Lassing (Styria)

Lassing is a municipality with 1717 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) in Upper Styria in the judicial district or district of Liezen , about 8 km from the district capital Liezen .

geography

Lassing is partly in the Styrian part of the Ennstal and Paltental , 130 km from Graz , 140 km from Salzburg and 250 km from Vienna . The municipality is located at sea levels between 750 and 900 m in the northern part of the Rottenmanner Tauern , between the Mitterberg in the north and the Blosen or the Hohe Trett in the south.

Community structure

The municipality includes the following 18 localities (population in brackets as of January 1, 2020):

Altlassing (143)
Castle Keep (61)
Dollach (222)
Fuchslucken (73) including Höfakorn
Gatschling (60)
Heuberg (68)
Lassing-Kirchdorf (381) including Lassing and Schattenberg
Moss (107)
Neusiedl (66)
Niedermoos (98)
Schattenberg (88) including Latsching
Sonnberg (31)
Mirror Mountain (36)
Stone (55)
Treschmitz (74)
Trojach (110)
Unterberg (24)
Wieden (20)

After the establishment of the political municipalities in 1848, today's municipal area consisted of two independent municipalities with two separate municipal administrations, Lassing Schattseite and Lassing Sonnseite, which still exist today as cadastral communities. In 1872 these communities were combined to form today's community of Lassing.

The community consists of the cadastral communities Lassing Schattseite and Lassing Sonnseite.

Neighboring communities

	Liezen	Selzthal
Aigen in the Ennstal
		Rottenmann

history

The parish of Lassing is mentioned for the first time in 1036 as Laznichove . The name goes back to Slavic laz (clearing, clearing) and Old High German ouwa (floodplain). Lassing is the mother parish of Rottenmann and Liezen , but was incorporated into the Augustinian Canons of Rottenmann until its abolition . The late Gothic parish church was completed in 1513 and consecrated by the Bishop of Chiemsee on June 16, 1513 . It is attributed to the school of the church builder Christoph Marl, who also built the churches in Rottenmann, Kammern and Gaishorn . According to documents, a parish school first existed in Lassing in 1596.

During the Reformation, Strechau Castle became the center of Protestantism. A Protestant preacher was installed in Lassing under the von Hoffmann barons . In the course of the Catholic reform, the municipality was re-Catholicized; however, secret Protestants remained in the community until the Tolerance Patent was granted . Until 1786 the parish belonged to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and was subordinate to the main pastor of Haus im Ennstal .

In 1786 the parish fell to the newly formed diocese of Leoben and the then Bishop of Leoben Alexander Graf Engel donated confirmation to 265 confirmants in Lassing . In 1803 320 in Admont , and in Rottenmann in 1823 332 Lassinger confirmers were confirmed. In 1829, 4,204 Holy Communions were donated in the parish. The village of Fischern was incorporated into the Lassing parish in 1789, but belongs to the municipality of Aigen im Ennstal . In 1832, donations from the Ortesteiner family from St. Lorenzen built stations of the cross on the Kalvarienberg . Except for the chapel, these are no longer preserved today.

At Easter 1823, Archduke Johann wanted to marry the postmaster's daughter Anna Plochl at Strechau Castle. However, due to the lack of consent from Emperor Franz I , the marriage was prevented at the last moment. However, Johann had already signed the Lassing parish marriage register.

In 1827 the road to Liezen was built, in 1828 to the Palten. In 1826, the pastor at the time, Johann Baptist Wudi, initiated the establishment of a community school in Döllach . In 1850 the two communities in Lassing: Lassing Sonnseite and Lassing Schattseite were installed and combined in 1872.

In 1862 floods and mudslides devastated many districts, especially Lassing-Kirchdorf. Emperor Franz Joseph I. donated 500 guilders for the reconstruction to alleviate the worst misery. In 1884 the Kirchdorfbach was then built for 1000 guilders. In 1894 the Lassing volunteer fire brigade was founded by senior teacher Wolf. In the same year the district took over the street that crosses the town.

The Raiffeisen savings and advance payment association was founded in 1895 by senior teacher Christian Wolf. From this association, today's Raiffeisenbank Liezen emerges with four branches in Lassing, Selzthal , Weißenbach bei Liezen and Wörschach .

In the 19th century, the municipality of Lassing lost the district of Strechau with gorge to Rottenmann.

In 1929 Lassing Kirchdorf was badly damaged by fire. Almost all houses were affected. When the community Selzthal was founded around a hundred years ago, the Neulassing district was transferred to Selzthal. The plan to transfer Strechau Castle to the Rottenmann community was prevented by a historical report.

In the two world wars, numerous men from Lassingen also lost their lives. Their names can be found on the two war memorials.

In 1943 Lassing lost the village of Neulassing to Selzthal.

1998 mine disaster

In July 1998 the Lassing mine disaster occurred ; it is considered the worst mining accident in Austria in the post-war period. Georg Hainzl , initially buried alone, was to be rescued by a ten-man rescue team. But this was buried in another break-in.

In the days that followed, both the hesitant action of Naintsch Mineralwerke GmbH , which operated the mine, the negative attitude of the Austrian authorities towards foreign offers of assistance and their unsuccessful rescue attempts hit the headlines.

On the ninth day, the supply shaft, presumed to be intact, was drilled and Georg Hainzl was rescued from it, contrary to all prognoses and probabilities. In the hospital, he had to find out that the 10 men on his rescue team had died.

Population development

Source: Statistics Austria

Culture and sights

Strechau Castle

Lassing parish church

Strechau Castle : Strechau was first mentioned in 1074. It stands in the municipality of Lassing on a high, steep and narrow rocky ridge above the town of Rottenmann in Paltental . The plateau first had to be artificially widened. The castle was once protected by strong walls with loopholes and battlements. At the entrance to the castle you can still see the moat, the iron-studded gate, the portcullis and the machicolation . The complex has a beautiful knight's hall , a chapel, a defense tower (keep with hunger tower and castle dungeon) and farm buildings.
Catholic parish church Lassing hl. James the Elder: The church is 26.75 m long, 8.50 m wide and 9.60 m high. The vault construction is very interesting, in the nave the net and rib vaults form interlocking hexagons, in the choir area harmonious interlocking octagons. The vaulting forms a barrel vault with stitch caps and star-shaped ribs and sits in the nave on services without combatants. The windows are ogival and have good tracery. At the time of the construction of the church, 5 Gothic winged altars are mentioned, which are no longer preserved, the current furnishings come from the Baroque . Today's high altar is erected around 1738 . It comes from Balthasar Prandtstätter, an artist from Judenburg. The altar of Mary was built around 1680, the former clothed Gothic Madonna of Mercy was replaced by a statue of Mary by Johann Fortschegger around 1780 . The parish church has been renovated several times, so frescoes were uncovered on the north side of the church in the 1950s , they come from the time the church was built. At the beginning of the 1980s the interior of the church was renovated, the wooden double gallery was replaced by a stone gallery. Some changes are made in the choir with the erection of a folk altar . The outside of the church will then also be renovated.
Parsonage: It forms an ensemble with the parish church, its present shape is from 1680, this year can also be found on a beam in the vestibule. On the north wall you can see a fresco depicting St. Florian shows from the 16th century.
Houses in the church village and the districts: The house of the former Kisl inn, opposite the municipal office, is a typical Upper Styrian farmhouse on the east side with remarkable wooden windows on the upper floor. Next to it is the house of the Schartnerhof, with beautiful wrought iron bars on the first floor and a beautiful bay window. On the east side a fresco with the coat of arms of the Drykopf family from Rottenmann , whose court was the Schartnerhof.
The beautiful stone house of the vulgo Treschmitzer can be found in the district of Treschmitz. The farm is already mentioned in 1232.
The different districts show typical Upper Styrian farmhouses and farm forms. Often beautiful wooden barns and bulk boxes (so-called troad boxes ). Many of the buildings date from the 17th century, the barns mostly from the 18th century.
In the district of Burgfried, the Theresian Academy Foundation in Vienna owns an estate, the Nichtlhof. This shows beautiful manor architecture from the turn of the century and houses a former dairy building and a manager's house in the Swiss style.

Economy and Infrastructure

The economic structure of Lassing is mainly made up of medium-sized agricultural and forestry businesses, and small and medium-sized businesses on the other. For over a century, until the Lassing mine disaster , mining also played a major role. In addition to the Naintscher talc plant, which was closed after the mine accident, the Austrian-American Magnesit AG (now RHI AG ) operated a mine and a processing plant in the community until 1964.

Established businesses

“Mein Kaufhaus”: local supplier of the Nah & Frisch grocery chain
Raiffeisenbank Lassing, the founding fund of today's Raiffeisenbank Liezen
Paltental chippings and marble works
Egger wood saw in Döllach
V&S Planungs und Bau GmbH
Transports Buchegger

traffic

If the route of the Crown Prince Rudolfsbahn was originally planned to be laid across the Lassing high valley, this project was abandoned due to protests by the population and also for cost reasons and the railway junction was built in Selzthal. In terms of traffic, the towns of Lassings are only easily accessible by individual transport (car, bicycle), public transport by buses of the Austrian Federal Railways plays a very minor role, the nearest train stations are in Liezen and Selzthal .

education

There is a kindergarten and a primary school in Lassing . The construction of a vocational school planned at the end of the 1970s was dropped again.

politics

Image wanted

history

In the first elections in the newly created republic , the Social Democrats won the mayor's seat, this was mainly due to the railway settlement "Neulassing" which belonged to the municipality at that time. The office of mayor subsequently alternated between the SDAP and the CSP , which was in a coalition with the Landbund . The Heimwehr , which was strong in the community at this time , also took part in the Pfrimer Putsch .

After the establishment of the corporate state , the coalition of Christian Socialists and the Landbund remained in office until 1938. In 1936 a memorial stone in honor of the murdered Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was unveiled at the cemetery . After its removal in 1938, it no longer exists today. In the community at this time, as in the entire Ennstal, a strong National Socialist agitation could be noticed. The local home guard was also partially infiltrated by the National Socialists. The transfer of the municipal administration after 1938 took place peacefully, but in the referendum the “planned” 100% did not vote for the connection to the German Reich . After 1945 the ÖVP won the elections and is still the mayor today.

The municipal council election of March 21, 2010 had to be repeated on July 4, 2010 due to irregularities (withdrawal of voting rights). In 2020 only the ÖVP stood for election, the voter turnout decreased from 2015 with 77.93% to 2020 with 37.50%.

Municipal council

The municipal council has 15 members.

With the municipal elections in Styria in 2000, the municipal council had the following distribution: 10 ÖVP, 3 SPÖ and 2 FPÖ.
With the municipal council elections in Styria in 2005 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 8 ÖVP, 5 SPÖ and 2 FPÖ.
With the municipal elections in Styria in 2010 , the municipal council had the following distribution: 9 ÖVP, 4 FPÖ and 2 SPÖ.
With the municipal council elections in Styria 2015 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 11 ÖVP, 3 FPÖ and 1 FPÖ.
With the municipal council elections in Styria 2020 , the municipal council has the following distribution: 15 ÖVP.

mayor

1971–1988 Benedikt Schneider (ÖVP)
1988–2000 Bernhard Zeiser (ÖVP)
2000–2020 Friedrich Stangl (ÖVP)
since 2020 Engelbert Schaunitzer (ÖVP)

coat of arms

"In a shield divided by gold and green diagonally to the right, a blue tower pierced by a gate and two windows in the gold field and a gold pilgrim shell in the green field". This is the description of the coat of arms of the municipality of Lassing. Originally the area consists of two independent municipalities: the golden half of the coat of arms stands for Lassing-Sonnseite , the green for the sub-municipality Lassing-Schattseite . The tower symbolizes Strechau Castle , the shell as the symbol of St. Jacob , the church of Lassing.

Community partnerships

Since 1988, a partnership with the southern French city Luzenac region Occitania . The two places share a common history in talc mining.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

1865 Joseph Ritter von Waser, member of the Landtag and Reichsrat
1896 Mathias Grabner, pastor
1911 Christian Wolf, schoolmaster, mayor
1931 Gustav Verient, community treasurer
1970 Friedrich Niederl , governor
1998 Benedikt Schneider, elementary school director
2006 Former Mayor Bernhard Zeiser, farmer

Personalities associated with the community

Jakob Legensteiner (1801–1858), member of the peasant class in the Styrian state parliament after the revolution of 1848, later lived in Sankt Lorenzen im Paltental .
Ernst Dreher († 1934), an insurgent National Socialist , was shot in the July Putsch in 1934 on the Pyhrn Pass, so-called "blood witness" of the National Socialist movement.
Friedrich Niederl (1920–2012), former Styrian governor, born in Treglwang , but grew up in Lassing from an early age.
Benedikt Schneider, folklorist, born in Liezen , wrote a. a. the book “950 Years of Lassing”.
Hans Hofmann von Grünbühel and Strechau (1492–1564) was an Austrian court official.
Aqilinius Hirmer, provost of the Augustinian Canons of Rottenmann, resigned his office in 1711 and retired to the parish of Lassing, where he died.
Rudolf Postl (1913–1998), dean of the technical faculty at the University of Rostock

literature

Benedikt Schneider: 950 years of Lassing . 1986
Franz Wohlgemuth: History of the parish Gaishorn and the Paltental. Roman Catholic Gaishorn rectory, Gaishorn 1955.