Occupation of the Hainburger Au: Difference between revisions
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The number of signatures needed under the constitution for a "referendum" <ref>Under the Austrian system a Volksbegehren (loosely translated as a "referendum") is an instrument of direct democracy whereby citizens can require a proposed law to be promulgated and enacted or rejected by the national parliament.</ref> had only recently been doubled from 100,000 to 200,000. The "Konrad Lorenz Referendum", on the proposal for the Hainburger Au to be protected as a designated National Park, took place in March 1985 and attracted 353,906 signatures. |
The number of signatures needed under the constitution for a "referendum" <ref>Under the Austrian system a Volksbegehren (loosely translated as a "referendum") is an instrument of direct democracy whereby citizens can require a proposed law to be promulgated and enacted or rejected by the national parliament.</ref> had only recently been doubled from 100,000 to 200,000. The "Konrad Lorenz Referendum", on the proposal for the Hainburger Au to be protected as a designated National Park, took place in March 1985 and attracted 353,906 signatures. |
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| ⚫ | On 1 July 1986 the [[:de:Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Österreich)|Austrian "Supreme Court"]] annulled the earlier decision to allow the construction of the Hainburger Au hydro-electric power plant.<ref name="Mittagsjournal 19851016">Ö1-Mittagsjournal vom 16. Oktober 1985, Erich Eichinger; ORF: [http://www.journale.at/treffer/atom/08FA08FF-02A-001E7-00000BC4-08F959E4/band/50594/ ''Verwaltungsgerichtshof zu Hainburg.''] Ab 21:17. Österreichische Mediathek.</ref> |
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Im März 1985 wurde das Konrad-Lorenz-Volksbegehren durchgeführt. Das Begehren wurde von 353.906 Personen unterzeichnet. |
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Am 1. Juli 1986 hob der Verwaltungsgerichtshof den Wasserrechtsbescheid auf |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 15:49, 26 September 2014
The Occupation of the Hainburger Au wetlands in December 1984 marked a turning point for environmental awareness in German speaking central Europe and was of great significance for the development of democratic processes in Austria.
The Hainburger Au is a large naturally occurring flood plain bordering the River Danube at, and upstream of, Hainburg in Lower Austria. It is a short distance to the east of Vienna's main airport. Since 1996 it has been part of the Danube-Auen National Park.
During the winter of 1982/83 the Austrian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) began a campaign to preserve the Hainburger Au flood plain. With the help of various media channels the WWF began to publicise the threat of impending destruction for a large part of the region. The threat came from plans, which at the end of 1984 still enjoyed the full support of the Austrian government,[1] to construct a hydro-electric power plant. As events unfolded, the nature of the protesters' demonstrations and a mass-occupation of the threatened area changed peoples' understanding of democracy as well as national energy policy in Austria.
History
Background
In 1983 the regional power generation company[2] announced to the Water Authority that the construction of Hainburg Hydro-power plant had been designated as a "preferred" project. Under the Austrian Water Laws then in force, the "preferred" designation of the planned hydro-electric project gave it a special status "in the general [public] interest" [3] which would concentrate granting of the necessary regulatory approvals with a single authority, and correspondingly limit the number of stages in the process and the opportunities for appeal against decisions. After the authorisation process had been completed, construction work began at Stopfenreuth (Engelhartstetten) in December 1984.
The campaign
The WWF's campaign enjoyed the support of numerous environmental activists, but initially there was only limited interest in the matter from the wider public. Two people, the journalist Günther Nenning and Gerhard Heilingbrunner, a leading officer of the Students' Union ("Österreichische Hochschülerinnen- und Hochschülerschaft")/(ÖH), now emerged as instigators of a campaign for a referendum on the conservation of the Hainburger Au wetlands, and their protection through the creation of a "National Park". High-profile support came from the 1973 Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, whose name came to be attached to the campaign for the "Konrad-Lorenz-Volksbegehrens" ("Konrad Lorenz Referendum").
On 7 May 1984 the campaigners held a press conference at Vienna's Concordia Press Club: the event later came to be known as the "Animals' Press conference" ("Pressekonferenz der Tiere").[4] Those present included various people from public life, such as the journalist Günther Nenning (dressed as a stag) and the city council member Jörg Mauthe (dressed as a black stork). The left wing playwright Peter Turrini turned up as a toad while the then chairman of the youth wing of Austria's opposition ÖVP (Austrian People's Party), Othmar Karas, came as a cormorant. The event gained extensive media coverage and won for the power station's opponents a much increased level of public awareness.
Occupation, confrontation and escalation
On 8 December 1984 the ÖH organised a mass demonstration which attracted about 8,000 participants. Several hundred remained behind at the Au, forcing a suspension of the site-clearance work.
The Hainburger Au was declared a "forbidden zone" and a controversial police intervention followed on 19 December 1984. Batons were used to clear an area of approximately 4 hectares (approx 10 acres), which were fenced off and placed under police surveillance. The action involved a confrontation between 800 police personnel and approximately 3,000 environmentalist occupiers. Officially 19 people were injured, including members of an Italian television crew. That same evening some 40,000 people demonstrated on the streets of Vienna to protest against the government's actions and against the building of the power station.[5]
Stand off
Two days later, on 21 December 1984, the national government formally imposed a suspension of the site clearance, and on 22 December 1984 Federal Chancellor Sinowatz, under pressure from public opinion and several influential media organisations (notably the mass-market Kronen Zeitung), announced a "Christmas Peace". Thousands of people spent their Christmas holidays at the Au. The priest Dr. Joop Roeland[6] (1931-2010) celebrated Christmas Mass with the environmentalist occupiers. At the beginning of January 1985 the High Court placed a prohibition on further site-clearing work pending a conclusion of the dispute, and the occupation ended.
Victory to the protesters
The number of signatures needed under the constitution for a "referendum" [7] had only recently been doubled from 100,000 to 200,000. The "Konrad Lorenz Referendum", on the proposal for the Hainburger Au to be protected as a designated National Park, took place in March 1985 and attracted 353,906 signatures.
On 1 July 1986 the Austrian "Supreme Court" annulled the earlier decision to allow the construction of the Hainburger Au hydro-electric power plant.[8]
References
- ^ "DER SPIEGEL 52/1984 - Tag der Schande". spiegel.de. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
{{cite web}}: horizontal tab character in|title=at position 29 (help) - ^ Österreichische Donaukraftwerke AG
- ^ „im besonderen Interesse“
- ^ "PK der "Au-Tiere": 30 Jahre später - KURIER.at". kurier.at. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
- ^ Zeit im Bild Short video of contemporary news report (in Austrian German) with Horst Friedrich Mayer, dated 19 December 1984: (Zusammenstöße in der Hainburger Au. Österreichische Mediathek, V-00032)
- ^ Father Joop Roeland spent most of his working life in Vienna although he had a Dutch name and was of Dutch provenance.
- ^ Under the Austrian system a Volksbegehren (loosely translated as a "referendum") is an instrument of direct democracy whereby citizens can require a proposed law to be promulgated and enacted or rejected by the national parliament.