Wehrgraben (district, Steyr)

Wehrgraben ( statistical zone )
Basic data
Pole. District , state	Steyr  (SR), Upper Austria
Judicial district	Steyr
Pole. local community	Steyr   ( KG  Steyr )
Locality	Steyr
Statistical district	Steyrdorf
Coordinates (K)	48 ° 2 ′ 29 "  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 20"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 2 ′ 29 "  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 20"  E
height	294  m above sea level A.
Residents of the stat. An H.	1116 (2001)
Building status	169 (2001)
Post Code	4400 Steyr
Statistical identification
Counting district / district	oN (40201 024,025)
View from the Steyrbrücke
Historically Bei der Steyr , Josefsthal ; Statistical zone (3) includes Zspr. 024 and Karolinental / Eisenfeld (Gsanginsel , Zspr. 025), but without parts close to the city (021) and parts remote from the city (former Puffer Au , 026) Source: STAT : Ortverzeichnis ; BEV : GEONAM ; DORIS ; City of Steyr: Statistics; (K) Coordinate not official

Wehrgraben is a locality of the city of Steyr in Upper Austria .

geography

The location is northwest of the city ​​center , on the left (northern) side of the Steyr River , in the Steyrdorf district .

Wehrgraben encompasses the area around the Wehrgraben (weir water) , an old works canal that is diverted at the St. Anna Weir and flows back into it just above the confluence of the Enns and Steyr rivers. Two transfer channels go from this canal back to the Steyr, creating three separate islands. The easternmost part, close to the old town, extends from the direction bridge to the Haindlmühl weir of the Steyr. The middle part is separated by the upper water , downstream of the swimming school bridge . Here is the Great Trap as a transition. The westernmost part stretches up to the knee of the Steyr at St.-Anna-Wehr.

The statistical zone Wehrgraben only includes the central part, as well as the Gsang Island (Karolinental) , which adjoins the Mitterwasser to the south (as a section of the river Steyr ) , and the small factory island at the confluence of the Gsangwasser . The other two parts are not included.

Neighboring locations:

		Steyrdorf
Steyr Unterhimmler Au
Christkindlsiedlung (Stt. Christkindl)	Karolinental (Eisenfeld)	Steyr Inner City (Stt. Steyr)

history

The moat is a part of the city that was significantly shaped by the industrialist Josef Werndl .

The areas close to the city are a historical suburb that was called Bei der Steyr . This name referred to the river low at the Aussersteyrdorf fortified in 1478 and the Wieserfeld in front of it, which was settled after 1543 . The weir ditch was a service water canal from the 13th or 14th century at the latest that was necessary for early industrialization and was used to generate mechanical (and later electrical) energy for operations directly on the water. In the 15th or 16th century, the industrial centers of Zeugstätte 2 , Zeugstätte 3 and Zeugstätte 4 were built on the outer city wall and the Enns .

Out of town, south of Aichet on the then uninhabited Puffer Au north of the Gsang Island, there was another old mill, called Zeugstätte 1 .

Instead of Steyr (Merian / Vischer 1674), the weir ditch at the top in the middle

The local water users joined together to form the Wehrgrabenkommune , from which the place name goes back, at their own request in 1529 they received a strict water management and legal regulation from the city administration, the Wehrgrabenordung, which deals with the witness sites, floods and the ditch and between the operators as well as stipulating penalties for offenses. This was renewed in 1564 (Wehrgraben-Freiheit ”) , 1585 and then again in 1879. In the early modern era, there were flour mills, sawmills, three paper mills, several hammer mills for iron and copper, and in the early 19th century a lattice embroidery and a cotton printing plant (Manchester factory).

The fire in 1842

In a fire that broke out on May 3, 1842, the moat was also devastated. The houses rebuilt after the fire show the style features of the Biedermeier period .

In 1864, the site of Josef and Franz Werndl & Comp., Waffenfabrik und Sägemühle , originally located in Oberletten near Sierning, was built here , which then produced  the standard rifle of the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1869 as the Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (ÖWG) , and at times with over 15,000 employees was the largest arms factory in Europe. Most of the commercial facilities on the Wehrgraben gradually became part of this company. The company headquarters was at today's Direktionsstrasse. From 1870 onwards, Werndl built the first settlements of factory apartments in Wehrgrabengasse, and then on the Gsanginsel the large workers' housing estate Eysnfeld . In 1878 it was named Karolinenthal in honor of Werndl's deceased wife , the area around the management was called Josefsthal. Werndl also developed the Puffer Au, where, among other things, the oldest workers' open-air swimming pool in Europe, the swimming school , was built. In 1834 Bei der Steyr comprised 71 houses with almost 1000 inhabitants, in 1900 90 houses with almost 1500 inhabitants.

Wehrgraben and Eisenfeld in front of the old town (aerial photo, 1932)

The ÖWG (later Steyr-Werke , then Steyr-Daimler-Puch and others) moved to the Plattnergrund in Steyrdorf in 1912/14 . The facilities at the mouth of the weir ditch became the area of ​​the knife and steel goods factory Hack-Werke Ges. Founded in 1875 by Josef Hack , the inventor of the serrated edge. Until the early 20th century - Steyr was particularly hard hit by the global economic crisis of the interwar period - a large number of the companies were there shut down here, the Hack-Werke existed as the last company until 1981. The industrial buildings were partly demolished, but some were re-used.

In 1972, when the last power plant was shut down, the city administration had plans to fill in the weir ditch and use it for modern housing. The citizens' initiative “Save the moat” was formed, and in 1983 the project was finally abandoned.

The Linz architects Rüdiger Stelzer and Walter Hutter won the design competition that followed. The province of Upper Austria set up its provincial exhibition “Work / Man / Machine” in 1987 , from which the Museum of the Industrial World of Work emerged . The moat - with a total of 220 houses - has been a listed building since 1987. The Steyrdorf protective ensemble has also been shown here since 2015 .

Infrastructure and sights

• Museum of the world of work
• University of Applied Sciences
• Defense ditch school
• Swimming school
• various old factories, including former hacking works , gsang factory
• historical bridges
• numerous residential, town and craft houses

See also: List of listed objects in Steyr-Steyr: A – G (especially Fabrikstraße ) , S – Z (especially Wehrgrabengasse )

literature

• Géza Hajós ( editor ), Ernst Bacher (edit): Steyrdorf. Weir ditch - Wieserfeld. Residential and industrial buildings in a historic suburb of Steyr in Upper Austria . Workbooks on Austrian art topography. Schroll, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7031-0631-X .
• Elisabeth Kronsteiner: Steyrdorf . In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Province of Upper Austria, Linz 1995, pp. 167–172 (article online (PDF; 1.1 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).
• Hans Stögmüller: Weir ditch. Guide through history and the world of work. Ennsthaler, Steyr 1992, ISBN 3-85068-238-2 ( table of contents online, PDF , obvsg.at).

Web links

Commons : Wehrgraben (Steyr)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Weir ditch . In: Steyr Tourist Office: steyr.info > City & Culture> Sights

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} For internal statistics, weir ditches are kept separate within Steyrdorf: statistical zone 3 (Steyrdorf: 2, statistical district: 20); Statistics Austria counts: 024 (Wehrgraben in the narrow sense) and 025 (i.e. Gsanginsel / Karolinental); see statistical districts. Statistical Zones. Statistical counting districts. Magistrat Steyr, planning date 2008 (all pdf, accessed July 8, 2018).
2. ↑ For an overview, see bridge and hydraulic engineering. steyr.at (accessed September 14, 2017).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Steyr. In: Vienna City and State Archives, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for City History Research: Austrian City Atlas ; Section especially in the Steyrer Wehrgraben… (online mapire.eu; with map ) - with more precise sources, esp. Lit. Stögmüller 1992, various Ss.
4. ↑ Steyr street names: Wehrgrabengasse. steyr.at (accessed on October 28, 2016).
5. ↑ Friedrich Berndt, Hans Stögmüller: The paper mills from Steyr. In: Yearbook of the Steyr City Archives 2, 2010, pp. 9–44;
   Friedrich Berndt: Steyr paper watermarks. In: Publications of the cultural office of the city of Steyr , issue November 1950, pp. 20–28 ( article pdf , eReader , both steyr.dahoam.net).
6. ↑ For a more detailed overview of the works, see also the article Wehrgraben (waters): History .
7. ^ Lit. Kronsteiner: Steyrdorf , p. 171.
8. ↑ Steyr Mannlicher - The history of a company. buechsenmacherverlag.de, PDF ( Memento from December 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
9. ↑ For an overview see Heinz Kern: Fabriks- u. Residential properties Josef Werndls. Lecture notes, 2011 (pdf, on steyrerpioniere.files.wordpress.com, accessed September 14, 2018).
10. ↑ ops.cit. Austrian City Atlas ; Section The favorable economic trend drew workers to Steyr ...
11. ^ Kurt Klein  (edit.): Historical local dictionary . Statistical documentation on population and settlement history. Ed .: Vienna Institute of Demography [VID] d. Austrian Academy of Sciences . Upper Austria Part 1, Steyr (city): Suburbs and suburbs: Bei der Steyr , S.  14th f . ( Online document , explanations . Suppl . ; both PDF - oD [updated]). Special references:  1834: Franz Xaver Pritz: Description and history of the city of Steyr and its surroundings , 1837, 12 f. • 1869 and later: Central Statistical Commission / Federal Statistical Office / Austrian Central Statistical Office / Statistics Austria (ed.): Directory of places . (Results of the population censuses, from 2011 register censuses).
    
12. ↑ Josef Hack. Michael Powolny, on steyrerpioniere.wordpress.com, July 6, 2011.
13. ^ Official Journal of the City of Steyr , June 2007, p. 169.
14. ^ Wiener Zeitung , November 27, 2009.
15. ↑ Erwin Quirchmayr: Steyr: Wehrgraben now under monument protection . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 24, 1987, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).