Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Celovec) is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia in Austria. With a population of over 90,000 it is the sixth-largest city in the country. The city is the bishop's seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt and home to the Alpen-Adria University.

Location
Klagenfurt is located 446 m above sea level and covers an area of 120.11 km2. It is on the lake Wörthersee and on the Glan River. The city is surrounded by several forest-covered hills and mountains with heights of up to 1000 m, for example, Ulrichsberg. To the south is the Karawanken mountain range, which separates Carinthia from Slovenia and Italy.

Municipal arrangement
Klagenfurt is divided into 15 districts:

It is further divided into 25 Katastralgemeinden. They are: Klagenfurt, Blasendorf, Ehrenthal, Goritschitzen, Großbuch, Großponfeld, Gurlitsch I, Hallegg, Hörtendorf, Kleinbuch, Lendorf, Marolla, Nagra, Neudorf, St. Martin bei Klagenfurt, St. Peter am Karlsberg, St. Peter bei Ebenthal, Sankt Peter am Bichl, St. Ruprecht bei Klagenfurt, Stein, Tentschach, Viktring, Waidmannsdorf, Waltendorf, and Welzenegg.

Climate
Klagenfurt has a typical Continental climate, with quite some fog throughout the autumn and winter. The rather cold winters are, however, broken by  occasional warmer periods due to foehn wind from the Karawanken mountains to the south. The average temperature from 1961 and 1990 is 7.1 °C, while the average temperature in 2005 was 9.3 °C.

Name
Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters or swamps. In Old Slovene cviljovec is a place haunted by such a wailing female ghost or  cvilya. Thus they assumed that Klagenfurt's name was a translation by the German settlers of the original Slovene name of the neighbouring wetland. However, the earliest Slovene mention of Klagenfurt in the form of "v Zelouzi" ('in Celovec', the Slovene name for Klagenfurt) dating from 1615 is 400 years younger and thus appears to be a translation from German. The latest interpretation, on the other hand, is that the Old Slovene cviljovec itself goes back to an Italic l'aquiliu meaning a place at or in  the water, which would make the wailing-hag theory obsolete.

Scholars had at all times attempted to explain the city's peculiar name: In the 14th century the abbot and historiographer John of Viktring translated Klagenfurt's name in his Liber certarum historiarum as Queremoniae Vadus, i.e. "ford of complaint", Hieronymus Megiser, Master of the university college of the Carinthian Estates in Klagenfurt and editor of the earliest printed history of the duchy in 1612,  believed to have found the  origin of the name in a "ford across the River Glan", which, however, is impossible for linguistic reasons. The common people also sought an explanation: A baker's apprentice was accused of theft and executed, but when a few days afterwards the alleged theft turned out to be a mistake and the lad was proved to be totally innocent, the citizens' "lament (= 'Klagen') went forth and forth". This story was reported by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II.

In 2007 the city changed its official name to "Klagenfurt am Wörthersee" (i.e., Klagenfurt on Lake Wörth). However, since there are no other settlements by the name of Klagenfurt anywhere, the previous short name remains unambiguous.

History
Legend has it that Klagenfurt was founded after a couple of brave men had slain the abominable "Lindwurm",  a winged dragon in the moors adjoining the lake, the staple diet of which is said to have been virgins, but which did not spurn the fat bull  on a  chain that the men had mounted on a strong tower. The feat is commemorated by a grandiose 9-ton Renaissance monument in the city centre.

Historically, the place was founded by the Spanheim Duke Herman as a stronghold across the commercial routes in the area. Its first mention dates from the late 12th century in a document in which Duke Ulric II. exempted St. Paul's Abbey from the toll charge "in   foro Chlagenvurth". That settlement occupied an area that was subject to frequent flooding, so in 1246 Duke Herman's son, Duke Bernhard von Spanheim moved in to a safer position and is thus considered as the actual founder of the market place, which in 1252 received a city charter. In the following centuries Klagenfurt suffered fires, earthquakes, invasions of locusts and attacks from Turks, and was ravaged  by the Peasants' Wars. In 1514 a fire destroyed the city almost completely, and in 1518 Emperor Maximilian I, unable to rebuild it, despite the loud protests of the burgers ceded Klagenfurt to the Estates, the nobility of the Duchy. Never before had such a thing happened. The new owners, however, brought about an economical renaissance and a political and cultural ascent for Klagenfurt. A canal was dug to connect the city to the lake as a supply route for timber to rebuild the city and to feed the city' new moats; the great families had their town houses built in the duchy's new capital, the city was enlarged along a geometrical chequer-board lay-out according to the Renaissance ideas of the Italian architect Domenico dell'Allio; a new city centre square, the Neuer Platz, was constructed; and the new fortifications that took half a century to build made Klagenfurt the strongest fortress north of the Alps.

In 1809, however, the French troops under Napoleon destroyed the city walls, leaving,  against a large sum collected by the citizens, only  one eastern gate (which was   pulled down for traffic reasons some decades later), and the small stretch in the west which is  now all that is left of the once grand fortifications. In 1863 the railway connection to St. Veit an der Glan boosted the city's economy and so did the building of the Vienna-Trieste railway that brought the city an imposing central station (destroyed in World War II) and made Klagenfurt the absolute  centre of the region.

During the 19th century, the city developed into an important centre of Carinthian Slovene culture. Many important Slovene public figures lived, studied or worked in Klagenfurt, among them Anton Martin Slomšek, who later became the first bishop of Maribor and was beatified in  1999, the philologists Jurij Japelj and Anton Janežič, the politician Andrej Einspieler, and the activist Matija Majar. The Slovene national poet France Prešeren also spent a short part of his professional career there. On the initiative of bishop Slomšek, teacher Anton Janežič and vicar Andrej Einspieler on 27 July  1851 in Klagenfurt the Hermagoras Society publishing house was founded, which in 1919 moved to Prevalje and then in 1927 to Celje, but was re-established in Klagenfurt in 1947. Several Slovene language newspapers were also published in the city, among them the Slovenski glasnik. By the late 19th century, however, the Slovene cultural and political influence in Klagenfurt had declined sharply, and by the end of World War One, the city showed an overwhelmingly Austrian German character.

Nevertheless, in 1919, the city was occupied by the Army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and claimed for the newly-founded South-Slav kingdom. In 1920, the Yugoslav occupying forces withdrew from the town center, but remained in its southern suburbs, such as Viktring and Ebenthal. They eventually withdrew after the Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920, when the majority of voters in the Carinthian mixed-language Zone A decided to remain part of Austria.

In 1938 Klagenfurt's population suddenly grew by more than 50% through the incorporation of the  town of St. Ruprecht and the municipalities of St. Peter, Annabichl, and St. Martin. But during WWII, the city was bombed 41 times, the bombs killing 612 people, completely destroying 443 buildings, and damaging  1,132 others. 110,000 cubic metres of rubble had to be removed before the citizens could  set about rebuilding their city.

In order to avoid further destruction and a major bloodshed, on May 3, 1945 General Löhr of Army Group E (Heeresgruppe E) had agreed to declare Klagenfurt an "open city"   "in  case  Anglo-American forces should attack the city",   a declaration that was broadcast several times and two days later also published in  Kärntner Nachrichten.

On 8 May 1945, 9:30 a.m., British troops of the Eighth Army under General McCreery entered Klagenfurt and were met in front of Stauderhaus by the new democratic city and state authorities. All the strategic positions and important buildings were immediately seized, and Major General Horatius Murray was taken to General Noeldechen  for the  official surrender  of the 438th German Division. Three hours later groups of partisans arrived on a  train which they had seized in the  Rosental valley the day before, and  Yugoslav regular forces of the IVth army  moved in at the same time,  both   claiming the city with its  South Carinthian hinterland and immediately establishing a Komanda staba za Koroška, afterwards named  the "Commandantura of the Carinthian Military Zone" under Major Egon Remec after they had made their way through the streets  jammed with tens of  thousands of Volksdeutsche refugees and masses of soldiers of all the  nationalities that had been fighting under German command and were now fleeing the Sovjets. On Neuer Platz - renamed "Adolf Hitler Platz" in 1938 - British armoured vehicles  are said to have faced allied  Yugoslav ones in a  hostile way, which would have been a curious spectacle for the liberated burghers, but  probably is one more of those modern legends.

From the beginning of 1945, when the end of the war was rather obvious, numerous talks among representatives of democratic pre-1934 organisations had taken place, which later extended to high-ranking officers of the Wehrmacht and  officials of the administration. Even representatives of the partisans in the hills south of Klagenfurt were met who, in view of the strong SS-forces in Klagenfurt, agreed not to attempt to take the city by force,  but upheld the official declaration that Carinthia was to be a Yugoslav land.

On May 7, a committee convened in the historic Landhaus building of the Gau authorities in order to form a Provisional State government,  and one of the numerous decisions taken was a proclamation to the "People of Carinthia" reporting the resignation of the Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter Friedrich Rainer, the transfer of power to  the new authorities, and an appeal to the people to decorate their homes  with Austrian or Carinthian colours, which was printed in the Kärntner Zeitung of May 8. When on the following day Yugoslav military demanded of Klagenfurt's new mayor that he remove the Austrian flag from the city hall and fly the Yugoslav flag, the acting British Town Officer Cptn. Watson prohibited that right away but also orderered the withdrawal of the Austrian flag. Accompanied by a guerilla carrying a machine pistol a Yugoslav emissary appeared on the same day in the Landesregierung building,  demanding of the Acting State Governor Piesch to repeal the flagging appeal, which was ignored.

Several days passed before under British pressure with US diplomatic backing the Yugoslav troops withdrew from the city proper, not before establishing  a parallel Carinthian-Slovene  civil administration,  a Carinthian National Council presided over by Dr. Franc Petek. However, protected by British soldiers, the members of the Provisional State Government   went about their responsible business   devising a comprehensive concept covering the new political, sociological and economic situation in the land, which would serve the British military authorities. Fast financial assistance and the restitution of property   to Nazi victims was necessary, which posed a problem because one of the very first actions of the British had been to confiscate all property of the Nazi Party,  to freeze all bank accounts and to block all financial transfers. It took months until at least basic communication and public transport,  mail service and  supply worked again, to a degree. During the years that followed these turbulent days a major part of the British Eighth Army, which  in July 1945  was re-constituted as British Troops Austria (BTA),  had their headquarters in Klagenfurt as Carinthia together with neighbouring Styria formed the  British occupation zone in liberated Austria, which lasted  until 26 Oct. 1955.

In 1961, Klagenfurt became the first city in Austria to adopt a pedestrian zone. The idea of a friendly pairing of cities in other countries that had started with the very first city partnership ever - Klagenfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany,  as early as 1930 - was followed up with numerous city partnerships with the  result that in 1968 Klagenfurt was honoured with the title of a " European City of the Year". Three times, a European record, Klagenfurt was also awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra Diploma of Merit for the  exemplary restoration and redevelopment of its ancient centre.

In 1973 Klagenfurt absorbed four more adjacent municipalities - Viktring with its grand Cistercian monastery, Wölfnitz, Hörtendorf, St. Peter am Bichl - increasing its population to about 90,000.

Sights
The Old City with its central Alter Platz (Old Square) and the Renaissance buildings with their charming arcaded court yards is a major attraction. Notable landmarks also include
 * the lindworm fountain of 1593, with a Hercules added in 1633
 * Landhaus - Palace of the Estates, now the seat of the State Assembly.
 * the Baroque cathedral, built by the then Protestant Estates of Carinthia
 * Viktring Abbey


 * Hypo-Arena soccer stadium
 * Minimundus, the "small world on lake Wörthersee"
 * the Kreuzbergl nature park with a viewing tower and observatory
 * the small but attractive botanical garden at the foot of Kreuzbergl, with a mining museum attached
 * Wörthersee, the warmest of the large Alpine lakes, with Europe's largest non-sea beach and lido   taking 12,000 bathers on a nice summer day.
 * Maria Loretto peninsula with its newly renovated stately home, until recently in the possession of one of Carinthia's noble families, the Rosenbergs, but  acquired lately by the City.
 * Tentschach and Hallegg castles

Economy
Klagenfurt is the economic centre of Carinthia, with 20 % of the industrial companies. In May 2001 there were 63,618 employees in 6,184 companies here. 33 of these companies counted more than 200 employees. The prevalent economical sectors are light industry, electronics, and tourism. There are also several printing offices.

Transport
Klagenfurt Airport is a small international airport connecting to some major cities in Europe and holiday resorts abroad.

There is also a Klagenfurt Hauptbahnhof (main station) located south of the city centre.

The city is situated at the intersection of the A2 and S37 motorways. The A2 autobahn runs from Vienna via Graz and Klagenfurt to Villach and further to the state border of Italy. The S37 freeway runs from Vienna via Bruck an der Murand Sankt Veit an der Glan to Klagenfurt. The Loibl Pass highway B91 goes to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, which is only 88 km from Klagenfurt.

The volume of traffic in Klagenfurt is high (motorisation level: 572 cars/1000 inhabitants in 2007). In the 1960s, with the last streetcar line demolished, Klagenfurt was meant to become a car-friendly city, with lots of wide roads. A motorway was even planned to cross the city partly underground,  which now, however,  by-passes the city in the north. The problem of four railway lines from north, west, south and east meeting at the central station south of the city centre and  strangulating city  traffic has been eased by a considerable number of underpasses on the main arteries. Nevertheless, despite 28 bus lines, traffic jams are frequent nowadays as in most cities of similar size. Ideas of a rapid transport system using the existing railway rails, of an elevated cable railway to the soccer stadium,or  of a regular motorboat service on the Lend Canal from the city centre to the lake have not materialized. But for those who fancy leisurely travel there is a regular motorboat and steamer service on the lake connecting the resorts on Woerthersee. During severe winters, which unfortunately do no longer occur regularly, you might of course be faster crossing the frozen lake on your skates.

Culture
There is a civic theatre-cum-opera house with professional companies, a professional symphony orchestra, a state conservatory and concert hall; there are musical societies such as Musikverein (founded in 1826) or Mozartgemeinde, a private experimental theatre company, the State Museum,  a modern art museum and the Diocesan museum of religious art; the Artists' House, two municipal  and several private galleries, a planetarium in Europa Park, literary institutions such as the Robert Musil House, and a reputable  German-literature competition awarding the  prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Klagenfurt is the home of a number of small but fine publishing houses, and  several papers or regional editions are also published here including  dailies such as "Kärntner Krone", "Kärntner Tageszeitung", "Kleine Zeitung".

Klagenfurt is a popular vacation spot with mountains both to the south and north, numerous parks and a series of 23  stately homes and castles on its outskirts. In summer the city is home to the Altstadtzauber (The Magic of the Old City) festival.

Also located here are the University of Klagenfurt, a campus of the  Fachhochschule Kärnten, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences,  a college of education for primary and secondary teacher training and  further education of teachers as well as a college of general further education (VHS) and two institutions of further professional and vocational education (WIFI and BFI). Among other Austrian educational institutions, there is a Slovene language Gymnasium (established in 1957) and a Slovene language commercial high school. Several Carinthian Slovene cultural and political associations are also based in the city, including the Hermagoras Society, the oldest Slovene publishing house founded in Klagenfurt in 1851.

In addition to cultural attractions and activities available in and around Klagenfurt, this city has one more important attribute that must be mentioned. Klagenfurt is in a central location for many other great European destinations. Klagenfurt is less than an hour's drive from Italy and Slovenia, and only a few hours from Vienna, Salzburg, Budapest, Bratislava, and Zagreb.

Tertiary

 * University of Klagenfurt
 * Klagenfurt Campus of FH Kärnten, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences CUAS
 * Pädagogische Hochschule Viktor Frankl, a college of education
 * Health Science Centre with Academy for Midwifery and hospital-based Nursing School at the Klagenfurt State Hospital

Secondary
A number of general high schools such as and senior high schools offering general-cum-professional education:
 * Europa-Gymnasium, Austria's oldest
 * BG/BRG Mössingerstraße
 * BRG Klagenfurt-Viktring with emphasis on arts (music and drawing)
 * ORG St. Ursula, a private Catholic institution
 * a Slovene-language Gymnasium
 * 2 Schools of Engineering HTL Lastenstrasse and HTL Mössingerstraße
 * 2 commercial high schools: Handelsakademie #1 and #2
 * a Slovene-language Commercial High School ("Handelsakademie")
 * a High School of Catering, Fashion and Design
 * a School of Pre-School Education
 * a School of Alpine Agriculture and Nutrition Science
 * a School of Social Management of the Caritas Charity

Further education

 * College of Further Education Volkshochschule
 * Technical Training Institute of the Trade Unions - Berufsförderungsinstitut (BFI)
 * Technical Training Institute of the Chamber of Commerce - Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitut (WIFI)
 * evening schools (Gymnasium and Schools of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering)

Others

 * Landeskonservatorium, a state music conservatory
 * a Waldorf School
 * a School for Social Workers operated by the Austrian Caritas Charity
 * the Carinthian State School of Fire Control

Sports
The Austrian ice-hockey record-champion EC KAC is one of the best known sports clubs in Austria. The "Eishockey Club Klagenfurter Athletiksport Club" has won the Austrian Championship 29 times and its fans come from all over Carinthia. The Premier League soccer club SK Austria Kärnten is based in Klagenfurt. Klagenfurt hosts the Start/Finish of the Austrian Ironman  Contest, 3.8 km swim 180 km bike 42 km run, part of the WTC Ironman series, which culminates in the Hawaii World Championships.

One of the FIVB's Beach Volleyball Grand Slams takes place in Klagenfurt every July and is almost always one of Austria's biggest celebrations during the year. Beach volleyball is popular in Austria even though the country is landlocked. Austrian players Clemens Doppler, Florian Gosch and Alexander Horst, who are perennial European powerhouses take part every year. The 2009 champions of this tournament were the 2008 Beijing gold medal team from the USA, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers.

Klagenfurt also hosted three games during the UEFA Euro 2008 Championships in the recently built Hypo-Arena. Klagenfurt was also a contender for the 2006 Winter Olympics and is home to an  American Football team, the Carinthian Black Lions, competing in the First League of the Austrian Football League. The Black Lions attract fans from all over Carinthia, playing home games in both Klagenfurt and Villach.

Notable natives and residents

 * Milivoj Ašner, Croatian Nazi Chief of Police, fugitive war criminal
 * Ingeborg Bachmann, poetess
 * Cesar Baena, cross country skier
 * Günther Domenig, architect
 * James Aubrey (James Aubrey Tregidgo) famous British actor
 * Andrej Einspieler, politician and journalist
 * Felix Ermacora, human rights expert
 * Heinz Goll (1934–1999), sculptor and painter
 * Stephanie Graf, athlete
 * Karl-Heinz Grasser, former federal minister of finance
 * Emanuel Herrmann (1839–1902), national economist; one of several inventors of the postcard
 * Sissy Höfferer, actress
 * Anton Janežič, philologian
 * Jurij Japelj, Slovene philologist and translator
 * Gert Jonke, writer
 * Udo Jürgens, singer/composer
 * Dieter Kalt, ice hockey player
 * Dagmar Koller, actress
 * Stefan Koubek, tennis player
 * Ernst Lerch, war criminal suspect
 * Stefan Lexa, soccer player
 * Matija Majar, political activist, author and ethnologist
 * Penny McLean, singer
 * Manfred Mocher, former keeper for the Austrian national football team
 * Robert Musil, writer
 * Heinz Nittel, politician in Vienna's city administration
 * Danny Nucci, actor
 * Vinko Ošlak, essayist
 * Wolfgang Petritsch, diplomat,former UN High Representative in Bosnia
 * Ursula Plassnik, former federal minister of foreign affairs
 * Thomas Pöck, ice hockey player
 * Roland Rainer, architect
 * Hanns Albin Rauter, SS-general in Nazi-occupied Netherlands, executed war criminal
 * Bernhard von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia
 * Josef Stefan, mathematician and physicist
 * Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck, admiral
 * Johann von Viktring, historiographer
 * Johann von Viktring, historiographer

Twin towns — sister cities
Klagenfurt is twinned with:


 * 🇩🇪 Wiesbaden, Germany, since 1930
 * 🇳🇱 Venlo, Netherlands, since 1961
 * 🇸🇮 Nova Gorica, Slovenia, since 1965
 * 🇮🇹 Gorizia, Italy, since 1965
 * 🇩🇰 Gladsaxe, Denmark, since 1969
 * 🇩🇪 Dessau-Rosslau, Germany, since 1970
 * 🇹🇯 Dushanbe, Tajikistan, since 1973
 * 🇩🇪 Dachau, Germany, since 1974
 * 🇵🇱 Rzeszów, Poland, since 1975
 * Sibiu, Romania, since 1990
 * 🇭🇺 Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, since 1990
 * 🇺🇦 Chernivtsi, Ukraine, since 1992
 * 🇮🇱 Nazareth Illit, Israel, since 1993
 * 🇪🇸 Tarragona, Spain, since 1994
 * 🇨🇳 Nanning, China, since 2001
 * 🇨🇦 Laval, Canada, since 2005