Ternberg is a municipality in the district of Steyr-Land in the

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 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 ...

Geography

Ternberg is part of the upper Austrian region

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 ...

. Its area from North to South is 9,5 km, from West to East 11,7 km. 51,4% of the municipality is forest, 39,6% is used by agriculture. The town Ternberg lies at the northern edge of the alps. The next near city is

Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd lar ...

, the distance is 13 km. The towns Trattenbach and Dürnbach are associated and have therefore no mayors.

History

Originally placed in the eastern 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 ...

, this town has belonged to Austria since the 12th century. Because of the powerful rivers and the relatively near Erzberg ("Ore mountain"), a mountain with large iron deposits in

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

, and the useful water power in this area, Ternberg has a long history of making pocketknives. Since the 16th century the ''Trattenbacher Zaukerl'' were produced in a Trattenbach, forged with water power. There is also a special knife guild there, established in 1680 and approved in 1682 by Leopold I. Nowadays the pocketknives are produced primarily for tourists, but still of a very high quality. The church of Ternberg was first mentioned in a document dated around 1100. It was a property of the Monastery Garsten until Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

abolished the monastery in 1789. Since this date Ternberg has been an independent parish.

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, Bauernkrieg, and Turkish incursions are also part of the history of Ternberg. The town became part of

in 1918. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

in March 1938, Austria became part of the "Gau Oberdonau." From May 19, 1942 to September 18, 1944, concentration camp prisoners from the KZ Mauthausen were forced to work here, building streets and the hydroelectric plant of Ternberg. After 1945 Upper Austria was re-established.

Population

Politics

The Mayor is Leopold Steindler from the

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

. Regional political representatives are: Franz Payrhuber (ÖVP), Günther Steindler (

), Ernst Sieghartsleitner (BZÖ), Edgar Blasl (FPÖ) and Marco Vanek (Die Grünen).

Coat of Arms

Official Description in German: ''Unter goldenem Schildhaupt, darin ein offenes Taschenmesser mit rotem Griff und blauer Klinge, in Blau eine silberne Kaplan-Wasserturbine.'' This could be translated to: ''Under golden head shield, therein an open pocketknife with red handle and blue blade, in blue a silver

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...

.'' The colors of the municipality are red, yellow and blue.

International relations

Sister city: *

Prószków Prószków (, ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Poland, town in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Prószków, a Polish/German Bilingual communes in Poland, bilingual commune since 2006. ...

, Poland

Museum

May 1 - October 31: "Museum Village Trattenbach - In The Valley Of the Pocket Knife Makers" (2008 are a few special events - 10 Years Museum Village) A special attraction, the biggest "Pocket Knife" on earth, is also in Trattenbach.

Music

* Musikverein Ternber (Trachtenkapelle) * Feuerwehrmusik Trattenbach

Sport clubs

*FC Siro Ternberg - football club *TC Ternberg - tennis club *ÖTB Turnverein Ternberg - gymnastics club *Wintersportverein Trattenbach - winter sport club *Cumulus Paragleiter Eisenwurzen - paraglider club *Stockschützenverein - ice stock sport club

Village fairs

*Village Fair of Ternberg (annually at the first full weekend of July, Saturday and Sunday) 05.- 06. Juli 2008 *Football championship (annually at the

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...

weekend) 29.- 31. Mai 2009

Economics and infrastructure

Media

KTV Ternberg, a regional cable TV program

Education

*Elementary School Ternberg, Elementary School Trattenbach *Middle School Ternberg

References

External links

*Map of Ternber

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Steyr-Land District