Kahlenbergerdorf
Coat of arms	Map
Location: 48°16′29"N 16°21′18"E

Kahlenbergerdorf was an independent 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...

 until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling

Döbling

Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...

, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinde

Katastralgemeinde

A Katastralgemeinde , a German word , is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Italian provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino, Gorizia, Trieste, and in Slovenia.A cadastral community records property ownership in a cadastre,...

n.

Location

Kahlenbergerdorf lies in the north of Vienna on the right-hand bank of the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 river ina valley between the Nußberg and Leopoldsberg

Leopoldsberg

The Leopoldsberg is perhaps Vienna’s most famous overlook, towering over the Danube and the city. Leopoldberg’s most prominent landmark is the church which stands at the top, and which is clearly visible from Vienna below...

 hills. In the north, Kahlenbergerdorf borders on Weidling, and in the east on Jedlesee. To the south lies Nußdorf

Nußdorf, Vienna

Nußdorf was a separate municipality until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna in the 19th district of Döbling.- Location :Nußdorf lies on both banks of the Nußbach , where the brook meets the Danube Canal...

, to the west, Josefsdorf

Josefsdorf

Josefsdorf was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

. The parish cemetery lies amongst the vineyards above the centre of Kahlenbergerdorf, which covers a total area of 226,01 hectaures. In statistical analyses, Kahlenbergerdorf is counted in the region Nußdorf-Kahlenbergerdorf.

Topography

Kahlenbergerdorf includes many forested ridges of the Wienerwald

Wienerwald

The Vienna Woods are forested highlands that form the northeastern foothills of the Northern Limestone Alps in the states of Lower Austria and Vienna. The long and wide hill range is heavily wooded and a popular recreation area with the Viennese....

 (Vienna Woods).

The origin of the name Kahlenbergerdorf

The village has been known as Kahlenbergerdörfl for hundreds of years. It is first mentioned in an official document dating to 1133/36 as "de Chalwenperge". The Leopoldsberg

Leopoldsberg

The Leopoldsberg is perhaps Vienna’s most famous overlook, towering over the Danube and the city. Leopoldberg’s most prominent landmark is the church which stands at the top, and which is clearly visible from Vienna below...

 hill was named "Kahlenberg" until 1693, but it is not to be confused with the neighbouring hill, known now as Kahlenberg, of which the town of Kahlenbergerdorf has no territorial share.

Early events

Viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

 can be traced back 2500 years, when Celts settled in the vicinity of the Leopoldsberg hill.

Kahlenbergerdorf in the Middle Ages

In the 12th century, the Chalenperger noble family arose in Kahlenbergerdorf. The inhabitants of the village were farmers, who were largely reliant on their own produce. Wine and fruit were produced for sale. At the end of the 12th century, viticulture was already the dominant industry around Kahlenberg. The local duke and the Klosterneuburg Monastery each owned numerous vineyards. The monastery even had its own wine press, but it gave this to the Fürst

Fürst

Fürst is a German title of nobility, usually translated into English as Prince.The term refers to the head of a principality and is distinguished from the son of a monarch, who is referred to as Prinz...

 on his request. In the following centuries, many other monasteries and churches took possession of vineyards in Kahlenbergerdorf, including the Zwettl Abbey

Zwettl Abbey

Zwettl Abbey is a Cistercian monastery located in Zwettl in Lower Austria, in the Diocese of St. Pölten.- History :Zwettl Abbey was founded in 1137 by Hademar I of Kuenring, with Herrmann, a monk of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, as its first abbot . It was a daughter house of Heiligenkreuz, of the line of...

, the Lilienfeld Abbey

Lilienfeld Abbey

Lilienfeld Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Lilienfeld to the south of Sankt Pölten in Lower Austria.- History :It was founded in 1202 by Leopold VI, Duke of Austria and Styria, as a daughter house of Heiligenkreuz Abbey...

, the Kremsmünster Monastery, Saint Bernhard Nunnery

Saint Bernhard Nunnery

Sankt Bernhard Abbey is a former Cistercian nunnery in Sankt Bernhard-Frauenhofen in Lower Austria.- History :In 1277, the Cistercian nunnery previously located in Neumelon was relocated onto land in Chrueg im Pewreich am Teffenbach which Stephan von Maissau had donated for this purpose...

 and St. Dorothea. The Kahlenberg was also mined; there is documentary evidence of this between 1547 and 1618. At first, only ore

Ore

An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

 is mentioned, but later texts make reference to silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 finds. The deposits in the Kahlenberg are however so limited that they were quickly exhausted. Between 1330 and 1339, Gundacker von Thernberg, known as the “Pfaff vom Kahlenberg”, was the parish priest (Pfarrer) in Kahlenbergerdorf. Anecdotes about Thernberg were recorded in the 15th century by Phillip Frankfurter in his work Des pfaffen geschicht und histori vom Kalenberg (The story of the parish priest and the history of the Kalenberg). The Kahlenbergerdorf parish church

Kahlenbergerdorf Parish Church

The Kahlenbergerdorf Parish Church is a Roman-Catholic parish church in the suburb of Kahlenbergerdorf in the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling. It is dedicated to Saint George.- History :...

 is recorded as a separate parish for the first time in 1256.

Kahlenbergerdorf since the Middle Ages

In 1529, the parish church was destroyed during the first siege of Vienna

Siege of Vienna

The Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power, the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe, and was the result of a...

. It was later rebuilt.

Due to its location on the banks of the Danube, Kahlenbergerdorf suffered from severe inundations. The establishment of the harbour in Kuchelau outside the entrance to the Danube channel in 1901-03 however brought with it effective protection against flooding.

After the dissolution of the Camaldolese

Camaldolese

The Camaldolese monks and nuns are part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities which follow the way of life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century...

 hermitage on the Kahlenberg hill, the area was made available for construction and a small settlement arose, which was given the name Josefsdorf in 1784 in honour of Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

.

Thanks to its location on the edge of a narrow valley between the Danube and the Leopoldsberg, Kahlenbergerdorf has been able to maintain its original character. The village also developed less quickly than other parts of modern-day Döbling

Döbling

Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...

. It is possible that flooding caused Kahlenbergerdorf to shrink in the 18th century. In 1795, there were 24 houses, in 1831 there were five more and a total of 234 inhabitants. Between then and 1890, Kahlenbergerdorf grew to number 52 houses with 486 inhabitants.

In 1892, Kahlenbergerdorf was integrated into the city of Vienna. The area as far as the “nose” of the Leopoldsberg was included along with its neighbours Sievering

Sievering

Sievering is a suburb of Vienna and part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. Sievering was created in 1892 out of the two erstwhile independent suburbs Untersievering and Obersievering. These still exist as Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Grinzing

Grinzing

Grinzing was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.- Geography :- Location :...

, Oberdöbling

Oberdöbling

Oberdöbling was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Unterdöbling

Unterdöbling

Unterdöbling was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Nußdorf

Nußdorf, Vienna

Nußdorf was a separate municipality until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna in the 19th district of Döbling.- Location :Nußdorf lies on both banks of the Nußbach , where the brook meets the Danube Canal...

 and Heiligenstadt

Heiligenstadt, Vienna

Heiligenstadt was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Heiligenstadt is one of the 10 municipalities in the Döbling District.- Geography :...

 in the district of Döbling

Döbling

Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...

, while the rest of Kahlenbergerdorf was allocated to Klosterneuburg

Klosterneuburg

Klosterneuburg is an attractive small town in Lower Austria, Austria with a population of 24,442.It is located on the Danube, immediately north of Vienna, from which it is separated by the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg hills...

.

Economy

In 1800, half of the land in Kahlenbergerdorf was occupied by woods, while vineyards covered another quarter. Orchids and fields made up less than 10 percent. Although viticulture was dominant, there were plans to open a brewery here in the 19th century. When the plans were approved in 1839 however, ethanol

Ethanol

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...

 and vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

 were produced instead of beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

. Production continued until around 1860. There was also a sugar factory in Kahlenbergerdorf between 1834 and circa 1870. The establishment of the harbour in Kuchelau was expected to bring profits to Kahlenbergerdorf but the harbour never achieved the prominence of the harbour in Nußdorf. It had been designed as a point for boats to wait before entering the harbour in Freudenau, and was meant to serve numerous small ships. It only ever became economically important for the logging industry and after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

it was converted into a marina for rowing clubs and motorboats.