The Mühlviertel () is an

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 region belonging to the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and

Innviertel The Innviertel (literally German for "Inn Quarter"; officially called the ''Innkreis''; ) is a traditional Austrian region southeast of the Inn river. It forms the western part of the state of Upper Austria and borders the German state of Bavari ...

. It is named after the three rivers ', ', and '. Mühlviertel scenery, Rohrbach district, Austria

Region

The Mühlviertel consists of the four Upper Austrian districts that lie north of the river

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Rohrbach Rohrbach or Röhrbach may refer to: Places Municipalities in Switzerland *Rohrbach, Switzerland, in the canton of Bern Municipalities in Germany *Rohrbach, Bavaria, in the district of Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria *Rohrbach, Birkenfeld, in the district o ...

Urfahr-Umgebung Bezirk Urfahr-Umgebung () is a district of the state of Upper Austria in Austria. It is named after Urfahr, a former city, today a borough of Linz, seat of the district's administration (''Bezirkshauptmannschaft''). Municipalities Towns (''Stä ...

Freistadt Freistadt (, literally "Freetown") is a small Austrian town in the state of Upper Austria in the region Mühlviertel. With a population of approximately 7,500 residents, it is a trade centre for local villages. Freistadt is the economic centre of ...

and

Perg Perg is a city in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, capital of the district of the same name. History Originally in the eastern part of the Duchy of Bavaria, Perg belonged to Austria from the 12th century on. In 1269 it received commercial p ...

. The parts of the state capital

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

that lie north of the Danube also belong to the Mühlviertel. Geologically it is a part of the

Bohemian Massif The Bohemian Massif ( cs, Česká vysočina or ''Český masiv'', german: Böhmische Masse or ''Böhmisches Massiv'') is a geomorphological province in Central Europe. It is a large massif stretching over most of the Czech Republic, eastern Ger ...

. Major towns include

Bad Leonfelden Bad Leonfelden is a municipality in the district of Urfahr-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Steven Beller, author of ''A Concise History of Austria'', who has family links to Bad Leonfelden, cites episodes from the town's histor ...

and

History

The region was the site of a notorious war crime at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when hundreds of starving Soviet POWs escaped from nearby

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

and were pursued and murdered around Mühlviertel; the SS referred to the event as the

Mühlviertler Hasenjagd The Mühlviertler Hasenjagd () was a war crime in which 500 Soviet officers, who had revolted and escaped from the Mühlviertel subcamp of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp on 2 February 1945, were hunted down. Local civilians, soldiers and ...

("Mühlviertel rabbit hunt"). During the

Allied occupation of Austria The Allied occupation of Austria started on 8 May 1945 with the fall of Nazi Germany and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955. After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In 1943, however, ...

after World War II, the Mühlviertel belonged to the Soviet occupation zone, while the rest of Upper Austria belonged to the American occupation zone.

External links

* Geography of Upper Austria {{UpperAustria-geo-stub

Region

History

See also

External links