Gressenberg

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Coat of arms of the former municipality of Gressenberg

Gressenberg is a village in the Bad Schwanberg community in western Styria .

Until the end of 2014, Gressenberg was a municipality with 283 inhabitants (as of 2014) in the Deutschlandsberg district in Styria . As part of the Styrian community structural reform , this community was merged with the communities Schwanberg , Hollenegg and Garanas from 2015 , the new community continues to use the name Schwanberg. The basis for this is the Styrian Municipal Structural Reform Act - StGsrG.

geography

location

Gressenberg is in the Sulmtal - Koralpe region and consists of the cadastral community of Gressenberg. The most important place is Glashütten. The community is traversed by the Schwarzen Sulm and the Stullneggbach . Gressenberg lies at an altitude of 430 to 1975 meters. The most important elevations are the fire height with 1886 meters and the Moschkogel with 1916 meters.

Neighboring places

Osterwitz Trahütten
Wolfsberg (Carinthia) Neighboring communities Schwanberg
Garanas

history

Early history

Gressenberg was first mentioned in a document in 1428 in a document from the Archbishop of Salzburg. This awarded Friedrich von Pettau , Supreme Marshal of Styria, 44 Huben zu Grössenberg . Another traditional mention of the community name comes from the lending certificate for the knight Hans Spangstein , who was given by Friedrich III. was entrusted with the administration of the castle and rule Schwanberg . Gressenberg, however, belonged to the Schwanberg lordship as early as the 11th or 12th century, which was formed by amalgamating the archbishopric with possessions of the diocese of Brixen .

The castle Spang stone above the Stullneggraben was probably built in the mid-13th century. After several changes of ownership between Schwanberg and Deutschlandsberg , the ruins of the castle and the goods belonging to it went to the related Counts of Trautmannsdorf.

Upswing in the glass industry

Thanks to the abundance of forests and the quartz deposits of the Koralpe , an important glass industry developed in Gressenberg. A glassworks in the municipality was first mentioned in 1621 . The glassworks experienced a particular boom under glassworks master Puschmann. In 1724, the Saurau glassworks were also moved to the site of today's inn. The wood required led to clear felling, which in turn created pastureland for cattle breeding. However, since the state soon took measures against the waste of wood and inefficiencies as well as the conversion to coal operation came along , the glassworks in the mountain regions soon became unprofitable. In 1738 operations in glassworks were stopped.

After the glass industry was discontinued, attempts were made to continue using the forests, which were far away from the traffic routes, for the production of charcoal and potash. In the 20th century, Gressenberg and the Glashütten area were located on the southern feeder line to the Deutschlandsberg forest railway , which was used to transport wood to the Liechtenstein sawmill in Deutschlandsberg and the route of which can still be seen in the terrain (partly used as a farm road).

Location of the former municipality of Gressenberg in the Deutschlandsberg district with the municipality boundaries until the end of 2014

The division of territory

Originally the cadastral communities Garanas and Oberfresen also belonged to Gressenberg . In 1868 a separate community was formed under the name Garanas. Due to the difficult economic situation in the 19th century, farms died out in Gressenberg, which resulted in a wave of resettlement from 1861 to 1870 and from 1891 to 1930.

population

Population structure

According to the 2001 census, Gressenberg had 352 inhabitants. 98.9% of them had Austrian citizenship. 95.5% of the population professed to be part of the Roman Catholic Church, while 2.3% were without religious beliefs.

Population development

The population of Gressenberg has been falling rapidly for more than 100 years. With the exception of a brief period in the interwar period , the number of residents decreased continuously and between 1869 and 2001 the population decreased by almost 50%.

Culture and sights

Geopark Glashütten in the courtyard of the old school building with the Kumpfkogel in the background

Parish Church of Our Lady in the Glassworks

The parish church of Mariä Namen in the Glashütten was built between 1767 and 1769 by the Landsberg master mason Anton Liebfahrt. The baroque high altar dates from the first half of the 18th century.

Geopark glassworks

In the village of Glashütten there is a show of the rocks (Geopark) of the Koralpe: the Geopark Glashütten , also with rock samples from the exploration gallery of the planned Koralm tunnel . The traces of the historic glassworks can be followed on the basis of themed trails.

Gressenberg is also the junction of the Koralm Kristall Trail hiking project and is located on the E6 European long-distance hiking trail .

Economy and Infrastructure

Main square of glassworks with the church and quartz block of the Geopark

According to the 2001 census of workplaces, there are ten workplaces with 20 employees in Gressenberg, half of which found work in the hotel and restaurant industry. Furthermore, Gressenberg has 102 out-commuters and seven in-commuters. There are 54 agricultural and forestry holdings (23 of which are the main occupation), which together cultivate 1713 hectares (1999).

The Weinebene with the Handalm in the northwest of Gressenberg is one of those areas in which wind turbines could be built according to the rules of spatial planning . It is designated as a "priority zone" in which the wind supply would make high performance possible.

politics

Municipal council

In the last municipal council elections in the municipality of Gressenberg, there was a change of power in 2005. The ÖVP lost its absolute majority and slipped from 55.61% to 32.91%. Of the original five mandates, the ÖVP was only able to defend three mandates. The SPÖ benefited the most from the losses , overtaking the ÖVP with 38.46% and increasing by 16.5%. In terms of mandates, the SPÖ was able to double from two to four mandates. The FPÖ was also able to gain around 6%, but its 28.63% was not enough to increase its mandate.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of Gressenberg shows on a blue shield two golden glassmaker pipes crossed diagonally on top of each other . Three mountains protrude into the golden head of the shield, with the middle dome covered with a golden lily . The rest of the blue coat of arms is sprinkled with golden cress leaves . The municipal coat of arms was awarded with effect from October 1, 1989.

literature

Slab gneiss block with eclogite amphibolite in Geopark Glashütten
  • Walter Postl: Geopark Glassworks. A guide through the rocky world of the Koralpe. Publishing house of the Federal Geological Institute and the community of Gressenberg. Vienna / Gressenberg 2009. ISBN 978-3-85316-051-0 .
  • Regine Pallie: Settlement, economic and socio-geographic structural changes in the communities of Freiland near Deutschlandsberg, Gressenberg and Osterwitz. Diploma thesis, Graz 1989
  • Frank Bossert: Investigations on gabbroid and eclogitic rocks from the Lenzbauer site in Gressenberg, Koralpe. Graz. Dissertation 1969.
  • Adolf Winkler: The spread of eclogitic rocks from Gressenberg near Schwanberg, West Styria, information from the Natural Science Association for Styria Volume 96, 1966. Pages 112–120

Web links

Commons : Gressenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Historical maps

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Styrian municipal structural reform .
  2. ↑ Section 3, Paragraph 2, Item 4 of the Act of December 17, 2013 on the reorganization of the municipalities of the State of Styria ( Styrian Municipal Reform Act - StGsrG). Provincial Law Gazette for Styria of April 2, 2014. No. 31, year 2014. ZDB -ID 705127-x . P. 2.
  3. ^ Walter Postl: Geopark Glashütten. A guide through the rocky world of the Koralpe. Publishing house of the Federal Geological Institute and the community of Gressenberg. Vienna / Gressenberg 2009. ISBN 978-3-85316-051-0 .
  4. ^ Weekly newspaper Weststeirische Rundschau. June 2, 2007. Page 3.
  5. ^ Weekly newspaper Weststeirische Rundschau . Volume 82, No. 39, September 26, 2009, page 4.
  6. ↑ West Styrian Rundschau . No. 8, year 2013 (February 22, 2013), 86th year, ZDB -ID 2303595-X . Simadruck Aigner u. Weisi, Deutschlandsberg 2013, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Communications from the Styrian State Archives 40, 1990, p. 33.