Altaussee

Altaussee (Central Bavarian: ''Oid Aussee'') is a municipality and spa town in the district of Liezen in Styria, Austria. The small village is nestled on the shores of the Lake Altaussee, beneath the Loser Plateau. Occupying an area of 92 km², Altaussee is home to 1,777 people. The municipality includes two cadastral communities: Altaussee and Lupitsch. The designated climatic spa is within the Salzkammergut region. Altaussee has the biggest salt deposits of Austria, which are still mined today.

Geography

The municipality is located in the small Ausseerland-Region within the Styrian part of the Salzkammergut in the district of Liezen in Styria. Altaussee covers an area of 92.11 km ² and is located at 712 m above sea level on the western shore of Lake Altaussee on the southwestern edge of the Totes Gebirge. The community center is located in a valley, which is encircled by mountains. The most noticeable of these peaks are the ''Loser'' (1838 m) to the north, the '' Trisselwand'' (1755 m) to the east and the '' Sandling'' (1717 m) to the west. The highest mountain within the community area is the ''Schoenberg'' (2093 m) close to the border with Upper Austria. Due to the alpine location and the strong share of the ''Totes Gebirge'' about half of the municipal area consists of alpine wasteland, the rest are forests, grasslands and other land forms.

Nearby towns are Bad Aussee, Hallstatt, Bad Goisern, Bad Ischl and Gmunden.

Local geology

The characteristic pale grey mountains which surround Altaussee are made of limestone, a carbonate rock. The age of these rocks are Triassic and Jurassic. The mountains themselves did not form until the Cenozoic, when immense forces between the colliding African and Eurasian plates caused the mountains to be uplifted. The limestones which make up the mountains are white to pale grey in colour, and formed relatively deep in the ancient Tethys ocean. Because the rocks formed so deep, fossils are rare. However, corals are reported from the lower slopes of Loser mountain.

Tectonics: a major tectonic fault line runs directly beneath the Lake Altaussee, approximately east–west, and terminates in the valley west of the Seewiese. The fault is seismically active, with small earthquakes common. On a hot, clear day in August 1998, a small earthquake on the fault (M=3) caught summer bathers by surprise with a low, rumbling sound and, a few minutes later, unusually high waves.

Evaporites: Large evaporite reserves are present in the Sandling mountain, formed as a result of a major period of marine lowstand, when the sea level was low and the sea dried out. Panning and surface-level drift mining of the deposits dates back to Roman times, thanks to evidence from archaeological excavations in the 1990s, followed by similar local works from 200-400 AD.Gerald Grabherr: Michlhallberg. Die Ausgrabungen in der römischen Siedlung 1997-1999 und die Untersuchung an der zugehörigen Straßentrasse (=Schriftenreihe des Kammerhofmuseums Bad Aussee, Bd. 22). Verein der Freunde des Kammerhofmuseums, Bad Aussee 2001, , p. 103. By 1147 the mines had become a commercial venture, controlled by the Rein Abbey near Graz. In 1211 the mines were nationalised by Leopold VI, Duke of Austria, who transferred control to Unterlupitsch. With operations later transferred to Bad Aussee, investment in 1319 allowed the opening of the Steinberg tunnel. Followed by further periods on investment, by 1334, the mines were operated under license by the private Hallinger Union who employed 120 people, producing about 10,000 tonnes of product per annum. Renationalised by Frederick III in 1445, 120 people produced circa 10,00 tonnes of product per annum until the early 20th century. In 1906, a new brine pipeline through the Rettenbach Valley to Bad Ischl to supply the Solvay Works located in the market town of Ebensee. It is for this reason that Altaussee, and other local towns and villages such as Hallstatt, are now part of the Salzkammergut region. Production volumes in the following years quadruple, and employees double to 238.

By 1938, the salt mine had come to the attention of Adolf Hitler. Located close to his intended museum complex in Linz, inside the mine the conditions were constant: between 40 and 47 degrees; about 65 percent humidity; with the deepest tunnels more than a mile inside the mountain, safe from enemy bombs. The Nazi's built floors, walls, and shelving as well as a workshop deep in the chambers.

Post-war after recovery of the art, brine production resumed. The mines are still operational today, and brine is pumped to the market town of Ebensee. In 2008, 61 employees produced 1,506,000m³ of brine, with a salt content of 450,000 tons. It is for this reason that Altaussee, and other local towns and villages such as Hallstatt, are now part of the Salzkammergut region.

History

The oldest settlement on the ground of the modern village of Altaussee dates back to the Roman rule (200-400 AD). However, there is no historical continuity of a settlement before the Middle Ages. The salt mine on the ground of the modern village was first documented in 1147 AD, the village itself in 1265.Cf. Karl Vocelka: Die Haus- und Hofnamen der Katastralgemeinden Altaussee, Grundlsee, Lupitsch, Obertressen, Reitern und Straßen im steirischen Salzkammergut. Band 2 (= Dissertationen der Universität Wien 102). Verband der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Österreichs, Wien 1974, p. 500.

Around 1250 Philipp of Spanheim, the Archbishop-elect of Salzburg, occupied the Ausseerland and the Ennstal. For the coverage of his claim to power he built the small Pflindsberg castle on a hill east of the Altaussee village. He had to withdraw in 1254 and the region returned to Styria. In the following centuries the Pflindsberg castle developed into a regional seignory with the right to hold high justice. It was administered by an official of the styrian Landesfürst.

In 1848 manorialism was abolished in the cisleithanian part of the Austrian Empire and Altaussee became an autonomous political municipality.

In the 19th century Altaussee evolved into a popular summer-resort. Especially writers and intellectuals, for example Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Jakob Wassermann, Theodor Herzl and Friedrich Torberg, spent their summer holidays in the small alpine village.

World War II

After the annexation of Austria into the German Third Reich in 1938 the entire Ausseerland region (a small region in Styria consisting of Bad Aussee, Grundlsee and Altaussee) was incorporated into the new administrative unit Reichsgau Oberdonau (Upper Austria). The autonomy of the municipalities Bad Aussee, Grundlsee and Altaussee was dissolved and one single ''Bürgermeisterei'' (mayoralty) was established in Bad Aussee. The municipal offices of Altaussee and Grundlsee were henceforth field offices of Bad Aussee. The 29 country residences in possession of Jewish families were '' aryanized''. In the following time the community attracted many top Nazis who inhabited these ''aryanized'' country estates. For example, three Nazi Gauleiter regularly spent their holidays in Altaussee: August Eigruber, Konrad Henlein and Hugo Jury. The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels spent his holidays in an "aryanized" country residence at the neighbouring Grundlsee.

As of spring 1944, there was a permanent shelter for Wehrmacht deserters, draft dodgers and resisters hidden in the rough terrain of the Totes Gebirge north of the village. This hideout called ''Igel'' (hedgehog), was provided with food by trusted third parties in the population. At the end of the war the ''Igel'' sheltered 35 people.

The Ausseerland region was part of the so-called Alpine fortress. It is for this reason, why 1944/45 it became a last refuge for Nazi party, government and army staffs. Also entire pro-fascist governments that had been used by the Nazis in the Balkans took refuge in the region. As of the end of the war, nine pro-Nazi governments in exile from Eastern Europe stayed in Altaussee. Günther Altenburg for example served as head the ''Department of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and Romania'' in Altaussee, where he oversaw the Germany-impaired exiled governments of Bulgaria and Romania (see also: Bulgarian government-in-exile). Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt, moved his headquarters from Berlin to the Villa Kerry in Altaussee in late April 1945. From here, with the help of Wilhelm Höttl, he was trying to contact the Western Allies to reach a separate peace. At the end of the war several high Nazi and SS officials, like August Eigruber, Hugo Jury, Adolf Eichmann

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