Dagfin Carlsen

Dagfin Carlsen , also Dagfinn Carlsen (born July 14, 1898 in Kristiania ; died after 1945 ) was a Norwegian - Austrian skier , ski jumper, actor and ski jumping hill designer. His most sensational work was the construction of a ski hall ( Schneepalast Wien ) in the disused main building of the Wien-Nordwest train station . This facility was opened on November 26th, 1927 as the "first permanent snow palace in the world".

biography

Sportsman, actor, globetrotter

Dagfin (n) Carlsen, who grew up in Norway, had completed training as a businessman and qualified as a ski jumper in his free time. At the beginning of the 1920s he took part in documentary sports films, including in The Miracle of the Snowshoe or A Fox Hunt Through the Engadine (= The Miracle of the Snowshoe, Part 2 ). This is how he became a well-known film actor . At the same time, he was also a ski instructor , had met an Austrian, got married and from then on moved his residence to the Alpine country. He later added his wife's name as the first surname: Dagfin Eckmann-Carlsen . The couple had a son (see under web links ). As a member of the Viennese winter sports club , Carlsen started in national and international jumping competitions and was also a referee in the Austrian State Ski Association .

During a visit to a leisure fair in Berlin in early 1927, Carlsen got to know the Berlin Snow Palace, which had been prepared with natural snow that had been brought in and implemented in an automobile exhibition hall. It offered two ski slopes for appropriate demonstrations and was also a decoration. It was dismantled after the fair.

In February of the same year, Carlsen, who owned the then current record of 64 m, jumped in Pontresina , took part in the German ski jumping championship in Hofgastein . He had developed his own successful jumping style, which is described as follows: "calm run-up, let yourself fly away from the hill without jumping and then put your body forward in aviation". The imitators were thus more successful than the earlier ski jumpers with only one powerful jump from the hill with an upright posture.

The Vienna Snow Palace

Wiener Nordwestbahnhof according to plans by the architect Wilhelm Bäum (l) er, in 1873

After the impressions in Berlin, Carlsen made the decision to build a permanent ski hall in his adopted home Vienna, which should be used for sports purposes. In terms of time, it was possible to convert the Vienna Northwest station , which was abandoned for rail traffic in 1924 , a supporting structure made of masonry, steel and glass, as a ski hall. The Vienna Police Directorate approved the application to convert the station building into a ski sports center for everyone as well as for the training of competitive athletes; the Federal Railroad was delighted with the sensible reuse of the station building.

The usable area including the tracks was around 4000 m². At the suggestion and under the direction of Dagfinn Carlsen, wooden scaffolding was set into the building and covered with coconut and brush mats. The dimensions of the shoring were 160 m long, 28 m wide and 16.60 m high. In addition, the idea of a snow shed that didn't have to be dismantled suited his idea of a snow shed that the chemist Laurence Clarke Ayscough had developed and applied for a patent in 1926 with which it was made from soda , sawdust, water and a thin layer of mica white, soft and smooth artificial snow which was hardly inferior to the properties of natural snow. Following an order from Carlsen, the inventor had 150 tons of artificial snow produced in a chemical factory in Lower Austria and this amount was transported by freight wagon directly to the old train station. Ayscough personally supervised the application of the 10 cm thick layer of snow.

The hilly areas in the former railway hall finally formed a toboggan run , a two-part ski slope with two different slopes and a ski jump next to it, on which jumps of up to 20 m were possible. The three uses were separated from each other by trees and bushes. The complete renovation work cost at least 900,000 schillings and two investors took part in the measures: the department store company Stafa and the beer and liqueur producer Puntigamer . The license to operate the snow hall was limited to May 31, 1928.

The official inauguration by the Viennese mayor Karl Seitz was delayed somewhat because an unemployed man had carried out an assassination attempt on him, which, however, had no consequences for Seitz.

This extraordinary sporting opportunity was available to all interested Viennese or their guests every day between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. for a small entrance fee (1.20 schillings for a two-hour stay). However, due to the delayed opening and the poor reporting on the snow, fewer visitors came to the snow hall than planned. The ski jump was used by competitive athletes for training and competitions. The hall was independent of daylight thanks to an electrical lighting system. Some critics and editors of the Illustrierte (n) Sportblatt (s) expressed themselves rather derogatory about the ski hall, there was “yellow snow with a taste of soda”, Vienna was now an “artificial Kitzbühel ” or “winter sports without snow was like being at Swimming on the water would do without ”. The name “Speisesodapalast on Dresdener Straße” wasn't exactly a hymn of praise either. In March 1928 the Vienna Snow Palace had a negative balance sheet: The books showed debts of 43,000 Schillings, so that Carlsen had to apply to the court for compensation proceedings. Nevertheless, operations continued until the license expired. In June 1928 the plant was shut down, operations stopped and ultimately all materials were dismantled and largely sold.

In March 1938, a big celebration for the annexation of Austria to the German Reich took place in the former station building , which was the result of a referendum . In the following years the hall was used for exhibitions such as The Eternal Jude , which opened in the same year. During the Second World War the station building was used as a warehouse for the Wehrmacht , but was destroyed in bombing raids by the Allies around 1944. In 1952 it had to be demolished, and some time later there was a bus station in its place. In the 21st century, plans arose to build a completely new residential area on the former station site.

Early ski jumps realized in Austria

Dagfinn Carlsen had become known in the country as a planner and builder of ski jumping facilities through the Vienna indoor ski hall project. Subsequently, at least two ski jumps were built in Austria based on his designs: around 1928 in Kronstein and 1933 in Hadersdorf-Weidlingau . Hadersdorfer Schanze, originally called Kaasgrabenschanze , made jumping distances of 50 m possible and was given the name of its designer (in reverse order): Carlsen-Dagfin-Schanze .

Other activities of Carlsen

In the 1940s, Dagfinn Carlsen is mentioned in a publication as the ski leader of the Norwegian Sports Federation , who announced his resignation.

Publications

Dagfinn Carlsen: Who's Who in Sport (1926). Lambert & Butler.
Dagfinn Carlsen: Landslager for reiselivet in Norge gjennom. 40ar. (German: "The National Organization for Tourism in Norway in 40 Years 1903-1943")

literature

Matthias Marschik, Agnes Meisinger, Rudolf Müllner, Georg Spitaler, Johann Skocek (eds.): Images of Sports in Austria: Inside Views and Outside Perceptions . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8471-0907-5 . (books.google.de)

Web links

Dagfin Eckmann-Carlsen on digitalarkivet.no .

Individual evidence

↑ Dagfinn Carlsen building the Snow Palace in Vienna (pictures), photo by Lothar Rübelt on bildarchivaustria.at: accessed on January 20, 2019.

↑ The miracle of the snowshoe (2nd part) with details of all actors involved , 1921/1922 on www.filmaerchives.online.eu; accessed on January 20, 2019.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Images of Sport in Austria: Inside Views and Outside Perceptions. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress, Göttingen 2018, pp. 150–159.

^ Willi Köstinger: The German ski championship in Hofgastein. Reproduction of a text from the newspaper Die Bühne on March 3, 1927; accessed on January 20, 2019.

^ Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1925

↑ ^a ^b Vienna had a ski hall as early as 1927. at www.oe24.at, accessed on January 20, 2019.

↑ ^a ^b Christian Michlits: Vienna celebrates its snow palace , but then shots are fired . on Diepresse.com, accessed January 20, 2019.

↑ Snow Palace Vienna on austria-forum.org. Retrieved January 20, 2019.

Jump up in Kronstein. In: Wienerwald-Bote. January 19, 1929. Retrieved January 19, 2019.

↑ Stein Ugelvik Larsen, Beatrice Sandberg, Volker Dahm (ed.): Reports from Norway 1940-1945: The secret situation reports of the commander of the security police and the SD in Norway. Walter de Gruyter, 2012. (books.google.de , accessed on January 20, 2019)

personal data
SURNAME	Carlsen, Dagfin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Carlsen-Beckmann, Dagfinn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Norwegian-Austrian skier, ski jumper, actor and ski jumping hill designer
DATE OF BIRTH	July 14, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kristiania
DATE OF DEATH	after 1945

[1] Dagfinn Carlsen building the Snow Palace in Vienna (pictures), photo by Lothar Rübelt on bildarchivaustria.at: accessed on January 20, 2019.

[2] The miracle of the snowshoe (2nd part) with details of all actors involved , 1921/1922 on www.filmaerchives.online.eu; accessed on January 20, 2019.

[Buch-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Images of Sport in Austria: Inside Views and Outside Perceptions. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress, Göttingen 2018, pp. 150–159.

[4] Willi Köstinger: The German ski championship in Hofgastein. Reproduction of a text from the newspaper Die Bühne on March 3, 1927; accessed on January 20, 2019.

[5] Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1925

[Oe24-6] Vienna had a ski hall as early as 1927. at www.oe24.at, accessed on January 20, 2019.

[Feier1-7] Christian Michlits: Vienna celebrates its snow palace , but then shots are fired . on Diepresse.com, accessed January 20, 2019.

[8] Snow Palace Vienna on austria-forum.org. Retrieved January 20, 2019.

[9] Jump up in Kronstein. In: Wienerwald-Bote. January 19, 1929. Retrieved January 19, 2019.

[10] Stein Ugelvik Larsen, Beatrice Sandberg, Volker Dahm (ed.): Reports from Norway 1940-1945: The secret situation reports of the commander of the security police and the SD in Norway. Walter de Gruyter, 2012. (books.google.de , accessed on January 20, 2019)