Gmünd (Lower Austria)

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Borough
Gmuend
coat of arms Austria map
Coat of arms of Gmünd
Gmünd (Lower Austria) (Austria)
Gmünd (Lower Austria)
Basic data
Country: Austria
State : Lower Austria
Political District : Gmuend
License plate : GD
Surface: 25.18 km²
Coordinates : 48 ° 46 ′  N , 14 ° 59 ′  E Coordinates: 48 ° 46 ′ 0 ″  N , 14 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  E
Height : 485  m above sea level A.
Residents : 5,338 (January 1, 2020)
Population density : 212 inhabitants per km²
Postal code : 3950
Area code : 02852
Community code : 3 09 08
NUTS region AT124
Address of the
municipal administration: 		Schremser Strasse 6
3950 Gmünd
Website: www.gmuend.at
politics
Mayoress : Helga Rosenmayer ( ÖVP )
Municipal Council : ( 2020 )
(29 members)
18th
9
1
1
18th 9 1 1 
A total of 29 seats
Location of Gmünd in the Gmünd district
Amaliendorf-Aalfang Bad Großpertholz Brand-Nagelberg Eggern Eisgarn Gmünd Großdietmanns Großschönau Haugschlag Heidenreichstein Hirschbach Hoheneich Kirchberg am Walde Litschau Moorbad Harbach Reingers Schrems St. Martin Unserfrau-Altweitra Waldenstein Weitra NiederösterreichLocation of the municipality of Gmünd (Lower Austria) in the Gmünd district (clickable map)
About this picture
Template: Infobox municipality in Austria / maintenance / site plan image map
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

BW

Gmünd is a city in the northwestern Waldviertel in Lower Austria with 5338 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020). It is the seat of the district administration for the Gmünd district .

geography

Gmünd is the economic, cultural and tourist center of the upper Waldviertel. Gmünd (in Czech Cmunt ) is an important rail and road crossing on the border with the Czech Republic (or Bohemia ) next to the Blockheide Nature Park .

Community structure

The municipality includes the following five localities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

The community consists of the cadastral communities Böhmzeil, Breitensee, Eibenstein, Gmünd and Grillenstein.

To the south is the Asang Forest .

Gmünd is a member municipality of the small region Waldviertler StadtLand .

Neighboring communities

Rapšach (CZ), Nová Ves nad Lužnicí (CZ) Brand-Nagelberg Schrems
České Velenice (CZ) Neighboring communities Hoheneich
Grossdietmanns Waldenstein

climate

Monthly average temperatures and precipitation for Gmünd (Lower Austria)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 1.4 2.9 7.6 12.3 18.0 20.8 22.8 22.8 18.2 12.4 5.6 2.4 O 12.3
Min. Temperature (° C) -5.6 -5.0 -1.7 1.0 5.3 8.7 10.5 9.9 7.1 2.7 -1.2 -3.9 O 2.4
Temperature (° C) -2.4 -1.6 2.3 6.2 11.8 14.9 16.6 15.9 11.8 6.7 1.8 -1.0 O 7th
Precipitation ( mm ) 31.0 30.6 45.8 54.4 74.3 87.3 103.6 76.5 52.8 37.5 43.0 41.8 Σ 678.6
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 1.2 2.4 3.3 5.0 6.1 5.8 6.7 6.8 4.7 3.3 1.0 0.3 O 3.9
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
1.4
-5.6
2.9
-5.0
7.6
-1.7
12.3
1.0
18.0
5.3
20.8
8.7
22.8
10.5
22.8
9.9
18.2
7.1
12.4
2.7
5.6
-1.2
2.4
-3.9
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g 		31.0
30.6
45.8
54.4
74.3
87.3
103.6
76.5
52.8
37.5
43.0
41.8
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source: Weather measuring station Weitra near Gmünd (580 m, 1971–2000)

history

Engraving by Gmünd 1672 (GM Vischer)

The city lies at the confluence (Gemünde) of the Lainsitz and the Braunaubach , from which its name is derived. It was named as concurus duorum rivulorum in the border treaty of 1179 between Bohemia and Austria . The settlement of this area can be classified in the second half of the 12th century.

The city palace was built in the 16th century and is surrounded by an English park .

An important turning point in the city's economic history was the construction of the Franz Josef Railway from Vienna to Prague and Budweis , which opened in 1869. The operational center of the Franz-Josefs-Bahn was located in Gmünd with the spacious workshop, and it gained additional importance as a railway junction. There the two branches branched off via Tábor to Prague and the other branch to Budweis, and from 1900 Gmünd was also the starting point for the Waldviertel narrow-gauge railways . From 1907 to 1916, the Gmünd trolleybus line , the first trolleybus in Austria, also operated in Gmünd. Its main purpose was to connect the train station with the city center, 2 km away.

At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the Gmünd refugee camp was built south of the city for displaced persons from Galicia . Up to 50,000 refugees were housed there until the camp closed its doors in 1919. The new town called Gmünd II was later built there . The main entrance gate to the refugee camp is still there; on May 11, 2019, the "House of Gmünder Zeitgeschichte" was opened here.

The divided Gmünd

Gmünd train station around 1900

As a result of the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919), Austria had to cede part of its territory to Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy , including the suburbs of Unter-Wieland, which are important for Gmünd, and large parts of the Böhmzeil, which has been called České Velenice since 1920 . The name means “Bohemian Wielands” and does not refer to Gmünd, but to the hamlet of Wielands in the south, which remained in Austria and which is now part of the community of Großdietmanns . The state border between the two cities is largely formed by the Lainsitz.

With the loss of this territory, Gmünd lost the Franz-Josefs-Bahn station and the railway workshops. The Gmünd Stadt stop, which remained in Austria, was therefore expanded into a train station by 1922 . In October 1938, Unter-Wielands and Böhmzeil, which had been ceded to the Czechoslovak Republic in 1920, were attached to the Ostmark and the two communities were placed under the leadership of the Gmünd community administrator as the district of Gmünd III.

The census showed that over 400 people resettled in the former Gmünd train station.

On April 1, 1942, Gmünd-Bahnhof was incorporated (decree of the Reich Governor of the Reichsgau Niederdonau ). In 1945, with the restoration of the state borders in 1920, this area became Czechoslovak territory again. With this, the municipality lost all of its property located in Česke Velenice, especially the land and the water works. The Lainsitz River and the Fischbach again formed the border between the Republic of Austria and Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic.

The formerly independent municipality of Breitensee merged with the municipality of Zuggers in 1850 , belonged to the municipality of Eibenstein between 1921 and 1971 and is now part of the municipality of Gmünd. Until the municipal structure improvement law (amalgamation of municipalities in Lower Austria) in 1971, today's cadastral municipality of Eibenstein was an independent municipality.

The history of the city of Gmünd was recorded in the historical documentation Gmünd - The moving history of a city and a series of Universum History ( Lower Austria - Life on the Iron Curtain ). Since 2019, the more recent history of the district capital has been presented in the "Haus der Gmünder Zeitgeschichte".

coat of arms

The main features of the coat of arms of the city of Gmünd can be traced back to the coat of arms of the Styrian line of the Liechtenstein family, who were rulers in Gmünd for a long time. In 1852 the city of Gmünd was officially awarded the city arms. The official description reads: The coat of arms of the city of Gmünd is a black shield with a narrow blue border with a row of golden stars. This shield is traversed by two golden right sloping beams, in which one lark in the upper one and two larks in the lower one fly diagonally upwards. The shield is surrounded by a gold border formed from arabesque decorations.

Population development

After a sharp decline in the population from 1971 to 1981, it has stabilized since 2010. The birth balance in the municipality was almost balanced at −14 in 2018. This corresponds to −0.26 percent and is well below the district average of −0.56 percent. The migration balance was even slightly positive at +9.

politics

The Gmünd City Office

The municipal council has 29 members.

  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 1990, the municipal council had the following distribution: 17 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP and 1 FPÖ.
  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 1995, the municipal council had the following distribution: 14 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP and 4 FPÖ.
  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2000, the municipal council had the following distribution: 15 SPÖ, 12 ÖVP, 1 FPÖ and 1 Greens.
  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2005 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 16 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP, 1 Greens and 1 FPÖ.
  • With the municipal elections in Lower Austria in 2010 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 15 SPÖ, 12 ÖVP and 2 FPÖ.
  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria in 2015 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 14 SPÖ, 13 ÖVP, 1 FPÖ and 1 AFG-Aktiv for Gmünd.
  • With the municipal council elections in Lower Austria 2020 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 18 ÖVP, 9 SPÖ, 1 FPÖ and 1 AFG-Aktiv for Gmünd.

mayor

  • Alexander Eggerth 1894-1901
  • Alois Nigisch 1901–1905
  • Emerich Berger 1905-1908
  • Johann Hinek 1908-1911
  • Alois Ullrich 1911-1919
  • Anton Libowitzky 1919–1920
  • Lambert Pöschl 1920
  • Ladislaus Bakalar 1920–1922
  • Hans Michale 1922-1924
  • Rudolf Nowotny 1924
  • Hans Hyllan 1924
  • Ignaz Pilz 1924-1933
  • Karl Pany 1933
  • Hans Reither 1933-1934
  • Karl Henebichler 1934–1938
  • Karl Pany 1938–1939
  • Nikolaus Riedl 1939–1940
  • Hans Retinger 1940–1944
  • Josef Zabka 1944–1945
  • Karl Henebichler (SPÖ) 1945
  • Franz Fuchs (SPÖ) 1945-1946
  • Otto Wilhartitz (SPÖ) 1946–1955
  • Alois Schwarzmüller (SPÖ) 1955–1958
  • Franz Chaloupek (SPÖ) 1958–1975
  • Johann Schaffer (SPÖ) 1975–1988
  • Alfred Drach (SPÖ) 1988–1995
  • Otto Opelka (SPÖ) 1995–2012
  • Andreas Beer (SPÖ) 2012–2015
  • Helga Rosenmayer (ÖVP) since 2015

Culture and sights

The town square of Gmünd.
Gmünd Castle. Access from the town square to the castle park.
Herz Jesu Church in Gmünd.
Palm house Gmünd
Museums
  • Old town hall Gmünd , today city museum, Stadtplatz 26
  • House of Gmünd Contemporary History, Weitraer Strasse 107
  • Glass and Stone Museum, Stadtplatz 34
  • Alte Schmiede, Stadtplatz 11
  • Märchenhain Malerwinkel
Buildings

The city of Gmünd has several historical and architectural sights. One focus is on the old town of Gmünd. The sgraffito houses on the town square date from the 16th century, as they are in a similar way in Weitra . The old town hall, the old Schranne, also dates from the 16th century on the town square . Today it houses the city museum and an ice cream parlor. The seat of the AMS Gmünd is an early work of the architect Ernst Plischke , like many objects in the old town it is under monument protection.

One of the largest residential complexes in the Waldviertel, the so-called "new building" in Gmünder Neustadt, was built between 1926 and 1927. The architects Gustav Schläfrig and Hans Reiser, who work in the socialist housing sector in Vienna, planned this residential complex, which at the time offered a total of 130 apartments. The building characterizes the cityscape of Gmünd-Neustadt in a special way through the typical construction of the »Red Vienna«.

Archduke Sigismund of Austria (1826-1891) , owner of Gmünd Castle and enthusiastic botanist since 1859, created a spacious landscaped park here, at the southeast corner of which he had a greenhouse , the so-called Palmenhaus Gmünd built. Today, after a renovation from 1981 to 1982, it serves as a municipal event hall.

The city of Gmünd is rich in religious monuments. Since the city is the seat of three parishes, there are just as many parish churches.

  • Catholic parish church St. Stephan on the town square. The foundation walls extend into the 12th / 13th centuries. Century back.
  • Evangelical Peace Church: The parish church was built on Bahnhofstrasse in the early 20th century.
  • Catholic parish church Herz Jesu : The church was completed in 1953 in the Gmünd-Neustadt district and is also known as the cathedral of the Waldviertel .
  • Gmünd Cemetery

Gmünd is the starting point of the Waldviertel narrow-gauge railways , on which tourist traffic with museum railroad character takes place in the summer months and on the Advent weekends .

The Blockheide Nature Park is located near the city .

Another attraction is the brine rock bath.

economy

Biomass district heating plant in Gmünd

Gmünd is the seat of numerous companies, for example the potato starch factory of the Agrana company . There were 430 non-agricultural workplaces in 2001, and there were 51 in agricultural and forestry operations according to the 1999 survey. The number of people in employment at home was 2,336 according to the 2001 census. The employment rate in 2001 was 41.34 percent.

The tourism sector recorded more than 70,000 overnight stays in 2018. The two long-distance hiking trails Eisenwurzenweg and Ostösterreichischer Grenzlandweg run through Gmünd .

At the end of 2006 the brine rock bath was opened in Gmünd . There are pools with different salt concentrations as well as several saunas. In 2010 a hotel opened next door .

education

In addition to an elementary school and two “ new middle schools ” (formerly Hauptschulen ) there is a federal high school / federal high school , a business academy , a business school, a technical school for business professions and an advanced course for business professions. At the Landesklinikum Waldviertel Gmünd there is a training opportunity for the medical-technical specialist service.

An external course has also been offered by the Krems University of Applied Sciences since 2006 .

Personalities

People related to the community

  • The sculptor Carl Hermann (born October 28, 1918 in Wolfgruben Wies ; † November 11, 1986 in Gmünd Fuchsstein) lived in Gmünd from 1945 until his death.
  • Archduke Sigismund of Austria (1826-1891) lived in Gmünd between 1859 and 1891 and worked as a benefactor for numerous organizations for the population of the region. He is buried in the mausoleum at Gmünder Friedhof.
  • The writer Franz Kafka met Milena Jesenska in Gmünd in August 1920 . The preparation for this encounter as well as the perceptions of the newly drawn border are documented in the "Letters to Milena". In Gmünd the "Franz-Kafka-Gasse" commemorates this incident.

Sons and daughters of the church

literature

  • Daniel Lohninger (eds.), Martina Hermann, Viktoria Neunteufel, Harald Winkler: Gmünd. Chronicle of a city. Gmünd 2008.
  • Manfred Dacho: Gmünd in the old days. 1980.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
  2. ↑ Ursula Köhler: House of Contemporary History opened in Gmünd. In: noe.orf.at. May 11, 2019, accessed September 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Ursula Köhler: Gmünd: House of contemporary history is created. In: noe.orf.at. November 24, 2018, accessed September 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ As a reminder of 1914/2014. In: haben.gmuend.at Retrieved November 18, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Continuation of the “Universum History” series “Our Austria” with “Lower Austria - Life on the Iron Curtain”. Press release by ORF. In: ots.at. December 19, 2016, accessed November 18, 2018 .
  6. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Gmünd, population change according to components. Retrieved August 18, 2019 .
  7. ^ Result of the local council election 1995 in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, March 30, 2000, accessed on January 15, 2020 .
  8. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2000 in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, February 4, 2005, accessed January 15, 2020 .
  9. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2005 in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, March 4, 2005, accessed January 15, 2005 .
  10. ^ Election result of the municipal council election 2010 in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, October 8, 2010, accessed on January 15, 2010 .
  11. ^ Election result of the 2015 municipal council election in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, December 1, 2015, accessed on April 25, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Results of the 2020 municipal council elections in Gmünd. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, January 26, 2020, accessed on January 26, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Bettina Talkner: Overnight stays: Gmünd has cracked the 70,000 mark again. In: mein district.at. January 25, 2019, accessed February 18, 2019 .