One of the most celebrated cases of community currency was that which occurred in the small town of Wörgl in Austria in 1932-33. In the midst of the Great Depression, the mayor of that little town took the bold step of issuing into circulation a local currency, the impact of which was heard round the world. Many journalistic accounts have been written and circulated, but few definitive descriptions have been found, and even fewer critical analyses. But, because it is so celebrated, and because it was apparently so successful, this is a case well worth studying.
I have undertaken my own critical analysis and I think this would be a good place to start.
Here are three reports from the 1934 volume of Annals of Collective Economy
- The Woergl Experiment With Depreciating Money
by Alex. Von Muralt - A French View of The Woergl Experiment: A New Economic Mecca
by M. Claude Bourdet - The End Results of the Woergl Experiment
by Michael Unterguggenberger, Burgomaster of Woergl
The website of Hans Eisenkolb contains a wealth of monetary reform material in both English and German with a particular emphasis on Silvio Gesell. He also has a large section on the case of the Wörgl currency, based largely upon a book by Fritz Shwarz, The Experiment in Wörgl. (1951).
The website, Geld Reform, is a monetary reform site containing mostly German language material with some material in English. It contains the entire text (in German) of the only book about the Wörgl currency I know of, that of Fritz Schwarz mentioned above, Das Experiment von Wörgl.
Reinventing Money 
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Hi there
Last year, I did quite a lot of work for a group called “Banks need Boundaries!” – texts that try to bring together the economically literate and the infotainment-wary.
Not an easy task, but see for yourself:
http://www.banks-need-boundaries.net
The approach taken by the Austrian part of that group is strongly based on Silvio Gesell and the Wörgl system of Mayor Unterguggenberger. It’s called ccc in English “community-created currency”, and bridges the gap between public money, as suggested by Positive Money, Huber and all that lot (“Sovereign Money”) and what you have today: frequent flyer miles and all sorts of quasi-currency.
WIR-Bank, which issues a currency used among Swiss SMEs used to have a Wörgl-type “Umlaufsicherung” (in-built currency depreciation), but now no longer does.
Incidentally, you might already be aware of this: today demurrage is basically a given, when you take the measly interest rates, and subtract inflation. My two cents!
Most importantly, we have to end this situation of money that’s private, but which pretends to be public, namely the fractional reserve system. I am always reminded of the movie “When Harry met Sally”, where Harry says the worst kind of woman is one who is “high-maintenance, but thinks she’s low-maintenance.” THAT’S OUR MONEY SYSTEM.
kind regards from Switzerland
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This experiment could be used for every state in the USA and help rebuild the infrastructure. I remember reading about his and it shows how fast it worked considering that the banks rushed in to shut it down.
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