You can read this article in 4 minutesAgnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus The traffic police will be carrying out operations to prevent detours in the Salzburg-Umgebung district of Austria These restrictions do not apply to vehicles whose destination is within the Salzburg region Pölös Zsófia Journalist Trans.info | 5.05.2025 Agnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus Journalist Trans.info | 5.05.2025 Sabina Koll Journalist Trans.info | 5.05.2025 GXO to manage Northern Italy transport operations for PRG retail groupPölös Zsófia Journalist Trans.info | 5.05.2025 This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page The first successful trial delivery of advanced bioethanol marks the start of the long-term cooperation between OMV gas and petrochemicals company headquartered in Vienna The Hallein-based bioethanol plant has an annual capacity of up to 35 million liters making it the world’s largest bioethanol plant based on wood In the first year AustroCel Hallein will already supply more than 1.5 million liters per month of second-generation bioethanol to OMV the cooperation partners are contributing to climate protection “Austria’s first plant for the production of second-generation bioethanol is now up and running in Hallein and we have started our trailblazing cooperation with OMV we are taking a responsible approach to resources and helping to reduce fossil fuel use We will continue to pursue our long-term strategy of ‘Green AustroCel’ uniting sustainability and economic success” Bioethanol from Hallein will be produced exclusively from cellulose scrap making it exceptionally environmentally friendly as no food or animal feed is used in the process The bioethanol is extracted from the wood sugars left over in cellulose production before being fermented and distilled This sustainable basis means that the bioethanol from AustroCel Hallein falls under the category “advanced biofuels” allowing it to be added to gasoline fuels in the future Substituting fossil fuels will save around 45,000 metric tons of CO2 a year This product will thereby help reduce the carbon intensity of the OMV product portfolio and aid in meeting OMV’s 2025 Sustainability Targets OMV Executive Board member responsible for Refining & Petrochemical Operations: “We are delighted to have found a reliable partner in AustroCel and are proud of the start of our cooperation that will allow us to secure the supply of biofuels in Austria for years to come OMV is making a valuable contribution to meeting international climate targets” AustroCel GmbH has invested around EUR 42 mn in the new bioethanol plant on its compound in Hallein and created ten new jobs “Despite the challenges of the current situation we have succeeded in delivering the project on time and on budget while adhering to the highest safety standards throughout This is an incredible achievement by our team and partners The plant is ready and entered its trial operation successfully” The plant will operate at full capacity in January 2021 when regular deliveries of bioethanol to OMV begin A number of directives regulate the use of biofuels in the EU Several binding targets were laid out in 2009/28/EG the EU’s 2009 Renewable Energy Directive (RED): to fulfil 20% of its total energy needs (power along with a minimum of 10% of transport fuels from renewable sources This was followed in December 2018 by the Renewable Energy Directive II (EU 2018/2001 or RED II) which establishes a new binding renewable energy target for the EU for 2030 of at least 32% as well as a target of 14% renewables in the transport sector by 2030 A higher target for advanced biofuels (second generation) has also been determined Conventional biofuels (first generation) may account for a maximum of 7% Communications: Ingrid Einspieler, Tel.: +43 6245 890 201, email: ingrid.einspieler@austrocel.com Sylvia ShinSVP Corporate CommunicationsTel: +43 (1) 40440-0media.relations@omv.com Florian GregerSVP Investor Relations & SustainabilityTel.: +43 (1) 40440-21600investor.relations@omv.com OMV GroupOMV PetromBorealis Group causing widespread damage in several towns in the state of Salzburg Flood waters raging through the streets of the town of Hallein caused some of the worst damage jumped over 1.7 metres in the space of a few hours late on 17 July Flood water in the city has since subsided to reveal significant material damage and clean up operations have begun Fortunately there were no reports of casualties The Salzach River at Mittersill in Salzburg also caused flooding As of 18 July the river stood at 5.877 metres where the highest alert level (Alarmstufe 2) is 5 metres The government of Salzburg state released several photos showing the damage in Hallein and also aerial photos of flooded areas near Oberpinzgau between Mittersill and Bramberg Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList Travel Weekly’s Marian McGuinness has returned to pen another guide to the many gorgeous cities of Europe. Moving on from Salzburg ‘A city of festivals and art’ McGuinness has a few words to say about Hallein’s charm and wonder The medieval town of Hallein nestles between the Salzach River and the Bavarian Alps A short 15-minute train ride from Salzburg there’s a river-scenic ride between the two districts that takes less than an hour Walking around historic Hallein you appreciate how unchanged it is from its origins in the Middle Ages where many of its medieval and burgher houses were built on a slant for stability The town is an exciting contrast of old and new Wander the cobbled streets and squeeze through narrow passageways into spacious squares with their treasure-trove boutiques Stop at a café to enjoy local and international cuisines or indulge in the liquid fruits of the oldest distillery in Austria Hallein has a salty past and a Celtic history Its narrow stretch of flat land between mountains and river limited its growth over the centuries Its ancient history is embedded in every centimetre of its footprint making it a unique Austrian town Long considered the industrial heart of the area Hallein’s bountiful salt was the money-earner for the imperial city of Salzburg transforming it into the showy jewel it is today Many of Hallein’s buildings are associated with salt production that date back thousands of years For a fascinating adventure take a trip up the Dürrnberg Mountain and enter the underworld tunnels and chambers carved out by Celtic salt miners over 2600 years ago Don a pair of overalls and straddle the cave train that transports you deep into the mountain a multi-lingual guide leads you on a walking tour where the fascinating history of mining this white gold is divulged As the mine is multi-levelled there are two steep wooden slides that slip you further underground where you cross the Austria-Germany border To complete the hour-long tour there’s a raft ride across the briny Back on the surface you can wander the reconstructed Celtic miners’ village If that’s not enough to fill your history void the multi-tiered Celtic Museum on the banks of the Salzach River is one of the most extensive archaeological museums of Celtic culture in Europe A more intimate museum is the former home of Franz Gruber composer of the world-famous Christmas carol Hallein offers many markets to explore including a wine market a craft beer market and Moonlight Shopping that takes place from May to October The old salt works on Perner Island in the middle of the Salzach River are the site of the Christmas markets held during Advent and Hallein’s cultural highlight – the summer Salzburg Festival Find more information here. Ninety-four coins stolen in 1945 will be returned to the Salzburg Museum at a ceremony in New York tomorrow (May 26), more than 70 years after they were hidden for safekeeping in an Austrian salt mine. The American Numismatic Society bought the coins in 1995 thanks to a donation from Chester L. Krause, a benefactor who suspected they were looted from Austria after the Second World War and wanted to save them from being dispersed on the market and lost.  After purchasing the coins, the ANS began making inquiries in Austria to trace the legitimate owner. Inventory numbers written in ink on the surface of the coins—a practise common in the 19th century—matched with an old card file in the Salzburg Museum. “These coins were rather rare, which helped with the identification,” says Ute Wartenberg Kagan, the executive director of the American Numismatic Society. “We are delighted they will be returned to the museum where they belong.”  Towards the end of the Second World War, around 4,000 historic coins were removed from what was then called the Salzburger Museum Carolino-Augusteum, packed in a chest and stashed in a salt mine in nearby Hallein. In May 1945, in the chaotic aftermath of the war, rumours of plunder in Hallein circulated. In June 1945, US military authorities took custody of the coins.  But when the Monuments Men returned the coin hoard to the museum in 1946, around 2,600 pieces were missing. Some were recovered from private individuals including US military personnel in the years after the war, but in 1955, almost 2,500 had still not resurfaced. The 94 coins to be returned to Salzburg tomorrow were in the possession of a man in the US who probably acquired them in Austria. He was unwilling to relinquish them without compensation, prompting Krause to offer to finance the ANS purchase. Salzburg’s mint was one of the most important in medieval Europe and originated from a special dispensation to Archbishop Hartwig granted by the German Emperor Otto III in 996. One of the coins to be returned is a silver pfennig minted in the Archbishop’s reign. Another is a 14th-century gold florin of Archbishop Pilgrim II of Salzburg, the city’s first gold coin.  For Wartenberg Kagan, the case “illustrates that even today museums in the US should be acting as safe havens for looted objects. We think museums should go to auctions and acquire items to repatriate them," she says.  news20 May 2021Calling all numismatists! Biggest coin database in German-speaking world to go live todayThe new resource provides images and data on 90,000 coins TEHRAN - A collection of historical objects and tools discovered from Austria’s Hallein Salt Mine will go on display at Iranian museums in Tehran and Zanjan Based on an agreement inked between the National Museum of Iran and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (The German Mining Museum in Bochum) the exhibit will be put on show in two Iranian museums CHTN quoted Zanjan tourism chief Amir Arjmand as saying on Saturday Parts of the properties of the Austrian mine which are being kept in the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum have been transferred to Iran and are very similar to those found in Zanjan two separate loan exhibitions featuring ancient mining and relevant documents were kicked off at the National Museum of Iran The exhibition hosted by the German Mining Museum in Bochum is titled “Death in Salt an Archaeological Narrative of the Land of Persia” and the other is named “Human Search for Resources” and will be running for six months a team of experts from the two countries started a project for purifying and restoring garments and personal belongings of the mummies which were first found in the salt mine in 1993 What was a catastrophe for the ancient miners has become a sensation for science the first salt mummy was discovered in 1993 He is estimated to be trapped in the mine in ca In 2004 another mummy was discovered only 50 feet away followed by another in 2005 and a “teenage” boy mummy later that year near Hamzehli and Chehrabad villages in Zanjan province to the extent that his pierced ear was still holding the gold earring and his impressive leather boot still contained parts of his leg and foot Winfrid Herbst in Dürrnberg: "You asshole!" reporters around the world will be writing about societal problems videos and podcasts looking behind the curtain of globalization The project is generously funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Winfrid Herbst is wrestling with his emotions even joking about the situation in which he finds himself His lower lip starts quivering and his small "I have never been good with this kind of injustice.” That’s when the mayor of the Austrian town of Hallein said in an interview that flood protection in his town had been delayed by ultimately unsuccessful appeals including those launched by "environmental organizations." Without these delays "the floods would have been far less intense or perhaps prevented entirely." After the catastrophe: Could the flood disaster in Hallein have been prevented The main environmental organization in question is the Nature Conservation Association in the state of Salzburg of which Herbst has been chairman since 2017 he has signed all of the organization's important correspondence including those letters rejecting the planned construction of a 120-meter (395-foot) concrete wall in the hills above Hallein The municipality located south of Salzburg was one of the towns hit hardest by the Alpine floods earlier this month with rains transforming the tiny creek in the center into a raging torrent of water and mud as the videos of the catastrophe make clear #Hallein vor wenigen Minuten. #Hochwasser #Salzburg pic.twitter.com/zbVI8yYr7w The debate over who should be held accountable for the flooding could have remained the realm of the local newspapers But even before the last basement had been pumped free of water Austrian Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Köstinger of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) escalated the dispute "The objections were aimed at preventing effective barrier structures because the landscape was seen as being at risk,” she said Winfrid Herbst’s telephone has been ringing every few minutes Criticism of environmentalist Herbst: "The objections were aimed at preventing effective barrier structures." The dispute in Austria between nature conservationists and political leaders is one that many people around the world are familiar with And they are likely to grow in frequency: All leading experts agree that climate change is making extreme weather events more likely Should homes that have been washed away in flooding be rebuilt in the same place Do protective walls that have been inundated by flood waters simply need to be built higher after each disaster leaving the danger zones and giving nature more space All of those issues are currently at stake The destruction in Hallein was on full display Entire blocks of houses were still surrounded by sandbags and boarded up several days later and a brown line at shoulder height could still be seen on some store windows Dredging and pumping was going on everywhere though the cars had already been pulled out of the narrow creek bed Hallein in Austria after the flooding: Five days after the water swept through the town it still feels like mud is caked to every spot in the center Gerhard Angerer is standing next to Kothbach Creek a small scab to the right of one of his eyes The 68-year-old says that he fell when the water rushed through his home It was only with a bit of luck that his wife found him motionless on the floor and was able to help him get to the second floor but there has never been anything like this,” Angerer says Wilfried Grundtner lives and works right next door not even two meters away from Kothbach Creek and he came within a hair of having his entire life’s work destroyed As if someone had put rocks in a washing machine Grundtner sensed the danger and acted quickly Bike shop owner Wilfried Grundtner: It was as if someone had put rocks in a washing machine He and some neighbors sealed off the alley with sheet metal and boards and they hoisted a 750-kilogram (1,653 pound) potted olive tree behind it the vehicle was already floating in the water What unites residents along Kothbach Creek isn’t the damage or the numerous tragic stories – it is the feeling that they weren’t warned in time The water just came,” says one person who asked not to be quoted by name "By the time we tried to call the fire department The calamity appears to have overwhelmed the entire community Is that one of the reasons the finger pointing started so quickly "Unpopular critics are getting vilified,” he wrote in a press release despair and dismay of the populace is being exploited in a morally and democratically reprehensible manner.” To understand the full dimension of the conflict a trip into the mountains above Hallein is necessary in a hiking area popular with locals and tourists alike is where the structures in question are planned for construction - the structures that have put the Nature Conservation Association in the crosshairs of critics The first of the barriers has caused the most trouble for Winfrid Herbst A narrow asphalted forest path leads to the site along a brook that eventually flows into Kothbach Creek The town now plans to erect the long-planned barrier wall here to slow down any future floods The planned structure measures 124 meters long and 15 meters high It will completely seal off the little valley as he traces its outline in the air in the midday heat He spent 25 years as head of Salzburg's sanitation department and before that he was one of the first public officials in the country to specialize in environmental concerns he was also a member of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖPV) the Christian Democratic political body that dominates the state's political landscape Perhaps the attacks are so painful for him because they are essentially coming from his own family The 73-year-old says that environmental protection is his life’s work he was concerned about the preservation of plants and the protection of animals The work he does for the Nature Conservation Association is unpaid Herbst says that he would prefer the water of Kothbach Creek to be diverted a little higher upstream in a natural depression located just below a farm would only require a small wall to be erected - one that could then be covered with soil and grass The depression that Herbst and the Nature Conservation Association had proposed as a natural barrier "Our proposal was equally good and would have cost the same,” Herbst points out He says the authority responsible for managing free-flowing streams had checked and approved everything But when the farmer in question didn’t play along the town stuck to its variant of the project the originally planned structure is moving ahead several years behind schedule The small stream in question only carries one-tenth of the water that ultimately ends up in Kothbach Creek Herbst is nowhere near as fundamentally opposed to concrete as it might seem at first a second structure further upstream that will hold back even more water and it has nonetheless been supported by the Nature Conservation Association construction is already underway on the second barrier - with no opposition whatsoever The difference is that the gray colossus will soon disappear under a meadow just as Herbst had envisioned for the structure he proposed much further downstream which will hold back 80,000 cubic meters of water is located in a natural depression that provides additional space without requiring concrete - a clever structure high up in the mountains Local resident Robert Hallinger is also critical of the construction plans: "Concrete is our petroleum in Austria and we can’t seem to get away from it." The truth is that Austria has plenty of experience in flood protection The country has had a separate national authority for decades that manages the hazards presented by wild streams and avalanches The government pays for many of the construction projects and only a small part has to be co-financed by the local authorities or the people affected But maintenance and upkeep after they are built is the responsibility of the municipalities And if you look at one of the basins around Hallein it’s pretty obvious that they were already well filled with trees and debris before the flood It looks like a bathtub that has never been cleaned after the water is drained "People would rather have new construction done rather than maintaining the existing protective structures," says Robert Hallinger a Dürrnberg resident who works for one of the country’s major hydropower producers "Concrete is our petroleum in Austria and we can’t seem to get away from it." have above-average land usage compared to the rest of the world even though the land available for construction has always been limited here by the Alps One of the existing flood barriers in the forest: Residents and nature conservation groups criticize the fact that the basins weren't cleared regularly before the floods "We can’t keep pouring concrete and thinking that will be enough,” says Winfrid Herbst "We have to think about the mountains and make use of their features we’ll end up living here covered in concrete and will still be surprised that the groundwater rises and the rain comes from above.” If it were up to him and his fellow campaigners flood protection would function on a smaller scale and more locally in the future From the very top of the mountain to the very bottom there are many ways to slow the water in natural depressions The affected farmers would receive a small annual payment for their cooperation or Damage caused by the floods: The problem starts in the mountains The debate in Austria also highlights the shifting political debate in Austria Instead of being fundamentally opposed to climate and environmental protection conservatives now sometimes use it to challenge objections from environmentalists The argument is that precisely because the issue is so important and the time so pressing as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the ÖVP recently railed environmentalists are leading the country "back to the Stone Age.” Meanwhile his agricultural minister is calling for "different framework conditions” in flood protection That makes it sound as though the rights of residents and environmental organizations to object could be curbed by the government in the future The logical consequence of that would likely be more concrete walls and less opposition These are considerations that could also soon be seen in those parts of Germany that were hit hard by flooding this summer It would be a license to carry on with the status quo after the disaster that would be even worse than the attacks leveled against him The Global Societies series involves journalists reporting in Asia societal challenges and sustainable development in a globalized world which originally appear in DER SPIEGEL’s Foreign Desk section will also appear in the Global Societies section of DER SPIEGEL International The project is initially scheduled to run for three years and receives financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is funding the project for a period of three years at a total cost of around €2.3 million The foundation exerts no influence whatsoever on the stories and other elements that appear in the series Large European media outlets like the Guardian and El País have similar sections on their websites -- called "Global Development" and "Planeta Futuro," respectively -- that are likewise funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation DER SPIEGEL has complete two projects with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Journalism Centre (EJC): "Expedition BeyondTomorrow," about global sustainability goals and the journalist refugee project "The New Arrivals," which resulted in several award-winning features All Global Societies pieces will be published in the Globale Gesellschaft section of the DER SPIEGEL website; a selection of articles will be made available in English on the International website Global Societies. After the catastrophe: Could the flood disaster in Hallein have been prevented? Hallein in Austria after the flooding: Five days after the water swept through the town, it still feels like mud is caked to every spot in the center. Bike shop owner Wilfried Grundtner: It was as if someone had put rocks in a washing machine. One of the existing flood barriers in the forest: Residents and nature conservation groups criticize the fact that the basins weren't cleared regularly before the floods. Meanwhile the number of people who have lost thier lives in the flooding in Belgium and western Germany has increased to over 180 the district of Berchtesgadener Land in the state of Bavaria declared a disaster in response to flooding on 17 July flash flooding and several small rivers to break their banks Berchtesgaden recorded 89.8 mm of rain in 24 hours to 18 July Deutscher Wetterdienst said some areas saw more than 130 mm The district government said emergency services responded to 400 interventions including 135 people in Schönau am Königssee The hardest hit areas include Bischofswiesen Marktschellenberg and Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden Officials said 2 people have died but as of 18 July only one fatality could be confirmed as a result of flooding Several roads in the area have been closed The rail connection between Bad Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden is currently suspended Further heavy rain is expected and officials said people living along the Königsseer Ache river should prepare to evacuate damaging floods swept through areas along the Salzach River and its tributaries in the state of Salzburg late on 17 July 2021 The town of Hallein was particularly badly affected Images and videos shared on Social Media showed muddy water racing through streets in the town jumped from around 2 metres to 3.77 metres in the space of a few hours late on 17 July As of 18 July there were no reports of casualties with flash flooding affecting the town Kufstein in the province of Tyrol Meanwhile the number of people who have lost their lives in the recent floods in western Germany and Belgium has increased to 183 Officials in Belgium confirmed 27 fatalities as of 18 July 2021 In North Rhine-Westphalia state in Germany In the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate 110 fatalities were confirmed #hallein pic.twitter.com/47IxmAiekt — Netrus (@DatNetrus) July 17, 2021 — DWD (@DWD_presse) July 18, 2021 @MartinHaven In case you don't know yet, the Königssee track got badly damaged by the weather last night pic.twitter.com/Q4e5m2j6t1 — Isadora (@Isa_Yolina) July 18, 2021 they lay buried in the dusty desert earth of Iraq for thousands of years The clay tablets left by the ancient Sumerians around 5,000 years ago provide what are thought to be the earliest written record of a long dead people Although it took decades for archaeologists to decipher the mysterious language preserved on the slabs they have provided glimpses of what life was like at the dawn of civilisation Similar tablets and carved stones have been unearthed at the sites of other mighty cultures that have long since vanished – from the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Egyptians to the inscriptions of the Maya of Mesoamerica A slide back into the technological dark ages is not beyond comprehensionThe stories and details they contain have stood the test of time surviving through the millennia to be unearthed and deciphered by modern historians But there are fears that future archaeologists may not benefit from the same sort of immutable record when they come to search for evidence of our own civilisation We live in a digital world where information is stored as lists of tiny electronic ones and zeros that can be edited or even wiped clean by a few accidental strokes on a keyboard “Unfortunately we live in an age that will leave hardly any written traces,” explained Martin Kunze Kunze’s solution is the Memory of Mankind project newspapers and libraries to create a modern version of those first ancient Sumerian tablets discovered in the desert Their plan is to gather together the accumulated knowledge of our time and store it underground in the caverns carved out in one of the oldest salt mines in the world in the mountains of Austria’s picturesque Salzkammergut “The main point of what we are doing is to store information in a way that it is readable in the future Creating a stone “time capsule” may seem archaic in the age where most of our knowledge now floats around the internet cloud but a slide back into the technological dark ages is not beyond comprehension The advent of the internet has seen people have more information at their fingertips than at any previous point in human history Yet the huge repositories of knowledge we have built up are perilously vulnerable Ever more information is being stored digitally on remote computer servers and hard disks How many of us have hard copies of the photographs we took on our last holiday The situation gets more serious when we consider scientific papers that are now solely published online Entire catalogues of video footage from news broadcasters Official documents and government papers reside in digital libraries Yet a conference of space weather scientists, together with officials from Nasa and the US Government, earlier this year warned of the fragile nature of all this digital information. Charged particles thrown out by the sun in a powerful solar storm could trigger electromagnetic surges that could render our electronic devices useless and wipe data stored in memory drives Such storms are a real threat, and they happen relatively regularly. A report produced by the British Government last year highlighted that severe solar storms appear to happen every 100 years The last major coronal mass ejection to hit the Earth, known as the Carrington event was in 1859 and is thought to have been the biggest in 500 years It blew telegraph systems all over the world and pylons threw sparks But there are other threats too – malicious hackers or even careless officials could tamper with these digital records or delete them altogether And what if we simply lose the ability to read this information Technology is changing so fast that media formats are quickly rendered obsolete VHS and the humble floppy disk have become outdated within decades Few computers even come with DVD drives now while giving the current generation of teenagers a floppy disk would leave them flummoxed If information is stored on one of these formats and the technology needed to access it disappears completely It is very likely that in the long term the only traces of our present activities will be global warming nuclear waste and Red Bull cans – Martin KunzeHence the desire to keep a hard copy of our most important documents even the more traditional forms of storing information are also unlikely to keep information safe for more than a few centuries While we have some paper manuscripts that have survived for hundreds of years – and in the case of papyrus scrolls for thousands – unless they are stored in the right conditions most disintegrate to dust after a couple of hundred years Newspaper can decompose within six weeks if it gets wet “It is very likely that in the long term the only traces of our present activities will be global warming nuclear waste and Red Bull cans,” says Kunze so the real challenge becomes selecting what we want to keep for our grandchildren and those that come after them.” Which is why Kunze and his colleagues are instead looking further back in time for inspiration The Memory of Mankind team hopes to create an indelible record of our way of life by imprinting official documents news stories and even images onto square ceramic plates measuring eight inches (20cm) across This hinges on a special process that Kunze describes as “ceramic microfilm” which he says is the most durable data storage system in the world The flat ceramic plates are covered with a dark coating and a high energy laser is then used to write into them Each of these tablets can hold up to five million characters – about the same as a four-hundred-page book They are acid- and alkali-resistant and can withstand temperatures of 1300C A second type of tablet can carry colour pictures and diagrams along with 50,000 characters before being sealed with a transparent glaze The plates are then stacked inside ceramic boxes and tucked into the dark caverns of a salt mine in Hallstatt As a resting place for what could be described as the ultimate time capsule In the right light the walls still glisten with the remnants of salt which extracts moisture and desiccates the air The salt itself has a Plasticine-like property that helps to seal fractures and cracks the records will be able to survive for millennia and perhaps even entire ice ages In some distant future after our own civilisation has vanished they could prove invaluable to any who find them They could help resurrect forgotten knowledge for cultures less advanced than our own or provide a wealth of historical information for more advanced civilisations to ensure our own achievements But it could also have value in the shorter term too “We are trying to create something that will not only be a collection of information for a distant future but it will also be a gift for our grandchildren,” says Kunze “Memory of Mankind can serve as a backup of knowledge in case of an event like war a pandemic or a meteorite that throws us back centuries within two or three generations A society can lose skills and knowledge very quickly – in the 6th Century Europe largely lost the ability to read and write within three generations.” The Baywatch star and singer David Hasselhoff has a particularly lengthy entryAlready the Memory of Mankind archive contains an eclectic glimpse of our society Among the information etched into the ceramic plates are books summarising the history of individual countries around the world Towns and villages have also opted to include their own local histories A thousand of the world’s most important books – chosen by combining published lists using an algorithm developed by the University of Vienna – will be cut into the coating on the ceramic plates Museums are including images of precious objects in their collections along with descriptions of what we have learned about them The Krumau Madonna – a sculpture dating to the late 14th Century currently sitting in the Museum of Art History in Vienna – is already there along with paintings by the Baroque artists Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck There are plates featuring pictures of fossils – dinosaurs prehistoric fish and extinct ammonites – alongside a description of what we know about them Even our current understanding of our own origins are included with pictures of one of the earliest examples of sculpture ever found – the Venus of Willendorf Much of the material included on the tablets is in German A handful of celebrities have also found themselves immortalised in the salt-lined vaults Baywatch star and singer David Hasselhoff has a particularly lengthy entry as does German singer Nena who had a hit with 99 Red Balloons in the 1980s Nestled among them is a plate detailing the story of Edward Snowden and his leak of classified material from the US National Security Agency The University of Vienna has been placing prize winning PhD dissertations and scientific papers onto the tablets Included in the archive are plates describing genetic modification and bioengineering patents explaining what today’s scientists have achieved and how they managed it smartphones and televisions are also being documented as a record of what life is like today The plates also serve as a warning for future generations – with sites of nuclear waste dumps pinpointed so future generations might know to avoid them or to clean them up if they have the technology Newspapers have been asked to send their daily editorials to provide a repository of opinions as well as facts “We probably have about 0.1% of the antique literature yet in the modern world publishing is as easy as posting something on the internet or sending a tweet,” explains Kunze space flight and medicine – the things we really spend money on – drown in the mass of data we produce The Large Hadron Collider produces something like 30 Petabytes of data a year but this is equal to just 0.003% of annual internet traffic “A random fragment of 0.1% of our present day data will result in a very distorted view of our time.” We are saving cooking recipes and stories of love and personal events - Martin KunzeTo tackle this Kunze and his colleagues are organising a conference in November next year to bring scientists linguists and philosophers together to create a blueprint for selecting content for the project The team also hope to immortalise glimpses of mundane everyday life as members of the public are encouraged to create tablets of their own “We are saving cooking recipes and stories of love and personal events,” adds Kunze a little girl has included three photographs of her confirmation and written a short bit of text about it They give a glimpse of everyday life that will be very valuable.” Memory of Mankind is not the only project to face the daunting task of preserving humanity’s accumulated knowledge Librarians around the world are also looking at the knotty problem of how to save the information from the modern age is archiving tweets related to major events and preserving them in their own archives “We are collecting tweets from Cairo on the day of the January 25th revolution for example,” explained Todd Grappone “We are then translating them into multiple languages and saving them in file formats that are likely to be robust for the future We are only doing it digitally at the moment as we have something like 1,000 cellphone videos from that event alone Another project, called the Human Document Project is aiming to record information on wafers of tungsten/silicon nitride Initially they have been etching them with dozens of tiny QR codes – a type of two-dimensional barcode – which can be read using smartphones but they say the final disks will hold information written in a form that can be read using a microscope a researcher at Twente University in Enschede is one of the driving forces behind the project He says that they are hoping to produce something that will be able to survive for one million years and are now starting to collaborate with the Memory of Mankind “We would be really happy if we found information left for us by an intelligence that has already been extinct for a million years,” he said “So we think future intelligent beings will be too The mere fact that we need to take a helicopter view of ourselves will hopefully make us realise that the differences between us are trivial.” it may seem unlikely that any future generations would be able to find these tablets Memory of Mankind has engraved small tokens with a map pinpointing the archives’ location which they are providing to everyone taking part in the project The holders can then bury them at strategic places around the world or pass them onto the next generation To ensure those who do find it can actually read what is in there the Memory of Mankind team has been creating their own Rosetta Stone – thousands of images labelled with their names and meanings All of which gives a hint at the ambition of what they are trying to do The individuals who unearth this gold-mine of knowledge could be very different from our own In a few thousand years civilisation may have advanced beyond our reckoning or descended back to the dark ages Perhaps it will not even be humans who end up uncovering our memories “We could be looking at some other form of intelligent life,” adds Kunze We will never know what those future archaeologists will make of our civilisation when they wipe the dust away from the tablets in thousands of years’ time but we can hope that like the ancient Sumarians If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. 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Here are some clues that can help you identify if an image has been altered or faked. 300 Fans verzichteten Samstag auf den Badesee und hörten dem Wortfluss von Herbert Kickl zu Dieser balancierte zwischen Wut auf alle anderen Parteien und Nostalgie-Gedanken an seine Jugendzeit – in welcher Bruno Kreisky Bundeskanzler war Musiker trällern neben der Bühne Songs wie „Oh When The Saints Go Marchin‘ In“ zur Einstimmung auf Herbert Kickl Bier gibt’s in Plastikbechern mit dem Konterfei des FPÖ-Chefs Die freiheitliche Riege gibt der Menge Wasser aus 300 Menschen tummeln sich am Bayrhamerplatz: Parteigänger manch Interessierter und ein paar kritische Geister sind zu sehen (erkennbar an Protest-Shirts) der sagt: „Wenn diese Bewegung hierherkommt solange wir es können.“ Gemeint ist damit Herbert Kickl Schnedlitz: „Werden sie von hohem Ross herunterholen“Kickl kommt pünktlichst um 12 Uhr Die Autotür geht auf und die Mittagssirene ertönt Autogramme – Kickl stellt sich seinen Fans Auf der Bühne beginnen Volker Reifenberger die Menge auf Kickls Botschaften einzustimmen „Das Pendel schlägt zurück“ oder „dann werden wir sie herunterholen von ihrem hohen Ross“ sind nur ein paar der Botschaften „Systemparteien“ und „Remigration“ aufkommen Festspielgäste als „Heuchler und Inzuchtpartie“ bezeichnetHerbert Kickl selbst knüpft inhaltlich deutlicher an seine Vorredner an Er hätte auch zu den Festspielen gehen können sagt aber: „Da will ich gar nicht dabei sein Er wettert 40 Minuten gegen alle Parteien als „Einheitspartei“ und „Systemparteien“ überspitzt seine Inhalte und geizt nicht mit radikalen Floskeln Kreisky als Kickls Idol?Gegen Ende scheint er nostalgisch zu werden erinnert sich an „die gute alte Zeit“ seiner Kindheit in den 1970ern Ihm würden Staatsmänner wie damals fehlen und er nehme sich diese zum Vorbild Der SPÖ-Vordenker Bruno Kreisky war immerhin Bundeskanzler von 1970 bis 1983 Er selbst würde sich gerne ein Vermächtnis ähnlich dem der Staatsmänner damals machen Und noch etwas wäre er gerne: der „Vater der Familie Österreich“ Willkommen in unserer Community! 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Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren In Kürze bekommen Sie eine Bestätigungs-Mail von uns You can read this article in 3 minutesAgnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus While Tyrol's restrictions on HGV traffic continue to cause disruption the Austrian region of Salzburg is taking a unique approach: banning traffic jams on a key motorway roadworks are planned on the same motorway On 13th May the Hallein District Council introduced an amendment to the Road Closure Ordinance which came into force on the date of publication (13th May) The amendment concerns the Puch-Urstein junction (No Instead of a driving ban in both directions it is now forbidden to enter the Urstein Süd roundabout from the adjacent road in the direction of Villach The same applies to the Hallein junction (no where instead of a two-way traffic prohibition it is forbidden to enter the adjacent road in the direction of Villach Johann and Pongau (Salzburg) issued an ordinance prohibiting traffic jams on the Tauern motorway (A10) Renovation work is underway on five tunnels along the 14-kilometre stretch of the A10 between Golling and Werfen This extensive project involves the Ofenauer and Hiefler tunnels as well as the Werden tunnel chain (Brentenberg The Tauern and Katschberg tunnels are not currently affected These works necessitate closures on the A10 throughout May Diversion: motorists will be diverted to the parallel B159 federal road in Salzach A Turkish-Austrian couple last week was rescued by their next-door neighbor from the devastating floods caused by downpours in parts of Europe and Austria wreaked astonishing devastation Salih and Ayse Karaaslan said their neighbor rescued them from the flood in the historic town of Hallein in the state of Salzburg Salih Karaaslan and his wife own a restaurant in Hallein and last week they saw floodwaters rising suddenly around the restaurant to a height of one-and-a-half meters (4.9 feet) He said that he tried to coax his wife out of the restaurant but she was shocked by the force of the floodwaters and was frozen in place “While we were waiting at the corner of the restaurant I had to decide whether to cross the street or drown,” he recounted “We didn’t have another chance the water probably would have swept us away and we would have drowned.” I grabbed my wife by the sweater and tried to continue the fight With his help we managed to free ourselves from where the water was deep,” he added Ayse Karaaslan added: “When our next-door neighbor he jumped right into the water without a moment’s hesitation to help us.” Eisenmann said that on that day his son called him and said two people were caught in the water and that he immediately got into the water tried to help the Karaaslan couple as much as he could He said that in the heat of the moment at first he couldn’t recognize the people who were in danger and then realized that they were his next-door neighbors I entered the water with determination to help them no matter the risk,” Einsenmann told Anadolu Agency Einsemann also said he appreciated the unexpected phone call he got later from Mevlut Cavusoglu “I was very happy that he called me,” Eisenmann said and Salzburg Consul General Berkan Pazarci also telephoned him Ceyhun and Pazarci also reached out to the couple to lend a helping hand Ceyhun said Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran also spoke with the couple Alexander with his human sense of responsibility is admirable.” Total investment at the former Schweighofer Fiber mill in Hallein amounts to €60m Dissolving pulp manufacturer Austrocel plans to invest approximately €60m to expand and diversify production at its Hallein plant in Austria The investment project aims at increasing disolving pulp capacity from 150,000 to 170,000 by 2021 Modernisation and upgrade works are to be carried out in the areas of pulp drying is going into the production of biofuels The company plans to install equipment for bioethanol production from wood sugars The biofuel facility is reportedly designed for the production of some 30 million litres per year and is scheduled to go into operation in 2020 The dissolving pulp mill in Hallein has been operating under the name of Austrocel since September last year when it was sold by the Schweighofer Group to the US financial investor Tower Brook Capital Partners Service Customer Service+49 7224 9397-701servicenoSpam@GO-AWAYeuwid.de Editorial Team+49 7224 9397-0papernoSpam@GO-AWAYeuwid.com Get the latest news about developments and trends in the industry sent to you once a week free of charge by newsletter Sign up for our newsletter We use cookies and external services on our website others enhance your user experience or help us improve this website You can change your privacy settings any time by clicking privacy policy Necessary cookies are required for the correct functioning of the website Content from video platforms and map services is blocked by default. 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You can find more information on the individual external services in our privacy policy You can read this article in 5 minutesAgnieszka Kulikowska - Wielgus Following lorry restrictions on the A10 motorway in Austria in May and June local authorities in the Salzburg region are introducing further bans in July and August Photo credits @ Wikimedia/Jochen Teufel CCA SA 3.0 (illustrative purposes only) Johann and Pongau (in the Salzburg region) banning exits from the Tauern motorway and Lungau published regulations at the end of June introducing further bans which will be in force from 5 July to 8 September this year It is forbidden to enter the adjacent roads at the following exits from the A10 motorway (Tauernautobahn) although destination traffic within Austria is exempt from the ban: The local authorities prohibit alternative routes at the following exits from the A10 motorway It is also forbidden to use the exits from the stations of the Landzeit network (Gasthof Nord and Gasthof Süd) onto the bordering municipal roads although transport with unloading or loading in Austria is exempt from the ban The regional authorities prohibit exiting from the A10 using the Zederhaus exit onto the L 212 Zederhauser Straße with destination traffic in Austria exempt from the ban Municipality of Anif: Entry bans apply on: Municipality of Elsbethen: The entry ban applies on: Urban area of Grödig: Entry bans apply on: Urban area of Großgmain: Entry ban in force on: Municipality of Wals-Siezenheim: The entry ban is in force on: These restrictions do not apply to vehicles that end their route in the Salzburg region The raw materials which once made SalzburgerLand great now lie dormant These raw materials ranged from “white gold” – salt – to copper and ore The galleries which have remained in the mountain and can be explored are impressive to this day Children and adults alike love this adventure When do you even have the opportunity to be hundreds of metres underground The exhibition galleries and mines in SalzburgerLand are also a particularly good excursion destination during adverse weather Anyone who wants to understand Salzburg has to understand salt The bishops and archbishops of Salzburg attained wealth through this resource and were able to safeguard Salzburg’s political power and cultural supremacy over the course of centuries But salt has already been mined for a much longer period in Hallein: the Celts used the “white gold” as early as 2,500 years ago in order to preserve foodstuffs The tour of the world’s oldest show mine in Dürrnberg works its way along from highlight to highlight while featuring giant miner’s slides enormous salt formations and the ride over the salt lake The discoverers of the cave were quite astonished when they realised that they had just discovered the world’s largest ice cave system And even today it takes our breath away as visitors when we are confronted with the gigantic and never-melting ice formations Not far from Hohenwerfen Castle you can get into a cable car or hike by foot up to the entrance of the coincidentally discovered cave The tour lasts about 75 minutes and is offered from May to October (depending on temperatures) Ore was already mined over 600 years ago in Hüttau near Bischofshofen The impressive galleries from which the raw material for tools and weapons came also house other materials and provide deep insights into life and work a long time ago children under 4 years of age may not enter the galleries Guided tours are offered daily from May to September Advance reservation is requested in the other months As part of the UNESCO Geopark Network Ore of the Alps, the mining museum is accommodated in the Knappenheim Cultural Centre in Mühlbach am Hochkönig This first-class museum covers all facets of mining which have been conducted here for more than 4,000 years After that it is time to go down into the exhibition galleries which is a real experience featuring a blasting simulation and detonation station The museum is open around the Christmas holiday period as well as from May to October Incidentally: how many caves are located in the mountains in and around SalzburgerLand will probably remain a secret forever When cave explorers had to be rescued from the Riesending (huge thing) cave inside the Untersberg massif in 2014 for the first time it became clear to the general public that the shafts and tunnels which came into being naturally constitute a huge cave system that emanates a tremendous amount of fascination Become acquainted with some of these caves and mines Take part now! the artificial intelligence in SalzburgerLand Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The ad-free version is ready for purchase on iOS mobile app today we couldn't find that page";var n=e.querySelector("h2");return n&&n.remove(),{staticContent:e,title:t}},d=function(e){var t=document.createElement("button");return t.innerText=e,t.classList.add("error-page-button"),t},f=function(e){var t=document.createElement("div");t.id="recirculation-404",t.classList.add("brand-hint-bg");var n="\n \n \n \n \n \n '.concat(e,' Tick here if you would like us to send you the author’s response Following last week’s flooding in Germany even Austria was affected by the floods which suddenly struck parts of Western Europe Various parts of Austria were affected by extreme weather during the past hours especially in the town of Hallein in Salzburg where many residents were evacuated from their homes Video footages filmed by residents themselves show the devastation caused by  the floods in Hallein with two men risking their lives while confonting the flowing water to rescue a woman trapped in the middle of a road The number of the flooding victims in Western Europe has risen to 180 persons while no deaths were reported until now in Austria Metereologists in Europe blame climate change as the major cause of the record rainfall in the continent Juża l-ħiliet tiegħu biex ikun komunikatur tajjeb.