Zum Umgang mit schweren Hochwassern an der unteren Salzach und am unteren Inn seit dem späten Mittelalter

Abstract

The Salzach and Lower Inn Rivers in the catchment of the Danube River in Bavaria and Austria have provided wealth for the region since prehistoric times, when salt mining had begun in the area of Hallein near Salzburg. From the twelfth century onwards, salt mining was intensified both in Hallein and in nearby Berchtesgaden (Bavaria) making the Salzach and Inn Rivers a major transport route to the markets downstream. Salt skipper communities with specific local knowledge developed and made little cities like Laufen rich and important. However, the people living along the river also had to face frequent floods, mostly in summer, when so-called Vb weather constellations (massive low-pressure cyclones over the Northern Mediterranean moving to the Northeast) brought heavy rain to the Eastern Alps. This paper examines the perception, management and memory of floods from the Late Middle Ages onwards focusing both on some extreme events such as in 1501, 1572 and 1598, and on the frequency of “normal” flood events within those “cultures of flood risk”. After the straightening of the riverbed in the nineteenth century, smaller floods mostly vanished, but also the preparedness of the people. In this way, the extraordinary floods of 1897 and 1899 caused severe damage to the settlements in the study area, leading to the dislocation of the village of Oberndorf north of Salzburg. The deserted place has been re-used for settlement from the 1970s onwards not taking into account the high vulnerability to floods. Finally, in 2002, a flood caused catastrophic damage again. Therefore, the paper agues for a re-establishment of memory culture and local flood knowledge as well as for sustainable flood protection by renaturation projects.