Höchst (Vorarlberg)

Maximum
coat of arms	Austria map
Basic data
Country:	Austria
State :	Vorarlberg
Political District :	Bregenz
License plate :	B.
Surface:	20.97 km²
Coordinates :	47 ° 28 '  N , 9 ° 38'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 27 '40 "  N , 9 ° 38' 0"  E
Height :	403  m above sea level A.
Residents :	8,108 (January 1, 2020)
Population density :	387 inhabitants per km²
Postal code :	6973
Area code :	05578
Community code :	8 02 17
Address of the municipal administration:	Hauptstrasse 15 6973 Höchst
Website:	www.hoechst.at
politics
Mayor :	Herbert Sparr ( ÖVP )
Local council : (2015) (27 members)	16 6th 5 16 6th 5  A total of 27 seats ÖVP : 16 FPÖ : 6 Non-party list “High time”: 5
Location of Höchst in the Bregenz district
The townscape from the south
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Rhine delta nature reserve near Höchst

"Old Rhine " at Höchst

Höchst is a municipality in Austria in Vorarlberg in the Bregenz district with 8,108 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020).

geography

Höchst is located in the westernmost state of Austria, Vorarlberg, in the Bregenz district south of Lake Constance at an altitude of 403 meters and is therefore one of the westernmost municipalities in Austria. The town center is on the northern bank of the Old Rhine , which marks the state border here. Immediately opposite on the southern bank is the center of the Swiss community of St. Margrethen .

Due to the special location in the Rhine delta and the proximity to Lake Constance, there are climatic and geographical differences to the rest of Vorarlberg. In winter, Lake Constance acts as a heat store to regulate temperatures during the day and at night. As a result, in winter they do not sink as quickly or as strongly as, for example, in Dornbirn, only 10½ km away .

Höchst is divided into five districts: Brugg, Hasenfeld, Kirchdorf, Oberdorf and Unterdorf.

The center of the municipality of Höchst is located in the south of the entire area of ​​20.15 km², 1.4% of which is forested and 150 hectares of litter meadows are protected. As a result, the houses in the community are less affected by flooding than the communities Hard and Bregenz , which are built directly on Lake Constance. In the event of a flood, the nature reserve in the north of Höchst and parts of the agricultural land are flooded (e.g. flood in 1999).

There are no cadastral communities in Höchst. Together with Fußach and Gaißau , Höchst forms the Rhine delta , which is surrounded by water on all sides , bordering the Rhine in the east, the Old Rhine in the south and Lake Constance in the west and north and the neighboring communities of Gaißau and Fußach. The Rhine Delta area is an extremely important bird sanctuary in Europe and an important wetland area under the Ramsar Convention . It is protected as a Natura 2000 area under the EU Birds Directive and Habitats Directive. To date, over 330 species of birds and 70 species of dragonflies have been observed here.

A large number of rare plant and small animal species are also found in Höchst, some of which are threatened throughout Europe.

history

First documented mention of Höchst on June 22, 808: Cunradat donated his property to “Hostadio” (Höchst) to the St. Gallen Monastery out of concern for his own salvation and the fate of his son; However, he makes the donation subject to the condition that his son Albini is cared for in the monastery for his entire life and is allowed to join the order if he proves worthy of it.

In 881 a document was mentioned as "Hostetharro marcha" (the Mark of the Most High). The Höchst Mark included Höchst, St. Margrethen, Fußach via Gaißau up to Walzenhausen and extended further to the border of Thal.

On the way to Rome, Emperor Otto II (HRR) stayed in "Hochstedi" (Höchst) on October 29, 980. At the request of his wife Theophanu and the abbot Immo, the emperor waived all public charges and claims his officials had made against monastery properties.

After the male line of the Udalrichinger died out around 1150, part of the estate passed with Höchst through marriage to the noble family of Montforters. Over the next few centuries, the area was continually split up through inheritance divisions, with Höchst subordinate to the Count of Montfort-Feldkirch. The centuries-long relationship between Höchst and Feldkirch is based on this time. However, on May 22, 1375, the childless Count Rudolf V von Montfort sold the county of Feldkirch, the district court Rankweil, the rear Bregenzerwald, Dornbirn and Höchst-Fußach for 30,000 guilders to Duke Leopold III of Austria. However, he was allowed to administer his land as Habsburg Vogt until his death in 1390 and granted the well-known Feldkirch freedom letter. But he issued a kind of inheritance tax for the people of the church at Höchst and Fußach. As already described, Höchst was a very old St. Gallen fiefdom.

It was a double village which consisted of St. Margrethen-Höchst on the left bank of the Rhine and St. Johann-Höchst on the right bank of the Rhine. Although the areas on the right bank of the Rhine were under the rule of the Habsburgs, the abbot of St. Gallen ruled almost alone until the 15th century. This only changed when the Toggenburg noble family received the county of Feldkirch including Höchst as pledge in 1417 and took advantage of the weakness of the monastery at that time. It was not until March 30, 1473 that a contract could be concluded between the Habsburg side, led by the Feldkircher Vogt, and the St. Gallen monastery, which regulated mutual rights and obligations. Due to the emerging Confederation, the Rhine became more and more a border, which is why St. Margrethen split off ecclesiastically between the years 1498 and 1516 and politically in 1612. Nevertheless, the St. Gallen monastery was also able to assert its rights on the right bank of the Rhine, which the Höchst people knew how to use when, for example, during the Thirty Years' War the Swedes broke through the northern defensive lines of Vorarlberg on January 4, 1647 and plundered and pillaged through the country, including Höchst not spared. The Swedish artillery was quartered in Höchst and arson had to be paid for. Since these contributions were outstanding, however, execution was threatened. However, the monastery of St. Gallen stood up for Höchst and so the Swedish commander-in-chief Gustav Wrangel was able to reduce the outstanding payment from 1000 to 600 Reichstaler. This connection to the St. Gallen Monastery was maintained until it was dissolved in 1798. Fußach became an independent parish as early as 1690, but the Höchst-Fußach court continued to exist politically. The Habsburgs ruled the places in Vorarlberg alternately from Tyrol and Upper Austria (Freiburg im Breisgau). Only after another lost war, this time against France, and the subsequent Peace of Pressburg in 1805, Vorarlberg was ceded to Napoleon's ally, Bavaria, which subsequently led to modern centralist reforms and in 1806 the Höchst-Fußach court was assigned to the Dornbirn regional court and the political separation between St. Johann-Höchst and Fußach was completed in 1810. From 1814 the place belonged again to Austria. Höchst has been part of the Austrian state of Vorarlberg since it was founded in 1861.

Another political change after the abolition of the monarchy in 1918/19 occurred on January 1, 1930, when the Rhine Valley communities were assigned to the Bregenz District Commission and the Bregenz District Court for traffic reasons. Up until this point in time, the Feldkirch district administration and the Dornbirn district court were responsible for the communities of Fußach, Gaißau and Höchst.

After Austria was annexed to the German Reich, the municipalities of Höchst (2,400 inhabitants), Fussach (600 inhabitants) and Gaissau (500 inhabitants) were established on September 30, 1938 on the basis of §§ 4 and 5 of the German municipal ordinance ex 1935 united to form the new community called Rheinau. However, after referendums in the affected places, this union was suspended by the Vorarlberg state government on December 31, 1946.

The place was part of the French occupation zone in Austria from 1945 to 1955.

Population development

The proportion of foreigners at the end of 2002 was 14.6 percent.

The population increase since 1981 is mainly due to a strongly positive birth balance . The migration balance was still negative from 1981 to 1990, but since 1991 immigration has predominated.

politics

The community council consists of 27 members. In the 2015 municipal council elections, the ÖVP achieved 16, the FPÖ 6 and the non-party list "Highest Time" 5 seats. Herbert Sparr has been mayor of the municipality since 2013, and Heidi Schuster-Burda is the vice-mayor .

The municipal income from taxes and other levies in 2001 was € 7,164,322, the municipal expenditure was € 17,280,537. The debt level in 2001 was 16,919,374 euros.

coat of arms

The Höchst coat of arms was awarded by the Vorarlberg state government in 1960 and shows a red rafter in a silver shield.

Culture and sights

Parish church Höchst

See also:  List of listed objects in Höchst (Vorarlberg)

• Catholic parish church Höchst

Immediately after the beginning of the 20th century, most of the churches in Vorarlberg were built by Swiss architects - the parish church dedicated to St. John the Baptist here by Albert Rimli . These architects mostly represented a variety of historicism. The more modern ones, like Rimli, attempted a continuation of baroque ideas and sometimes came up with astonishing reformulations. The interesting thing about this church is the combination of baroque and art nouveau . At 81 meters, the highest church tower in Vorarlberg has housed a large, seven-part chime from the Bachert bell foundry in Karlsruhe (disposition: as ⁰ –c ¹ –es ¹ –f ¹ –as ¹ –b ¹ –c ² ), which starts every Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. to ring in Sunday. On Fridays at 3:00 p.m. the large Christ bell announces the death of Christ on the cross.

economy

In 2003 there were 154 commercial enterprises with 4,144 employees and 273 apprentices on site. There were 2,811 employees subject to wage tax. Agriculture plays an important role. The proportion of agricultural land in the total area is 52.1%.

Companies

• Julius Blum GmbH
• Grass GmbH of the Würth Group

traffic

• Road: The heavily used Swiss road L 202 leads from Bregenz via Höchst to the Swiss border .

societies

Over 70 clubs are registered in Höchst. The two best known are probably FC Höchst , whose team has been playing in the Regionalliga West again this season, and RC Mazda Hagspiel Höchst , who is internationally successful in cycling and artificial cycling.

education

There are (as of January 2003) 880 pupils in the village who attend two elementary schools (Unterdorf and Kirchdorf) and one secondary school. There are also three kindergartens in Höchst.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the church

• Elwin Blum (* 1920 in Höchst; † 2002), politician and entrepreneur
• Julius Blum (* 1924 in Höchst; † 2006), entrepreneur and founder of Julius Blum GmbH
• Alfred Grass (* 1914 in Höchst; † 2003), entrepreneur and founder of the Grass fittings company
• Emil Schneider (* 1883 in Höchst; † 1961), Minister of Education of the Republic of Austria (1922–1926)
• Oswald Schobel (* 1901 in Höchst; † 1980), regional councilor in the Vorarlberg regional government (1954–1964)
• Klaus Ströbele (* 1903 in Höchst; † 1988), modernist architect
• Renato Wohllaib (* 1960 in Höchst), singer of the hit group Die Paldauer
• Michael Lampert (* 1972 in Höchst), ice hockey player, trainer and official

People related to the community

• Herbert Sausgruber (* 1946 in Bregenz), Governor of Vorarlberg (1997–2011); lives in Höchst.
• Ivo Brunner (* 1952 in Gaißau ), founding rector of the Vorarlberg University of Education ; lives in Höchst

Web links

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

• 80217 - Höchst (Vorarlberg). Community data, Statistics Austria .
• Information on the protected area Rhine Delta (Land Vorarlberg)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Brunner Ivo (1989): At that time in Höchst. Culture department of the municipality of Höchst (Ed.) Bregenz-Lochau: Russ-Druck
2. ↑ Land Vorarlberg (ed.) (2005): Vorarlberg Chronik. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Dornbirn: Vorarlberg publishing house
3. ^ Burmeister, Karl-Heinz (1998): "Das Weistum Höchst von 1473" In: Höchst, Rheintalgemeinde und Landkultur "Heimatbuch Volume 2 (1998), pp. 15-23.
4. ↑ Leipold-Schneider, Gerda (1994c): "Grenzentstehung an See und Rhein" In: "Höchst, Grenzgemeinde an See und Rhein" Heimatbuch Volume 1 (1994), pp. 57-63.
5. ^ Bilgeri, Benedikt (1977): History of Vorarlberg. Volume III, Estates, Common Man - Emser and Habsburgs. Graz: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.
6. ^ Hämmerle, Markus (1982): "Emigration from Vorarlberg from 1815 to 1914". Dissertation at the University of Vienna
7. ^ Vorarlberger Landesarchiv (2013): District Commission Feldkirch I 1919–1940. URL: https://www.vorarlberg.at/pdf/rep_14-024bezirkshauptma1.pdf (accessed on October 14, 2014)
8. ^ Weber, Wolfgang (1999): NS-Herrschaft am Land. The years 1938 to 1945 in the self-portrayals of the Vorarlberg communities in the Bregenz district. Regensburg: Roderer Verlag
9. ↑ Gaißau community (no year): Facets of the history of Gaißau Online on the Internet: URL: http://www.gaissau.at/Geschichte.330.0.html (accessed on January 9, 2009)
10. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the municipality of Höchst, population development. Retrieved March 26, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Cornelia Albertani, Ulrich Nachbaur: Vorarlberg municipal coat of arms registry . Ed .: Vorarlberger Landesarchiv. 3. Edition. Bregenz 2011, ISBN 978-3-902622-17-4 , pp. 29 ( vorarlberg.at [PDF]).
12. ↑ The 81-meter church tower in Höchst is being renovated Article in the Vorarlberger Nachrichten of May 12, 2017