On 19 December 1984, about 2,000 police officers stood face to face with some 4,000 people who had occupied the Hainburg water meadows to stop a hydropower dam from being built there. This station here consists of many different objects and documents related to the occupation of the Hainburg water meadows.

The police were brutal, beating people with clubs and tearing down their tents. The daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung described the police action as the “Hainburg Disgrace”. In Austria, people demonstrated their support for the occupation—in Vienna alone 40,000 people took to the street. In the end, the occupation was a success. They stopped clearing the forest there, and withdrew the plans to build a hydropower plant.

In 1940, construction projects had begun, which gradually reshaped the Danube River. The small white and blue map in a frame, on the wall in front of you, shows where the hydropower plants have been built along the Danube.

Hainburg is all the way in the East—another of an entire series of hydropower plants was supposed to be built there. However, the plans to spoil the “last remaining” water meadow along the Danube, and to destroy the river landscape, were met with resistance.

Already in May 1984, members of all the major parties appeared in animal costumes at the “press conference of the animals” condemning the construction planned on the Danube water meadows.

That did not stop the project from beginning by clear-cutting the area. In early December 1984, the Austrian Student Union (ÖH) initiated a protest march where 8,000 people starting at different places all met at Hainburg.
That kicked off the occupation at the water meadows. In the glass display case on the wall below the painting, you see an ironic Christmas card by the Austrian Student Union showing the police brutality.

In early 1985, the referendum to save the water meadow and make it a national park got over 350,000 signatures. Today, the prevention of the hydropower plant in Hainburg is still considered an important moment that helped build the ecological movement in Austria and establish the Green Party.

Even today, plans for new hydropower plants continue to stir up unrest and protest. Like in Hainburg, people are concerned that such constructions will alter and endanger delicate ecosystems.

There are over 3,000 hydropower plants in Austria today. In 2018, 58% of the electricity produced in Austria came from hydropower plants. In 2019, hydropower plants provided about 10% of all the energy consumed in Austria.