Page - 2 - in Analogue Meets Digital - History and Present IT Augmentation of Europe’s Largest Landscape Relief Model in Villach, Austria

MultimodalTechnol. Interact.2019, 3, 44 2of12 Hygiene,SozialpolitikundTechnik. BandVI:Villach”. Valuable informationstemsfrominteresting personalandremotediscussionswithstaffof theMunicipalMuseumandArchiveof theCityofVillach and the CEO of edufilm und medien Inc. This applies to all statements where no explicit literature referencesaregiven in the text. 2. AnalogueRelief 2.1. Initiation The initial idea to generate a detailed, topographically exact terrain model of the Austrian federal stateofCarinthia (German: Kärnten)andits surroundingswasraisedaroundtheyear1885. In1889, theDirectoroftheformerImperialTechnicalCollege(German: K.u. K.Fachschule) inVillach,ErnstPliwa (22August1857–12September1928)proposedamotionduringtheAnnualGeneralAssemblyof the SectionVillachof theGermanandAustrianAlpineClub(DeutscherundÖsterreichischerAlpenverein) for the creation of this terrain model. At the same assembly, this idea was accepted. Subsequently, the City of Villach held out the prospect of a building site. At the very beginning, it was intended that the whole geosculpture should have an extension of approximately 10× 20 m, thus basing it on a horizontal scale of 1:7500, and a vertical exaggeration factor of 3.41. Consequently, the peak of Großglockner, Austria’s highest mountain, was supposed to have a height of 1.8 m. These plans were, however, later changed (cf. text below). It was then a group of some teachers of the College, its caretaker,andseveral studentswhoeventually,on1April1891,beganwith theactualproduction on the proposed municipal ground. The material expenses were supposed to be covered by voluntary donations. Bytheyear1891,numerousdonationshadalreadyreachedtherespectablesumofmore than3000 guilders (German: Gulden; [1]). At that time, this initiativewas reallysomethingextremely rare,asacomparativeviewatthefamousMuséedesPlans-ReliefsintheHôtelNationaldesInvalidesin Paris (www.museedesplansreliefs.culture.fr) shows. Similar to the “living model” of a karst lake at the Museum in Cerknica, Slovenia, (https://jezerski-hram.si/en/museum_of_lake_cerknica/living_model_ of_cerknica_lake/), thislandscapemodelalsointendedtogiveabasicunderstandingofgeomorphology, an intentionthathas, inrecentyears throughdigitalaugmentation, stillbeenboosted. Ernst Pliwa, the proposer and initiator of the landscape relief model, was appointed Director of the Villach Technical College on 1 August 1884. Under his management, it developed into a model school. He basically designed the Relief von Kärnten, a masterpiece that, according to a contemporary source (1918, see Figure 1), was not only known in Carinthia, but also extending far beyond. For his initiative and active role in the production of the landscape relief model, he was, at itsopeningceremony,appointedHonoraryCitizenof theCityofVillach(Figure1). Furthermore, Pliwa rendered great services to the restructuring of the Austrian advanced education system (https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Ernst_Pliwa).