page_title: Wörgl
section_title: The Wörgl Experiment
hierarchical_section_title: Wörgl / The Wörgl Experiment
caption_attribution_description: English: The 1 Schilling - bank note from the "Wörgler Schwundgeld" Deutsch: Der 1 Schilling Geldschein des Wörgler Schwundgeldes (Freigeld)
context_page_description: Wörgl is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the Kufstein district. It is 20 km from the international border with Bavaria, Germany.
context_section_description: Wörgl was the site of the "Miracle of Wörgl" during the Great Depression. It was started on July 31, 1932, 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.
  The experiment resulted in a growth in employment and meant that local government projects such as new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump and a bridge could all be completed, seeming to defy 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.
  Despite attracting great interest at the time, including from French Premier Edouard Daladier and the economist Irving Fisher, the "experiment" was terminated by Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank on September 1, 1933.
  In 2006 milestones were placed, beginning from the railroad station through the downtown, to show this history.
caption: One Schilling note with demurrage stamps from Wörgl
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