from the guilty party?
- […] At the end of the page there was an addendum that normally closes a telegram series: […] It has turned out that the processes described above are the plot of a film that […] will be in the grave from tomorrow onwards. Movie theater - -
In 1938 the district of Gänserndorf was founded on the occasion of the creation of Greater Vienna a . a. with Breitenlee , Essling and Süßenbrunn to form the 22nd district of Vienna ("Groß-Enzersdorf", from 1954 "Donaustadt") - the eastern border of the district runs along Glinzendorf , Rutzendorf , Franzensdorf, Andlersdorf , Probstdorf and Mannsdorf , the western border on the Laaer Eastern Railway. The National Socialists' expansion plans for Greater Vienna see u. a. an S-Bahn line to Franzensdorf.
1940: The snow-covered Marchfeld is said to have been filmed as a Russian landscape in Gustav Ucicky's postmaster .
1940: Plans to build a concentration camp between the Gänserndorfer "Siedlung" and Silberwald are discarded: the procurement of the necessary drinking water, the removal of the faeces and the excessive land redemption prevent the project.
1941: A transit camp for so-called Eastern workers is set up in Strasshof an der Nordbahn ; It is estimated that around 15,000 Hungarian Jews were brought together here under inhumane conditions, registered and distributed to “workplaces”. In the local cemetery, 231 camp inmates are buried in a mass grave.
In 1945 Marchfeld became part of the Soviet occupation zone .
In 1946, Greater Vienna was greatly reduced in size in favor of Lower Austria through constitutional laws, but implementation had to be postponed until 1954 due to a veto by the Soviet occupying power. Then many villages will become independent communities again.
In 1959 the "Sandberg" near Oberweiden, a sand dune, becomes a fully nature reserve.
In 1962 and 1963 the Rußbach dam breaks during floods.
January 17, 1962: The express train from Vienna to Gänserndorf is opened on the northern line: Now you can travel through Marchfeld at 100 km / h.
1972: With the opening of the Danube bridge near Hainburg (a war bridge was temporarily built near Deutsch-Altenburg as early as 1848), the Stopfenreuther ferry becomes obsolete, as does the small ferry that crosses the river from Orth to Deutsch-Haslau.
September 28, 1973: Hostage-taking in Marchegg .
In 1982 the construction of the Marchfeld Canal , which had been planned since 1962, began. The construction is already extremely urgent, as the groundwater level sinks by 50 centimeters each in 1983 and 1984 (previous projects: Altvatter project 1870, Podhargsky project, undated, already took the planned Danube-Oder Canal into consideration , Mitterndorfer 1901 ).
- From the cost-benefit analysis (1977): “ Depending on the sequence of front passages, the weather is more subject to the moderate Central European or the continental Pannonian climate. In Eastern European weather conditions, the latter moves far beyond the Marchfeld towards the west. The winters are then cold and with little snow, the summers are hot, with little precipitation and are accompanied by periods of drought. In the 60-year average, 81 percent of rainfall affects vegetation. "
- Of the 1000 km² in Marchfeld, 680 are used for agriculture - each plant needs 600 kg of water to enrich 1 kg of dry matter, and every year 20,000,000 m³ of groundwater are pumped up for irrigation. At the same time it rains in Marchfeld by 20% less than in Vienna. Since 1970 the groundwater level had dropped 10–20 cm annually. The first section of the canal was opened in autumn 1992: 25 km of new bed of the Rußbach was built and 40 km of the existing one was improved and expanded. In 1998 the project faces bankruptcy.
1984: Ecology activists occupy the Stopfenreuther Au to prevent clearing for the planned Danube power plant near Hainburg. They force a "pause for reflection" and ultimately the cancellation of the project.
Autumn 1992: The first section of the Marchfeld Canal is opened: 25 km of new bed of the Rußbach was built and 40 km of the existing one improved and expanded. In 1998 the project was threatened with bankruptcy, but was completed.
1997: Floods due to heavy rains. Furthermore reports about the drying up of the area.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Die Napoleonbuche on Sagen.at accessed on December 29, 2009
- ↑ Die Fackel magazine , No. 384/385 of October 13, 1913, p. 9 f.
- ↑ von Kraus only referred to here as the toilet paper of the Foreign Office that appeared at six o'clock in the evening
literature
- Ludwig Mikulcik: Chronicle of the market town of Leopoldsdorf in Marchfeld. Vogel, Bisamberg 1996, ISBN 3-900809-11-9 .
- Evelyn Benesch (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch Niederösterreich. Schroll, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7031-0652-2 .
- Johann Zinser: Festschrift on the occasion of the market survey and awarding of the coat of arms of the market town of Leopoldsdorf in Marchfelde. Market community Leopoldsdorf, Leopoldsdorf 1988.
- Wilhelm Fasslabend (Red.): Festschrift 700 years Marchegg. City of Marchegg, Marchegg 1968.
- Karl Gutka's history of the state of Lower Austria. 6th edition. Lower Austrian publishing house, St. Pölten 1983.
- Hans Hörler : Gänserndorfer Chronik. Self-published by the municipality, Gänserndorf 1969.
- Hans Hörler: Legends, Schwänke and other folk tales from the Gänserndorf district. District School Board Gänserndorf, Gänserndorf 1951.
- Anton Mailly: Lower Austrian legends. Eichblatt, Leipzig 1926.
- Matthias Mander: Desolations. Styria, Graz 1985, ISBN 3-222-11639-3 .
- Franz Müllner: From the history of the health resort Bad Deutsch-Altenburg. Holzwarth & Berger, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg 1962.
- Josef Pöttinger: Lower Austrian folk tales. 3rd edition, Scholle, Vienna 1953.
- Manfred Scheuch: Historical Atlas Austria. Brandstätter, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-85447-544-6 .
- Otto Schilder: Land on March and Danube. Marchfeld Cultural Association, Gänserndorf 1975.
- Hans Schukowitz : War and battle legends from the Marchfelde. Journal of the Association for Folklore, Berlin 1899.
- Günther Schwab : The wind over the fields. Scheuermann, Vienna 1942.
- August Silberstein: Pillars of thought in the field of culture and literature. Braumüller, Vienna 1879.
- Max Bauer (ed.), Soldan-Heppe: History of the witch trials. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972.
- Johann Wenzel: Legends from the Hainburger gate. Self-published, Hainburg 1928.
- Reports of the battles on the Marchfelde near Vienna, Groß-Aspern and Deutsch-Wagram, from an eyewitness, along with four tarpaulins. Published by Schlotheim, former Prussia. Capitain. Hamburg / Berlin / Gotha 1809 ( complete digital copy from HAAB Weimar ).
Coordinates: 48 ° 17 ' N , 16 ° 38' E