Alster ice pleasure
The Alstereisvergnügen is a folk festival that takes place in some winters on the frozen Outer Alster in the center of Hamburg , provided the ice is sufficiently thick and strong.
The actual ice cream fun usually takes place from Friday noon to Sunday, when around 150 stalls and stands are set up on the 164 hectare area of the Outer Alster, mostly offering warm drinks, such as B. offer mulled wine, or a snack. During these days - if the ice cover remains, also on other days of the week - many Hamburgers and foreign visitors use the Outer Alster for a walk, ice skating or other ice sports on areas that have been cleared of snow themselves. However, ice surfing and ice sailing are prohibited for safety reasons, and walking on the ice is generally at your own risk.
In contrast to other professionally and commercially oriented folk festivals, such as the Alstervergnügen held annually in the summer until 2018, this event is characterized by the fact that private individuals can also set up their stands there, provided they have received one of the limited permits. In addition, several winters can pass without a sufficiently stable ice surface being created on the Outer Alster.
requirements
The river Alster forms the dammed lake of the Outer Alster in Hamburg city center (up to 4.5 meters deep). At least two weeks of uninterrupted strong frost (at −10 degrees Celsius or, according to other sources, below −5 degrees) are required in order to achieve a continuous ice surface with an average thickness of 20 cm, which is necessary for enjoying the Alster ice. The shipping, such as the tours of the Alster steamers , are stopped at the latest when the ice is 10 to 12 cm thick.
The authority for the environment and energy decides whether or not to have ice fun . It determines the thickness of the ice by drilling holes in 50 places. These ice measurements are published as an ice condition report. In addition, other parameters, such as the weather forecast obtained from the German Meteorological Service, are included in the decision as to whether there is ice fun. The water protection department as the responsible water authority issues the stand permits available for each person for a fee, which are connected with some requirements with regard to ice safety and environmental protection and for which additional permits and fees apply depending on the goods sold.
Entering the ice is at your own risk and is a public use that does not have to be specifically approved by the authorities. In this respect, entry is not officially permitted and only partially pointed out the special dangers that exist due to thinner ice, especially in the area of bridges, jetties, overhanging trees and warmer water discharge points in the bank area.
History of the required ice thickness
With the increasing development of the suburbs around the Outer Alster from the 19th century and the expansion of the rivers and the upper reaches of the Alster into a canal, the Alster became an important inner-city transport route, both for passenger traffic with the existing ferry lines and for those to the Power plants and industrial companies located in the canals, for whose supply a fairway in the ice of the Alster was kept open for as long as possible in winter and whose entry was increasingly regulated by police bans.
Tests carried out on the Alster ice in 1929 showed that 12 to 16 centimeters thick ice could still withstand riders, wagons and even light artillery and that a crowd of people was safe within 20 centimeters. In 1930 a public announcement was issued that allowed entering the Alster ice from a thickness of 24 cm.
For the Alster Ice Pleasure, which has been carried out since the 1970s, in addition to other requirements, a required ice thickness of at least 15 centimeters applied until 1996 (as was the last case for the Alster Ice Pleasure on the first weekend in January 1996, followed by two more weekends on thick ice). Cracks, air bubbles and open watering holes did not lead to approval of the festival at the beginning of 1997, despite an ice cover up to 25 cm thick. Since then, a mean ice cover of 20 cm has been necessary, made up of clear ice (core ice) without snow and air inclusions.
history
The term Alstereisvergnügen (sometimes also Eisvergnügen or Alstervergnügen) only became increasingly established for the booth festival on the ice of the Alster in the last decades of the 20th century.
Nevertheless, the frozen waters of the Hanseatic city were also used in earlier centuries as an area for a wide variety of events and entertainment. For example, in 1687 an ice ship based on the Dutch model first caught the attention of Hamburg residents. The sailing ship glided over the ice of the Alster on runners and offered trips with food and drink for small parties. In an explanation of the illustration of the ship it says around 1896: "Our picture shows us that 200 years ago there was already a happy hustle and bustle on the frozen rivers Elbe and Alster, in fact to a far greater extent than now, when both were for as long as possible because of shipping be kept open and strict police prohibitions prevent entering the too weak ice .... The ice bossel game that has now disappeared here is also represented .... " . The form of Eisboßeln in Hamburg at that time consisted of throwing heavy balls at target. There were also sledges to push and horse-drawn sleighs on the ice rinks and ice skating was already a popular winter fun at that time. Incidentally, at that time women also slid across the ice on ice skates , a fact that was later (until the 19th century) considered improper.
The ice of the frozen Elbe , on which shipping rested in winter, was formerly not only used as a transport route for goods and people, but these ice roads were also used for pleasure rides with sleds or wagons. In 1841 shipping on the Elbe was suspended for almost 100 days because of the ice. During this time, a lively booth with a dance tent and sleigh rides arose on the Elbe. With the advent of steam shipping and the use of ice breakers , however, this pleasure is no longer available, as the Port of Hamburg and the Elbe are now kept navigable all year round.
However, the Alster also continued to offer the opportunity for various events. In 1733, for example, a horse-drawn sleigh carousel caused a sensation and in 1862 the Germania Ruder Club organized an ice dance with masked ice skaters accompanied by music and with a Bengali fire.
In 1829 the Alster is said to have been frozen for 100 days and in 1929 even longer. Skijoring and stalls decorated with flags selling grog, mead and beer were among the attractions of winter 1929, when research on the growth and resilience of the ice was carried out for the first time. In 1956 Hamburg experienced a particularly cold February (average temperature minus 8.1 degrees Celsius). Nevertheless, the ice of the Alster was not allowed to be entered because a fairway had to be kept free for coal haulers. However, a sport aircraft used the ice surface for an emergency landing. In any case, there was no real booth festival in the 1950s and 1960s.
February 1978 was particularly changeable. At the beginning of the month, the temperature was still at the frost limit, then fell to minus 21 degrees on February 19, which led to a 20 cm thick Alster ice cover, only to rise again to 15 degrees above zero within a week. Alster ice fun last took place in 1979, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1996, 1997 and 2012. In 1985 there were around 1 million visitors over three weekends. In 1986 300 stalls were built and the festival was crowned with fireworks on Saturday and Sunday. After that, 220 cubic meters of rubbish remained on the ice. In 1991, on the third weekend in February, 250,000 visitors came to the 15 cm thick ice, on which 250 stands were approved. The Alster Ice Pleasure takes place again on three weekends in 1996 and in 1997 more than a million people came to the ice on one weekend. Several years followed with little ice formation. In January 2003, contrary to police warnings, 100 people were at times on the too thin ice of the Alster, while the outer mill pond in Harburg's city park offered the opportunity for a booth festival. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 the ice was not strong enough either.
In January 2010, despite a layer of ice up to 25 centimeters thick in places, there was no permit for Alster ice pleasure, as the resilient ice thickness ( core ice without layers, air pockets and snow only 12 to 18 centimeters) was not considered sufficient for the expected stress. Instead, on the last weekend in January, there was a little Alster ice fun with tens of thousands of people. The Central District Office approved the erection of ten mulled wine stands and sausage stands on the east bank between Kennedy Bridge and Barcastraße in the St. Georg district . A new edition of the small festival took place on the second weekend in February (core ice 11 to 22 cm; total ice up to 33 cm as measured on February 12, 2010). On February 17, 2010, the competent authority in Hamburg again refused to permit the Alster ice pleasure at the weekend (February 20/21, 2010). The ice had a sufficient core ice thickness of 19–21 cm, but temperatures that were too high for the weekend had been predicted.
In February 2012, after a two-week cold spell , an official Alster ice pleasure took place for the first time in 15 years (February 10th / 12th, 2012). This time the booths were not in the middle of the Alster, as at previous events, but were set up on the edge for safety reasons.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hamburger Morgenpost of March 4th, 2005 Is our Alster now even freezing over? ( Memento from July 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ Ice cover in the Inner and Outer Alster Hamburg. Retrieved March 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Alster ice pleasure in Hamburg
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Hamburger Morgenpost of December 28, 1996 Ice is getting thicker, the Alster beckons
- ↑ a b Hamburger Morgenpost from January 7, 1997 Run on Alster stands ( Memento from February 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ THE ALSTERY ICE PLEASURE ON VALENTINE'S DAY
- ↑ Wendt / Kappelhoff (eds.): Hamburg's past and present. II. Volume. A collection of views ... ; Verlag Wendt & Co. Hamburg (1896), p. 413
- ↑ a b Schütt: The Chronicle of Hamburg. Chronik-Verlag 1991, p. 139/602.
- ↑ A city in permafrost - February 50 years ago ... In: Die Welt from January 29, 2006
- ^ Hamburger Abendblatt: Hamburg 78 - Portrait a cosmopolitan city. 1978, p. 116 ff.
- ↑ Alstereisvergnügen - record attendance at Hamburg's winter party , the million-dollar spectacle . In: Hamburger Abendblatt from January 13, 1997
- ↑ Alster ice pleasure - when does the ice of the frozen Alster hold?
- ↑ 35,000 Hamburgers celebrate "Mini-Alstervergnügen" ( Memento from February 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ current ice condition report (PDF; 195 kB)
- ↑ New edition for the Kleine Alstereisvergnügen ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hamburg, Alstereisvergnügen 2010, ice condition report from February 17, 2010 ( Memento from February 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hamburg, Alstereisvergnügen 2012, After 15 years, finally another Alstereisvergnügen ( Memento from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
