Gradenberg

Gradenberg ( district ) locality cadastral community Gradenberg
Basic data
Pole. District , state	Voitsberg  (VO), Styria
Judicial district	Voitsberg
Pole. local community	Köflach
Coordinates	47 ° 4 '51 "  N , 15 ° 4' 10"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 4 '51 "  N , 15 ° 4' 10"  E
height	483  m above sea level A.
Residents of the village	633 (January 1, 2020)
Area  d. KG	4.68 km²
Post Code	8593 Koeflach
Primaries	+ 43 / (0) 3144 (Köflach)
Statistical identification
Locality code	16160
Cadastral parish number	63314
Counting district / district	Köflach-Innenstadt-NW, Köflach-Innenstadt-Nord, Köflach-Innenstadt-SW, Gradenberg-Piber (61631 010, 020, 023, 040)
Source: STAT : index of places ; BEV : GEONAM ; GIS-Stmk

Gradenberg is a village in western Styria and a district and cadastral municipality of the municipality of Köflach in the Voitsberg district , Styria . The place was from 1850 to March 1952 an independent municipality which was still called Graden when it was founded.

Place name and geography

The part of the name Graden- was originally a Slavic area name and is derived from the Slavic * gradŭ , which means something like castle or enclosed settlement . This derivation indicates a fortified complex in this area, which could have been a small castle, possibly the ancestral seat of the later Gradner dynasty. The name part -berg indicates the location of the place on a hill above the Gradnerbach .

Gradenberg is located in the central part of the municipality of Köflach, northwest of the main town of Köflach, in the valleys and elevations on both sides of the Salla and Gradnerbach and Gaberl Straße (B 77), which leads through the area of ​​the cadastral municipality. In the northeast and east, the municipality of Bärnbach borders with the cadastral municipality of Piberegg on Gradenberg, with the Gradnerbach forming the border for a short distance. The Köflach cadastral communities Piber and Köflach are in the east and southeast. To the cadastral community of Pichling near Köflach runs an approximately 20 meter long border in the south. In the southwest and west, Gradenberg borders on the market town of Maria Lankowitz with the cadastral communities Lankowitz and Kirchberg with the two scattered settlements Sankt Johann and Kirchberg. In the north-west and north, the Sallabach largely forms the border with the cadastral community of Graden-Piber .

In the area of ​​the cadastral community of Gradenberg, in addition to the village of the same name, there are also the Rotte Krengraben , the Krenhof settlement and the Mitsch group of houses . In the northeast of the cadastral community, near Krenhof, the Sallabach flows into the Gradnerbach. The highest named elevation in the Gradenberg area is the 684 meter high Zigöllerkogel .

history

The oldest traces of settlement in Gradenberg are Paleolithic finds of animal bones in the Geierfelsenhöhle and the Taubenloch on the Zigöllerkogel, which were discovered during an archaeological-paleontological excavation under the direction of Gerald Fuchs in 1997.

Gradenberg emerged from high medieval clearing settlements, which consisted of individual farms located in wastelands . In princely Urbar of 1269 22 are in the area around the present Gradenberg Huben called. In the Middle Ages, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, weavers, wagons and landlords were found in the village . A mill probably existed on Gradnerbach as early as the 12th century. In 1577 the Große Hammerwiese is mentioned in the Krengraben , where a hammer mill stood. The place was first mentioned in a document around 1790 as the municipality of Gradenberg . The people of Gradenberg belonged to 1848 to various manors, such as to the Office Weyern the rule Greißenegg , the Office of the rule Lankowitz Lankowitz , the official degrees of domination Obervoitsberg and the Office of the forest pin Stainz . The validity was collected by the Carmelite monastery in Voitsberg . Gradenberg belonged to the advertising district of the Lankowitz rule. Anton Prandstätter bought the Kolmanhube from Sigmund Vogl in 1784 and had it expanded into a hammer mill, later the Herzoghammer. The hammer mill was expanded in 1833 and the Karlhammer was built. Thaddeus Neumann, who locum tenens on Krenhof was built on the site of a 1778 founded Lodenwalke a nail factory which 1852 Karl Mayr Melnhof of 1865 and finally went to Florian Hasenhütl which built the Krenaumühle at the site under the leaving the forge. Around 1840 there were four millers in the village, one each for a hoof and nail, as well as two things smiths, two loden walkers, two sag masters and six landlords. At that time there were also several limestone quarries and in the area where mining was expanded from the 1870s, and a total of ten lime kilns in which the limestone was further processed into quicklime . Karl Herzog built an ironworks in 1846, which was taken over by Heinrich Mitsch after his bankruptcy in 1846 and was given the name Mitschwerk.

In 1850 was the constitution of the independent community founded degrees of free communities. The Viennese entrepreneur Anton Urban had the K. k. In 1877 on the site of the Preßlerhube . The privileged rivet, screw and nut factory A. Urban and Sons established, which was closed in 1914 after production was relocated to the Zywiec screw factory in Galicia . A quarry is known for the year 1878, in which gray marble was quarried . From 1887 the Graz-Köflacher Railway and Mining Company took over the limestone quarries in Gradenberg as well as several gravel quarries for the Sallastraße, which were still in operation until at least 1980. The Mitschwerk is dissolved in 1902 and sold by Heinrich Mitsch in 1903 to Mayr von Melnhof, who demolished the plant in 1906 and had an electricity station built there for the Piberstein coal mine . After 1918, the Gradenberg Railway, a small railway, was built which connected the industrial operations in Gradenberg with Köflach, and which was in use until after 1945. In 1921/22, the municipality made requests to merge with the municipalities of Köflach, Pichling bei Köflach and Rosental an der Kainach , which were however rejected. The Homeland Security in Gradenberg made in October 1930 again for unrest in the town. On January 30, 1934, a few people burned a swastika made of carbide and on April 12 of the same year several workers were arrested as a result of the Austrian civil war . On February 11 and 12, 1935, leaflets bearing the Soviet red star were distributed in the village and on April 28 the hammer and sickle were burned down on the Zigöllerkogel . The local group Gradenberg of the Freedom League was founded in October 1935 under the local guide Jakob Dragoschitz . In December 1936 a total of 44 men belonged to the SA storm Gradenberg-Salla of the Sturmbannes Köflach.

In 1949 the Gradenberger Formen- und Maschinenfabrik, known from 1991 as Omco GMA Austria GmbH , was founded with the main task of supplying the Austrian demand for glass molds. In July 1950 the topping-out ceremony of the newly built parish hall of Gradenberg, which was opened on October 6, 1951, took place. In March 1952, against the will of the population and the municipal council, the municipality of Gradenberg was merged with the municipality of Köflach.

Economy and Infrastructure

Gradenberg is industrial and has been known as a location for craftsmen since the Middle Ages. There has been evidence of a hammer mill since 1577, and since around 1840 mining has also played a role with the extraction of limestone and marble. In 1887 the Graz-Köflacher Eisenbahn- und Bergbaugesellschaft took over the limestone quarries as well as several gravel quarries for the construction of Sallastraße and operated them until at least 1980. The limestone was further processed in a lime kiln built by Franz Hödl in 1871/72 , whereby around 1900 more than 30,000 meter tonnes in the year of quicklime was produced. After the old lime kiln was shut down in the 1970s, a modern kiln was built, which around 1980 produced around 60,000 tons of quicklime per year. The the black group belonging Schotterwerk Gradenberg GmbH operates originate the oldest operating building dating back to 1928, the Schotterwerk Gradenberg. In 1980 the quarry produced around 800,000 tons of stones and gravel.

As early as 1577 there was a first hammer mill in Gradenberg. Anton Prandstätter expanded the Kolmannhube he bought in 1784 into what would later become the Herzoghammer, which in turn was expanded to include the Karlhammer in 1833. In Krenhof one was from 1840 Sensenwerk from which today's automotive supplier Krenhof AG emerged. From 1949, the Gradenberger Formen- und Maschinenfabrik , which later became Glasformen und Maschinen AG and Co. KG , was founded, which produced glass molds and machines for glass production. From 1991 the factory belonged to OMCO and was finally closed at the end of 2016.

After 1918 there was the Gradenberg Railway, a small railway with a gauge of 60 centimeters, which connected the industrial companies in Gradenberg with Köflach. The operation of the railway was stopped after about 25 years of operation after 1945 in favor of cheaper truck traffic.

Culture and sights

See also:  List of listed objects in Köflach

The Krenhof in the settlement of the same name

The Zigöllerkogel seen from the southwest

In the area of ​​the cadastral community of Gradenberg there is the Krenhof, a listed building. The history of the Krenhof can be traced back to the 14th century, when the free horseradish were on the property. The building later housed a forge and around 1840 a scythe factory was set up.

There are also several wayside shrines in the village. The Mang Chapel was restored in 1982 and rededicated on October 17 of the same year. The Preßlerkreuz, a tabernacle shrine on the border with Köflach, was rebuilt around 1900 based on an old model and is known as a supposed ghost place. Franz Dampfhofer redesigned the niches of the wayside shrine in 1983, which show depictions of Saint Magdalena and Saint Oswald as a man of sorrows . The Wascherkreuz, an architecturally richly structured pillar shrine with a pyramid roof , is located near the Jägerwirt. Since a renovation in 1918, it has carried a 1.2 meter high statue of Saint Leonhard made by Jakob Gschiel .

In the south-eastern part of the cadastral community of Gradenberg is the Zigöllerkogel, a nature reserve with the number NSG 43c. On the Zigöllerkogel there is also a protected cave with the Heidentempel .

Personalities

• Josef Kern (1933-2010), musician and co-founder of the Kern-Buam

literature

• Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 74-76 .

Web links

Commons : Gradenberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Brunner (ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 67 .
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 74 .
3. ^ ^{A b c} Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 75 .
4. ^ ^{A b c d} Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 76 .
5. ↑ Gradenberg GmbH gravel works. In: schwarzl-gruppe.at. Retrieved August 29, 2019 .  
6. ^ ^{A b} Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 2 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 162 .
7. ↑ APA: Styrian Omco GMA closes at the end of the year. In: The Standard. August 29, 2016, accessed August 30, 2019 .  
8. ↑ Federal Monuments Office : Styria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: www.bda.gv.at. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018 ; accessed on August 30, 2019 . 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.  
9. ^ GIS-Styria : Natural protected areas. In: www.gis2.stmk.gv.at. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .