Oberzeiring

Oberzeiring
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source:

47.252367 14.485352Coordinates: 47 ° 15 ' N , 14 ° 29' E

Coat of arms of the former municipality

View from the Zug valley hill

Oberzeiring

Oberzeiring is a former market town with the Unterzeiring district in the Murtal district in Styria in Austria . The community was in the judicial district of Judenburg .

Oberzeiring has become famous for emphasizing its history around the former silver mine. About 500 people live in the village, the former municipality of Oberzeiring had 834 inhabitants (as of October 31, 2013). Among them are also the residents of mountain farms , which are up to 1400 m above sea level. A. live.

As part of the Styrian municipal structural reform , Oberzeiring has merged with the municipalities of Bretstein , Sankt Johann am Tauern and Sankt Oswald-Möderbrugg from January 1, 2015 . The resulting new municipality bears the name Pölstal . The basis for this was the Styrian Municipal Structural Reform Act - StGsrG.

geography

The place Oberzeiring lies at 933 m above sea level. A. in the Wölzer Tauern in Upper Styria .

structure

The area comprises the following four localities (population in brackets as of October 31, 2011):

Gföllgraben (61)
Oberzeiring (638)
Zeiringgraben (38)
Zugal (112)

The former municipality consisted of the cadastral municipality Oberzeiring.

climate

Average monthly temperatures and precipitation for Oberzeiring

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	1.8	3.8	7.4	11.3	16.5	19.6	21.8	21.5	17.8	12.8	6.2	2.4	O	11.9
Min. Temperature (° C)	-7.0	-5.9	-2.5	0.6	4.7	7.8	9.7	9.6	6.5	2.2	-2.5	-5.7	O	1.5
Temperature (° C)	-3.5	-2.1	1.4	5.3	10.4	13.5	15.4	14.8	11.1	6.2	0.9	-2.4	O	6th

Precipitation ( mm )	38.5	31	47.2	52.7	84.9	114	131.2	110.1	85	64	53.5	40	Σ	852.1

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	74.8	112.4	137.7	149.8	187.9	184.3	195.3	202.6	170.2	142.1	92.1	70	O	143.4

Rainy days ( d )	6.8	5.8	8.1	9.1	12	12.4	12.8	11.6	9.2	7.3	8.1	7.6	Σ	110.8

Humidity ( % )	3.9	4.0	4.9	6.1	8.7	10.8	12.3	12.6	10.3	7.6	5.3	4.2	O	7.6

Source:

history

Prehistoric and early historical epochs

Oberzeiring was settled well before Roman times. An old Roman main street, the "Via Norica", led at least directly past the settlement in Unterzeiring . Some authors referred to Unterzeiring with the Roman place name Viscella , which is probably not correct. An intact so-called “ Roman bridge ” made of a stone arch could actually come from this time. As an economic factor, the Roman road was an important link for trade, especially for salt transport between the northern and southern Alps (i.e. from the Murtal to the Ennstal).

Medieval mining in Oberzeiring

Oberzeiring was notably the first time as mons cyrich in a land register of the Prince Ottokar Premysl mentioned from the period 1265-1267.

The market was best known as a medieval mining town , the silver mine of which had been exploited since the 13th century. Since the 18th century it has been assumed that the mine was flooded as part of a catastrophe (the dates were given as 1158 or 1365). However, the latest investigations have shown that economic reasons, above all the exhaustion of the deposit , led to the cessation of mining around 1400.

Modern attempts at revival

Many later attempts to pump out the water again were doomed to failure. Many adventurers and treasure hunters, among them such powerful people as Emperor Maximilian and Archduchess Maria Theresa, thought that silver must still be found under the water. Maximilian I himself lived for a short time at Hanfelden Castle in Unterzeiring, but had to give up his project without success. Even the Nazi regime is said to have dealt with the project to develop the supposed silver reserves of Oberzeiring. In the 18th and 19th centuries, iron was mined by the Neuper trade family and heavy spar in the 20th century . A very beautiful light blue aragonite , the so-called Zeiringite, was also extracted from the Oberzeiring tunnels. However, the deposit has been fully exploited.

In memory of the Great Plague from 1708 to 1714 , a plague column was erected in Oberzeiring around 1760.

The 20th century

In 2017, the Oberzeiring show mine was reopened as part of a 750th anniversary celebration .

In autumn 2019, a Canadian company acquired the mining rights for an area of around 3,000 hectares near Oberzeiring. The plan is to start exploration at a depth of 150 to 200 meters from spring 2020 , possibly also in deeper areas. The focus is on the search for minable gold and silver deposits.

Say to the end of the mine

Several legends are told about the supposed water ingress , which tell of the arrogance and lust for murder of the rich and drunken miners . They would have cut off the head of a little blond boy with a sword and used it as a ball when bowling for their silver skittles. The boy's grandmother cursed her, scattered a jug of poppy seeds and said: “As many poppy seeds are here, there shouldn't be any silver blessings in Zeiring”. The next day, so the gruesome story tells, water would have broken into the Zeiringen silver mine, which would have made 1,400 women widows.

Population development

year	Residents
1934	1,183
1939	1,138
2009	882

tourism

Today Oberzeiring lives from tourism and is known for its show mine and its healing cave .

Natural healing tunnel for bronchial diseases ( asthma ): Since the air in the tunnel is completely free of dust and pollutants, the success of a 21-day cure (with one hour per day in the tunnel) for respiratory diseases is very great. The air temperature in the Heilstollen is +8 ° C in summer and winter.

Show mine: The beginning of mining goes back to ancient times. The Oberzeiring silver mine was one of the oldest and largest in the Eastern Alps, and the place was famous for its important silver mine until the late Middle Ages.

Culture and sights

View interior of the Elisabethkirche in Oberzeiring
as a spherical panorama

Parish Church : Thecore of the parish church , which is Gothic today,dates from the early High Middle Ages and is consecrated to St. Nicholas.

Elisabeth Church: The early Gothic Elisabeth Church, a younger church, was built in the heyday of the medieval city and is decorated with interesting frescoes from the beginning of the 14th century.

Tauernwindpark : built around 1000 meters above sea level in 2002, at that time the highest wind farm in the world, until 2010 the highest in Europe, later expanded, supplemented with photovoltaics in 2011 and repowered in 2018 . As of 2019, 10 wind turbines are rotating with a higher total output than before. The dismantled old wind turbines went to Asia.

Culture

THEO - Theater Oberzeiring: Oberzeiring has established itself culturally as a center for theater art. The Oberzeiring Theater, THEO for short, stages around 6 to 8 plays per year. The current premises can accommodate around 200 people. The THEO plays around 100 performances per year on 2 stages and has a visitor number of 10,000. In addition to the performances in Oberzeiring, there will be around 25 guest performances at home and abroad.

Regular events

Theater festival: A theater festival has been held at regular intervals since 2004. At this time, art and theater lovers from all over Europe gather in Oberzeiring.

politics

The municipal council , which was dissolved on December 31, 2014 , was composed of 6 members of the ÖVP and 3 members of the SPÖ after the local council elections in 2010 .

The last mayor was Alois Mayer (ÖVP) until December 31, 2014.

coat of arms

On November 1, 2006, the Styrian state government granted the municipality the right to carry a municipal coat of arms with the following description: In a black silver shield, a bearded miner pointing to the left in a long, centrally-tucked mountain smock, supported on his right knee, with a round plucked hat with his head and with both hands a recovery iron leading to the right from the silver rock growing out of the base of the shield.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

1874 Karl Kmetitsch, district judge
1874 Karl Herbst, district captain of Judenburg
1882 Johann Freiherr von Vernier-Rougemont, district captain of Judenburg
1891 Franz de Paula Neuper, trades
1893 Franz Seewald, notary
1901 Ludwig Köstner, local councilor
1907 Cäcilia Neuper, benefactress
1907 Roman Neuper, local councilor
1912 Oswald Morocutti, Mayor of Oberzeiring 1901–1914
1953 Josef Krainer senior (1903–1971), governor
1975 Friedrich Niederl (1920–2012), governor
1980 Franz Wegart (1918–2009), Deputy Governor

Sons and daughters of Oberzeiring

Günter Eichberger , b. 1959 (writer)
Viktor Elser , 1893–1979 (politician of the KPÖ )
Franz Mali , b. 1960 (Roman Catholic priest and theologian)
Franz Xaver Ölzant , b. 1934 (sculptor)
Gerfried Sperl , b. 1941 (journalist)

literature

Walter Steiner, Stefan Benedik Karner: Cinema, cure and dungeon soup. Life among contrasts in Oberzeiring 1920–80 (= Historisches Zeiring 1). Oberzeiring 2005.
Walter Brunner (Ed.): Oberzeiring. Eventful history of the citizens and farmers of a small living space. Self-published by Marktgemeinde Oberzeiring, 2006.
Walter Steiner, Daniela Karner, Stefan Benedik-Karner: Waltz, pilgrimage, Wurlitzer. Told history and music in Oberzeiring . Historisches Zeiring, Oberzeiring 2011, ISBN 3-9502012-0-3 .
Hiram Kümper: Squires, Crises, Capital. The medieval mining of Oberzeiring and its national importance . Edited by Stefan Benedik-Karner and Anja Thaller (= Historisches Zeiring 3). Oberzeiring 2017. ISBN 978-3-9502012-2-2 .

Individual evidence

↑ State of Styria: Final population status on October 31, 2013 ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (Excel file, 85 kB; accessed on May 2, 2015) @1@ 2

^ Styrian municipal structural reform

↑ Section 3, Paragraph 8, Item 2 of the Act of December 17, 2013 on the reorganization of the municipalities of the State of Styria ( Styrian Municipal Reform Act - StGsrG). Provincial Law Gazette for Styria of April 2, 2014. No. 31, year 2014. ZDB -ID 705127-x . P. 3.

↑ Statistics Austria, register census from October 31, 2011

^ ZAMG climate data from Austria 1971-2000

↑ 750 years of Silberberg Zeiring

↑ Canadians want to mine gold in Oberzeiring. ORF , November 12, 2019, accessed on the same day.

^ Ferdinand Krauss: The bronze mark. A hike through the Styrian Oberland. Volume 2, Leykam, Graz 1892–1897, pp. 422–427, here p. 423.

^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. aus_judenburg.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).