this time stem locally well-known sayings and declarations of war such as Wenn d’ Innviertler keman, hoasts umirucka! ("when the Innviertel folk come, it's time to go home!"). A certain local rivalry has emerged in the last few years, even in institutional circles, for example in the tourist sector, from the Grieskirchen district to the Innviertel and, further east, to the state capital of Linz, and is primarily expressed in sporting competitions and political and public debates about the disadvantages of the Innviertel compared to the more central regions of Upper Austria, which at times dominate reporting in the local media. One of these political points of contention for years has been the inadequately developed road link to the nearby city of Salzburg, to which the upper Innviertel (Braunau district and the southwestern parts of Ried district) is oriented. Nevertheless, the Vienna-Linz-Munich link is an important transport route. As the urban centre of the lower Innviertel (Schärding District, northeastern parts of Ried district), Passau plays a major role. A perceived independence of the Innviertel is also reflected in the "capital city debate", which was kicked off by the Mayor of Ried, Albert Ortig, during the 2009 election campaign and in which he declared the town of Ried to be the capital of the Innviertel and thus provoked the politicians of Braunau. Despite all these circumstances , the inhabitants of the Innviertel identify far more with their region today than those in the remaining quarters of Upper Austria which, with the exception of the Mühlviertel, which is bordered by the Danube, deviate to some extent geographically from modern district boundaries. Demographics Today the Innviertel has about 215,000 people in its towns, villages and hamlets. Its Bavarian roots show in the local German dialect, Innviertlerisch, a Western Central Austro-Bavarian variant similar to the languages spoken in adjacent Lower Bavaria. Notable people Innviertel is the birthplace of Franz Xaver Gruber, composer of Silent Night, opera singer Franz Xaver Gerl, the Schwanthaler family of Baroque sculptors, SS general and war criminal Ernst Kaltenbrunner, beatified conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, and physicist Anton Zeilinger. Both Adolf Hitler and the diplomat Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer were born in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. Gallery See also Upper Austria Hausruckviertel Mühlviertel Traunviertel References Literature Herbert Wurster: Heimat am Inn, Kultur und Geschichte, Simbach/Braunau/Inn 1999 (siehe auch www.hrb.at). External links Innviertel.at Innviertel Tourism sebsite Overview map