Ottensheim
Encyclopedia
Ottensheim is a municipality in the district of Urfahr-Umgebung
Urfahr-Umgebung
Bezirk Urfahr Umgebung is a district of the state ofUpper Austria in Austria. It is named after Urfahr, a borough of Linz, seat of the district's administration .-Municipalities:...

 in Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. In July 2008 it hosted the World Rowing Championships
World Rowing Championships
The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA . It is a week long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the international rowing calendar.The first event was held in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1962...

.

History

First settlements in this area date from about 4000 BC. The first mention of the settlement in a document dates from 1148 AD. In 1228 AD, Ottensheim received the market right – as third town in Upper Austria, after Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

 (1210) and Enns
Enns
Enns may refer to:* Enns , Upper Austria, Austria* Enns , a surname* Enns , a southern tributary of the Danube River...

 (1212).

In 1527, the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

-Monarch
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

 Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

 endowed the town and the castle to his chancellor Niklas Rabenhaupt von Suche, who expanded the castle. The coat of arms of Ottensheim dates from this time.

Ottensheim has existed as a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 since 1848. At this time and until 1893 the now self-contended municipality Puchenau
Puchenau
Puchenau is a municipality in the district of Urfahr-Umgebung in Upper Austria, Austria. Until 1893 it was part of the neighbour town Ottensheim.-References:...

 also belonged to Ottensheim. In 1871 the first ferry over the Danube was installed. It was destroyed by an ice jam eight years later, and rebuilt in 1882. In 1964 the now still working ferry boat was built.

Every year since the 1990s an alternative music festival for about 2,000 people takes place on the Rodl park near the Danube river, the Open Air Ottensheim, where local and international rock, hip-hop and experimental music acts take place.

In present time, Ottensheim is a town with many families who want to be able to live in the countryside, but still travel to the city for work. Most residents work in the closest city, Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

. Ottensheim has many parks and sporting facilities as well as a secondary school, music school, cinema (est. 1919, one of the oldest in Upper Austria), police station and post office which also serves the neighbouring villages.

Ottensheim also has Austria's 7th largest hydroelectric power plant, on the Danube.

Politics

The governor of Ottensheim is Ms. Ulrike Böker from the citizen's group “Pro O”, who won the direct voting. The municipal council is formed by 10 mandates of the Austrian People's Party
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...

 (ÖVP), 7 mandates of the Social Democratic Party of Austria
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...

 (SPÖ), 7 of "Pro O" and one mandate of the right Freedom Party of Austria
Freedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...

 (FPÖ). The left party The Greens – The Green Alternative does not exist in Ottensheim, but has, with 20 to 25%, the highest rate of voters in Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...

in case of nationwide votes.
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