Bad Leonfelden

Borough Bad Leonfelden
coat of arms	Austria map
Basic data
Country:	Austria
State :	Upper Austria
Political District :	Urfahr environment
License plate :	UU
Surface:	40.38 km²
Coordinates :	48 ° 32 '  N , 14 ° 18'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 31 '31 "  N , 14 ° 17' 36"  E
Height :	750  m above sea level A.
Residents :	4,260 (January 1, 2020)
Postal code :	4190
Area code :	07213
Community code :	4 16 03
Address of the municipal administration:	Hauptplatz 1 4190 Bad Leonfelden
Website:	www.bad-leonfelden.ooe.gv.at
politics
Mayor :	Alfred Hartl ( ÖVP )
Municipal Council : (2015) (25 members)	14th 6th 3 2 14th 6th 3 2  A total of 25 seats ÖVP : 14 ELWIS : 6 FPÖ : 3 SPÖ : 2
Location of Bad Leonfelden in the Urfahr-Umgebung district
The city seen from the west
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Bad Leonfelden is an Upper Austrian municipality in the Upper Mühlviertel in the Urfahr-Umgebung district . With an area of ​​40.38 km² and 4260 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020) Bad Leonfelden is the fourth largest municipality in terms of area and the ninth largest in terms of population.

Bad Leonfelden was first mentioned in 1154 as a world of praise and received market rights before 1356. With the fortifications built after the Hussite Wars , Leonfelden was one of four border fortifications against the Bohemians in today's Mühlviertel . The location on two trade routes leading from the Danube to Bohemia brought prosperity to the citizens, although the trade activity was fought both militarily and judicially by the free townsfolk . In 1850 the market became the seat of a district court , the center of the judicial district of Leonfelden and in 1903 it became part of the newly founded district of Urfahr.

There was a mud bath in Leonfelden between 1881 and 1919. A spa house was opened in the 1960s and the spa town has been allowed to call itself Bad Leonfelden ever since. Since the 1970s, Leonfelden has been expanded to become a school location in the middle Mühlviertel and in 2001 the Upper Austrian provincial government made it a city.

geography

location

The center of Bad Leonfelden is located 28 km north of the provincial capital Linz and 6 km south of the state border with the Czech Republic in the Upper Mühlviertel . The Weigetschlag / Studánky border crossing leads to the town of Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurth) , 13 km north of the Czech Republic .

The municipality covers an area of ​​40.38 km², the largest extension is 6.6 km in east-west direction and 10.7 km in north-south direction.

The highest point is on the eastern slope of the Sternstein at around 970  m above sea level. A. near the village of Oberstern and the lowest point at around 675  m above sea level. A. next to the border to the village of Schönau in the municipality of Zwettl an der Rodl . The center of Bad Leonfeldens lies at 750  m above sea level. A.

Geology and waters

Bad Leonfelden belongs to the granite and gneiss plateau , the Austrian part of the Bohemian mass . From a geological and geomorphological point of view, as well as from the point of view of the use of space, most of the municipal area east and south-east of the center belongs to the Upper Austrian Leonfeldner Hochland spatial unit , while the higher layers of the Sternstein are in the Bohemian Forest and the lower ones in the southern Bohemian Forest foothills . The municipality to the west around the district of Haid has a share in the area of ​​the Central Mühlviertel highlands .

The substrate is in the district Leonfelden from Quetschschiefer , on the southern slope of the star stone, however slate form gneisses the lion's share. In the municipality there are also islands with Mauthausen and Weinsberg granite and in the southern area Perlgneise. Various gneiss rocks and mylonites occur in the area of ​​the Rodl fault .

The existing smaller still waters are small fish or extinguishing ponds. The most important river is the Große Rodl , which rises on the eastern slope of the Sternstein and flows east of the Leonfelden district towards the Danube . Until 1779 the river formed the border between the Mühlviertel and Machlandviertel , today between the upper and lower Mühlviertel.

Other rivers are the Steinbach, which is fed by several brooks and flows into the Große Rodl in the Unterstiftung district, and the Granitzbach in the Rading district, which flows north to the Vltava . The European main watershed runs from the summit of the Sternstein south of the Weigetschlag district in an east-west direction through the municipality.

Since the watershed has shifted northwards over the millennia, it is assumed that the Rodl also drained into the Vltava in the past.

Urban structure and land use

City structure and neighboring communities

The municipality of Bad Leonfelden has existed since the incorporation on November 1, 1938 from the areas of the five formerly independent municipalities of Dietrichschlag, Laimbach, Leonfelden, Stiftung bei Leonfelden and Weigetschlag. The existing structure in cadastral communities was retained.

Leonfelden is divided into the following 23 districts (in brackets the number of inhabitants as of January 1, 2020):

• Affetschlag (23)
• Bad Leonfelden (358)
• Boheimschlag (6)
• Keep (2075)
• Lock Pick (262)
• Durnau (3)
• Elmegg (23)
• Color (38)
• Haid (233)
• Langbruck (34)
• Oberlaimbach (142)
• Upper star (8)
• Oberstiftung (230) including Hagenau
• Rading (55) including Appenau
• Rossberg (17)
• Schoenau (85)
• Silver hard hammer (11)
• Spielau (44)
• Unterlaimbach (172)
• Lower star (35)
• Sub-foundation (256) including Hagau and Im Graben
• Weigetschlag (68)
• Weinzierl (82)

The agricultural areas make up more than 60% of the municipal area, around 35% are forested:

Neighboring communities

Loučovice ( Czech Republic )	Vyšší Brod ( Czech Republic )
Vorderweissenbach		Schenkenfelden
Oberneukirchen	Zwettl on the Rodl	Reichenau in the Mühlkreis

Bad Leonfelden is surrounded by the communities of Schenkenfelden , Reichenau im Mühlkreis , Zwettl an der Rodl , Oberneukirchen and Vorderweißbach , all of which belong to the Urfahr-Umgebung district . In the north, the municipality borders on the Czech municipality Vyšší Brod . In the west, the Bohemian Forest, including the Sternstein and Brunnwald, and in the east, the Miesenwald, form natural boundaries to the neighboring communities.

Bad Leonfelden is a member of the SternGartl Association for Regional Development , to which numerous other communities in the central Mühlviertel belong. As the only city of the association, Bad Leonfelden is considered the unofficial center of the region concerned. The establishment of an intermunicipal business settlement area together with some neighboring communities is planned.

climate

The nearest state climate stations are in Reichenau ( 685  m above sea level ) and Freistadt ( 560  m above sea level ). The municipality of Bad Leonfelden can be divided into three climatic areas, all of which are in the oceanic climatic zone . The Sternstein area, which is up to 1125 meters above sea level, is considered to be the roughest area in the municipality. Most of the municipality is located on a high plateau susceptible to wind. The district of Schönau is the lowest and is therefore climatically favored. The plateau, which is open to the northeast, is generally exposed to strong winds and allows cold north winds to flow in, so that the 6 ° C annual isothermal temperature extends far south.

In Traberg (municipality of Oberneukirchen ), eight kilometers away, at 854 meters above sea level, there is an annual average temperature of 6.5 ° C, and that of Bad Leonfelden is also in this range. The highest locations in the municipality on Sternstein have an annual average temperature of 5.3 ° C. January and February are the coldest months, July and August the warmest. In Bad Leonfelden 110 to 140 frost days are counted every year  . The mean annual rainfall is around 950 mm and increases with increasing altitude. There is hardly any fog in the municipality, since no inversion weather conditions can occur.

history

Beginnings of the market

In the 11th century, the area of ​​today's municipality belonged to the sphere of influence of the Lords of Wilhering , who called themselves Lords of Waxenberg after the founding of Waxenberg Castle . Leonfelden was laid out according to plan at the point where two ancient trade routes that led from the Danube to Bohemia met. The Angerdorf was first mentioned in 1154 as Lobenvelt (later spellings also Lonveld , Lanveld , Lanfeld , Lannfeldt ) and developed into the regional center. The name goes back to the noble family of Lobenstein ( Lobenstein castle ruins ). With the increasing clearing of the region, the population increased, which is why in 1292 the parish of Leonfelden was separated from the mother parish of Gramastetten . The Leonfelden office was part of the Waxenberg rule and in the Wallsee partition contract of 1356, Leonfelden was named as an existing market with lower jurisdiction (Taiding). The market had the right to a weekly market and two annual markets. Another source of income was the right to defeat .

Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century

Center - the layout of the streets around the town square shows the course of the former fortification and moat (ring road)

In the years 1422, 1426 and 1427, the town was several times from those in Bohemia coming Hussites attacked and burned down. In the subsequent border feuds of Bohemian nobles against Emperor Friedrich III. Several raids and looting took place in the Leonfelden area. Around 1470 the market was fortified with a 891 meter long wall with initially two gates and was thus one of the four border fortifications against the Bohemians in today's Mühlviertel. A trench nine to twelve meters wide was built in front of the wall. In addition to the Böhmer and Linzertor, the meat and dye doors were built later. The church tower of the parish church was part of the fortifications.

In 1435, five mills and two blacksmiths were named in the market book, and there were three meat banks, a bathing room and a brewery in the market itself . A citizen's hospital (poor house) was founded on December 10, 1505 and the hospital church was added to 1517/20 according to a letter of foundation dated June 29, 1514. On January 2nd, 1506, the Roman-German King Maximilian I granted the market the right to use a coat of arms. In 1579 a town hall was built.

Leonfelden was a princely market with a market judge at the head of the administration, who was elected annually. He was assisted by a twelve-person council and a committee of the citizenship. The seat of the judge was the town hall, in which the citizens and court drawers were also kept. Protestant services were held in the town hall in the late 16th century until all Protestants had to leave the market in 1627. A school building attached to the town hall was first mentioned in 1514. The schoolmaster was also sacristan and organist in the parish church and was appointed by the abbot of Wilhering monastery . Around 1620 around 40 children attended school in summer, only 8 in winter because their parents had to pay for the firewood.

Leonfelden was located on the shortest connection of the Linzer Steig from Linz to Bohemia and offered the Leonfeldner citizens opportunities for long-distance trade as an important source of income. However, due to road constraints , Freistadt had a monopoly on the lucrative salt trade from 1364 and later also on the trade in iron. In the 14th and 15th centuries the people of Leonfeld tried in vain to open the road to Bohemia for long-distance trade. It was not until 1492 that the market was allowed to import food for its own use and from 1496 also for commercial purposes from Bohemia. From 1520 the battle flared up again. In 1530, around 80 people from Freistadt attacked a large train of wagons destined for Bad Leonfelden and directed it through Freistadt. Between 1535 and 1555 a legal process for the rights of way was carried out, which led to Freistadt receiving the monopoly for the iron trade in Bohemia, while Leonfelden was given the right to trade in salt. Contrary to the road constraints of 1570 in favor of Freistadt, merchants continued to drive via Leonfelden until Emperor Rudolf II forbade the Leonfelders to trade in salt at the beginning of the 17th century. The remaining trading rights were only insignificant and prevented further growth of the market in the following period.

In the second Upper Austrian peasant uprising (1594–1597) the pastor was expelled by the citizens and further acts of violence occurred. In the Upper Austrian Peasants' War in 1626, Leonfelden was first occupied by peasants, who were driven out by imperial troops. 150 out of 500 farmers died in the attempt to recapture. In a second battle near the Miesenwald on August 30, 1626 about 500 rebellious peasants died on Leonfeldner Boden, which is remembered by the peasant war band near Steinberg / Hinterkönigschlag. Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War , military entrenchments were built in Weigetschlag, Roßberg and Rading to protect against an incursion to Sweden . The Schwedenschanze later became part of the border fortifications against Bohemia. The fortifications were occupied again in 1663 during the threat from the Turks and in 1680/81 because of the danger of the plague.

The brewery, which had existed since 1435, was owned by a citizen and only became a communal brewery in 1687. In addition to Leonfeldner beer, beer from Bohemia and Freistadt was also served in the inns of the market. In 1728 the brewery produced around 5,890  buckets of beer, in 1730 two breweries produced around 11,000 buckets of beer. The communal brewery was operated until the commune sold the brewing rights to the Stiegl-Bräu in Salzburg in 1920.

Maria Schutz bei Bründl was worshiped around 1668 and in 1691 a small chapel and a pit for bathing were built there. In 1761 and 1778 to 1792 it was converted to its present size due to the increasing number of pilgrimages.

During the devastating market fire in 1776, only 16 houses and the parish church were spared. In 1785 the school was expanded, as the general compulsory education from 1774 caused the number of pupils to grow significantly. In 1786 the hospital church was secularized and auctioned off, with the market community being awarded the contract and the church being converted into a town hall. During the Napoleonic Wars , the place was occupied several times at the expense of the suffering population. On May 15, 1809, Leonfelden was sacked by French and Württemberg troops, who were chased away the next day by Austrian troops.

Development since 1850

View of Bad Leonfelden in the 19th century, Maria Bründl pilgrimage church, Bad Leonfelden

In 1850 a district court was established in Leonfelden , which was housed in the former parish school behind the town hall. In the same year, the community of Leonfelden was initially assigned to the Freistadt district , and in 1903 part of the new Urfahr district .

Between 1853 and 1860 a road was built via Zwettl and Hellmonsödt to Linz, which was later expanded into today's Leonfeldener Straße B 126. Due to the population growth, the parish church was enlarged and redesigned from 1875 to 1877. A parish library has existed since 1889. On April 10, 1892 (Palm Sunday) another large market fire broke out, which destroyed 92 houses. All residents had to flee the city because of the fire that destroyed the last remains of the medieval fortification. After the fire, the Böhmer- and Linzertor were demolished after the wall and moat had been destroyed earlier. Today only the Ringstrasse and the layout of the houses remind of it. The eastern part of the market was canalized in 1893.

In 1899 the Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Jubiläumswarte (today: Sternsteinwarte) was opened on the summit of the Sternstein. This is located in the municipality of Vorderweissenbach , but is administered by the Bad Leonfelden spa association. In 1905 the Starhembergers built the Brunnwald Castle west of Leonfelden. From 1908 there was street lighting with acetylene gas and in 1912 a new building for the district court was built. Postbuses have been running to Linz instead of stagecoaches since 1912.

In 1925 Leonfelden was connected to the overland network of the TEG (today: Linz Strom AG ) and the entire market received electric light. After Austria was annexed to the German Reich on March 13, 1938, Upper Austria became the Gau Oberdonau . In 1938 the secondary school opened , which moved from the school house to a new building near the Bründl Church after the war. American tanks hit the market in early May 1945. From July 1, 1945, the Red Army occupied Leonfelden and the place belonged to the Soviet occupation zone until 1955 .

In 1946 a wooden outdoor pool was built on Steinbach. In the summer of 1960, five friends from Leonfeld decided to reopen a mud bath , as the Franzensbad, built in 1881, had to be closed after the First World War after pipelines were stolen. With the opening of the spa on July 24, 1961, Leonfelden was declared a spa resort of Bad Leonfelden by resolution of the Upper Austrian provincial government . The Kurhaus was gradually enlarged in the following years.

In 1963 the Sternstein was opened up for winter tourism with the first chairlift. In 1972 the place received a new culture and guest center and in 1974 a district sports facility. In 1978 the upper level secondary school and a higher education institution for commercial professions were opened. The first culture weeks took place in 1979. On August 29, 1987 Bad Leonfelden got a home and on October 1, 1988 a school museum in the former parish school from 1577. In 1994 the new sports and event center opened. In 1996 a sewage treatment plant was built in the sub-foundation and in 1997 a snow-making system was built in the Sternstein ski area. The completely renovated Aqua Leone swimming pool and the music school were opened in 1998. A district retirement home has existed in the village since 2000.

In 2001 Bad Leonfelden was elevated to a municipality by the Upper Austrian provincial government as an expression of its growing importance as a school, border and health resort as well as the center of the central Mühlviertel. Since 2003, the town center has been relieved of through traffic between Linz and the Czech Republic by the bypass east.

The district court in Leonfelden was closed on January 1, 2013 and its judicial district was divided into the judicial districts of Freistadt and Rohrbach. Bad Leonfelden has been part of the Freistadt judicial district since then .

population

Development and structure

144 Leonfeldner houses were mentioned in the Urbar Waxenberg around 1440, in 1754 2226 inhabitants were counted. In 1846 the number of inhabitants was given as 2932.

In 1869, 2805 people lived in the municipality. By 1934 the population sank to 2,466, the lowest level in the last 100 years. The number of inhabitants hardly changed until 1961, only since the 1960s has the municipality recorded steady growth. The growth is due to the improved transport connections for commuters and the growing tourism, and there was also an influx from the surrounding communities. In the 2001 census , Bad Leonfelden had 3847 inhabitants and on December 31, 2011, the municipality had its highest population of 4064 people. In relation to the number of inhabitants, Bad Leonfelden is the sixth largest of the eight cities in the Mühlviertel.

In the 2001 census, the proportion of residents aged 60 and over was 18.2% while 20.2% were under 15 years old. The proportion of the female population was 50.8%.

Of the 3,071 residents of Bad Leonfelden who were older than 15 years in 2001, 6.3% had graduated from a university , technical college or academy and 10.6% had passed a Matura . 47.8% have completed an apprenticeship or a vocational middle school . 35.3% of the relevant population group have compulsory school as the highest degree.

The strong increase in the number of inhabitants from 2001 to 2011 occurred despite the negative birth balance (–15), as the migration balance was positive (+254).

Origin and language

The German dialect, which is generally spoken in the Bad Leonfelden area and in most of Upper Austria, is East Central Bavarian . In 2001, 96% of the people of Leonfeld stated German as a colloquial language. 1% spoke Turkish , 0.6% Czech , the rest other languages.

The proportion of people from Leonfeld with foreign citizenship was 3.6% in 2001, below the average in Upper Austria. 0.9% of the Leonfeldn population had citizenship from Bosnia and Herzegovina , 1.0% from Turkey and 1.7% from other countries in the world. In 2001, around 5% of Leonfeldners were born abroad.

religion

In the 2001 census, 3,603 people (93.7%) stated that they were Roman Catholic , 64 (1.7%) Islamic , 28 (0.7%) Protestant , 26 (0.7%) Orthodox and 19 (0 , 5%) other faiths. 107 (2.8%) Leonfeldner did not profess any religion.

The Roman Catholic parish Leonfelden belongs to the deanery of Sankt Johann am Wimberg , also includes smaller areas in the neighboring political communities and has 3947 believers. The members of the Protestant Church belong to the Protestant parish of Gallneukirchen .

politics

Municipal, city council and mayor

→ Main article : List of mayors of the city of Bad Leonfelden

Since 1945, with the exception of the period from 1985 to 1991 , the ÖVP consistently held a two-thirds majority of votes and mandates, while the SPÖ mostly took second place. The ÖVP-affiliated citizen list, which only appeared in 1985, immediately became the second strongest party and the ÖVP fell to around 50%. The FPÖ has been a candidate since 1979 and received the fewest votes until 2009. In 2009, for the first time, a voter association called Elwis Preslee Party and has been represented on the committees ever since. So far, no other parties have competed in the municipal council elections.

Since the municipal council election on September 27, 2015 , the municipal and city councils have the following composition:

Eligible voters: 3,376 +121 , valid votes: 2,713, turnout: 84.6% -0.2%

Party / political grouping	voting share	Verän- alteration	Seats on the local council	Verän- alteration	Seats on the city council
ÖVP	56.0%	-3.9%	14th	-2	4th
Citizens List ELWIS	23.1%	+ 5.2%	6th	+1	2
FPÖ	11.9%	+5.0%	3	+2	1
SPÖ	9.1%	-3.7%	2	-1	0

The Bad Leonfeldner municipal council consists of 25 members. The council, elected from the ranks of the local councils, consists of seven people, including the mayor and the vice mayor. The mayor has been Alfred Hartl (ÖVP) since October 1991, who was elected into his fifth term of office with 77.3% of the valid votes in the mayoral election on September 27, 2015. Deputy Mayor is Helmut Feilmair (ÖVP).

Partner municipality

The partner municipality of Bad Leonfelden is Sankt Michael im Lungau in the state of Salzburg .

Sponsorship

In 1985 the sponsorship for the expelled Germans from the city of Hohenfurth (now Vyšší Brod ) in the Kaplitz district was taken over.

Failed asylum accommodation

In mid-December 2012 it became known that the planned accommodation of 50 asylum seekers in the vacant “Böhmertor” pension had failed due to resistance from residents. Mayor Alfred Hartl (ÖVP) even threatened the owner of the pension with the termination of the friendship, should he allow the accommodation. Furthermore, Mayor Alfred Hartl was caught in this context by controversial statements such as “You have to live the way we live” or “These refugees are coming to our prosperity, which we have earned with hard sweat”.

coat of arms

The right to use a market coat of arms was granted on January 2, 1506 by Emperor Maximilian I. On the occasion of the town elevation on May 27, 2001, the coat of arms remained unchanged.

Blazon :

“In silver on a green three-mountain, a silver, square and crenellated tower with a black arched gate opened by a half-raised, golden portcullis, red-white-red structure with two shooting holes and a red, gold-crossed tent roof, flanked on the right and left by one each green, brown-stemmed deciduous tree standing on the outer hilltops and a gold, six-pointed star each. ”The community colors are green-white-red.

The fortified tower bears witness to the fortifications of today's city, which was probably built around 1470 after the Hussite invasions. The stars and the Dreiberg characterize the Sternstein, which is partly located in the municipality.

Culture, sport and leisure

Buildings and other sights

See also:  List of listed objects in Bad Leonfelden

City parish church and town hall

• The pilgrimage church Maria Schutz am Bründl was built in 1691 and can be traced back to a healing spring. In 1686 a sick carpenter was healed with the water and as a thank you the first chapel and a pit for bathing were built in the same year. Since the church became too small due to the number of people seeking healing, a new building followed in 1761, and further expansion was necessary in 1778. Since then, the church has been regularly renovated and has been the religious memorial for those expelled from the Hohenfurth parish since 1975 .
• The current building of the late Gothic parish church of Bad Leonfelden was built after the market fire in 1892. The first parish church was located in the same place in 1292 and, as was customary at the time, was made of wood. In 1481 a late Gothic stone church was built, from which the ribbed vault is still preserved. Until 1781 the tower served as part of the fortifications of the market and between 1875 and 1877 it was expanded to its present size. The pointed, neo-Gothic tower was built after the fire in 1892 and was extensively renovated in 1969.
• At the Sternstein, near the Oberer Sternbauer homestead, there is an old glassworks next to a spring, which was used to make glass in the Middle Ages. The weathering of wool sacks resulted in a stone on the eastern slope of the Sternstein that looks like a mushroom and is therefore called a natural monument "mushroom stone".
• The former, about 200 meters long, Schwedenschanze formed a barrier against the Swedes invading Mühlviertel during the Thirty Years' War. In addition to the field name Schwedenschanze , remains of the wall are still visible.
• Near the district of Oberlaimbach there is a granite stone that marks a prominent point on the main European watershed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea.

music

Bad Leonfelden Music Association

The Leonfeldner Kantorei is an Austrian amateur choir founded in 1989. The aim of the choir is to perform sophisticated a cappella literature as well as the folk songs from closer homeland, some of which have only been passed down orally. In addition, efforts are made to perform cantatas, masses and oratorios together with larger orchestras. There is also particular interest in the interpretation of works from the 20th and 21st centuries, especially by (Upper) Austrian composers.

The music association founded in 1949 goes back to the music band founded in 1759 and is therefore one of the oldest in the district. In 1857 the Liedertafel was founded , from which today's choir community emerged. The youngest music and cultural association is called Titanic and was founded in 1995.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Sternstein Trio and Sternstein Duo by Gertrude Gassner and Irmgard Wipplinger were a popular folk music group that also recorded some folk songs about Bad Leonfelden and the region, e.g. B. Mei liabs Leonfelden and Sternstein-Schlucker .

Museums

The former hospital church, now a home

The Heimathaus in the former hospital church shows the local development and typical handicrafts for Bad Leonfelden, such as the Lebzelterei and the blue printing production .

The school museum is located in the oldest parish school in Upper Austria, built in 1577. Teaching aids from the 19th century, earlier teaching methods and the career of a typical schoolmaster from the past centuries are shown.

sport and freetime

In Bad Leonfelden there are around 50 clubs that enable leisure activities in terms of sport and culture. The Aqua Leone outdoor swimming pool was renovated in 1998 and is the largest outdoor adventure pool in the region. There is also an indoor swimming pool in the city. Tennis and squash courts are available in the sports center in the Burgfried district. The Sportunion Bad Leonfelden, founded after the Second World War, consists of twelve sections, one of which is the carnival guild. The most successful is the cross-country section, which has produced numerous national champions. The soccer team plays in the Landesliga Ost, the fifth highest division in Austria, in the 2018/19 season.

On the slopes of the Sternstein there is a small Upper Austrian ski area with two lifts and slopes with a length of four kilometers. Due to the altitude and the snowmaking system, the Sternstein is the most important ski area in the central Mühlviertel. A new cable car from Carvatech will be available from winter 2009/10 and the ski area will be extended by a third, approximately two-kilometer-long slope. There are also three cross-country trails that are used as hiking trails in summer. The most important hiking trail is the Nordwaldkammweg , a 144-kilometer main hiking trail from the Dreisesselberg at the Upper Austrian-Bavarian-Czech border triangle to the Lower Austrian Nebelstein .

Cultural center and regular events

The Bad Leonfeldens Haus am Ring cultural center has existed since the 1970s and offers space for numerous events. Since 2003, the Bad Leonfelden Festival has been held annually in June and July . The productions are directed by Thomas Kerbl and each show a well-known musical .

Every year in August the municipality organizes the city festival. The Sternsteinlauf, part of the international Austrian Mountain Running Cup, also takes place in August. The annual Advent market is held at the beginning of December. Alternating with Gallneukirchen and Ottensheim , the regional business fair GUUTE takes place in Bad Leonfelden every three years.

State exhibition 2013

On April 26, 2013, the cross-border state exhibition under the title “Old Traces - New Ways” was opened together with Freistadt , Český Krumlov (Krumau) and Vyšší Brod (Hohenfurth), which at the beginning of planning was under the title “Hops, Salt and Cyberspace” (the title was later discarded in favor of the more sonorous and more appropriate to the overall picture “Old Traces - New Paths”). In the exhibition concept, hops are synonymous with eating and drinking culture and especially with the traditional importance of beer culture in this region. The salt stands for the economic importance of the trade routes and the associated wealth of the region. Cyberspace is a synonym for the future dimension, the constant changes in our society, economy and politics. In Bad Leonfelden, the social component of people's everyday culture is shown.

Economy and Infrastructure

Employment and income

Bad Leonfelden is the economic center of the SternGartl region in the central Mühlviertel. The number of workplaces rose by 35.4% to 176 between the last two censuses in 1991 and 2001. The number of workplaces rose by 37.6% to 1618 in the same period.

In 2001, the city provided jobs for 877 people living outside the municipality, while 970 people from Bad Leonfeld worked outside the community. The greater part of the in-commuters come from the Urfahr-Umgebung district, while the majority of the out-commuters commute to Linz. For commuters, the expansion of the road network in the direction of Linz over the past decade means a significant improvement.

In 2001, 6.1% of the employed people in Bad Leonfelden were employed in agriculture and forestry . In 2001, 29.3% were employed in industry and construction . The proportion has increased significantly compared to 1991, while the proportion of people working in agriculture and forestry has fallen by around 40%. The service sector also grew strongly, only the public administration sector recorded a decline in employment.

traffic

Road map of Bad Leonfelden (OpenStreetMap)

The planned station on the unrealized Linz – Leonfelden – Hohenfurth line

Neither the lines of the Mühlkreisbahn planned at the end of the 19th century nor a connection from the Summerauer Bahn to the Mühlkreisbahn via Bad Leonfelden were implemented. The nearest train stations are in Freistadt on the Summerauer Bahn, around 16 kilometers from the center of Bad Leonfelden, and in Linz on the Westbahn and Pyhrnbahn , around 35 kilometers away.

As part of the Upper Austrian Transport Association , Bad Leonfelden is connected by bus connections to other places in the Urfahr area as well as Linz, Freistadt and Rohrbach. Cross-border connections existed until 1945 and from 2005 to 2009 to Vyšší Brod in the Czech Republic .

In Bad Leonfelden, Leonfeldener Straße B 126 and Böhmerwald Straße B 38 cross two state roads with priority. In addition, a state road begins in the municipality and leads to Traberg in the municipality of Oberneukirchen L 1490. The closest motorway connection is in the state capital Linz , around 27 kilometers south of Bad Leonfelden ( Mühlkreis motorway A 7). The state border with the Czech Republic is only around six kilometers north of the center of Bad Leonfeldens, in the Weigetschlag district. Besides Wullowitz , this is the only border crossing from Upper Austria to the Czech Republic that can be used without restrictions.

Public facilities

Police Inspectorate and District Court

Bad Leonfelden was the seat of a district court until December 31, 2012 , since January 1, 2013 Bad Leonfelden has been part of the judicial district of Freistadt. In Bad Leonfelden there is a police station and a police station AGM (= Schengen compensatory measures). A regional road maintenance department is responsible for the former federal roads as well as the state and district roads.

In the community area, five volunteer fire brigades provide fire protection and general help. Volunteer fire brigades exist in Bad Leonfelden (founded in 1871), the foundation near Bad Leonfelden (1900), Dietrichschlag (1908), Weigetschlag (1908) and Laimbach (1927).

Established businesses

Bad Leonfelden is the location of numerous specialist shops and service providers. The city offers jobs for numerous commuters from neighboring communities.

The oldest company in Bad Leonfelden and at the same time the oldest Lebzelterei in Austria is the Lebzelterei Kastner , which has been in existence since 1559 . In the past, candles and wax pictures were made in addition to gingerbread and mead . The company registered under the company name "Franz Kastner GmbH" in the commercial register with around 70 employees produces numerous products that are available in food stores across Austria.

The construction company Kapl Bau has existed for 140 years and employs around 150 people. This makes the company one of the largest employers in the city and the only company in Bad Leonfelden that is among the top 500 companies in Upper Austria. With around 170 employees, the sausage and dumpling manufacturer Hochreiter, founded in 1958, is an important employer in the region, of which over 120 are employed at the headquarters in Bad Leonfelden.

The eMagnetix online marketing agency, headquartered in the city center of Bad Leonfelden, became known in 2018 through the introduction of the 30-hour week with full-time salaries. After a test phase and a reduction in working hours to 34 hours, which was partially implemented from June 2018, eMagnetix will only work 30 hours per week from October 2018, but the full salary will continue to be paid. After 40 years with 40 working hours per week, the company is sending a clear signal in the direction of innovative working time systems and giving employees up to 12.5 hours more free time per week. This is based on a complex employer branding concept with extensive measures for employee satisfaction.

The transport company Süß GmbH & Co KG is also located in Bad Leonfelden.

Agriculture and Forestry

In 1999 there were 186 agricultural and forestry operations in Bad Leonfelden, cultivating an area of ​​3,559 hectares. Of these, 78 were  full-time businesses with 2,094 hectares, 103 part-time  businesses with 1,174 hectares and 3 businesses of legal entities with 291 hectares. An agricultural and forestry business in Bad Leonfelden cultivates an average of 19.3 hectares, with the full-time farms working 26.8 hectares and the part-time farms 11.4 hectares.

As everywhere at the district and state level, both the number of farms and the cultivated agricultural and forestry areas have decreased compared to the previous survey time in 1995. The number of full-time farms and the areas cultivated by them have increased by around 10% at the expense of the part-time farms. In 1999, 537 people were employed in agriculture and forestry in Bad Leonfelden, 534 of whom were family-owned, of which 41 were fully employed. 271 worked in agriculture with less than 25% of their working time, the remaining 222 between 25 and 99%.

tourism

In the tourism year 2008, more than 64,300 overnight stays were recorded in the city, with the average number of days spent at 3.8. 58,197 overnight stays (90.5%) were made by domestic guests. At almost 61%, visitors from Upper Austria had the highest proportion. Among the foreign guests, Germans led the way with around 55% (3384 overnight stays). Around 63% of guests visit the city in the summer half-year between May and October. The year 2008 recorded an increase of around 11,400 overnight stays compared to 2007 and an increase of around 23,000 overnight stays compared to 2006. In terms of the number of overnight stays, Bad Leonfelden is the third largest tourist center in the Mühlviertel, after Bad Zell and Aigen .

education

Federal School Center

The city of Bad Leonfelden developed into a school and training center for the district in the post-war period. Bad Leonfelden has a primary and secondary school as well as a polytechnic school in the compulsory school area . The offer at middle and higher schools consists of a federal upper level high school and a higher education institution and technical school for commercial professions (specializing in tourism). A regional music school complements the educational offer.

There are no offers for adult education in the city. The municipality's public library is available to all citizens.

Health and social

Kurhaus

The Kurhaus, which opened in 1961, specializes in mud and Kneipp treatments and is the successor to the Franzensbad, which opened in 1881 and closed after the First World War . The required moor is called Leonfeldner Heilmoor and is mined in the immediate vicinity of the Kurhaus. An additional focus is the therapeutic treatment of the musculoskeletal system.

The local office of the Red Cross looks after Bad Leonfelden and the surrounding communities. The closest hospitals are in Freistadt, Linz and Rohrbach.

Health care is provided by eight resident doctors, and a public pharmacy is located in the center of the city.

For the care of the elderly, Bad Leonfelden has been offering a district seniors' home with 93 residents since 2000 . The home is around 200 meters from the town square at Adalbert-Stifter-Park. A residential building of the Diakoniewerk has been available for people with disabilities since 2007 .

media

No local daily newspaper is published in Bad Leonfelden. There is an increasing expansion of regional reporting by the daily newspapers Oberösterreichische Nachrichten and Oberösterreichische Kronen Zeitung, which appear in Upper Austria .

With the Urfahr-Umgebung TIPS (Top Infos Plus Service) a free regional newspaper appears every week . This medium belongs to Tips Zeitungs GmbH & Co KG and 100% of J. Wimmer GmbH, which has a majority stake in the daily newspaper Oberösterreichische Nachrichten. The current edition is also available on the Internet. Since the beginning of 2009, the free, small-format Bezirks Rundschau has been published as the successor to the large-format weekly Urfahraner Rundschau . In addition, the Rundschau on Sunday is a third free regional newspaper for Bad Leonfelden. The last two media are owned by Moser Holding AG.

The community newspaper appears every two weeks.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

• Herwig van Staa (born June 10, 1942), politician and former governor of Tyrol
• Georg Starhemberg, entrepreneur
• Franz Kastner, entrepreneur
• Gottfried Hochreiter (1935–2020), entrepreneur

sons and daughters of the town

• Theobald Grasböck (born September 16, 1846, † September 27, 1915 in Wilhering) was a Cistercian and from 1892 to 1915 abbot of Wilhering Abbey.
• Leopold Forstner (born November 2, 1878, † November 5, 1936 in Stockerau) was a material artist of the Viennese Art Nouveau, who particularly helped the mosaic technique to a renaissance.
• Elisabeth Pfeiler (* 1961) is an Austrian choir director, musician and conductor.
• Helmut Rizy (born October 4, 1943) is an Austrian writer.
• Richard Weberberger and José Ricardo Weberberger OSB (born September 5, 1939; † August 17, 2010 in Linz) was bishop of the Diocese of Barreiras in the state of Bahia, Brazil.
• Karl Wohlschlager (born October 14, 1924, † January 14, 2000 in Linz) was pastor and honorary citizen of Kollerschlag and Nebelberg.
• Katharina Haudum (* 1990), actress

People related to the city

• Alfred Würl (1925–2005), artist, lived and died here.

literature

• Bundesdenkmalamt Austria (Ed.): Dehio -Handbuch, the art monuments of Austria. Topographical inventory of monuments. Upper Austria. Volume 1: Peter Adam and others: Mühlviertel. Berger, Horn / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-85028-362-3 .
• Benno Hofer: From the history of the Leonfelden market. In: Mühlviertler Heimatblätter. Vol. 2, issue 5/6, 1962, ZDB -ID 331251-3 , pp. 13-29, online (PDF; 4.5 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
• Historical bibliography on Upper Austria history .

Web links

Commons : Bad Leonfelden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• 41603 - Bad Leonfelden. Community data, Statistics Austria .
• Further information about the municipality of Bad Leonfelden can be found on the geographic information system of the federal state of Upper Austria .
• Map in the Digital Upper Austrian Room Information System ( DORIS )
• Bad Leonfelden spa association

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DORIS: Bad Leonfelden , accessed on May 18, 2009
2. ↑ Austrian Map Online: Austrian Map start page
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ch. Vinzenz Janik: Geomorphological and pedological description of the market town of Leonfelden ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.1 MB) 
4. ↑ Josef Matznetter: Geomorphological observations in the southernmost section of the Danube-Elbe watershed ( Memento of the original of December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB) 
5. ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. Free city district. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006). 
6. ↑ Statistics Austria: Population on January 1st, 2020 by locality (area status on January 1st, 2020) , ( CSV )
7. ↑ SternGartl: Home , accessed on 2 June 2009
8. ^ ZAMG: Klimadaten von Österreich 1971–2000 , accessed on May 28, 2009
9. ↑ Office of the Upper Austrian State Government, Nature Conservation Department (Ed.): Volume 30: Leonfeldner Hochland spatial unit , (PDF; 976 kB)
10. ↑ Karl Hohensinner , Peter Wiesinger : Ortnamesbuch des Landes Oberösterreich 10. The place names of the political district Urfahr-Umgebung (Middle Mühlviertel). Vienna 2006
11. ^ Ernst Schwarz: The place names of eastern Upper Austria (=  Pr. German studies ). Kraus Verlag, Reichenberg, p. 94 .
12. ^ The basis of the history section is: Benno Hofer: From the history of the market in Leonfelden . In: Mühlviertler Heimatblätter, 1962, Volume 5/6 ( download as PDF ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. ) 
13. ↑ Martina Birngruber: The Bürgerspital and the Spitalskirche in Bad Leonfelden - testimony to Christian charity and late Gothic architecture. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Linz 2013, pp. 4–21, PDF on land-oberoesterreich.gv.at.
14. ↑ Beer database: Kommunebrauhaus Leonfelden  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 29, 2009  
15. ^ 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 2, Bad Leonfelden , p. 75 ( online document , explanations . Suppl . ; both PDF - oD [updated]).
16. ↑ Statistics Austria: Population and components of population development (download as pdf; 35 kB)
17. ↑ 2001 census: demographic data (download as pdf; 10 kB)
18. ↑ 2001 census: resident population (download as pdf; 10 kB)
19. ^ Statistics Austria, A look at the community of Bad Leonfelden, population development. (PDF) Retrieved May 12, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Diocese of Linz: Parish Bad Leonfelden ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2011 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. , accessed June 25, 2009 
21. ↑ Election result on the municipality website ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2016 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. , accessed on May 15, 2016 
22. ^ City of Bad Leonfelden, homepage. Retrieved May 12, 2019 . 
23. ↑ Irene Brickner, Markus Rohrhofer: Bad Leonfelden: Asylum accommodation failed due to protests. In: derStandard.at . December 13, 2012, accessed December 13, 2012 . 
24. ↑ Gernot Fohler: "No predators, but people in need". In: mein district.at. December 12, 2012, accessed December 13, 2012 . 
25. ^ Province of Upper Austria, regional history: coat of arms of the municipality of Bad Leonfelden , accessed on May 14, 2009
26. ^ Musikverein Bad Leonfelden: Chronicle , accessed on May 25, 2009
27. ^ Association of Upper Austrian Museums: Homepage , accessed on May 27, 2009
28. ^ Sportunion Bad Leonfelden: Homepage , accessed on May 27, 2009
29. ↑ Family ski area Sternstein Lifte: Project 2009 ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 27, 2009 
30. ↑ State Exhibition 2013: Hops, Salt and Cyberspace , accessed on April 15, 2009
31. ↑ Statistics Austria: Workplace census from May 15, 2001 (PDF; 8 kB)
32. ↑ Statistics Austria: Employees by commuting destination (PDF; 7 kB)
33. ↑ Province of Upper Austria, regional database, basic statistical data and key figures: economic affiliation, livelihood concept  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 27, 2009  
34. ^ Danube - Moldau: Border Crossings , accessed on May 22, 2009
35. ↑ District fire brigade command Urfahr-Umgebung: Home page ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2009 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. , accessed May 30, 2009 
36. ↑ Kastner company history
37. ↑ TMG: Leading companies in Upper Austria ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 27, 2009 
38. ↑ ^{a b} Upper Austrian company starts 30-hour week with full salary - derStandard.at. Retrieved September 25, 2018 . 
39. ↑ Work life balance: 30 hours working week - eMagnetix . In: eMagnetix Online Marketing . ( emagnetix.at [accessed September 25, 2018]).
40. ↑ Statistics Austria: A look at the municipality of Bad Leonfelden, agricultural and forestry businesses by type of employment (PDF; 15 kB)
41. ↑ Regional database of the state of Upper Austria agricultural statistics - employees  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 27, 2009  
42. ↑ DORIS: Tourism statistics  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 28, 2009  
43. ↑ eduhi: Bad Leonfelden , accessed on May 14, 2009
44. ↑ Bad Leonfelden Public Library: Home page , accessed on May 27, 2009
45. ^ Kurhaus Bad Leonfelden: Homepage , accessed on May 28, 2009
46. ^ Directory of doctors: Bad Leonfelden
47. ↑ Seniorenheim.at: District Seniorenheim Bad Leonfelden ( Memento of the original dated December 24, 2008 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. , accessed May 14, 2009 
48. ↑ Urfahraner TIPS: Current issue ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2009 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. , accessed May 14, 2009 
49. ↑ https://www.tips.at/nachrichten/bad-leonfelden/land- Menschen / 509404-trauer-um-bad-leonfeldner- unternehmerpersoenlichkeit , accessed on June 19, 2020.