Innviertel
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The Innviertel (literally German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ; ) is a traditional
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n region southeast of the Inn river. It forms the western part of the state of
Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...
and borders the German state of
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
. The Innviertel is one of the four traditional "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being
Hausruckviertel The Hausruckviertel is one of the four traditional "quarters" () of the Austrian province of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and th ...
, Mühlviertel, and
Traunviertel The Traunviertel is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria. It is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria and its name refers to the river Traun which passes through the area. Region The district includes the Linz-Land, St ...
. The Innviertel is the northwestern quarter of
Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...
and includes the districts Braunau am Inn, Ried im Innkreis and Schärding. Since the formation of the political districts in 1868, the quarters in Upper Austria no longer have a legal basis and are purely regional names. The older Habsburg districts (), which were still based on the old quarters, were superseded. Unlike the rest of Upper Austria, most of the area was part of
Duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important differe ...
and, later, Electorate of Bavaria until the 1779 Treaty of Teschen. It is a fertile, densely populated, flat to hilly landscape that is part of the Alpine foothills and lies between the rivers Salzach, Inn,
Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
and the Hausruck hills. The Innviertel covers an area of around 2250 km2 and its population is just under 218,000. The largest city in the Innviertel in terms of area and inhabitants is Braunau am Inn with 17,438 inhabitants, followed by Ried im Innkreis (12,209). The town of Schärding with 5,216 inhabitants is well-known as a tourist centre because of its
baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
town centre.


Name

The name for the region dates from after its incorporation into Austria in 1779; before then, it was part of
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
and its name was ("Inn-Bavaria"). In 1779, when the region was incorporated into Austria – specifically into the Archduchy of ("Austria above the Enns"), the precursor of today's state of
Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...
– the newly-acquired area was initially referred to as the ("Fifth Quarter") as the Archduchy had been previously divided into four quarters. It was only after the amalgamation of the historical and into the modern that the area became known as the .


Geography

The quarter spans the Austrian political districts of Schärding, Ried im Innkreis and Braunau am Inn. Major towns in include the district capitals Braunau am Inn, Ried im Innkreis and Schärding as well as Mattighofen and Altheim. Located within the Alpine foothills, the rural is approximately in area and comprises the broad Inn valley, which is largely flat and fertile, and the adjacent undulating landscape in the east, which is rich in
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
in the north and
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
.


History


Bavaria: Middle Ages and Modern Times

From the 6th century, most of the , with its ducal courts at Ranshofen and Mattighofen, was part of the Mattiggau region of the German stem duchy of
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, the northern part belonging to the . In 1507, became part of the of Burghausen with its courts at Wildshut (merged with the Mattighofen District Court), Braunau, Mauerkirchen, Friedburg, Schärding and Ried. The Mondsee area in south Bavaria was lost to the Habsburgs as early as 1506. Administered from the town of Burghausen, the lands beyond the Inn river for centuries had two important roles: strategically as an eastern defence line against the rising
Archduchy of Austria The Archduchy of Austria (; ) was a major Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periph ...
, and economically as arable land for
crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...
farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
. During the Bavarian uprising of 1705–1706 against the occupation by the Habsburg Emperor Joseph I, Braunau was the seat of the short-lived Bavarian State Defence Congress (December 1705), or " Braunau Parliament", which called for a revolt against imperial Habsburg oppression. This was an early occurrence of a
parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...
in the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
.


Habsburg era: Treaty of Teschen and Congress of Vienna

Only after the War of the Bavarian Succession was the area separated from the Electorate of Bavaria. The trigger for the war was the death of the childless Bavarian elector, Maximilian III Joseph (1745–1777). On his death the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbachs died out. A number of Central European powers laid claim to parts of the inheritance, including, first and foremost,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
with its demands for the cession of Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. With the ratification of the Treaty of Teschen, which ended the War of the Bavarian Succession, the Innviertel became part of Upper Austria in 1779. Thanks to the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, Bavaria took possession of the Innviertel again in 1810. It was assigned to the Bavarian Lower Danube Circle together with parts of the
Hausruckviertel The Hausruckviertel is one of the four traditional "quarters" () of the Austrian province of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and th ...
. In 1811, the parishes in this area were separated from the Diocese of Linz and assigned to the Bishopric of Passau. Only under the Munich Treaty did the Kingdom of Bavaria finally cede the Innviertel and other areas to the Empire of Austria on 1 May 1816. On 1 July 1816, the Diocese of Linz also took over the corresponding areas again from the Bishopric of Passau.


Language and Bavarian heritage

At the political level, the incorporation of the new territory into the Land ob der Enns ("Land above the Ems", now
Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...
) was carried through with a series of measures: oaths of allegiance were sworn by royal Bavarian officials and homage was paid by the Innviertel nobility to the new sovereign. More difficult was administrative integration, which was carried out by a separate "Regional Implementation Commission" () under the direction of Baron Franz Xaver Pockensteiner von Wolffenbach, since the Innviertel had not been an administrative unit until then, but had been administered from Burghausen which was still Bavarian. When the reforms by Emperor Joseph II were intensified by the introduction of new church and school rules in 1795, the population in the parish of St. Georgen gathered signatures at secret gatherings. The higher drinks taxes, which forced breweries to close, also aroused the resentment of the population. So the residents of Innbaiern were not very content with their new situation and the cry "Better to die Bavarian than suffer imperial ruin!" (''Lieber bayrisch sterben als kaiserlich verderben!'') was in circulation for a long time. Linguistically, despite the extensive adoption of Austrian standard vocabulary, the dialect characteristics of West Central Bavarian were retained in the Innviertel; which mainly consist of a large number of vocalization features typical of the region (e.g. the word milk, in the Innviertel referred to as ''Milli'' or ''Muich'', is mostly known as ''Müch'' in the rest of Austria), has survived to this day (compare
Bavarian language Bavarian (; ), alternately Austro-Bavarian, is a group of Upper German variety (linguistics), varieties spoken in the south-east of the German language area, including the German state of Bavaria, most of Austria, and South Tyrol in Italy. P ...
). In the west the language changes gradually over into the West Central Bavarian dialects. In the architecture of the towns, the colourfully decorated house facades of the Inn-Salzach Style are reminiscent of the Bavarian tradition.


Regional exhibitions

The first Bavarian-Upper Austrian regional exhibition took place in 2004 in
Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...
, Asbach, Reichersberg and Schärding.


Relations with the rest of Upper Austria

The Innviertel was the centre of the violent Bavarian uprising against the Austrian occupation in 1705 and 1706. However, after its transfer to Austria in 1779, no broader resistance formed. For example, Franz Stelzhamer promoted mutual nationality in his prosaic work “Dá Soldatnvödá” and was considered an Upper Austrian "national poet" from the 19th century even though he came from the Innviertel. Nonetheless, up to the 20th century there were disputes between groups from Innviertel and so-called "Landlers" ("Landl" is a term for the Hausruckviertel or for Upper Austria in general) at the level of the young farmers' clubs (''Innviertler Zeche''). From that time, locally-recognised sayings and declarations of war stem such as ''Wenn d’ Innviertler keman, hoasts umirucka!'' ("When the Innviertel folk come, it's time to go home!"). A certain local rivalry has emerged in the last few years, even in institutional circles such as in the tourist sector, from the Grieskirchen district to the Innviertel and, further east, to the state capital of
Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
. It is primarily expressed in sporting competitions and political and public debates about the disadvantages of the Innviertel compared to the more central regions of Upper Austria, which at times dominate reporting in the local media. One of those political points of contention for years has been the inadequately -developed road link to the nearby city of
Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
to which the upper Innviertel (Braunau district and the southwestern parts of Ried district) is oriented. Nevertheless, the Vienna-Linz-Munich link is an important transport route. As the urban centre of the lower Innviertel (Schärding District, northeastern parts of Ried district), Passau plays a major role. A perceived independence of the Innviertel is also reflected in the "capital city debate", which was kicked off by the Mayor of Ried, Albert Ortig, during the 2009 election campaign and in which he declared the town of Ried to be the capital of the Innviertel and thus provoked the politicians of Braunau. Despite all of those circumstances, the inhabitants of the Innviertel identify far more with their region today than those in the remaining quarters of Upper Austria. They, with the exception of the Mühlviertel, which is bordered by the Danube, deviate to some extent geographically from the modern district boundaries.


Demographics

Today the Innviertel has about 215,000 people in its towns, villages and hamlets. Its Bavarian roots show in the local German dialect, ''Innviertlerisch'', a Western Central Austro-Bavarian variant similar to the languages spoken in adjacent Lower Bavaria.


Notable people

Innviertel is the birthplace of Franz Xaver Gruber, composer of ''
Silent Night "Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO The United Nations Educati ...
'', opera singer Franz Xaver Gerl, the Schwanthaler family of Baroque sculptors, SS general and
war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, beatified conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, and physicist Anton Zeilinger. Both
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and the
diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer were born in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border.


Gallery

Innviertel Panorama.jpg, Innviertel countryside near Wollöster, Burgkirchen Innviertel - sundown - panorama.jpg, Sundown in the Innviertel near Wollöster maria schmolln jagdkapelle.jpg, Maria Schmolln (view from Hunters' Chapel) Holzöstersee.jpg, Upper Innviertel Lake District, Holzöstersee


See also

*
Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...
**
Hausruckviertel The Hausruckviertel is one of the four traditional "quarters" () of the Austrian province of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and th ...
** Mühlviertel **
Traunviertel The Traunviertel is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria. It is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria and its name refers to the river Traun which passes through the area. Region The district includes the Linz-Land, St ...


References


Literature

* * Herbert Wurster: ''Heimat am Inn'', Kultur und Geschichte, Simbach/Braunau/Inn 1999 (siehe auch www.hrb.at). * * * *


External links


Innviertel.at

Innviertel Tourism sebsite

Overview map of the Innviertel boundaries
(pdf file; 341 kB) at DORIS
Division of NUTS-III regions in Upper Austria

Photos from the Innviertel at Flickr

Culture, Traditions and Customs of the Inhabitants of the Innkreis, 1832
{{Authority control Geography of Upper Austria