Voitsberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Borough
Voitsberg
coat of arms Austria map
Voitsberg coat of arms
Voitsberg (Austria)
Voitsberg
Basic data
Country: Austria
State : Styria
Political District : Voitsberg
License plate : VO
Surface: 28.62 km²
Coordinates : 47 ° 3 '  N , 15 ° 9'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 2 '54 "  N , 15 ° 9' 1"  E
Height : 394  m above sea level A.
Residents : 9,419 (January 1, 2020)
Postal code : 8570
Area code : 03142
Community code : 6 16 25
Address of the
municipal administration:
Hauptplatz 1
8570 Voitsberg
Website: www.voitsberg.at
politics
Mayor : Bernd Osprian ( SPÖ )
Municipal Council : (Election year: 2020)
(25 members)
1
15th
1
5
3
15th 
A total of 25 seats
Location of Voitsberg in the Voitsberg district
Bärnbach Edelschrott Geistthal-Södingberg Hirschegg-Pack Kainach bei Voitsberg Köflach Krottendorf-Gaisfeld Ligist Maria Lankowitz Mooskirchen Rosental an der Kainach Sankt Martin am Wöllmißberg Söding-Sankt Johann Stallhofen Voitsberg SteiermarkLocation of the municipality of Voitsberg in the Voitsberg district (clickable map)
About this picture
Template: Infobox municipality in Austria / maintenance / site plan image map
Panoramic view of Voitsberg from Obervoitsberg Castle in 2018
Panoramic view of Voitsberg from Obervoitsberg Castle in 2018
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria
View of the main square of Voitsberg with the Marian column and the town hall

Voitsberg , seat of the district administration of the Voitsberg district in Styria with 9,419 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020), extends over an area of ​​28.62 km² , embedded in a former mining area in the middle of the western Styrian mountain and hill country .

geography

The municipality of Voitsberg is located in the western part of the Voitsberg district, about 17 kilometers west of the provincial capital Graz . The city lies on a valley floor at the southern end of the greater area of ​​the upper Gradner and Kainach valleys . The former city center was on the Tregistbach , around the Margarethenkirche . In the middle of the 12th century, however, the settlement center moved to the area between the newly built Obervoitsberg Castle and the Kainach. The city area is traversed by the Kainach from northwest to southeast. In the southwest, the Teigitsch forms the municipal boundary to Krottendorf-Gaisfeld .

The area of ​​the municipality is 28.62 km², of which 20.02 km² (as of 2010) is used as agricultural and forestry area. The city center is 394 meters above sea level, while the Kobererkogel is the highest point in the city at 606 meters.

Community structure

The municipality is divided into eight cadastral municipalities , some of which were independent municipalities until the 20th century, as well as the village of Voitsberg. The Krems settlement is located in the south-western part of the municipality . There are also the three Rotten Lobming, Tregist and Teigitschgraben in the west, northwest and south of the city. Furthermore, the area of ​​the cadastral community Voitsberg Vorstadt south of the former city wall is referred to as Grazer Vorstadt and north of the former city wall as Judenburger Vorstadt. The eight cadastral communities (areas 2015) are:

  1. Voitsberg city (14.27 ha)
  2. Voitsberg suburb (174.30 ha)
  3. Tregist (493.49 ha)
  4. Lobmingberg (426.48 ha)
  5. Lobming (449.16 ha)
  6. Thallein (319.27 ha)
  7. Arnstein (399.50 ha)
  8. Kowald (585.05 ha)
Location of the cadastral communities of Voitsberg

Neighboring communities

The following cities, municipalities and localities border the city of Voitsberg clockwise: in the north the city Bärnbach with the district Mitterdorf , the Peter Leitner settlement and the districts Tregisttal and Lichtenegg , in the northeast and east the market town Stallhofen with the localities Aichegg , Stallhofen and Muggauberg , in the south the community Krottendorf-Gaisfeld with the localities Muggauberg, Gasselberg and Gaisfeld , in the southwest the community Sankt Martin am Wöllmißberg with the localities Großwöllmiß and Kleinwöllmiß and in the west the community Rosental an der Kainach with the districts Rosental-Puchbach , Hörgas and Rosental on the Kainach.

Incorporations

In the course of the 20th century, a total of five previously independent municipalities were incorporated into the municipality of Voitsberg. Tregist started on January 1st, 1951. The remaining four communities Arnstein, Kowald, Lobming and Lobmingberg followed on January 1, 1968. The former municipality of Thallein had already been incorporated into Lobming in 1946. All previously independent municipalities remained as cadastral municipalities.

future

[obsolete] At the beginning of June 2018 it became known that Voitsberg and its neighboring municipality Bärnbach were planning to merge on a voluntary basis by the end of 2019, the planned name of the new municipality was Voitsberg-Bärnbach

An additional inclusion of the cities / towns of Köflach , Rosental and Maria Lankowitz was discussed in June 2018 - this idea for a West Styria city is older. The merger of Köflach, Voitsberg and Rosental - ranked according to the number of inhabitants - would create the second largest city in Styria after Graz with 25,000 inhabitants.

The planned merger failed because of the results of the public survey. While the population of Voitsberg voted for a merger of the two communities, the Bärnbach citizens were largely against it.

geology

Geologically, the area around Voitsberg belongs to the West Styrian Basin and lies on its northwestern edge. It is dominated by layers from the Miocene , which lie over the crystalline layers of the Kainacher Gosau and sequences of the Graz Paleozoic . These Miocene layers have deep red soil and conglomerates of limestone, some of which are interspersed with weathered debris . The West Styrian Basin around Voitsberg can be divided into several narrow basement hollows and thresholds, all of which are between 100 and 300 meters deep.

Voitsberg belongs to the Köflach / Voitsberg formation , which is partially traversed by a tuff horizon and leads to larger, mineable seams of lignite . The tuff horizon is around 16 million years old and arose from volcanic ash that was blown here by the wind from the region around Bad Gleichenberg . The lignite was formed limnic, i.e. in the vicinity of a freshwater lake, and dates from the Ottnangian period . In the cadastral communities Arnstein and Kowald there are also deposits containing magnetite and heavily interspersed with decomposed mica schist and quartz . In Arnstein the magnetite is bound to marble trains . In Lobmingberg you can find sandy gravel deposits from the Young Tertiary that are around 13 to 16.5 million years old .

climate

In the municipality of Voitsberg there is a continental , cold-temperate climate , which is influenced on the one hand by the distinctive basin location, on the other hand by the protected location on the foothills of a mountain range . The winter half of the year is characterized by a pronounced lack of wind, with the main wind directions strongly depending on the diurnal valley winds . The region also has an increased tendency to form valley fog .

There can be significant rainfall throughout the year, with the maximum in summer and the minimum in winter. The average annual rainfall is 912 mm. The month with the lowest rainfall is January with a rainfall of 36 mm. On the other hand there is July, which is the wettest month with an average of 127 mm. The annual mean temperature is 8.0 ° C. The warmest month is July with an average temperature of 18.4 ° C. In January, the coldest month, the average temperature is −3.4 ° C.

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Voitsberg
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 0.4 3.3 8.7 14.0 19.3 22.7 24.7 23.8 19.5 13.2 6.2 1.3 O 13.1
Min. Temperature (° C) −7.2 −5.7 -1.7 2.7 7.6 11.0 12.2 11.6 7.8 3.3 -0.7 −4.8 O 3.1
Temperature (° C) −3.4 -1.2 3.5 8.3 13.4 16.8 18.4 17.7 13.6 8.2 2.7 -1.8 O 8.1
Precipitation ( mm ) 36 41 52 61 92 122 127 112 85 70 69 45 Σ 912
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
0.4
−7.2
3.3
−5.7
8.7
-1.7
14.0
2.7
19.3
7.6
22.7
11.0
24.7
12.2
23.8
11.6
19.5
7.8
13.2
3.3
6.2
-0.7
1.3
−4.8
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
36
41
52
61
92
122
127
112
85
70
69
45
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Source:

history

Prehistory and early history

The oldest finds, which testify to at least short-term human settlement or to hunting stations in the Voitsberg area, were found in caves on the Zigöllerkogel near Köflach and can be dated to an age of 20,000 to 25,000 years, i.e. the Neolithic . Further evidence of Neolithic settlement in the area is a round-neck ax found in the Kainach and another in Geistthal , a flat ax found on the Mandelkogel in Gallmannsegg and a club head from Södingberg . From the period between 4500 and 2300 BC several Copper and Bronze Age hill settlements can be identified in the Voitsberg area, such as the hill settlements on Wartenstein or on the Holy Mountain . The inhabitants of these settlements were already cultivating crops and raising livestock. At the beginning of the Hallstatt period the hilltop settlement was abandoned for unknown reasons, but there was still a population in this area. Larger settlements can only be found again from the Latène period .

There are hardly any finds from the municipality of Voitsberg that can be reliably dated to a prehistoric time. A pierced stone tool that can no longer be found today, as well as other stone tools found in Tregist, could come from the Neolithic or the Copper Age, but cannot be assigned with any certainty due to missing location information. The oldest finds from Voitsberg that can be reliably identified in time are two iron lance tips from the Latène period. Some ceramic pieces from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC found near Krems Castle suggest a settlement, the exact location of which is not known. The lack of prehistoric finds in the municipal area can be explained by the fact that, with the exception of a few smaller studies on the churches and castles in the city area, there have been no scientific excavations and all finds from that time are accidental finds during mining or construction work.

Roman times and early Middle Ages

The area around today's Voitsberg was settled by the Celtic Noriker people in pre-Roman times . The settlement area of ​​the Noriker was conquered by the Romans and was subject to tribute from 15 BC and was part of the Roman province of Noricum from around 50 AD . The area around Voitsberg became part of the rural district of Flavia Solva and was probably settled by the Romans from around the beginning of the 2nd century. The settlers were mostly craftsmen and merchants as well as retired soldiers who promoted the Romanization of the region. Numerous Roman gravestones and some Roman burial mounds are known from today's municipality. The old settlement of Zedernica, from which today's Voitsberg emerged, could have emerged from a Roman road base or manor.

During the Great Migration , many Roman settlers left the Noricum province and fled to Italy. From the beginning of the 7th century, various Slavic tribes invaded the Alpine valleys. For the remaining provincial Roman population, however, the Slavs probably did not pose a threat, but probably helped them to expand the existing settlement area, for example by clearing. Traces of the Slavic settlement in the Voitsberg area have been preserved to this day in place names such as Lankowitz, Graden, Ligist and Lobming. In the period around 800 there was an influx of Bavarian settlers who settled among the Slavic population. Voitsberg became part of the Bavarian rule area Karantanien , whose center of power was the Karnburg in Carinthia. The area around Voitsberg was largely spared from the invasions of Hungary between 900 and 950 , as the mountain ranges and forests in this region were good areas of retreat. After his victory against the Hungarians in 955, King Otto I re- formed the ruined Marches of the Holy Roman Empire , which brought the entire today's Voitsberg district to the Mark an der Mur .

middle Ages

On April 13, 1000, Emperor Otto III. the noble family of Eppenstein 100 Königshuben on land in northern western Styria; this also included part of Voitsberg. As can be seen from a document dated to the year 1063, all residents living in today's Voitsberg belonged to the spiritual custody of the pastor of the western Styrian mother parish Piber . This changed in the 11th century when the Margarethenkirche was built on the Tregistbach near the Stadelhof Zedernitza . In 1103 the Eppensteiners donated a good half of their property in the district, including the Voitsberger Land , to the St. Lambrecht Abbey they had founded . The Styrian sovereign Ottokar IV commissioned Konrad von Kinnberg in 1164 with the establishment of the later Obervoitsberg castle to monitor and possibly block the road between Graz and Judenburg , on Stiftsgrund above the Kainachenge without the consent of St. Lambrecht. Gottfried von Dürnstein , a servant of the St. Lambrecht Abbey, is named as the first bailiff in 1173 . As compensation for the illegally built castle by Emperor Friedrich I, the St. Lambrecht Monastery received the permission to build a market in Köflach on March 3, 1170 . The monastery tried to create a counterweight to the new manor house Voitsberg.

Voitsberg was first referred to as Civitas in 1220 , after the settlement developed under the castle from 1165 and had market character as early as 1196.

In 1358 Jews can be identified for the first time, but in 1497 they had to leave the place because of the eviction order for all Jews in Styria. → See : History of the Jews in Styria

Population development

In the last survey on population status and structure carried out by Statistics Austria on January 1, 2015, Voitsberg had 9437 inhabitants. Of these, 422 were of foreign nationality, of which 262 came from other EU countries, the European Economic Area or Switzerland. The proportion of foreigners in the city's population was 4.5 percent. 48 percent of the population were male, 52 percent female. 23.1 percent of the residents were 65 years of age or older, 12.2 percent under 15 years of age.


Religions

The majority of the Voitsberg population belongs to the Christian faith . The Roman Catholic Church has the largest religious community in the community and has three churches for practicing the faith, the parish church , the Michael church and the Heiligenblut church , as well as some small chapels that are spread over the city area. The Voitsberg parish was first mentioned in a document on January 7, 1103.

In addition to the Roman Catholic Church, there is also a community of the Evangelical Church AB in Voitsberg, which has had its own church, the Gustav Adolf Church, since 1935 and whose parish extends over the entire Voitsberg district. A Seventh-day Adventist community has existed since December 1918 and opened its own church in May 1995.

politics

Local council election Voitsberg 2020
Turnout: 50.0%
 %
60
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
56.88%
20.08%
11.25%
5.97%
4.40%
1.43%

Municipal council

Town hall in Voitsberg

The municipal council consists of 25 members. Since the last municipal council election in 2020, the following mandate distribution has existed:

mayor

Mayor since 1820
Surname Term of office
Johann Edler von Reindl (Reiner) 1820-1825
Anton Trexler 1825-1830
Tobias Rottenbacher 1830-1848
Johann Pirker 1848-1860
Johann Mayer 1860-1865
Eduard Ludescher 1865-1884
Konrad Rottenbacher 1884-1893
Rudolf Griss 1893-1904
Josef Reichmann 1904-1919
Peter Fripertinger 1919-1927
Hans Deutscher 1927-1930
Hans Steiner 1930-1934
Josef Reichmann 1934–1935 (government commissioner)
Anton Loeser 1935-1938
Leopold Hofbauer 1938-1941
Alfred Grabner 1941-1945
Hans Blümel 1945-1959
Stefan Fleischhacker 1959-1962
Hubert Kravcar 1962-1991
Helmut Glaser 1991-1997
Ernst Meixner 1997 - June 2019
Bernd Osprian since July 2019

In February 2019, Ernst Meixner announced his resignation on June 30, 2019. Bernd Osprian, the former mayor of Bärnbach, was elected as his successor on July 1, 2019.

Town twinning

Sister cities of Voitsberg are:

Culture and sights

Greißenegg Castle around 1830, lith. Institution JF Kaiser, Graz

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

GKB station after complete renovation (2006)

Voitsberg is a regional economic center of supraregional importance in the Alpe-Adria regions and has good transport links. With the renovated train station, which also houses businesses and social facilities, a connection to the rapid transit line operated by the Graz-Köflacher RailwayS-Bahn Styria . Voitsberg's structure is a mix of small and medium-sized businesses.

Established businesses

From 1850 to 1983, Voitsberg had a glass factory that was economically important for the region . The decommissioned steam power plant Voitsberg was demolished by the end of 2015. On November 8, 2015, the remaining part of the structure was to be blown up. The demolition was carried out by experts from the demolition service training group of the Austrian Armed Forces . For the armed forces it was the largest building demolition in the Second Republic. The demolition went wrong, the tower on the side of the building was blown up, but the main part remained standing. On December 20, 2015, 2:20 p.m., the building was completely blown up. The mechanical engineering company Holz-Her operates its production plant in Voitsberg.

Public facilities

Voitsberg is the seat of the Voitsberg District Police Command with an attached police station . This is locally responsible for the communities Voitsberg, Bärnbach, Kainach bei Voitsberg and Geistthal-Södingberg. In addition, the district office of the rescue and emergency medical service of the Red Cross for the entire district is located in the city .

tourism

Together with Köflach, Maria Lankowitz and Bärnbach, the community forms the “Lipizzanerheimat” tourist association. Its seat is in Köflach.

Personalities

Honorary citizen and honorary ring bearer

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Ernst Reinhold Lasnik : History, art, hiking: a guide through the Voitsberg district. Kulturemeinschaft Oberland, 1984.
  • Ernst Reinhold Lasnik: 750 years of the city of Voitsberg. Catalog for the exhibition in St. Michaels Church, June to September 1995 (= structure 17). Voitsberg 1995.
  • Ernst Reinhold Lasnik: Chronicle of the city of Voitsberg, Volume 1: Portrait of a city and its surroundings. Voitsberg 2012.
  • Ernst Reinhold Lasnik: Chronicle of the city of Voitsberg, Volume 2: Portrait of a city and its surroundings. Voitsberg 2012.
  • Gottfried Allmer: Chronicle of the city of Voitsberg, Volume 3: Portrait of a city and its surroundings, church history. Voitsberg 2012.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. a b Ernst Lasnik : Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape  1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 16 .
  2. a b c Be a guest in Voitsberg. (No longer available online.) In: voitsberg.at. Municipality of Voitsberg, archived from the original on March 18, 2016 ; accessed on March 20, 2016 . 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@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.voitsberg.at
  3. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 48 .
  4. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 49 .
  5. Agriculture and forestry operations and areas by type of acquisition. (PDF) In: statistik.at. Statistics Austria, accessed on March 20, 2016 .
  6. cadastral communities Styria. 2015. In: gis2.stmk.gv.at. GIS Steiermark, accessed on March 20, 2016 .
  7. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 190-192 .
  8. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 175-176 .
  9. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 177-179 .
  10. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 185-186 .
  11. a b c Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 187-188 .
  12. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 189 .
  13. steiermark.orf.at - “Voitsberg and Bärnbach plan merger” on June 7, 2018 no longer available.
  14. Is the "West Styria City" coming now? In: orf.at. June 7, 2018, accessed June 7, 2018 .
  15. ↑ The merger of Voitsberg and Bärnbach burst after a public survey. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . November 24, 2018, accessed March 18, 2019 .
  16. ^ A b Fritz Ebner : The geological map sheet Voitsberg (ÖK 163) and remarks on the geology in the area of ​​St. Pankrazen . In: Reports of the Institute for Geology and Paleontology of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. No.  3 , 2011, ISSN  1608-8166 , p. 13-14 .
  17. a b Leopold Weber, Alfred Weiss: Mining history and geology of the Austrian lignite deposits . In: Archive for deposit research of the Federal Geological Institute . No. 4 , 1983, ISBN 3-900312-26-5 , ISSN  0253-097X , p. 43-44 .
  18. ^ Alfred Weiss: Old iron mines in the districts of Voitsberg, Graz-Umgebung and Leibnitz . In: Archive for deposit research in the Eastern Alps . No. 14 , 1973, p. 76-77 .
  19. ↑ Climatic region Voitsberg-Köflacher basin. In: Environment.steiermark.at. The State of Styria, accessed on March 21, 2016 .
  20. a b Climate: Voitsberg. In: de.climate-data.org. AmbiWeb GmbH, accessed on March 21, 2016 .
  21. a b Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 27 .
  22. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 18-19 .
  23. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 19-20 .
  24. ^ Ernst Lasnik: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings . tape 1 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 20-21 .
  25. Population level and structure 01/01/2015. (PDF) In: statistik.at. Statistics Austria, accessed on March 22, 2016 .
  26. 900 years of the church in Voitsberg. In: voitsberg.graz-seckau.at. Parish Voitsberg, accessed April 1, 2016 .
  27. ^ Evangelical parish AB Voitsberg: Evangelical in Voitsberg. In: evang-voitsberg.at. Retrieved April 1, 2016 .
  28. About our parish. In: evang-voitsberg.at. Evangelische Pfarrgemeinde AB Voitsberg, accessed on April 1, 2016 .
  29. Gottfried Allmer: Voitsberg - portrait of a city and its surroundings - Church history . tape 3 . Municipality of Voitsberg, Voitsberg 2012, p. 264 .
  30. ^ Voitsberg - Results of the 2020 municipal council election , accessed on July 7, 2020
  31. news ORF.at - WAHL20 Styria
  32. Voitsberg's former mayor Glaser has passed away. In: kleinezeitung.at. October 21, 2017. Retrieved November 5, 2017 .
  33. ^ Orf.at: Bärnbacher Mayor goes to Voitsberg . Article dated February 26, 2019, accessed April 5, 2019.
  34. Newly elected: Osprian is the new Mayor of Voitsberg . Article dated July 1, 2019, accessed July 1, 2019.
  35. Voitsberg: Osprian with 15: 8 votes new mayor . Article dated July 1, 2019, accessed July 1, 2019.
  36. site Voitsberg - Städepartnerschaften , accessed on June 7, 2020
  37. Flower decoration competition "Die Flora"
  38. End of the 15,400-tonne structure - 666 kilograms of explosives for a power plant. November 7, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  39. Voitsberg explosion obviously went wrong. In: orf.at. November 8, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  40. ^ Ö1-Radio, December 20, 2015, 3:01 pm
  41. ^ Red Cross District Office Voitsberg-Köflach roteskreuz.at .
  42. ^ Grazer Zeitung , Official Gazette for Styria. December 30, 2014, 210th year, 52nd piece. No. 309. ZDB -ID 1291268-2 pp. 626-627.