Raiding (Hungarian Doborján, Croatian Rajnof) is a market town in the Oberpullendorf district in Burgenland in Austria. The community is located on the Raidingbach in Central Burgenland.
Before the birth of Christ, the area was part of the
Celtic Kingdom of Noricum and belonged to the surroundings of the
Celtic hill settlement Burg on the Schwarzenbacher Burgberg. Later
under the Romans, today's raiding was then in the province of
Pannonia.
Raiding was first mentioned in a document as
Dobornya in 1425. The place belonged, like the whole of Burgenland,
to Hungary (German-West Hungary) until 1920/21. Since 1898 the
Hungarian toponym Doborján had to be used due to the Hungarian
government's policy of Hungarianization. After the end of the First
World War, after tough negotiations, German-West Hungary was awarded
to Austria in the Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon in 1919.
Raiding has belonged to the newly founded federal state of
Burgenland since 1921.
On January 1st, 1971, Raiding was
united with Lackendorf and Unterfrauenhaid to form the new
“Municipality of Raiding-Unterfrauenhaid” within the framework of
the “Municipal Structure Improvement Act” by a resolution of the
Burgenland provincial government. This large community was dissolved
again by ordinance of September 6, 1989 on January 1, 1990, whereby
Raiding - like Lackendorf and Unterfrauenhaid - again became an
independent community following the boundaries of the cadastral
community.
The municipality of Raiding has had the right to
use the designation “market municipality” since August 1st, 1990.
The Roman Catholic parish church of Raiding is located in the
center of Raiding in the market town of Raiding in Burgenland. The
parish church of St. Antonius belongs to the Deanery of
Deutschkreutz in the Diocese of Eisenstadt. The church is under
monument protection. The nave was built in 1927 in place of a
previous church, while the existing church tower and choir were
preserved. The nave has three bays. The retracted chancel with a
three-eighth note has a groined vault.
Franz Liszt's
birthplace: Since 1951, a museum about the composer's life has been
set up in the birthplace of Franz Liszt. The house where Franz Liszt
was born is in Burgenland in Raiding at Lisztstraße 46. In 1911 a
museum dedicated to Franz Liszt was opened and in 2006 a concert
hall was added. The building was part of a noble courtyard which,
according to the coat of arms and the inscription on the
round-arched portal leading to the property at Lisztstrasse 46, was
built by Georg Szeged in 1587 and enlarged in 1610/20. Acquired by
the Esterházy family between 1806 and 1808, the buildings were
continued as Esterházy'scher Meierhof.
In old plans, only the
central building of the Meierhof, the "Edelhof", is shown as a
T-shaped facility, the outbuildings only appear in the cadastral
plan of 1911. This building complex of the central building emerged
from the two curial buildings by Johann Illésy, who created the
traditional T-shape by structural redesign of the Edelhof around
1610/20. The part of the building that still exists today (the
residential wing was demolished in the 19th century) includes the
last three-room section of the rear-facing garden wing (enclosing an
arcade walled up on the long side).
The house housed the
Liszt Museum from 1911. After the Meierhof was closed in 1940 and
the plots around the Liszt House had been sold, the renovation and
design began in 1949 and, on October 7, 1951 in the presence of
Federal Minister of Education Felix Hurdes (1901-1974), the
(re)opening of the three-room house - not as a Liszt museum, but -
as a Liszt memorial, in which the few original mementos , which
remained from the collection created in 1911, were displayed in
glass cases. In 1971 the property was transferred from Paul
Esterházy to the community.
After extensive redesign, the
house where he was born was opened on April 27, 1979 as the Franz
Liszt Museum in the presence of Hans Walter Wild (1919–2001), mayor
of Bayreuth, Liszt’s place of death.
The collection owns the
organ from the old church, a small baroque positive that was
repaired in 1840 on behalf of Franz Liszt. The museum owns a bust of
Franz Liszt created by the sculptor Kaspar Zumbusch (1830–1915) in
1867 and erected in 1925.
The round-arched portal, which
still has a shingle roof and is fitted with a lattice, carries a
statue of Maria Immaculata on the cornice between two pine cones
attached to the side.
Franz Liszt Concert Hall: The
concert hall was built in 2006 according to plans by the Dutch
architects Atelier Kempe Thill in the immediate vicinity of Franz
Liszt's birthplace. The concert hall has around 590 seats. The focus
of the program is the piano and chamber music by Franz Liszt.
Stork house: The Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori built the
so-called stork house in Raiding. The guest house was built as part
of a cultural exchange program between Japan and Austria and was
completed on October 27, 2012.
The 1975 film Dead places by Axel
Corti is partly set in Raiding.
Experimental inns: Since 2010, the art and
architecture initiative Raiding Project has been building
experimental inns by well-known Japanese architects in the
community. The activities are accompanied by a top-class artistic
supporting program.
Liszt Festival Raiding: Since the opening of
the Franz Liszt Concert Hall in 2006, the Liszt Festival Raiding has
been held annually on four dates, depending on the four seasons, on
3 to 4 days each. There are concerts every year on different topics.
In 2020 the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raiding had been connected to the Burgenland Railway since 1908 with
the Raiding-Lackendorf stop and loading point. Passenger services were
discontinued in 2001.
Bus lines operate during the week. At
weekends, the municipality is practically inaccessible by public
transport.
Due to the number of eligible voters, the municipal council has a total of 15 members.
In addition to Mayor Markus Landauer (ÖVP) and Deputy Mayor Christian
Zimmer (SPÖ), the executive councilors Marcus Gullner (ÖVP), Thomas
Kautz (SPÖ) and Peter Zolles (ÖVP) also belong to the municipal board.
Peter Minasch (SPÖ) was elected municipal treasurer and Peter Zolles
(ÖVP) was elected municipal environmental councillor.
Mayor is Markus Landauer (ÖVP). In the direct mayoral elections in
2007, he prevailed with 50.20% against Mayor Anna Schlaffer (SPÖ,
49.80%), who had been in office since 2002. In the election on October
1, 2017, Landauer was confirmed in office with 61.95%. Christian Zimmer
(SPÖ) competed with 38.05%.
In the 2022 election, Markus Landauer
received 61.51 percent of the votes in the first ballot and remained
mayor of Raiding.
The office manager is Elisabeth Ackerler.
Blazon: "In front of the shield split by silver and blue, a blue vine
with two grapes and a leaf, behind a rising silver unicorn turned to the
right"
The coat of arms was awarded on July 18, 1990. The unicorn is
taken from the coat of arms of the aristocratic Illéssy family, whose
noble farm became the birthplace of Franz Liszt. The vine refers to the
viticulture in the community.
Grafenwörth in Lower Austria is a partner municipality of Raiding.
Franz Liszt (1811–1886), composer and musician
Martin Drescher
(1888–1958), farmer and politician (ÖVP)
Johann Erhardt (1926-2019),
farmer and politician (ÖVP)
Johann Wolf (1931-2006), secondary school
teacher and politician (ÖVP)
Franz Stocker (* 1933), electrician,
member of the Federal Council and member of the National Council
Paul
Iby (born 1935), Roman Catholic Bishop of Eisenstadt
Anna Schlaffer
(* 1953), politician (SPÖ) and certified social worker
honorary
citizen
Paul Iby, Diocesan Bishop (conferred October 20, 1991)
Melinda Esterhàzy de Galantha †, Princess, Large Landowner (awarded 18
September 1993)
honorary ring bearer
Alois Nöhrer, former
mayor D. (awarded September 24, 1995)
Josef Fennesz, a. D. (awarded
May 29, 1997)
Johann Erhardt, a. D. (awarded September 13, 2009)
Franz and Inge Drescher, Raiding Care Center (awarded on October 3,
2015).
Winner of the "Franz Liszt Medal"
Franz Weninger †
(awarded December 22, 1990)
Johann Erhardt, President of the Landtag
(awarded October 20, 1996)
Emil Schreiner † (awarded October 20,
1996)
Martin Waranitsch, Chairman of the Senior Citizens' Association
(awarded on December 15, 2012)