Burr grain

Gratkorn is located on the Mur in the Middle Murtal opposite (east) of Gratwein , north of Graz, in Styria. In the east of the community is the Hohen Rannach, its highest point. Other prominent elevations are the Eggenberg in the north and the Kanzelkogel in the south of the municipality.

geology

Gratkorn is located in the Gratkorner Basin , which opens to the West Styrian Riedelland and forms a widening of the Murtal.

Extension of the local area

The market town does not have a closed local area, but has a large area of settlement with several centers. Nevertheless, a large part of the area is unpopulated, forested or in agricultural use.

Neighboring communities

Deutschfeistritz	Peggau	Semriach
Gratwein street angel		Stattegg
	Graz

Population development

Population development
date	Residents
1869	1,639
1880	2,271
1890	3,436
1900	4,055
1910	4,373
1923	4,437
1934	4,501
1939	4,539
1951	4,970
1961	5,287
1971	6,054
1981	6.112
1991	6.113
2001	6,625
2010	7,406
2011	7,519

Economy and Infrastructure

Established businesses

Sappi Austria Produktions-GmbH & Co KG is the largest employer . Also to be mentioned are Concept Technologie GmbH, Philips Semiconductors (since October 1, 2006: NXP Semiconductors ), Trinkl Transporte Ges.mbH, Christof Group. There is also an AVL List test track in Gratkorn .

traffic

Due to its proximity to Graz, Gratkorn is very conveniently located. The Pyhrn Autobahn (A 9) runs through the municipality , which can be reached via the Gratkorn-Nord (170) and Gratkorn (173) junctions . There are two tunnels along the A 9 in the municipality: the north tunnel with a length of around 650 meters and the south tunnel with a length of around 800 meters. The Grazerstraße (B 67) passes directly through the municipality.

The Gratkorn train station is called Gratwein-Gratkorn about 1 kilometer away in the neighboring municipality of Gratwein and offers access to the southern line with hourly S-Bahn trains (S1). There are also regular buses to Graz.

The Graz Airport is about 22 km away.

Public facilities

The market town of Gratkorn has some facilities for the residents. Library, youth center, children's pool, several kindergartens, music and art school, afternoon care, sports hall, sports stadium, ... Furthermore, there is the Hackher barracks of the Austrian Armed Forces . Parts of the supply regiment 1 (VR1), which consists of the Kirchner barracks in Graz and the Hackher barracks in Gratkorn, are stationed in it.

education

There are two elementary schools and a new middle school in the community. The polytechnic school is also part of the educational landscape. Secondary schools can be reached quickly (Graz, Rein).

Memorial culture

On April 4, 1945, Hungarian Jews who had previously been used to build positions on the “ Südostwall ” had to march from detention camps in Graz in the direction of Bruck an der Mur - they were on a so-called death march . Some of the prisoners were able to escape near Gratkorn. They begged the population for food before they were picked up, mistreated, murdered and buried by soldiers from the SS “Wiking” division , which was then stationed in Gratkorn. 69 years later, in November 2014, the then journalism student Maximilian H. Tonsern organized a memorial event. Together with Gratkorn Herwig Brandstetter and the human rights laureate of the State of Styria, Manfred Oswald, he then founded an action committee, which saw itself as a source of inspiration for the construction of a memorial in Gratkorn. The council members of the market town of Gratkorn, represented by the mayor Helmut Weber, voted unanimously in favor of the construction of a memorial. So it could be inaugurated on April 4, 2016. Standing directly in front of the community, a memorial stone in four languages (Hebrew, Hungarian, English and German) reminds of the massacres in Gratkorn, and an information board next to it provides information about the historical background of the death marches through Styria .

politics

mayor

Mayor: Helmut Weber, SPÖ
1st Vice Mayor: Günther Bauer, SPÖ
2nd Vice Mayor: Franz Schlögl, FPÖ
Treasurer: Stephanie Kabon, Greens
further board member: Ing. Mag. Patrick Sartor, ÖVP

Municipal council

The municipal council consists of 25 members and, after the 2015 municipal council election, was composed of mandataries from the following parties:

9 mandataries of the SPÖ ,
7 mandataries of the FPÖ ,
5 mandataries of the Greens and
4 mandataries of the ÖVP .

The last municipal council elections brought the following results:

Political party	2015			2010
Political party	Sti.	%	M.	Sti.	%	M.
SPÖ	1292	34	9	2577	67	18th
FPÖ	1063	28	7th	363	10	2
The green	0796	21st	5	0280	7th	01
ÖVP	0699	18th	4th	601	16	04th
voter turnout	61%			64%

Culture and sights

Sports

The local football club FC Gratkorn currently plays in the fifth highest Austrian division, the Oberliga Mitte-West.

There is also a basketball club in Gratkorn, which is a section of ATUS Gratkorn. The men's team of ATUS Gratkorn, the G-State Scorpions, played in the 2nd basketball league (Austria) in the 2009/2010 season , where they finished 6th at the end of the season. The women's team, the G-State Scorpion Ladies, currently plays in the Austrian women's basketball league ( Austrian Women's Basketball Bundesliga , short AWBL).

sons and daughters of the town

Karl Ruprecht (1910–1986), Austrian folklorist, born and raised in Gratkorn
Karl Rinner (1912–1991), Austrian geodesist, born and raised in Gratkorn

literature

Ingo Mirsch, Bernhard Samitsch, Georg Pachler: The history of the market town Gratkorn. Verlag Marktgemeinde Gratkorn 1997. (Only available in the municipality).