Braunau: The city where people from 87 nations have found a home

The evening of retrospections – that’s how you could describe Braunau’s mayor Hannes Waidbacher’s New Year’s reception this year. Charmingly moderated by Kati Hochhold, the mayor and other talk guests took a look back, especially at December 2023 and the snow chaos.

But beforehand, Waidbacher brought facts and figures about the city with him for the approximately 300 visitors: from those about the finances, which rarely caused any jumps of joy (which OÖN reported), to the type of land use in the city area, to those about the most important capital City: the inhabitants. At the beginning of the year, Braunau had 19,396 residents and is getting closer and closer to the 20,000 population mark, including secondary residences (1,742).

13,252 Austrians currently live in the city of Braunau. The 1,403 Romanians are the second largest group after the Austrians when the residents are divided by nationality; the Germans, with 1,013 residents, take third place. Residents from a total of 87 countries have found a home in the Innviertel’s largest district capital.

The snow chaos and the consequences

The New Year’s reception was also used to settle a bill from the end of 2023. 560 hours of overtime, days of non-stop snow removal and in the end the snow still brought bitter hail for the construction yard employees: “We drove six vehicles in twelve-hour shifts and that was obviously not enough. We were massively insulted, by phone and by email “We like to work for the population, but we are not magicians. In the future we hope for more understanding,” said Manfred Gerner, Bauhof operations manager. The fire department will also remember these snowy days for a longer time: “In December we had more than 120 missions, but because of the snow pressure alone there were 57 missions from the first to the sixth of December. We are well positioned in Braunau, but it is still not possible “To be everywhere at the same time,” said fire department commander Klaus Litzlbauer.

The Gugg, the cultural pearl

From nature to culture: Angelika Weinberger, who took over the management of the Gugg Kulturhaus from Alois Mandl four years ago, was also a guest. The theater, film and media scientist and native of the Innviertel puts together the top-class program every year. “We even have people from Salzburg, Vienna and Munich because some programs only take place here in the Gugg,” said Weinberger. Gugg’s own productions, both for adults and children, are close to our hearts. “We are promoting theater by children for children, because without young talent the stage dies,” she said.

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