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Wörgl
Wörgl
Municipality
	Wörgl seen from the east (Grattenbergl)
	Coat of arms
	Location within Kufstein district
	Wörgl Location within Austria
	Coordinates: 47°29′N 12°04′E / 47.483°N 12.067°E
Country	Austria
State	Tyrol
District	Kufstein
Government
• Mayor	Michael Riedhart
Area
• Total	19.74 km2 (7.62 sq mi)
Elevation	511 m (1,677 ft)
Population (2018-01-01)
• Total	13,811
• Density	700/km2 (1,800/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	6300-6302
Area code	043-5332
Vehicle registration	KU
Website	www.woergl.at

Wörgl (German pronunciation: [ˈvœrɡəl]) is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km (12 mi) from the international border with Bavaria, Germany.

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1869	1,080	—
1880	1,485	+37.5%
1890	2,319	+56.2%
1900	3,126	+34.8%
1910	4,232	+35.4%
1923	4,155	−1.8%
1934	4,196	+1.0%
1939	4,689	+11.7%
1951	6,247	+33.2%
1961	6,828	+9.3%
1971	7,937	+16.2%
1981	8,598	+8.3%
1991	10,041	+16.8%
2001	10,885	+8.4%
2011	12,645	+16.2%

Transport

Wörgl is a railway junction in the line between Innsbruck and Munich, as well as the inner-Austrian line to Salzburg. Its railway station has been designated as a Hauptbahnhof (German: main station) since 10 December 2006.

European route E641 connects Wörgl with Salzburg. The E45 and E60 routes (Austrian autobahn A12) pass through Wörgl.

Wörgl railway station in 1900
Wörgl railway station in 1965

History

World War II

The near Itter Castle was the site of one of the last European battles of World War II.^{[citation needed]} The Battle for Itter Castle took place on 5 May 1945, with surrendered Wehrmacht troops, the United States Army, Austrian Resistance fighters and former French political prisoners fighting against the 17th Waffen-SS Panzer Grenadier Division. The leader of the surrendered Wehrmacht troops, Major Josef Gangl, was killed during the battle and is buried in Wörgl's municipal cemetery.^{[citation needed]} Sepp Gangl-Straße is a street in Wörgl named after Gangl.^[3]

The Wörgl Experiment

One Schilling note with demurrage stamps from Wörgl

Wörgl was the site of the "Miracle of Wörgl", beginning on 31 July 1932 during the Great Depression. Beginning with the issuing of "Certified Compensation Bills", a form of local currency commonly known as Stamp Scrip or Freigeld. This was an application of the monetary theories of the economist Silvio Gesell by the town's then-mayor, Michael Unterguggenberger [de].

The experiment resulted in a growth of employment and meant that local government projects such as new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump and a bridge could all be completed, contrasting with much of the depression in the rest of the country. Inflation and deflation are also reputed to have been non-existent for the duration of the experiment.^{[citation needed]}

Despite attracting great interest at the time, including from French Premier Edouard Daladier and economist Irving Fisher,^[4] the "experiment" was ended by Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank on 1 September 1933.^[5]^[6]

British economist John Maynard Keynes thought that "future economics will learn more from Gesell's ideas than from Marx's".^[7]

In 2006, milestones were placed across the town to commemorate this event.^[8]