World War II

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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

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 the 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]