Knittelfeld

Knittelfeld is a town with 12,597 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) in the district of Murtal and the judicial district of Judenburg in the Austrian state of Styria . Knittelfeld was the capital of the Knittelfeld district until its dissolution on January 1st, 2012. Knittelfeld is a railway town . On January 1, 2015, the community of Apfelberg was incorporated as part of the Styrian community structural reform.

geography

Knittelfeld, S. Kölbl, lith. around 1830

The city of Knittelfeld from the south

The municipality has 12,597 inhabitants and is located at an altitude of 645 m on the eastern edge of the Aichfeld , a valley widening of the Murtal .

The main branches of the economy are industry and services . The railroad is also very important as an employer. In 1999 the city hosted the Styrian state exhibition on the subject of transport.

The city has also grown together with other municipalities, including Spielberg (districts Pausendorf , Maßweg ).

Since 1975, Knittelfeld has been the location of the second Styrian crematorium alongside Graz .

Community structure

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

Apple Mountain (218)
Knittelfeld (11,451)
Land Chess (928)

The community consists of the cadastral communities Apfelberg (933.18 ha) and Knittelfeld (452.28 ha).

Incorporations

In the course of the structural reform of the Styrian community , the community of Apfelberg was merged with the city of Knittelfeld in 2015.

A particular challenge was the fact that the city hardly had any vacant land, which meant that migration to the outskirts meant a population decline for the city, a matter that was resolved by merging with Apfelberg.

Neighboring communities

Spielberg	Kobenz
		Sankt Margarethen near Knittelfeld
Lobmingtal	Lobmingtal

history

The city was first mentioned in a document in 1224. In the vicinity of Knittelfeld there was the last fighting of the Landsberger Bund against Duke Albrecht I in 1292 , which ended with a victory for the Duke. In 1302 Knittelfeld was granted city privilege. The political municipality of Knittelfeld was established in 1849/50.

During the First World War , a camp for prisoners of war was built in front of what was then Knittelfeld, which, being self-sufficient and isolated, was equivalent to a town outside the town. In 1915 the number of prisoners of war, most of whom came from the Russian Empire , reached the 30,000 mark and thus exceeded that of the inhabitants of Knittelfeld many times over. After Italy entered the war, the Knittelfelder camp was given a second function, namely as a military hospital for the wounded on the Isonzo front . This hospital had a capacity of over 5000 people. After the end of the war, the complex became Knittelfelder Neustadt, a district that still had a negative image until the early 1960s.

During the Second World War , the bombers of the second Allied air front turned the city center of Knittelfeld into a heap of rubble on February 23, 1945.

The city made headlines in 2002 when a meeting of non-government- loyal FPÖ delegates took place in the Knittelfelds Kultur- und Kongresshaus . This so-called " Knittelfelder Putsch " led to the premature end of the Schüssel I federal government .

Population development

Religion and denominations

As a railway town , Knittelfeld is traditionally less strongly Catholic than in other regions of Austria . The city has several Catholic churches , including the city parish church, the Capuchin Church, which was handed over to the Greek Orthodox Church in 2009, and the cemetery church. The former was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War , but the church tower has since been rebuilt true to the original. There is also a Protestant church in Parkstrasse . The number of members of the Islamic faith is increasing, and the number of people without a religion has almost doubled from around 12% in 1991 to more than 20% ten years later.

Official denomination numbers from Statistics Austria from the last census (2001):

Roman Catholic : 65.8%
Without commitment: 20.4%
Evangelical : 5.8%
Islamic : 3.5%
Orthodox : 2.2%
Other: 1.3%
Unknown: 1.0%

Culture and sights

Parish church of Knittelfeld

During the Second World War , Knittelfeld was, along with Wiener Neustadt, the most heavily damaged city in Austria. Hardly anything has been preserved from the historical structure.

Catholic parish church Knittelfeld Christ as King
Plague column on the main square
Former Russian camp in the new town
Friedensplatz
Capuchin Church
Railway Museum (largest collection of railway caps in the world - history of the railway in Knittelfeld)
Forum Rathaus (gallery)
St. Johann im Felde cemetery church with an old wooden tower
Post office building on Kapuzinerplatz

At the state flower decoration competition Flora | 19, Knittelfeld was one of the 7 Styrian cities and received a total of 5 floras, making it one of the state's winners.

In the basement of the train station, a 160 m² model railway system with landscape motifs from the area around Knittelfeld was built in 40 years .

Events

Numerous cultural events take place in the culture and congress house, which also functions as a location for political events and balls. Other venues are the City Hall Forum, the parish hall and the workers' home. In 1999, Knittelfeld was the venue for the Styrian state exhibition on the topic of "Transport", the state exhibition hall is still used today as a venue, for example for the annual Rock gegen Rechts der Knittelfeld Socialist Youth.

Economy and Infrastructure

Located in the Mur-Mürz-Furche , many jobs were lost in Knittelfeld with the decline of nationalized industry. So which is unemployment still above the Austria-section, a lively exchange takes commuters especially with the district Leoben instead.

The largest employer is the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) with over 2000 employees , which operates Europe's most modern wheel set processing center in the city, Austria Email AG , the municipality, the Upper Styrian dairy and various small and medium-sized businesses. The factory of the electric motor manufacturer ATB AG , which employs more than 600 people, is also located in Spielberg .

traffic

The city is located on the eastern edge of the Aichfeld and is connected to the rest of Upper Styria and the Murtal district via the Murtal expressway S 36 . Furthermore, Knittelfeld has a long-distance traffic stop at the Rudolfsbahn with two-hour free connections to Vienna and Villach . This connection is expected to be lost from 2023, as long-distance trains between Bruck an der Mur and Klagenfurt will then be routed via the newly built Koralm Railway .

In 1996 the Aichfeld regional bus was created, which connects the economically dependent communities of Aichfeld, Knittelfeld, Spielberg , Zeltweg , Fohnsdorf and Judenburg .

Public facilities

One of the locations of the State Hospital Judenburg-Knittelfeld is operated in Knittelfeld. The medical and neurological departments of the hospital association are located in the city. In addition, there is an oncological ward for the treatment of cancer patients and a palliative ward.

As in most of Styria, the rescue service is operated by the Red Cross , which, together with the Red Cross District Office Judenburg , operates an emergency vehicle that is stationed around the clock in the neighboring Zeltweg . Four type C ambulances and two emergency ambulances are available in the town of Knittelfeld to provide immediate emergency care . At least two of these vehicles are manned around the clock every day. In addition, ambulances are carried out with two ambulances and three auxiliary ambulances.

education

Kindergartens:
- six urban ones: Frühlingsgasse, Together Hand in Hand Kärntner Strasse, Miniwelt Landschacher Gasse, Regenbogen Lindenallee, Jahresringe Parkstrasse, Apfelberg Josef-Kurz-Gasse
- Special educational kindergarten (also in Parkstrasse),
- private kindergarten of the parish of Knittelfeld (Franz-Leitner-Straße)
Elementary schools: Kärntnervolksschule, Landschachervolksschule, Montessorischule im Aichfeld (Lindenallee)
New middle schools: Rosegger, Lindenallee
Polytechnic school
Special education center
Bundesgymnasium / Bundesrealgymnasium (BG / BRG) Knittelfeld: The BG / BRG Knittelfeld, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in the 2002/03 school year, is one of the few Austrian UNESCO schools and is involved in numerous international activities.
State vocational school Knittelfeld for industrial apprenticeships
Urania Knittelfeld
Knittelfeld Music School

politics

Image wanted

The municipal council has 31 members.

With the municipal council elections in Styria 2015 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 16 SPÖ, 6 FPÖ, 5 KPÖ and 4 ÖVP.
With the municipal council elections in Styria 2020 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 20 SPÖ, 5 ÖVP, 4 KPÖ and 2 FPÖ.

Since 1945, the city has been ruled with an absolute majority by the SPÖ , which was represented by 18 of the 31 municipal councilors until the end of 2014. The second vice mayor , however, traditionally belonged to the ÖVP due to the election results . The municipal council elections in March 2010 also shifted the mandates of the smaller parties: the KPÖ held four seats, the FPÖ three and the BZÖ one seat.

mayor

1989–1999: Friedrich Kaufmann
1999–2014: Siegfried Schafarik
2014–2019: Gerald Schmid (SPÖ)
since 2019: Harald Bergmann

In November 2019, Mayor Gerald Schmid announced his resignation. Harald Bergmann was elected mayor at the municipal council meeting on December 9, 2019. Bergmann suggested his predecessor Gerald Schmid as an honorary citizen of the municipality.

E-government

The residents of Knittelfeld can use online forms to submit applications such as "Marriage register - application for a copy", subsidy applications for sports sponsorship or a declaration of residence online.

coat of arms

The coat of arms was awarded on November 30, 1954. The award document stated:

"In a red shield, three horizontally superimposed, three times above and below to the right stumped silver sticks appear floating freely."

Linguists derive the name of the city from an Old High German name that is Hnȗtilo and roughly means "outspoken". The personal name still occurs in Danish.

Historian Otto Schinko traces the name back to the Old High German Chnutil , which means "stick, stick" and goes very well with the place names "Aichfeld, Eichberg and Slavic Sirning - mountain of the acorn mast". For a long time the area was wooded with oak trees, the approach of which was grown to the strength of a stick and then felled. This gave rise to the name "Knittelfeld - a field on which trees as thick as knuckles stand". The clubs could be used for many things and were therefore of economic importance.

The "talking coat of arms" of Knittelfeld also shows three clubs on a red field. These call the name of the city, so to speak, the color red has signaled “power, steadfastness, organization and order”, i.e. the “male principle”, since the Middle Ages. The legend that the population once killed a lindworm with clubs (hence three clubs and a blood-soaked field) only arose when they no longer knew anything about the type of wood use described above.

Due to the amalgamation of the municipalities, the coat of arms lost its official validity on January 1st, 2015. The re-award took place with effect from November 1st, 2015.
The new blazon (description of the coat of arms) reads:

"In a red shield there are three horizontally stacked silver sticks, three times at the top and three times at the bottom to the right."

City partnerships and memberships

Knittelfeld maintains city partnerships with Kameoka ( Japan , since 1964) and Barcs (Hungary, since 2005).

The city belongs to the Austrian Association of Cities and since 1993 to the Climate Alliance .

Personalities

Honorary citizen

1977: Johann Bammer (1922–2017), Provincial Councilor
1999: Friedrich Kaufmann († 2014), Mayor of Knittelfeld 1989–1999
2014: Siegfried Schafarik († 2019), Mayor of Knittelfeld 1999–2014
2020: Gerald Schmid (* 1966), Mayor of Knittelfeld 2014–2019

Sons and daughters of Knittelfeld

Ludwig Apfelbeck (1903–1987), engine tuner, engine builder and engine developer
Hans Bammer (1922–2017), politician
Wolfgang Benedek (* 1951), lawyer
Willibald Cernko (* 1956), bank manager
Johannes Diethart (* 1942), writer, publisher and Byzantinist
Karl Federhofer (1885–1960), civil engineer
Erwin Frühbauer (1926–2010), politician
Gert Hofbauer (1937–2017), musician and conductor
Hermann Lichtenegger (1900–1984), resistance fighter, politician and Undersecretary of State
Berndt Luef (* 1952), musician
Wilhelm Mandl (1910–1978), politician
Helmut Manzenreiter (* 1946), politician
Robby Musenbichler (* 1955), guitarist, composer and music producer
Elmar Schäfer (* 1964), author, film producer and entrepreneur
Andrea Schlager (* 1982), TV presenter and journalist
Harald Proczyk (* 1975), racing car driver
Karl Troll (1923–1977), politician
Ernst Trost (1933–2015), journalist and author
Lizzi Waldmüller (1904–1945), actress
Fritz Weber (1947–2020), economic historian and music critic.

Personalities associated with Knittelfeld

Stefan Haider (* 1972), theologian and cabaret artist
Stefan Rucker (* 1980), racing cyclist

Bahnstrasse in Knittelfeld
Knittelfeld, train station
View towards Flossländ
Kärntnerstraße towards Kapuzinerplatz
Main square with plague column
Kapuzinerplatz
Culture and congress house
Schmittstrasse
View of Knittelfeld from the south

literature

Gerhard Ebner (Ed.): Grandmother, how was that back then? Oral History Project 1988.
Gerhard Ebner (Ed.): When grandfather had to go to war. Oral History Project 1993.
Gerhard M. Dienes, Gundi Jungmeier (Ed.): Closed society? the development of the Knittelfelder Neustadt from a prison camp to an up-and-coming residential area , Leykam, Graz 2009.

Web links

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

62041 - Knittelfeld. Community data, Statistics Austria .
Website of the municipality of Knittelfeld

Individual evidence

^ Announcement of the Styrian state government of November 14, 2013 on the unification of the municipality of Knittelfeld and the municipality of Apfelberg, both political districts of Murtal. Styrian Provincial Law Gazette of December 2, 2013. No. 144, 34th issue. ZDB ID 705127-x . P. 673.
↑ Entry on cremation in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
^ The State of Styria: The new municipal structure of Styria. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 15, 2013 ; Retrieved November 10, 2013 . 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. @1@ 2
↑ General State Law and Government Gazette for the Crown Land of Styria, Issue 21, October 7, 1850, No. 378.
↑ In 2009, the ARGE Knittelfelder Neustadt , which was formed by the municipality of Knittelfeld, Urania Steiermark, the then Landesmuseum Joanneum, the Karl-Franzens University and others, held an exhibition and accompanying lecture series that focused on the development of Knittelfelder Neustadt from the prison camp to the up-and-coming residential area, see: Gerhard M. Dienes, Gundi Jungmeier (ed.), Closed Society? the development of the Knittelfelder Neustadt from a prison camp to an up-and-coming residential area, Leykam, Graz 2009.
^ Stefan Karner: Styria in the Third Reich 1938–1945 . 3. Edition. Leykam, Graz 1986, ISBN 3-7011-7302-8 , pp. 391 .
↑ Knittelfeld Railway Museum
↑ Flower decoration competition "Die Flora"
↑ Election result of the municipal council election 2015 in Knittelfeld. State of Styria, March 22, 2015, accessed on July 2, 2020 .
↑ Results of the municipal council election 2020 in Knittelfeld. State of Styria, June 28, 2020, accessed on July 2, 2020 .
^ ^A ^b Michaela Egger: Gerald Schmid: Mayor of Knittelfeld resigns from office. In: Small newspaper . November 11, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b municipal council meeting on December 9, 2019. In: knittelfeld.gv.at. December 10, 2019, accessed January 23, 2020 .
↑ Stefan Verderber: Gerald Schmid is made an honorary citizen. January 22, 2020, accessed January 23, 2020 .
↑ Overview of the online forms. Retrieved June 15, 2015 .
↑ City arms on www.knittelfeld.at, accessed on December 3, 2015
↑ 82. Announcement of the Styrian state government of October 1, 2015 on the granting of the right to use a municipal coat of arms to the municipality of Knittelfeld (political district of Murtal) , accessed on December 2, 2015
↑ Neue Zeit (May 4, 1977), p. 7.
↑ Murtaler Zeitung (September 25, 1999), p. 1.