Listening

You don't live in Geng, but ‘in der Geng’. This district of Eidenberg consists of Obergeng and Untergeng, Schiefegg, Edt, Felsleiten and Staubgasse. Where does the name Geng come from? Probably from Gang, passageway: Here, north of Gramastetten, the narrow valley of the Rodl leaves the hill leading north to Zwettl and rejoins the river valley, making it possible to pass through the valley again. Christianity also arrived in this area at least 800 years ago, although there has only been a church in Untergeng since 1953. A church building association, which still owns the church today, convinced the abbot of Wilhering, the provincial governor and the bishop of Linz of its plans at the time. The church was built with the active support of the local community and in 1953 it was consecrated by Bishop Franziskus Salesius Zauner to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Geng was characterised by agriculture throughout the centuries. Individual farms were already mentioned by name in the Wilheringer Urbar of 1285. The smallholders of the village earned their living from weaving. As late as 1826, there were still three commercial linen bleaching works in Geng. When the large weaving mills in Haslach and Helfenberg were built in 1830, hardship came to the people of Geng. From 1938 to 2015, the children of Untergeng even attended their own two-class local primary school. The ‘Kuhwirt’ inn in Berndorf existed for a particularly long time, until the 1980s. It was founded in 1652 by the monastery as a ‘Leutgebhaus’ for serving beer and wine. Incidentally, the bus that ran from Untergeng to Linz from 1931 onwards was called ‘Grüner Anton’, named after the Genger founder of the bus line, Anton Freller.