Wörgl

The Wörgl Experiment

Wörgl was the site of the "Miracle of Wörgl", beginning on 31 July 1932 during the Great Depression. Beginning with the issuing of "Certified Compensation Bills", a form of local currency commonly known as Stamp Scrip or Freigeld. This was an application of the monetary theories of the economist Silvio Gesell by the town's then-mayor, Michael Unterguggenberger [de].

The experiment resulted in a growth of employment and meant that local government projects such as new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump and a bridge could all be completed, contrasting with much of the depression in the rest of the country. Inflation and deflation are also reputed to have been non-existent for the duration of the experiment.^{[citation needed]}

Despite attracting great interest at the time, including from French Premier Edouard Daladier and economist Irving Fisher,^[3] the "experiment" was ended by Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank on 1 September 1933, so that the federal government would maintain a monopoly on the country's legal tender.^[4][5]

British economist John Maynard Keynes thought that "future economics will learn more from Gesell's ideas than from Marx's".^[6]

In 2006, milestones were placed across the town to commemorate this event.^[7]

World War II

The nearby Itter Castle (8 kilometres (5 miles) away from Wörgl) was the site of one of the last European battles of World War II.^[8] The castle had been seized from Grüner by SS Lieutenant General Oswald Pohl under the orders of Heinrich Himmler on 7 February 1943. The transformation of the castle into a prison was completed by 25 April 1943, and the facility was placed under the administration of the Dachau concentration camp.^[8]

The Battle for Itter Castle took place on 5 May 1945, with surrendered Wehrmacht troops, the United States Army, Austrian Resistance fighters and former French political prisoners fighting against the 17th Waffen-SS Panzer Grenadier Division.^[9] The leader of the surrendered Wehrmacht troops, Major Josef Gangl, was killed during the battle by a sniper and is buried in Wörgl's municipal cemetery.^[9] Sepp Gangl-Straße is a street in Wörgl named after Gangl.^[9][10]

Waldemar von Knoeringen's [de] resistance network against the Nazi Party was based in Wörgl.^[11][12] Commemoratives plaques and memorials have been established in the town, including to resistance member Josefine Brunner.^[13][14]