Das Wunder von Wörgl
Urs Egger"Das Wunder von Wörgl" tells the true story of Tirolean mayor Michael Unterguggenberger, who launched a courageous experiment during the early 1930s Great Depression: Inspired by a similar alternative currency experiment in Schwanenkirchen, Bavaria, and influenced by the work of economist Silvio Gesell, the mayor of Wörgl spontaneously created his own currency in order to avoid the bankruptcy of his community, navigating his people away from a stagnant world economy. The impoverished town soon flourished and became a media sensation. This raised the suspicion of the Austrian National Bank in Vienna. The ensuing intrigues caused a large mayors' conference on demurrage currency to be broken up by the police, and Unterguggenberger to be put into jail before being sentenced by a Vienna court for infringing the Austrian monopoly on currency? 2 years before the outbreak of the Austrian Civil War.