Are there imitators?

Agrarpapers: “The municipality of Mutters has shown it!”

The "Krone" reader is pleased that "Mutters is showing how to do it right".

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

In July 2022, Ernst Schöpf presented the so-called "Agrarpapers", which show how the land was once shifted. The municipality of Mutters is successfully reclaiming these, as a Krone reader points out. He sees the village in the low mountain range as a role model. And he hopes that many other imitators will follow suit in order to build up more pressure.

The so-called "Agrarpapers", which were presented in July 2022 by the then president of the municipal association Ernst Schöpf as well as Leonhard Steiger and Werner Lux from the association "Gemeindeland in Gemeindehand", caused heated discussions in the state.

The former Green mayor of Innsbruck, Georg Willi, even spoke of the "biggest criminal case in Tyrol" at the time. A reminder: 120 years ago - in 1904 - Tyrol's farmers called on the provincial government to transfer ownership of communal land to those entitled to use it following the "First General Farmers' Day". The reason given at the time was that it was the people's legal opinion that farmers had always owned the land they used. Six years later, a municipal ordinance from 1866 was amended accordingly. As a result, the municipalities were able to transfer ownership of forest land to a small number of authorized users simply by means of a municipal council resolution.

"Mutters had the courage and the energy"
"Over the past 100 years, large parts of the real estate assets of 170 municipalities were transferred to around 400 agricultural communities without compensation on behalf of Tyrolean state politics dominated by the Farmers' Association," Schöpf, Steiger and Lux calculated. They spoke of "billions in assets", as this involved around a fifth of the total area of Tyrol.

Since 2014, Mutters has been reclaiming ownership of the properties that went to the agricultural communities at the time.

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Nothing more has been heard about the "Agrarpapers" since then. But now "Krone" reader Helmut Zander from Mutters has spoken out. He is pleased that the village has shown how it can be done. "With Mayor Hansjörg Peer at the helm, we managed to join forces in 2014 to transfer back parts of the former municipal estate." Although the process is not yet complete, "Mutters is the only municipality in North and East Tyrol that has had the courage and energy to take this first step".

The beneficiaries were and are the farmers' association and its members.

„Krone“-Leser Helmut Zander

"Provincial government never put this into practice"
The Krone reader has been preoccupied with the issue of the Gemeindegutsagrargemeinschaften (GGAG) for some time. "It is a long and disgusting story of how Tyrolean municipalities have had their property 'taken' and 'transferred' to the GGAG. The beneficiaries were and are the farmers' association and its members." It is important to bear in mind that we are talking about 3,500 square kilometers. "That's the area of the districts of Kitzbühel, Kufstein, Innsbruck City and the entire Außerfern, i.e. around a third of Tyrol." The "Krone" reader even speaks of a "theft".

What he finds equally annoying: "In the Constitutional Court rulings of 1982 and 2008, it was clearly decided that this former municipal property had never belonged to the GGAG and would not belong to them in the future. This was never acknowledged and implemented in practice by the provincial government."

Hope rests on red Tyrolean mayors
The reader criticizes the fact that politicians continue to condone the injustice. "Although they have sworn an oath of office that reads 'for the good of the citizens and the communities', the current situation shows that this is not the case."

A glimmer of hope is that "the red mayor of Zams is now also taking up arms against GGAG". Should a transfer also take place there, "then other red mayors in Tyrol could also join in, which would ultimately also force the hand of the ÖVP".