Danube Island

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Danube Island
View from Leopoldsberg to the southeast and downstream to the Danube Island between the New Danube (left) and the Danube
View from Leopoldsberg to the southeast and downstream to the Danube Island between the New Danube (left) and the Danube
Waters Danube , New Danube
Geographical location 48 ° 14 '  N , 16 ° 24'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 14 '  N , 16 ° 24'  E
Danube Island (Vienna)
Danube Island
length 21.1 km
width 250 m
surface 3.9 km²
On the right of the picture (above is NNW) the narrow Danube Island can be seen between the light olive Danube and the parallel dark blue New Danube
On the right of the picture (above is NNW) the narrow Danube Island can be seen between the light olive Danube and the parallel dark blue New Danube

Flood plain before the construction of the Danube Island, 1976
The Danube Island in the area between Kaisermühlen and Floridsdorf .
Beginning of the Danube Island, upstream

The Danube Island is an artificial island built between 1972 and 1988, 21.1 km long and up to 250 m wide, between the Danube and the New Danube in the urban area of Vienna and Klosterneuburg . It is part of Vienna's flood protection system and, together with the Old and New Danube , also serves as a local recreation area in the Vienna Danube area. The Danube Island Festival takes place on it every year. While the north and south parts of the island are natural, the middle third of the island was designed like a park.

Location and connection

The Danube Island begins at the inlet structure of the New Danube in Langenzersdorf , Lower Austria , crosses Vienna via the districts of Floridsdorf and Donaustadt and ends with the confluence of the New Danube into the main stream after the Lobau oil port . The Danube Island therefore separates the New Danube from the main stream and forms an entire bank of the New Danube.

The Danube Island can be reached via 15 entrances - listing in the direction of the current, the kilometers are from the southeast end upstream, as with the Danube:

(*) Pontoon jetty, will be shut down before flood discharge and from October to April

The Danube Island is often connected to public transport in Vienna , by the U1 underground line with its Donauinsel station , the U2 line with the Donaustadtbrücke station , the Neue Donau U6 station and the Vienna Handelskai S-Bahn station on the northern railway bridge , tram line 31 over the Floridsdorfer bridge and bus lines.

Emergence

Flood protection

The then controversial construction of the relief channel as an essential part of the Viennese Danube regulation was decided in September 1969 by the ruling SPÖ together with the votes of the FPÖ and against the resistance of the ÖVP . By backfilling the Danube Island in the years 1972 to 1988 under the leadership of Magistratsabteilung 45 - Hydraulic Engineering (today "Wiener Gewässer"), a channel was created parallel to the Danube, which is normally a stagnant body of water, but can be flooded in the event of flooding and so can flood to prevent in adjacent areas of Vienna. The island itself is largely spared from this even during extreme floods. Due to the Danube regulation , a throughput capacity of up to 14,000 m³ / s is possible, which roughly corresponds to the largest flood of 1501 ever measured in Central Europe .

environment

Around 1.8 million trees and bushes or around 170 hectares of forest were planted to green the Danube Island  . In addition, ecological niches were preserved or created. Except after floods, the water of the New Danube has bathing quality. The Danube Island is partly also a nature reserve, where rare bird, amphibian and fish species, but also deer, hares and beavers have settled.

The Vienna Waters department (Municipal Department 45) is responsible for the technical area. The two outer thirds of the Danube Island are looked after by the Forestry Office and Agricultural Company of the City of Vienna (Municipal Department 49) and the middle third by the “Vienna City Gardens” (Municipal Department 42). In 2019, fifty sheep were used for grazing in the northern part of the island for the first time .

The architectural and structural design of the Danube Island was carried out, among others, by the landscape architect Wilfried Kirchner (* September 21, 1940, † September 11, 1995).

Further use

Recreation area

The Danube Island and the left flood dam of the New Danube are popular bicycle and recreational areas for the Viennese population. In addition to lounging areas and access to the water in the New Danube, there are also two free barbecue areas and 15 barbecue areas that require prior notification, as well as various other free (e.g. water playground for children, beach volleyball and other sports fields, playgrounds, running checkpoints, skater areas , dog zones, 32 toilet areas) Facilities partly with showers) and commercial facilities (catering, boat rental, water slide, wakeboard lift accessible by underground , etc.) are available. In the north of the island (kilometers 17.7 to 19.5) and in the south both on the left flood dam and on the Danube Island (kilometers 2.1 to 5.1) there are two of the largest nudist bathing areas in the immediate vicinity of a large city .

The so-called "island service" (a mobile information team from the responsible municipal department) has been looking after the Danube Island since 2010. This information team is in pairs on the Danube Island itself and on both flood protection dams with bicycles. In addition, those looking for information can get advice from the Inselinfo (about 350 m downstream of the Reichsbrücke) from May to September.

In the 1980s, a local scene called "Copa Cagrana" ( word cross from the famous Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro and the nearby district of Kagran ) developed on the New Danube near the Reichsbrücke . The local mile was operated by the general tenant Norbert Weber. In 2013 he announced that he wanted to part ways with the Copa Cagrana. The reason he cited was the long-standing dispute with the city of Vienna over permits and requirements. The City of Vienna subsequently decided to operate independently in future without a general tenant and in 2014 announced a new building on the New Danube.

The new gastro facility was completed in July 2015. It has around 300 seats, is flood-proof and is suitable for year-round operation. The area has since been referred to as Copa Beach by the city administration .

White water arena

On August 30, 2013, a 250 m long whitewater canal for competitive and popular sports was opened at the Steinsporn Bridge - above the New Danube rowing center, which has existed since 1991 . Up to 12 m³ of water per second are pumped up from a large storage basin, creating currents and waves of various degrees of difficulty for whitewater kayaks , rafts , tubes and whitewater swimmers at 37 artificial obstacles .

The first major event took place from May 29 to June 1, 2014, the European Canoe Slalom Championship. From June 26th to June 28th 2015 the white water racing world championships 2015 were held here for canoeists .

Hydroelectric power plant

The small hydropower plant at Wehr 1, which was built by Wien Energie and MA45 (waters) at a cost of 1.8 million euros and commissioned in June 2017, uses around 3.5 m height difference between the Danube River to the right of the Danube Island and the New Danube to the left of the island . A 15 m long hydropower screw is fed via an underground supply line and the processed water is discharged through a 60 m long tunnel. The annual working capacity is given as 400 MWh , in the event of flooding it is taken out of service.

Venue

Since 1984, the Danube Island Festival organized by the SPÖ has been held every summer in the central area of ​​the Danube Island . Over the years, the initially small open-air festival became a three-day event with around three million visitors over the entire weekend - the Danube Island Festival is thus the largest music festival in the world.

Other concerts and events are also held, such as the "Africa Days" or, since 2018, the "Vienna Major" (beach volleyball championship) every year. In addition, the commercial music festival Rock in Vienna has been taking place at the beginning of June since 2015 .

Madonna also appeared on the Danube Island in front of around 52,000 visitors for her first guest appearance in Austria, and in May 1992 U2 and Guns n 'Roses gave much-noticed open-air concerts here on two consecutive days .

Training ship

On the Danube Island between the Floridsdorfer- and Nordbahnbrücke anchored two coupled ships, which house the Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium .

art

Some works of art are on display on the Danube Island, such as “Arbor Inversa” (Hanging Tree) by Herman Prigann , passers-by by Herbert Traub and, since 2017, the sculpture “Zeitweise” by Richard Deacon . The cherry grove is a symbol of friendship between Japan and Austria. In 1995 students from several schools created several sculptures on the theme of peace.

Hiking trails

Several long-distance hiking trails lead across the Danube Island with the Eastern Austrian Grenzlandweg 07 and the European long-distance hiking trails E4 and E8 .

gallery

literature

  • Eva Kausel: Arcadia on the Danube? Leisure time in the big city using the example of Vienna's Danube Island . Böhlau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-05598-5 (Dissertation University of Vienna 1991, 226 pages).
  • Leopold Redl, Hans Wösendorfer: The Danube Island. An example of political planning in Vienna , published by the Association of Critical Social Sciences and Political Education (= Austrian Texts on Social Criticism , Volume 3). Publishing house for social criticism , Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-900351-03-1 .
Documentary film

Web links

Commons : Donauinsel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Donauinsel  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Moritz Gottsauner Wolf: When August Zottl invented the Danube Island . derstandard.at. June 12, 2013. Accessed April 10, 2020.
  2. ↑ MA 22: Species paradise Danube Island . wien.gv.at. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Ichner: Sheep mow meadows on the Danube Island. In: kurier.at . May 8, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ ORF Online: Copa-Cagrana-Lächter wants 3.5 million website of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), accessed on October 13, 2014.
  5. ↑ ORF Online: "Copa Cagrana: City erects a modern new building" Website of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), accessed on October 13, 2014.
  6. ↑ derstandard.at: Sun, Beach and New Bars at the Copa Cagrana , July 15, 2015
  7. ↑ White water arena on the Danube Island ( memento of the original from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Vienna City Wildwasser GmbH website, accessed on May 31, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vienna-wildwasser.at
  8. ↑ ECA Championships 2014 . kanuverband.at. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  9. ↑ WC-Vienna 2015 . wc-vienna2015.at. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  10. ↑ Small hydropower plant on the Danube Island in full operation . wien.gv.at. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  11. ↑ New power plant on the Danube Island . wien.orf.at. June 11, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  12. ^ Vienna Major. Accessed April 10, 2020 (English).
  13. ↑ not to be found in DNB and not in WorldCat, but in the Vienna City and State Archives and in the University Library Vienna , Department of European Ethnology, Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna 1