Braunau am Inn: Encyclopedia - Braunau am Inn

Braunau am Inn

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Braunau am Inn is a city in the Innviertel (River Inn area) of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), the north-western province of Austria. It lies about 90 km west of Linz and about 60 km north of Salzburg, close to the border with the German Bundesland of Bavaria. The population in 2001 was 16,372. A port of entry, it is connected by bridges over the Inn River with its Bavarian counterpart, Simbach am Inn.

The town was first mentioned around 810 and received the city statute in 1260, which makes it one of the oldest cities in Austria. It became a fortress and important trading route junction, dealing with the salt trade and with ship traffic on the River Inn. Through its history it changed hands four times. It was Bavarian until 1779 and became an Austrian town under the terms of the treaty of Teschen, which settled the War of the Bavarian Succession. As a major Bavarian city the town played an outstanding role in the Bavarian uprising against the Austrian occupation during the War of the Spanish Succession, when it hosted a provisional Bavarian Parliament in 1705 headed by Sebastian Plinganser. Again between 1809 and 1816 it was a Bavarian town under the terms of the treaty of Bratislava. In 1816 Bavaria ceded the town to Austria, when Europe was reorganised after the Napoleonic Wars. Ever since then it is an Austrian city. Bavaria was compensated in advance by the gain of Aschaffenburg.

Braunau has a remarkable 15th-century church with a 99m-high spire, as well as castle remains housing a museum, and parts of the former town walls.

Braunau is also well known as the birthplace in 1889 of Adolf Hitler. The fact is acknowledged in town publications, and a memorial stone for the victims of Fascism was raised by Major Gerhard Skiba in front of the house of Hitler's birth in 1989. Since 1992 the Braunau Contemporary History Days have been organized by the Braunau Society for Contemporary History and the annual meeting of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service has taken place in Braunau since 1998.

Nowadays, Braunau has the full range of schools and colleges; industries including electronics, metal (AMAG) and woodworking, and glass. After two successful seasons, the local football team, S.V. Braunau, reached the Austrian 1st Division before suddenly going bankrupt in 2000. The team was refounded as F.C. Braunau.

See also

• Braunau Contemporary History Days

Note: Broumov, a town in the Czech Republic, is also known as Braunau in German.

Category: Cities and towns in Austria

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Braunau am Inn", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki