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.
In February 1983 the Austrian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) began a campaign under the slogan "Rettet die Auen" 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, 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 announced to the Water Authority that the construction of Hainburg Hydro-power plant had been designated as a "preferred" hydro-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" 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"). 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.