Wildon

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the German magician of the same name, see Joe Wildon .

market community Wildon
coat of arms	Austria map
Basic data
Country:	Austria
State :	Styria
Political District :	Leibnitz
License plate :	LB
Surface:	32.67 km²
Coordinates :	46 ° 53 '  N , 15 ° 31'  E Coordinates: 46 ° 53 '13 "  N , 15 ° 30' 51"  E
Height :	314  m above sea level A.
Residents :	5,493 (January 1, 2020)
Postal code :	8410
Area code :	03182
Community code :	6 10 59
Address of the municipal administration:	Hauptplatz 55 8410 Wildon
Website:	www.wildon.gv.at
politics
Mayor :	Helmut Walch ( SPÖ )
Municipal Council : (2015) (25 members)	10 7th 5 2 1 10 7th 5 2 1  A total of 25 seats ÖVP : 10 SPÖ : 7 FPÖ : 5 Project Wildon : 2 GREEN : 1
Location of Wildon in the Leibnitz district
Wildon Town Hall
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Finkenegg Castle, southeast of Wildon, around 1830,
lith. JF Kaiser Institute, Graz

Former district court with stone pillory

Wildon (emphasized on the second, long-spoken syllable) is a market town in southern Styria with 5493 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) and belongs to the Leibnitz district . The market town is located on the Wildoner Berg , which borders the Leibnitzer Feld , directly at the confluence of the Kainach and the Mur .

As part of the municipal structural reform in Styria , it has been merged with the Weitendorf municipality since 2015 and continues to use the Wildon name. The basis for this is the Styrian Municipal Structural Reform Act - StGsrG. In addition, the market community was expanded to include the cadastral community of Sukdull and other properties from the previously existing community of Stocking .

geography

Wildon lies on both sides of the Mur at the transition between Grazer Feld in the north and Leibnitzer Feld in the south. The west of the community is traversed by the Kainach, which flows into the Mur north of the town center at the foot of the Wildoner Berg . In the northeast the community has a small share of the eastern Styrian hill country , in the northwest lies the southern end of the Kaiserwald .

Community structure

The municipal area comprises nine localities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

• Afram (166)
• Aug (125)
• Kainach near Wildon (272)
• Lichendorf (115)
• Neudorf ob Wildon (290)
• Stocking (423)
• Sukdull (415)
• Weitendorf (1100)
• Wildon (2587)

The community consists of six cadastral communities (area: as of December 31, 2018):

• Kainach (364.77 ha)
• Stocking (566.83 ha)
• Sukdull (592.37 ha)
• Lower House (374.50 ha)
• Weitendorf (1,023.78 ha)
• Wildon (350.04 ha)

Neighboring communities

Wildon has eleven neighboring communities, four of which are in the Graz-Umgebung district  (GU).

Wound shoe (GU)	Werndorf (GU) Fernitz-Mellach (GU)	Heiligenkreuz am Waasen All Saints' Day at Wildon
Dobl-Zwaring (GU)		Sankt Georgen an der Stiefing
Hengsberg	Long Lebring-Sankt Margarethen	Ragnitz

history

The first villages were already in the Neolithic (around 4000 BC) at the strategically favorable location in the confluence of the Kainach and Mur. Archaeological finds on the neighboring Buchkogel confirm this. A burial ground , which was discovered near the secondary school, dates from the late urn field period . Archaeological excavations on the Bocksberg uncovered a grave from the Lasinja culture (early Copper Age ), in which the remains of a cremation ( corpse fire ) were buried in a bowl. The age of this burial has been confirmed to be around 6000 years, making it the oldest grave in Styria.

The meaning of the place name has not been conclusively deciphered. The possibilities range from the Celtic "fialdunum" (hospitable place) to the Slavic "bilo donje" (place halfway up) to the "Wilde" (the Middle High German meaning for mare), which is the horse family with the largest mountain "stallion" and the smallest "ful" (foal) would complete.

In the early Middle Ages (around 1000 AD), the Hengistburg , the center of what was then the Mark on the middle Mur, was probably on the Wildoner Schloßberg. It was supposed to secure the border to the east. Since the 12th century, the Hengistburg was followed by several castles that existed side by side: the prince's fief Altwildon (first mentioned in 1173), seat of the respected and powerful family of the Lords of Wildon, the archbishopric Salzburg castle Neuwildon on the plateau as well as the Ful house and the tower Hengst halfway up blocked the way from Graz to Leibnitzer Feld.

The place was first mentioned in 1219. The place is best known for its connection with the minne poet Herrand von Wildonie (Herrand II. Von Wildon), who was also politically active around the middle of the 13th century. The colors of the Wildonian coat of arms , white and green, also replaced the Styrian national colors of that time, black and white, and the Styrian panther was also the wildonian heraldic animal. The place received market rights and the right to fortify itself at the beginning of the 13th century. In 1292, Wildon was the starting point for the Landsberger Bund's fighting , an uprising by Styrian nobles against the Habsburg Albrecht I.

The Riegersburg was once owned by Wildon. Imperial troops besieged Wildon in the Baumkirch feud around 1470 for over a year before it could be conquered. The sovereign rule Oberwildon came into being. From 1624 the Eggenbergs were the landlords, whose rule was connected to an extensive regional court.

In 1680 Wildon was spared the plague, as a thank you the Mariensäule (plague column) was erected on the main square. Between 1796 and 1809 French occupation troops passed through several times. After the Second World War , Wildon first belonged to the Soviet and then to the British zone of occupation. In 1955 the community of Unterhaus was incorporated.

Catholic parish church of St. Magdalena in Wildon

Population development

Culture and sights

Weitendorf village chapel

See also:  List of listed properties in Wildon

→ Main article : Parish Church of St. Magdalena

• Wildon has been forming together with the communities of Hengsberg , Lang and Lebring-St. Margarethen the small region "Kulturpark Hengist".

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Because of the bridges over Kainach and Mur, the market directly on the main road to Trieste had an important function in the transport network. Rafting and shipping on the Mur brought both economic benefits and financial sacrifices, as bank protection structures had to be built on the rivers. The originally important through traffic developed into negative pollution after 1945, as the so-called “guest worker route” led through the narrow market at that time.

In 1974 the Wildoners blocked the Grazer Straße B 67 and thus accelerated the expansion of a temporary bypass until the Pyhrn motorway A 9 was later completed.

Today, the accessibility of the economic centers via the motorway, southern railway and Graz Airport, which is 15 km away, can be rated positively.

Wildon can be reached from Graz with the S5 S-Bahn in the direction of Spielfeld - Straß in 24 minutes, the trains run every hour, at rush hour more frequently. Wildon is located on the Mur Cycle Path , and a small swimming lake invites you to stop off in midsummer.

Establishments

In Wildon there are several catering establishments and small and medium-sized businesses , e.g. B .:

• AKG Plastics (plastic hollow body, since 1962)
• Hereschwerke (automation, plant construction, approx. 200 employees)

schools

Schools have existed in Wildon since the 16th century. There are currently four public schools and one kindergarten with two groups:

• Elementary school
• secondary schools
• Polytechnic school
• Herrand-von-Wildon Music School

Others

The equestrian facility is no longer in operation, the district court was closed in 2002.

politics

mayor

Helmut Walch (SPÖ) was elected mayor of the newly composed municipality at the constituent meeting of the municipal council on April 23, 2015. The election of Helmut Walch was possible because the SPÖ, FPÖ and the “Projekt Wildon” list had reached a coalition agreement for the 2015-2020 municipal council period at the meeting on April 17, 2015. This is the first time in 70 years that the ÖVP has not provided the mayor. From January 1, 2015 until the constituent meeting, the former mayor of Wildon, Gerhard Sommer (ÖVP), was government commissioner in charge of the merged municipality.

The community board also includes the first vice mayor Franz Plasser (ÖVP), the second vice mayor Andreas Url (FPÖ), the community treasurer Johann Eder (FPÖ) and board member Gert Egger (ÖVP).

Municipal council

The municipal council consists of 25 members. According to the result of the 2015 municipal council election , it is composed as follows:

• 10 mandates ÖVP
• 07 mandates SPÖ
• 05 FPÖ mandates
• 02 mandates for the Wildon project
• 01 mandate The Greens Wildon

The last municipal council elections brought the following results:

Political party	2015			2010						2005						2000
	Large community			Wildon			Weitendorf			Wildon			Weitendorf			Wildon			Weitendorf
	be right	%	Mand.	St.	%	M.	St.	%	M.	St.	%	M.	St.	%	M.	St.	%	M.	St.	%	M.
ÖVP	1069	37	10	757	59	11	487	48	8th	612	49	8th	507	54	8th	692	54	9	455	50	8th
SPÖ	0727	25th	07th	190	15th	02	420	41	6th	330	27	4th	435	46	7th	265	21st	3	198	22nd	3
FPÖ	0618	22nd	05	044	03	00	040	04th	0	not running			not running			192	15th	2	107	12	2
The green	0180	06th	01	049	04th	00	066	07th	1	085	07th	1	not running			138	11	1	not running
Wildon project	0275	10	02	199	16	02	not running			215	17th	2	not running			not running			not running
BZÖ	not running			034	03	00	not running			not running			not running			not running			not running
K. Reiter-Haas	not running			not running			not running			not running			not running			not running			157	17th	2
Eligible voters	4,343			2,052			1,256			1,855			1,201			1,770			1,116
voter turnout	67%			63%			82%			68%			81%			73%			84%

coat of arms

Both previous communities (Weitendorf and Wildon) had community coats of arms.

• Coats of arms of the previous municipalities
• 

  Weitendorf

• 

  Wildon

The Wildon coat of arms was awarded to the citizenship by King Ferdinand I on November 17, 1544 , presumably at the intervention of the Wildon-based landlord and hereditary field master Maximilian Leysser. The blazon read:

“The coat of arms shows a tower in a red shield on a green meadow. The tower is made of white blocks and has a golden portcullis. The figure of a bearded wild man rises out of the three peaks and carries a mace over his right shoulder with both hands to strike. "

The legend of the wild man is linked to this coat of arms, which probably only wants to connect the place name with the attribute “wild” . According to the legend, he lived in the so-called “Wilde Mann Cave” on the Schlossberg and harassed and threatened the local residents. A virgin captured by him is said to have blinded him with a knitting needle and thus made him defenseless. The figure of the wild, club-armored man refers to Celtic heroes (e.g. Dagda ) and others. U. on a pre-Christian use of the cave as a natural sanctuary .

Due to the amalgamation of the municipalities, the coat of arms became invalid from January 1, 2015 and was re-awarded by the Styrian state government with effect from October 30, 2019 . The new blazon reads:

“In a red shield, a silver brick, black jointed tower with three battlements, each pierced with black by a key notch, and black pierced round arched gate, each with a black pierced key, including a raised golden portcullis. Growing out of the tower is a golden, long-bearded wild man with a green plaited wreath in his curly hair, holding a silver, pointed mace over him with both hands to strike. "

Personalities

• Andreas Hardter (1780–1816), painter and art teacher
• Raimund Schittenhelm (* 1947), commander of the National Defense Academy
• Herrand II of Wildon (around 1230 – around 1278), minstrel

Historical maps of the Wildon area

• 

  Josephine land survey , approx. 1790

• 

  Wildon around 1879

• 

  Franzisco-Josephinische Landaufnahme , ca.1910

Web links

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

• 61059 - Wildon. Community data, Statistics Austria .
• Website of the market town of Wildon
• Der Wilde Mann von Wildon , haben.at, Styria
• Internet presence of the culture park Hengist

Individual evidence

1. ^ Styrian municipal structural reform .
2. ↑ Section 3, Paragraph 5, Item 3 of the Act of December 17, 2013 on the reorganization of the municipalities of the State of Styria ( Styrian Municipal Reform Act - StGsrG). State Law Gazette for Styria dated April 2, 2014. No. 31, year 2014, ZDB -ID 705127-x , p. 3.
3. ↑ Section 5, Paragraph 3, Item 2 of the Styrian Municipal Structural Reform Act - StGsrG, p. 5.
4. ↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
5. ↑ CSV file from REGIONALINFORMATION.zip  (1,221 KB) ; accessed on January 12, 2019
6. ↑ Discovered the oldest grave in Styria. In: Weststeirische Rundschau . No. 24, year 2013 (June 14, 2013), 86th year, ZDB -ID 2303595-X , Simadruck Aigner u. Weisi, Deutschlandsberg 2013, p. 3.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Marktgemeinde Wildon: 04/23/2015: Wildon City Council ( Memento from June 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 16, 2015.
8. ↑ Wildon gets a red mayor . Kleine Zeitung , April 18, 2015, archived from the original on May 31, 2016 .  .
9. ↑ The coat of arms of the market town of Wildon ( Memento from December 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ 81. Announcement by the Styrian state government of October 17, 2019 on the granting of the right to use a municipal coat of arms to the market town of Wildon (political district of Leibnitz) , ris.bka.gv.at, accessed on October 22, 2019.