City municipality Bruck an der Leitha
Coat of arms	Map of Austria
Basic data
Country:	Austria
State:	Lower Austria
Political district:	Bruck an der Leitha
Vehicle registration:	BL
Area:	23.69 km²
Coordinates:	♁48° 2′ N, 16° 47′ ECoordinates: 48° 1′ 32″ N, 16° 46′ 44″ E | |
Elevation:	156 m a.s.l.
Population:	8,687 (Jan 1, 2025)
Population density:	367 inhabitants per km²
Postal code:	2460
Area codes:	0 21 62
Municipal code:	3 07 04
Address of the municipal administration:	Hauptplatz 16 2460 Bruck an der Leitha
Website:	www.bruckleitha.at
Politics
Mayor:	Gerhard Weil (SPÖ)
Municipal council: (Election year: 2025) (33 members)	16 7 5 3 2 16 7 5 3 2 Total 33 seats SPÖ: 16 ÖVP: 7 LBW: 5 FPÖ: 3 GREENS: 2
Location of Bruck an der Leitha in the district of Bruck an der Leitha
Town hall on the main square
Source: Municipal data from Statistics Austria

Bruck an der Leitha (Hungarian Lajtabruck, Slovak and Czech Most nad Litavou) is an Austrian town with 8,687 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2025) on the Leitha river in the Bruck an der Leitha district in Lower Austria. Bruck an der Leitha is also the seat of the district administration of the district of the same name.

Bruck an der Leitha is located on the Leitha river, on the edge of the Leitha Mountains, just a few kilometers north of Lake Neusiedl and on the state border with Burgenland and near Vienna.

The municipality has an area of 23.69 square kilometers. Of this, 68 percent is agricultural land, 8 percent is gardens, and 4 percent is forested.^[1]

The municipal area comprises two localities (population as of January 1, 2025^[2]):

• Bruck an der Leitha (7,537)
• Wilfleinsdorf (1,150)

and three cadastral communities (area as of December 31, 2023^[3]):

• Bruck an der Leitha (1,489.06 ha)
• Prugg Schloß (72.04 ha)
• Wilfleinsdorf (807.9 ha)

Wilfleinsdorf was incorporated in 1971.^[4]

Trautmannsdorf an der Leitha	Göttlesbrunn-Arbesthal Höflein	Rohrau
Trautmannsdorf an der Leitha
Sommerein ∗	Bruckneudorf (Dist. Neusiedl a.S., Bgld.)	Parndorf (Dist. Neusiedl a.S., Bgld.)

Sommerein borders for approx. 100 m on

Around 800, Charlemagne was largely able to drive the majority of the Avars out of what is now eastern Lower Austria. As a result, the area was settled by Frankish and Bavarian emigrants. At this time, the first settlements emerged in today's "Old Town". In 976, Luitpold (Leopold) of the Babenberg dynasty was enfeoffed with this March. The Leitha therefore already formed the border between what was then known as Ostarrîchi (Austria) and Hungary. Under the protection of a castle in the north – which stands on the current territory of Prugg Castle – the settlement area expanded rapidly. In 1074, Bruck an der Leitha was first documented as the place Aschirichesprucca. In 1239 (?), the town was granted town privileges under Leopold IV, the Glorious († 1230). From 1276, King Rudolf I granted the city a fixed share of the toll revenues.^[5]

Belonging to the Habsburg Duchy of Austria, Bruck was conquered in 1484 by the Hungarian commander István Dávidházy († 1484) during the wars between the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and Frederick III. During the campaign against Hungary in 1490, Maximilian I was able to recapture the town after Bruck citizens took the Hungarian commander prisoner.

The town survived the Ottoman Empire's campaign under Sultan Suleiman I in 1529, though it suffered heavy losses. Bruck, as a border town, also suffered during later campaigns (known today as the Siege of Vienna/Turkish sieges).

In 1546, Count Leonhard IV of Harrach acquired the lordship of Bruck an der Leitha. From this point on, the town lived under this noble family until the 19th century. After the second great Turkish siege in 1683, the town's inhabitants built the Holy Trinity Column (also known as the Plague Column) in the main square in 1694 as a thank-you for the victory against the Ottomans and as a memorial against the plague, which still stands today.

In the same year, construction of the Baroque church began (completed in 1702; a later expansion was only finished in 1738). The current church tower was formerly a simple town tower used to warn of approaching enemies, fires within the town, or other dangers. From 1707 to 1711, Aloys Thomas Count Harrach had the castle in the north of the town expanded by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt into the Baroque Prugg Castle, which is still in use today.

The district guild of the stonemason and mason craft of Bruck an der Leitha^[6] (as well as that of Kaisersteinbruch, Eisenstadt, and Pottendorf) was assigned to the Wiener Neustadt main guild. The guild book with cash receipts and expenditures proves this emphatically, as does its historical existence. An example:^[7]

Receipts, on June 4, 1671, were incurred by an honorable guild from submitted invoices from Khayser Steinbruch, Pruckh an der Leytha, and Eysenstatt. 15 guilders 3 kreuzer.

Expenditures, on May 22, 1678, for expenses incurred during the inspection of the district guilds Prugg an der Leytta and Kayl. Stainbruch. 8 guilders 17 kreuzer.

In the Bruck guild book, one can also find information about masters from Kaisersteinbruch and Sommerein, especially the Kru(c)kenfellner family.^[8] The Sommerein masters were assigned to the stonemason and mason craft in Kaisersteinbruch until 1781. From October 7, 1781, these masters were incorporated into the Bruck guild by supreme command.

In 1863, the imperial and royal Ministry of War decided to set up a tent camp for six brigades on the meadows between Pachfurth and Rohrau during the months of May to October.^[9] The soldiers stationed there often had the opportunity to visit the nearby town of Bruck during these months. The people of Bruck were very impressed by the large number of these visitors; especially businessmen and innkeepers quickly realized that this presented an opportunity to gain new customers and earn a lot of money. The people of Bruck realized that a larger training camp was to be established here in the east of Austria in order to provide the various troops, officers, and soldiers with shooting and combat training.

The people of Bruck applied for the construction of this planned military camp, and preliminary negotiations were concluded as early as 1865. However, the army administration demanded to negotiate with only a single partner, namely the Bruck municipal authority. The entire camp area was to be handed over in one go. The town had to conduct negotiations with 288 individual owners; the Sappberg was, after all, a viticulture area, and the winegrowers feared losing their livelihood. But the prices for the land to be purchased were very high for the conditions at the time, and so the farmers were soon ready to sell. The businessmen were, of course, fully in favor of this project, and the Counts Harrach and Batthyány, who negotiated directly with the military, were also ready to sell.

On April 20, 1866, imperial approval arrived, and this day can be considered the actual date of the establishment of the Bruck Camp. After all points were clarified, the purchase contract was signed on January 8, 1867.

In 1867, the Bruck Camp was established, which served as a garrison until the First World War, used among others by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Field Jäger Battalion. It lay entirely on the right bank of the Leitha on Hungarian soil, i.e., in Bruck-Hungarian side; the municipality Bruck-Neudorf, later Királyhida, which means King's Bridge, did not yet exist.

The demands of the Bruck Camp for more training ground led to negotiations between the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, as the landowner of Kaisersteinbruch including the Königshof district, and the military treasury.^[10] On October 31, 1912, the sales negotiations, for which Abbot Gregor Pöck was responsible, were concluded, and the area of the quarries was handed over to the k.u.k. (Imperial and Royal) Ministry of War. The abbey received 3,500,000 crowns and Styrian forest areas in return.

On this ground, a prisoner-of-war camp for approx. 3,000 soldiers was built during the First World War, subsequently an interment camp in the Austrofascist corporate state, and in the Second World War, Stalag XVII A, one of the largest camps in the entire Reich territory with approx. 73,000 soldiers. The political municipality of Kaisersteinbruch no longer existed.^[11]

From October 1944, Hungarian Jews as well as forced laborers from other countries were deployed for defensive fortification work on the "Südostwall" (South-East Wall) in the Bruck an der Leitha construction sector. The Hungarian Jews were housed in various barns located on Fischamender Straße and "Am Stadtgut". Another camp is said to have existed at the Heidehof in Bruckneudorf. Between December 5, 1944, and March 26, 1945, 155 Hungarian Jews died in Bruck, primarily from cold, exhaustion, and malnutrition. On March 29, 1945, the Jewish forced laborers were evacuated on a death march via Bad Deutsch Altenburg in the direction of the Mauthausen concentration camp.^[12]

Bruck an der Leitha: Population figures from 1869 to 2025
Year				Inhabitants
1869			5.431
1880			4.983
1890			5.480
1900			6.167
1910			6.907
1923			6.846
1934			7.228
1939			7.816
1951			7.399
1961			7.478
1971			7.529
1981			7.179
1991			7.259
2001			7.311
2011			7.648
2021			8.177
2025			8.687
Source(s): Statistik Austria, regional status as of January 1, 2021

• Bruck an der Leitha City Fortifications
• Catholic Bruck an der Leitha Parish Church of the Holy Trinity: The church was built between 1696 and 1702, incorporating the city tower. The tower is medieval (c. 1230) up to the belfry level. The ambulatory was built in the 16th century and the Baroque bell story around 1740. The unadorned front facade was also remodeled during this period (1738–1740). Among other things, it was structured with an entablature separating the stories, an upper floor crowned with a gable, and a three-axis central avant-corps. Additionally, 6 round-arched niches for stone statues were installed.
• Catholic Wilfleinsdorf Parish Church of Saints Peter and Paul
• Bruck an der Leitha Synagogue
• Prugg Palace
• Fountains: Count Harrach commissioned court stonemason master Antonius Bregno to create two fountains in 1640.
• Manorial estate with a grand staircase built for Claudius Florimund Mercy in 1708 by architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt
• Stonemason's house
• District court
• Castle
• Wall ring and defensive moat: largely preserved

• City Theater

• Harrach Park
• Bruckmühl Park
• School Park

The most important business today is a pet food factory owned by Mars Austria OG, a subsidiary of Mars Incorporated.

Previously, Bruck was home to one of the most important sugar factories in the eastern region, alongside Tulln an der Donau and Siegendorf in Burgenland. However, this was closed in the 1980s. On the site, the oil mill was built, which produces a large proportion of Austrian biodiesel.

There is a retail park on the A4, and shops around the main square and the pedestrian zone in the city center.

A 2003 funding agreement exists between ecoplus, the municipality of Bruck, the regional initiative Brucker Werbegemeinschaft, and the Lower Austrian Economic Chamber, upon which the founding of C!TY-Bruck GmbH is based.^[13]

The Bruck an der Leitha wind farm is located in the municipality.

• Road: Bruck is located on the East Motorway A4 and the Budapester Straße B10.
• Railway:
  • The Bruck an der Leitha railway station is located on the branch of the Eastern Railway leading to Budapest, served by the S-Bahn line S60 of the ÖBB.
  • The Wilfleinsdorf stop is also on the Eastern Railway and is about one kilometer from the center of the Wilfleinsdorf district. The station, served by the S60, only has two side platforms; the former station building, located about 200 meters away, is no longer used.
• Hiking trail: The Way of St. James Burgenland, which comes from Frauenkirchen and runs mostly through Burgenland until it joins the Way of St. James Austria in Haslau-Maria Ellend, passes through Bruck an der Leitha.

• District Commission Bruck an der Leitha
• District Court Bruck an der Leitha. According to the Austrian judicial organization, it is subordinate to the Korneuburg Regional Court.
• District Police Command
• Tax office (Tax office 38: Bruck – Eisenstadt – Oberwart)

• three kindergartens in Bruck and one in Wilfleinsdorf
• Elementary School I, Hauptplatz
• Elementary School II, Fischamenderstraße
• New Middle School I (until 2011–2012 Middle School I), Lagerhausstraße
• New Middle School II (until 2011–2012 Middle School II), Raiffeisengürtel
• Special Education Center and General Special School, Hauptplatz
• Polytechnic School, Raiffeisengürtel
• BG/BRG, Fischamenderstraße
• HAK/HASCH, Fischamenderstraße

The municipal council has 33 members.

• With the 1990 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 17 SPÖ, 14 ÖVP, and 2 Greens-BRUCK 2001.
• With the 1995 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 17 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP, 2 Greens-BRUCK 2001, 2 BA-Bruck aktiv, and 1 FPÖ.
• With the 2000 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 16 ÖVP, 13 SPÖ, 3 Greens, and 1 FPÖ.
• With the 2005 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 17 SPÖ, 14 ÖVP, and 2 Greens.
• With the 2010 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 18 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP, 2 Greens, and 2 FPÖ.
• With the 2015 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 18 SPÖ, 11 ÖVP, 2 Greens, and 2 FPÖ.^[14]
• With the 2020 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council had the following distribution: 20 SPÖ, 8 ÖVP, 2 Citizens' List Bruck-Wilfleinsdorf, 2 Greens, and 1 FPÖ.^[15]
• With the 2025 municipal council elections in Lower Austria, the municipal council has the following distribution: 16 SPÖ, 7 ÖVP, 5 Citizens' List Bruck-Wilfleinsdorf, 3 FPÖ, and 2 Greens.^[16]

• 1945–1947 Johann Koppensteiner (SPÖ)
• 1999–2000 Christa Vladyka (SPÖ)
• 2000–2005 Franz Perger (ÖVP)^[17]
• 2005–2009 Christa Vladyka (SPÖ)
• 2009–2018 Richard Hemmer (SPÖ)^[18]
• since 2018 Gerhard Weil (SPÖ)

	Blazon: “In a red shield, a golden, ashlar city wall with a red-opened gate and a raised portcullis, surmounted by three identical golden towers, the right and left ones crenellated, the middle one the highest, provided with a pointed roof.”[19]
	The coat of arms has been in use since 2010.

Former coat of arms

• Bruckmühl in Bavaria, Germany, since September 13, 1974^[20]

• Georg Donberger (1709–1768), composer
• Joseph Högl (1741–1780), master stonemason and sculptor
• Anton Stadler (1753–1812), clarinetist and friend of Mozart
• Johann Nepomuk Stadler (1755–1804), clarinetist and younger brother of Anton Stadler
• Jakob Braun (1795–1839), first Austrian blind student
• Franz von John (1815–1876), general and Minister of War
• Hans von Friebeis (1855–1923), Mayor of Vienna
• Julius Strobl (1868–1932), actor
• Heinrich Kretschmayr (1870–1939), historian and archivist
• Leopold Petznek (1881–1956), social democratic politician
• C. W. Fernbach (1915–1967), actor
• Karl Schneider (1918–2003), ÖVP politician
• Georg Schmidt (1927–1990), football coach
• Hertha Kratzer (* 1940), author
• Johannes Huber (* 1946), physician and theologian
• Ilse Hübner (* 1948), author, winner of the Lower Austrian Literature Prize
• Josef Ernst Köpplinger (* 1964), theatre director and producer
• Roland Stinauer (* 1991), musician

• Beppo Harrach (* 1979), rally driver
• Johann Georg Högl (1706–1748), Austrian master stonemason and sculptor
• Anselm Hörmonseder (1686–1740), Augustinian, prior of the local Augustinian monastery
• Michael Krickl (1883–1949), Lower Austrian local poet, school director
• Martin Vögerl (1714–1770), Austrian sculptor
• Johann Georg Wimpassinger (1693–1766), Austrian-Hungarian master mason, builder
• Rainer Windholz (* 1969), politician (SPÖ)

• Martin Zeiller: Bruck. In: Matthäus Merian (ed.): Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum. Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniolia, Tyrolis … (= Topographia Germaniae. Vol. 10). 3rd edition. Matthaeus Merian's heirs, Frankfurt am Main 1679, p. 4 (full text [Wikisource]).
• Laurenz Pröll: Die Gegenreformation in der l.-f. Stadt Bruck a. d. L., ein typisches Bild, nach den Aufzeichnungen des Stadtschreibers Georg Khirmair. Vienna 1897.
• Bezirksschulrat Bruck an der Leitha (ed.): Heimatbuch des Bezirkes Bruck an der Leitha. 4 volumes. Bruck an der Leitha 1951–1954.
• Josef Christelbauer: Geschichte der Stadt Bruck an der Leitha. Ein Beitrag zur Förderung der Heimatkunde. Bruck an der Leitha 1920.
• Josef Christelbauer, Rudolf Stadlmayer: Geschichte der Stadt Bruck an der Leitha. Bruck an der Leitha, municipality, 1983 (new edition 1986). Originally: 1920. Facsimile edition supplemented, expanded and modified by Rudolf Stadlmayer.
• Josef Grubmüller: Hervorragende Persönlichkeiten (of Bruck an der Leitha). In: Bezirksschulrat Bruck an der Leitha (ed.), Part 3, p. 423 et seq.
• Karl Hammer (ed.): BG Bruck a. d. Leitha, Festschrift anlässlich der Eröffnung des neuen Schulgebäudes. Commemorative publication. Bruck an der Leitha [1965].
• Rudolf Stadlmayer: Hundert Jahre Brucker Schule. Commemorative publication. Bruck an der Leitha 1974.
• Rudolf Stadlmayer: Bruck an der Leitha. 60 Jahre Zeitgeschehen 1918–1978. Self-published by the municipality, 1982.
• Petra Weiß: Bruck a. d. Leitha von 1867 bis 1918 mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Brucker Lagers. Diploma thesis at the University of Vienna, 1993.
• Rudolf Stadlmayer (ed.): Bruck an der Leitha. Everyday life in Bruck in past centuries. Self-published by the municipality of Bruck an der Leitha, 1998.
• Petra Weiß: Bruck an der Leitha anno ’45 *1945. End of the war and occupation period using the example of a small town in Lower Austria. Dissertation at the University of Vienna, 1998.
• Petra Weiß: The last months of National Socialist rule in Bruck, Leitha. Bruck an der Leitha 1999.
• Petra Weiß: Politics and everyday life in the first months of the occupation in Bruck an der Leitha. Bruck an der Leitha 2000.
• Petra Weiß, Johanna Wallnegger, Ilse Hübner: 100 years of the Bruck an der Leitha City Library. 1901–2001. City Library of the city of Bruck an der Leitha, 2001.
• Petra Weiß, A city experienced history. City chronicle 1910–1970. Ed. Municipality of Bruck an der Leitha
• Petra Weiß, A city on the way into the new millennium 1971–2010. Ed. Municipality of Bruck an der Leitha
• Petra Weiß, 150 years of Bruck camp – TÜPl Bruckneudorf. A history in pictures. Ed. Municipality of Bruck an der Leitha
• Petra Weiß, Searching for traces. A memory of Jewish families in Bruck and Bruckneudorf. Ed. Municipality of Bruck an der Leitha 2018
• Hertha Schuster: Festschrift Volksschule Hauptplatz 2001. Ed. Municipality of Bruck an der Leitha, 2001.
• Johanna Wallnegger, Petra Weiß: 100 years of Bruck City Theater 1904 to 2004 Self-published by the Culture and Museum Association Bruck an der Leitha, 2004.
• Irmtraut Karlsson, Petra Weiß: The dead of Bruck – Documents tell history. Kral-Verlag, Berndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-902447-43-2.

• Official website of the municipal administration of Bruck an der Leitha
• Austrian City Atlas, sheet Bruck an der Leitha
• Data and pictures regarding the preserved city fortifications
• Bruck an der Leitha in the database Memory of the Land on the history of the state of Lower Austria (Museum Lower Austria)

• 30704 – Bruck an der Leitha. Municipal data from Statistics Austria

1. A look at the municipality of Bruck an der Leitha, area and land use. (PDF) Statistics Austria, retrieved on November 22, 2021.
2. Statistics Austria: Population on Jan 1, 2025 by locality (territorial status Jan 1, 2025), (ODS, 500 KB)
3. Regional information Dec 31, 2023.zip, bev.gv.at (1,119 kB, 0003450398_100_Verwaltungseinheiten_KG_2023.csv); retrieved on January 20, 2025
4. Statistics Austria: Dissolutions or mergers of municipalities since 1945
5. Heinrich Gottfried Gengler: Regesta and documents on the constitutional and legal history of German cities in the Middle Ages. Erlangen 1863, pp. 407–408.
6. City Archive Bruck an der Leitha: Protocol and master book of an honorable craft of the stonemason and bricklayer district guild Bruck an der Leitha – anno 1749
7. City Archive Wiener Neustadt: Guild book of the bourgeois stonemasons and bricklayers in the new city. Started Anno 1617 to 1781
8. Helmuth Furch: The Krukenfellner family. In: Communications of the Museum and Cultural Association Kaisersteinbruch. No. 51, 1999, ISBN 3-9504555-3-1.
9. Josef Christelbauer, Rudolf Stadlmayer: History of the city of Bruck an der Leitha. 1983, Origin of the Bruck camp, p. 167.
10. War Archive Vienna: 1912 Sale of Königshof to the military treasury.
11. Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch, prisoner of war camp Kaisersteinbruch. 2004, pp. 379–394.[1]
12. Petra Weiß, Irmtraut Karlsson: The dead of Bruck. Documents tell history. KRAL-Verlag, Berndorf 2008.
13. C!TY-Bruck GmbH (Retrieved on November 22)
14. Election result municipal council election 2015 in Bruck an der Leitha. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, December 1, 2015, retrieved on April 27, 2019.
15. Election result municipal council election 2020 in Bruck an der Leitha. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, January 26, 2020, retrieved on January 26, 2020.
16. Election result municipal council election 2025 in Bruck an der Leitha. Office of the Lower Austrian State Government, January 26, 2025, retrieved on January 31, 2025.
17. Franz Perger celebrated his seventieth meinbezirk.at, January 11, 2018
18. Hemmer: “Would do it again anytime” gemeindebund.at, August 13, 2018
19. Coat of arms description at “Memory of the Land”; retrieved on March 15, 2025
20. Partner city. Retrieved on November 22, 2021 (Austrian German).