!!!Hainburger-Au-Besetzung

Hainburg Au, Occupation of: The power station to be built by the 
Oesterreichische Donaukraftwerke AG close to Hainburg was pronounced a 
priority project on December 22, 1984. After plans had been officially 
approved by the provincial government of Lower Austria as the nature 
conservation authority on November 26, 1984 and by the Ministry of 
Agriculture on December 5, 1984 work was begun at Stopfenreuth. On 
December 8 the Austrian Students´ Union organised a protest 
march setting off from various points and meeting in the Hainburger Au 
wetlands; several hundred people occupied the area and forced workers 
to stop land clearances. The Hainburger Au was declared a prohibited 
area by the authorities, resulting in clashes between 2,000 policemen 
and 4,000 demonstrators on December 19; 26 people were injured. On 
December 21, 1984 the federal government stopped the land clearances. 
The Konrad Lorenz popular initiative of March 4 - 11, 1985 called for 
a ban of large-scale power stations such as Hainburg and demanded the 
setting up of a national park in the area of the Hainburg wetlands; it 
was signed by 353,906 people. On July 1, 1986 the administrative court 
revoked the original ruling. Since 1996 the area has been part of the 
Donau-Auen national park.

\\
The occupation of the Hainburger Au was of great importance for both 
environmental and democratic policy in Austria.

!Literature
E. Stenitzer, Der Konflikt um Hainburg, 1994.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Hainburger-Au-Besetzung|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]