SOCIAL ECOLOGY WORKING PAPER 138 Gudrun Pollack VERSCHMUTZT – VERBAUT – VERGESSEN Eine Umweltgeschichte des Wienflusses von 1780 bis 1910 ISSN 1726-3816 Dezember 2013 Gudrun Pollack (2013): VERSCHMUTZT – VERBAUT – VERGESSEN: Eine Umweltgeschichte des Wienflusses von 1780 bis 1910 Social Ecology Working Paper 138 Vienna, Dezember 2013 ISSN 1726-3816 Institute of Social Ecology IFF - Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies (Klagenfurt, Graz, Vienna) Alpen-Adria Universitaet Schottenfeldgasse 29 A-1070 Vienna www.a au.at/sec [email protected] © 2013 by IFF – Social Ecology VERSCHMUTZT – VERBAUT – VERGESSEN eine Umweltgeschichte des Wienflusses von 1780 bis 1910 * von Gudrun Pollack * Die vorliegende Arbeit ist eine geringfügig überarbeitete Version meiner im Studiengang Sozial- und Humanökologie an der Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt verfassten Masterarbeit. Die 2012 fertig gestellte Arbeit wurde von Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Martin Schmid (Institut für Soziale Ökologie, IFF Wien) betreut. 1 2 Abstract The Vienna River (Wienfluss) flows from the most eastern edges of the Alps (Wienerwald) through Austria's capital and discharges into a side arm of the Danube (Donaukanal). Today this river is highly regulated and completely urbanized. It shares its concrete bed with a metro line and partly flows subterraneously. The extensive regulation at the end of the 19th century has tremendously changed the river's shape, effluent and accessibility. This event clearly marks a turning point in the river's history, but previous interactions between the city and the river also had long lasting impacts on both. In this paper, which is based on my master thesis, I aim to trace the changes of the Vienna River from the late 18 th to the early 20 th century. The river, its surroundings and the whole catchment area are conceptualized as a socio-natural site (cp. Winiwarter & Schmid 2008). All human practices in dealing with the river and all material and biophysical arrangements constituting the river are seen as social and natural at the same time. By focusing on practices, arrangements, and how both influence each other, I try to re-write the environmental history of this middle-sized, urban watercourse. During the 19th century, water quality was of major importance in the perception of, the discussions about and the interventions into the Vienna River. Pollution by bacteria and oxygen- depleting substances due to waste disposal and discharged waste water into the river and toxic pollution from industrial sites had turned the river into an open sewer in which neither fish nor invertebrates could survive. A series of cholera epidemics in Vienna, the first in 1831, were explained by contemporaries with the poor sanitary situation of the city and its rivers. Even though diseases like cholera pushed the re-shaping of urban centers into "networked cities" (Melosi 1990) with its new sewage systems, the problem of water pollution remained throughout the century. The Vienna River shows extreme fluctuations in discharge. Floods can exceed median water levels by a factor 500. Thus not only water quality but also its quantity was a challenge for society. On the one hand, periods of water scarcity hindered the operation of mills and on the other hand, recurrent floods destroyed bridges, weirs and buildings. These extreme hydrological dynamics necessitated regulative interventions into the river. While earlier regulations deepened, narrowed and straightened the river and stabilized its banks, the regulation plans in the second half of the 19th century were much bigger in scale. At least within the settled area they encompassed the whole river, were based on profound scientific and technical knowledge, and ranged from deriving or tunneling the river to its transformation into a navigable canal for transportation. Finally, the use of the river valley for a city railway together with flood protection formed the basis for the extensive regulation between 1894 and 1904. These changes of the Vienna River as socio-natural site can only be understood when we try to understand them in relation to the dynamics of urbanization and industrialization and the attempts of the city to gain control over all kinds of flows, including the flows of water. 3 Danksagung Besonders bedanken möchte ich mich bei Martin Schmid für seine weitreichende fachliche wie menschliche Unterstützung bei der Erstellung der Masterarbeit. Folgenden Personen möchte ich für ihre Unterstützung danken (in alphabetischer Reihenfolge): Stephan Brabec, Marianne Eberl, Sylvia Gierlinger, Simone Gingrich, Dino Güldner, Gertrud Haidvogl, Julia Haldemann, Friedrich Hauer, Fridolin Krausmann, Nikolaus Ludwiczek, Falk Micklisch, Martin Moser, Otto Moog, Michael Neundlinger, Eva Reinbacher, Ortrun Veichtlbauer, Verena Winiwarter und Michael Wlaschitz, sowie meinen Eltern und Freund_innen. 4 Inhaltsverzeichnis Inhaltsverzeichnis ............................................................................................................. .......................... 5 Abbildungsverzeichnis ............................................................................................................................... 7 1. Einleitung ................................................................................................................................................ 9 1.1. Forschungsfragen und Hypothesen ..........................................................................................................12 1.2. Forschungsstand zum Wienfluss ...............................................................................................................13 1.3. Gliederung der Arbeit .................................................................................................................................14 2. Theoretische Konzeptionierung – Der Wienfluss als sozionaturaler Schauplatz ...................... 15 2.1. Umweltgeschichte(n) von Flüssen ............................................................................................................15 2.2. Sozionaturale Schauplätze ..........................................................................................................................18 2.3. Flüsse als sozionaturale Schauplätze .........................................................................................................19 2.4. Verknüpfung von sozionaturalen Schauplätzen und sozial-ökologischen Regimes ..........................20 2.5. Flüsse und Industrialisierung .....................................................................................................................22 2.6. Sozionaturale Schauplätze und sozial-ökologische Regimes .................................................................26 3. Quellen und Methoden ....................................................................................................................... 27 3.1. Umwelthistorische Herangehensweise .....................................................................................................27 3.2. Recherche und Auswahl von Quellen ......................................................................................................30 3.3. Zeitschnitte ...................................................................................................................................................31 4. Der Wienfluss – eine naturräumliche Charakterisierung ............................................................... 34 4.1. Länge, Zubringer und Einzugsgebiet .......................................................................................................34 4.2. Abflussverhältnisse ......................................................................................................................................36 4.3. Abflussmengen ............................................................................................................................................38 5. Cholera, Hochwasser und Mühlen - der Wienfluss um 1830 ........................................................ 41 5.1. Demografische und räumliche Entwicklung des Untersuchungsgebietes um 1830 .........................41 5.2. Beschreibung der Mappenblätter des franziszeischen Katasters .........................................................43 5.3. Cholera, Kanalisation und Wasserverschmutzung – der Wienfluss als stinkende Kloake und Seuchenherd .........................................................................................................................................................52 5.3.1. Abwasserentsorgung ................................................................................................................................54 5.3.2. Wasserversorgung .....................................................................................................................................57 5.3.3. Wasserqualität oder Grad der Wasserverschmutzung .........................................................................57 5.3.4. Die Choleraepidemie 1831-32 ................................................................................................................58 5.4. Flussnutzungsweisen, Abflussverhältnisse und Flussregulierungen ....................................................62 5.4.1. Holzschwemme und Fischerei................................................................................................................62 5.4.2. Mühlen, Mühlbäche und Wehre .............................................................................................................63