50 years for Salzburg

The flood of the century and a Salzach miracle

The flood of the century hits Salzburg in 2002. Hans Peter Hasenöhrl recalls these and other events in his series "50 years for Salzburg".

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Tschepp)

The "Salzburg Krone" is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Long-time editor-in-chief Hans Peter Hasenöhrl looks back on some moving stories. Part 3 of the series/1994-2004: Tauern Tunnel. Kaprun. Floods, the sunken "Amadeus". Sepp Forcher's fire department and the victory of the "red Gabi".

BLESSING 
It is a ghostly scene. The flood of the century hits Salzburg. In August 2002, the waves reach the terrace of the "Bazar" coffee house and the fire department prepares to completely evacuate the old town. The "Amadeus", the ship for tourists, sinks in the river. A man in a dark coat fights his way through the police cordons in the rain. Most people know him: Archbishop Dr. Georg Eder. The clergyman has now arrived at the State Bridge, the underside of which has already been swept away by the raging river. The structure is vibrating. He bravely takes a few steps further. No one stops him. Then Eder opens his cloak, takes out the golden monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament and blesses the Salzach. "Of course, the Church would not recognize it as a miracle," diagnosed the moral theologian Auxiliary Bishop Dr. Andreas Laun. "But the fact that the flood waters receded after the blessing and spared the old town cannot be denied."

FOUNDATION 
Discussions take place at the legendary house table of TV star and "Krone" columnist Sepp Forcher: The city of Salzburg needs more people of heart who sacrifice some of their free time to the fire department. With the support of the "Salzburg Krone", the Liefering Volunteer Fire Brigade is actually re-established. Today there are so many volunteers that the station has to be expanded.

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

BUILDER 
Haslauer senior's successor Hans Katschthaler often comes across as an old-style politician. "Go back to your villages!" he once shouts to outraged demonstrators. The brisk doer Franz Schausberger brashly enters the political stage, his period is characterized by courageous projects: The new Mozarteum University building, the House of Nature, the Salzburg Museum in the Residenz, the stadium for Red Bull and the museum on the mountain, which the elitist city society does not like: it would prefer a cosmopolitan Guggenheim exhibition in the hollowed-out rock and despises the head of the province. Schausberger has to manage two devastating disasters with all his might: the fire in the Tauern Tunnel with 12 fatalities, whereupon he initiates the expansion of the tubes including noise protection. And then Kaprun: 155 dead. The biggest disaster of the post-war period.

Rudi Quehenberger, successful haulage entrepreneur and president of Austria Salzburg during his triumphal procession through the city in 1994 - first championship title and entry into the UEFA Cup final. He achieved the construction of a new stadium in Wals-Siezenheim.

(Bild: Weber Wolfgang)

FREISPRUCH 
However, a campaign of lies concocted by spin-doctors broke out over Schausberger's private life (he is still happily married today) and caused party-political metastases. A successor is already in place, lawyer Wilfried Haslauer Jr. Because he has the professional task of defending the operations manager of Gletscherbahnen Kaprun in court, only then can the lawyer be presented. The Kaprun verdict: 155 dead and no one to blame. All defendants and the "Fakir" fan heater installed in the "Kitzssteingams" train are acquitted. The ÖVP decides too late and tactically impossible: it goes into the election with a top candidate duo. Haslauer laughs on one side of the billboard, Schausberger on the other.

SECRET ACTION 
There is a big change. In the middle of the cold winter of 2004, "Red Gabi" Burgstaller promises everything, above all a new spring, and clearly wins. Haslauer is only runner-up. "How our day and our work on earth are fleeting and even obsolete!" shouts the match announcer in "Jedermann": Schausberger resigns in bitterness. Everything paletti in the first red year? In 2003, something happened behind the thick walls of the new residence that would spectacularly crash Gabi Burgstaller's and her crown prince's up-and-coming careers in a few years' time. The then ÖVP Economic Councillor granted the head of a unit in the finance department "power of attorney for commercial transactions with companies and institutions". Money gushes in in vast quantities, the budget seems to be saved, but as is the case with a poker game: it goes up and down. Unpredictable. Just keep a straight face.

MONOPOLY 
One fine morning, the country transfers 40 million euros of taxpayers' money to a bank on the opposite Residenzplatz and receives Turkish lira in return, a highly uncertain currency, but it's all like a game. Daredevil interest rate bets are made. Even experienced brokers in the stock exchange metropolis of Frankfurt are amazed at the Salzburg monopoly with taxpayers' money. But they play poker and collect their commissions. But the speculative transactions have not yet reached their peak. Salzburg is slithering towards theoretical bankruptcy with 1.8 billion euros in liabilities.

REVELATION 
The public initially has no idea. Everything remains hidden. The "Krone" editors Pichler and Redtenbacher will later ruthlessly uncover all the background, with the Linz University Rector and expert in civil law, Professor Meinhard Lukas, as scientific advisor.