Weissensee, Austria

Weissensee is a municipality in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia in Austria with 766 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2013).

Geography

The community Weissensee is located at 11.6 km long Weissensee at the foot of the Gail Valley Alps. Except for a small piece of the eastern shore (municipality Stockenboi ), the entire lake in the municipality, which extends towards the east to the Staff and Villach flukes in the west to Kreuzberg. The eponymous lake, with an area of 6.5 km ², the fourth largest in Carinthia and lies at an altitude of 930 m.

Weissensee has only one cadastral municipality with Techendorf.

The municipal area includes the following towns (in brackets population as of 31 October 2011):

• Gatschach (130 )
• Kreuzberg ( 7)
• Naggl (48 )
• Neusach (181 )
• Oberndorf (224 )
• Techendorf (176 )
• Tröbelsberg (6 )

History

After the Edict of Toleration of Joseph II in 1781 Techendorf was completely Protestant. 1783 Protestant house of worship was dedicated; it served until 1986 as a municipal office and school. The Protestant church was built in Techendorf 1900/1903.

1850 constituted the cadastral Techendorf as a separate municipality, its scope has changed only marginally by boundary corrections in the 20th century. Given the tourist development, named the town in 1968 to Weissensee.

Coat of arms

The blue ground in the arms of Weissensee alludes to the lake, the silver board on the due lacustrine chalk white sandbanks, where the lake probably owes its name. The bridge is the symbol of Techendorf, it was first mentioned in documents in 1348 and has since been renewed again and again, and finally in 1967 replaced by the present concrete structure with four pillars. The silver W stands for the place name and was used even before the ceremony the coat of arms as part of a tourism logo.

Coat of arms and flag were presented to the community on 26 March 1992, the flag is blue and white with integrated crest.

Population

According to 2001 census Weissensee has 788 inhabitants, of which 97.2 % have Austrian citizenship. 73.6 % of the population profess the Protestant and 22.0% to the Roman Catholic Church and 1.0 % are Muslim faith. 3.4 % have no religious confession.

Culture and sights

• The Evangelical Church Techendorf is a 1900 to 1903 in Neo-Gothic style erected, the church in Weißbriach in imitation of construction.
• The Catholic branch church of St. Martin in Gatschach, first mentioned in documents in 1485, is a low, originally late-Gothic, Baroque style in the 17th century building.
• From Naggl / Paterzipf (ship station / parking lot) is the former glassblower village Tscherniheim walk about 75 minutes away. The Bodental is also accessible by mountain bikes. Along the route there are six information panels along the theme " The Forest glass on the track ."
• In 1986, the ice skating scenes from the Bond movie filmed " A touch of death" on the Weissensee.

Economy and infrastructure

The economy of Weissensee is dominated by tourism during the summer and winter. The secluded location of the fjord-like lake and Alps Nature Park attract many vacationers.

At the edge of the municipality passes the Weißenseestraße (B 87).

The Weissensee mountain railway GmbH claims to have five lifts with a total length of 2480m and a total capacity of 3980 persons / h, 6060m runway. The ski area extends from 930müA up on 1324müA.

Policy

• The local council of Weissensee has 11 members and is composed as follows since the municipal elections in 2009 together: 6 ÖVP
• 3 FPK
• Two SPÖ

Personalities

• Georg Traar ( born July 5, 1899 in Techendorf / Weissensee (Carinthia ), † September 4, 1980 Purkersdorf ) was an Austrian Evangelical Lutheran theologian, youth pastor, superintendent, publicist and ecumenical activist.