Motala Municipality

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**Motala Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Image:Motala in Sweden.png Map outlining municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms Image:Motala City Arms.png
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Motala:
	58° 33′ N 15° 3′ E
	County	Östergötland County
	Province	Östergötland
	Area Rank	988 km² 106th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	42,062 48th of 290
	Density	42/km²

This page deals with both Motala Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Motala

Motala Municipality is a Swedish municipality in southeast Sweden where the City Motala is the seat with a 30,000 inhabitants.

Geographically, Motala is situated where lake Vättern drains into the river system of Motala ström, which became its claim for fame during the Industrialization in the 19th century.

1 History
2 Longwave radio
3 Municipal towns
4 Industry
5 Sister cities
6 External links

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History

When the Göta Canal was built in the early 19th century, Motala became an important city for the trade on the canal. Motala verkstad was the ship and steam engine industry, famous in large parts of the world. In the science fiction novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, the submarine Nautilus's (engine?) was built at Motala verkstad. The builder of the Göta Canal, Baltzar von Platen has his grave by the canal, in Motala.

The town received a "minor" privilege when it became a köping in 1823, with full city rights granted as of April 1, 1881.

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Longwave radio

Another important event in the history of Motala is 1925, when the Swedish national longwave radio broadcasting station was built here. The city marks the middle of a straight line between Sweden's two biggest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg. Radio programs were transferred from studios in Stockholm to Motala by telephone wire. The call was "Stockholm-Motala". The transmitter operated on 191 kHz until 1962, then the transmission where moved to Orlunda. Since 1991 there are no longwave transmissions at all of the Swedish Broadcasting Company, but from the transmitter Motala, which is a museum, sometimes transmissions with low power occur, which may only receivable in the area of Motala.

As a consequece of the radio station the company Luxor was started. Luxor soon became one of the largest radio, and later television manufacturers in Sweden. In the 1980s they started producing their own line of computers, like the ABC80. In 1985 Luxor was acquired by Nokia, and eventually production moved elsewhere.

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Municipal towns

Figures as of 2000, from Statistics Sweden.

Motala 30,136
Borensberg 2,667
Tjällmo 562
Fornåsa 446
Nykyrka 434
Fågelsta 334
Österstad 329
Klockrike 275
Godegård 200

Outside towns 6,792
Total 42,175

The population decreased with about 2% in almost all of the towns between the earlier census 1995 and the one in 2000.

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Industry

The largest employer is the municipality itself, employing cirka 3,400 people. There after follows the county council with 1,775.

Of the private employers, Electrolux och Dometic have a total of 1,400; Autoliv 425; Hycop 325; Saab-Bofors Dynamics cirka 300; Motala Vatten, which is in the business of enhancing the municipal tap water by adding cyanide, have around 200 employees. and Motala Verkstad some 180. (source [1])

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