Altaussee



Altaussee is a community (Gemeinde) nestled on the shores of the Altaussee lake, beneath the Loser Plateau. Occupying an area of 92 km², the village is home to 1,777 people. The community includes two cadastral communities: Altausseee and Luppitsch. The designated climatic spa Altaussee is within the Salzkammergut region, in the state of Styria.

Geography
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 Altaussee lake, 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, and have been mined at least since 1147 for salt. Since the discovery of a roman settling on the Sandling massif in the 1990s early rock salt mining is supposed to have been taken place there from 200-400 AD. The mines are still operational today, and salt is pumped - dissolved in water - to 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. The evaporites formed as a result of a major period of marine lowstand, when the sea level was low and the sea dried out.

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.

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. 1254 he had to withdrawal and the region returned back 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.

After the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938 Altaussee became part of the Nazi Reichsgau Oberdonau followed by the compulsory acquisition of the 29 country residences in possession of Jewish families. The village was part of the so-called "Alpenfestung" for which reason it became a safe haven for high ranked Nazi officials and nine pro-fascist governments-in-exile from eastern Europe (for example the Bulgarian government-in-exile ) during the last months of WWII. At the end of WWII several high Nazi officials, like Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl and Ernst Kaltenbrunner tried to go into hiding in the village. On 8 May 1945 U.S. troops arrived in the village. Ernst Kaltenbrunner fled to the "Wildensee" alp nearby Altaussee where he was captured by a U.S. patrol on 12 May 1945. On 1 July 1948 the village became part of the Austrian state Styria again. Until 1955 Altaussee was part of the American occupation zone in Austria.

Nazi Stolen Art Repository
During WWII (1943-1945) the extensive complex of salt mines in Altaussee served as a huge repository for art stolen by the Nazis, but it also contained holdings from Austrian collections. More than 6,500 paintings alone were discovered at Altaussee. The contents included: Belgian-owned treasures such as Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges stolen from the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, and Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent; Vermeer’s The Astronomer and The Art of Painting which were to be focal points of Hitler’s Führermuseum in Linz, Austria; and paintings from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy that had been stolen by the Hermann Göring Tank Division (Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring) at Monte Cassino in Italy.

Leisure and Sport
A 7.5 km trail goes around a clear lake surrounded by 1838 m high Loser mountain the Trisslwand, the Tressenstein and other mountain ranges. Brown and white alpine-style houses with a beautiful church are in the center of town. The tourist bureau has a few English pamphlets, but most information, including the Literatur museum inside, is in German. A saltmine tour through one of Austria's oldest saltmines is available every hour in the summer. Hiking trails abound, with various gradings. They are marked with green and white signs. The lower ones are easy to follow while the more difficult routes are sometimes less well-marked. A paradise for outdoor enthusiasts and hikers. Flora and waterfalls make the forests and mountains even more attractive in the summer.

In the wintertime the nearby ski resort of Loser offers 29 km slopes with all levels of difficulty. In addition there are other nearby ski resorts available.

Notable people

 * Karin Brandauer (1945–1992), Austrian film director and screenwriter.
 * Klaus Maria Brandauer (* 1943), Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna; lives in Altaussee and Vienna.
 * Marianne Feldhammer (1909–1996), Austrian resistance fighter against Nazism.
 * Barbara Frischmuth (* 1941), Austrian writer of poetry and prose.
 * Joseph Fröhlich (1694–1757), court jester of Augustus II the Strong.
 * Michael Moser (1853–1912), Austrian photographer.
 * Hermann Markus Pressl (1939-1994), Austrian composer and music teacher.
 * Paul Preuss (1886–1913), Austrian alpinist.