Liezen (

Central Bavarian Central Bavarian form a subgroup of Bavarian dialects in large parts of Austria and the German state of Bavaria along the Danube river, on the northern side of the Eastern Alps. They are spoken in the ' Old Bavarian' regions of Upper Bavaria (wi ...

: ''Liezn'') is a municipality in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n federal state of

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, district capital of the district of the same name and economic center on the River Enns.

Population

Politics

Since 1995, the left-wing

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

party has held an absolute majority in the local council. As of the 2015 local elections, the

holds 13 out of 25 seats on the council, the

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...

has 6, the

FPÖ The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aust ...

has 3, a local party known as Die LIEB has 2, and

Die Grünen Die Grünen (German for "the Greens") may refer to: *The Greens – The Green Alternative The Greens – The Green Alternative (german: Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative, ) is a green political party in Austria. The party was founded in 19 ...

has 1.

Economy

A large mechanical engineering plant, ''

Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei GesmbH is a foundry and mechanical engineering company based in Liezen, Austria. The company's origins date to 1939 when a factory was established in Liezen for war materials production. Post WWII the company " ...

'', is located in the east of the town; it was connected to the "

Noricum scandal The Noricum scandal, or Noricum affair was an Austrian arms export scandal centering on the illegal export of weapons to Iran, by VOEST subsidiary ''Noricum'' during the 1980s. It was named after the Roman geographical area Noricum. See also * N ...

" in the 1980s due to the illegal export of armaments. As of 2012, the company remained a large employer.

Popular culture

In the adventure novel series by

Gérard de Villiers Gérard de Villiers (; 8 December 1929 – 31 October 2013) was a French writer, journalist and publisher whose ''SAS'' series of spy novels have been major bestsellers. Life Born in Paris in 1929, Villiers was the son of playwright Jacques Ad ...

, Schloss Liezen is the home of the principal character Prince

Malko Linge Malko (fl. 1540-1560) is the earliest king of Garo who is more than just a name in the traditions of the Oromo people. According to Werner Lange, "only the confused circumstances of his death were recalled: he is reputed to have been killed by "Gr ...

. However, this fictional castle is situated on the , with most of its estates over the border in Hungary.

References

Cities and towns in Liezen District {{Styria-geo-stub