Donauinseln: The Chronology of the Danube's Destruction

"What does a country mean to one who loves it? It means, for instance, the treasured scenes imbedded in our memories. And few parts are imbedded there so deeply as the Danube Bend and the Visegrád district. The sublime surface of the water peacefully turning, and alive with the play of light, comes almost up to our feet. We gaze and imbibe its stillness and motion, distance and proximity, and the floating hum of rare sounds of civilization that only deepen the silence.

A few years ago, a tongue of land started out towards the middle of the water, into the midst of the scene above Visegrád and Nagymaros. It makes a depressing sight. This is not the art of landscape at work, but preparations for unmistakably dismal industrial monuments of 20th century man: a concrete barrage, a concrete bridge, a concrete rim, a concrate bank and a concrete power plant. As the barrage worms its way towards the middle of the Danube, turning the hitherto unbroken surface into a muddy pool and robbing its nature of a scene of national value, a great many things have happened in Hungarian society. The developments have benn watched with aching hearts by tens of thousands of people... We must absorb a blow—the symbolic blow with which the barrage being built scars the surface of the Danube at Nagymaros.

Water, since time out mind, has symbolized the rich, ceaseless course of life, and when water dries up, it has always signified the ebbing of life. Water has played many tricks on bungling mankind during the course of history, and it will play more tricks today when a vast ecosystem is destroyed. For we have not yet closed within us the file on the barrage issue. It is not immaterial what kind of symbol Nagymaros comes to represent in our history."

Foreword by Gyula Kodolányi, April 1988.

IN HUNGARIAN

Dunacsún 1992. X. 24. (EPA)

The title of the booklet published in two editions and in 12 languages by the Office of the Government Spokesman in 1993 is borrowed from the famous poem by Attila József. The aim of the booklet "By the Danube" was to draw the world's attention to the disadvantages and the negative environmental impacts of the Bős-Nagymaros barrage project. From this point of view, we are dealing with a propaganda publication, but propaganda can be carried out not only for bad but also for good purposes. The volumes contain only a small amount of text, and the authors have placed more emphasis on the visual material. After a foreword by the Hungarian author Gyula Kodolányi, the booklet presents the history of the power plant project and the main events of the civil resistance organised against in chronological order. They have not bothered much with presenting the parameters of the power plant, comparing the water level of the canal with the surrounding villages and landscape is the only such figure.

A rich collection of 90 selected photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s is divided into three sections, the first of which shows the natural landscape. The focus is on the Danube bend, the landscape and scenery, islands, animals and plants, but there are also images of the Ipoly Valley and the Szigetköz. The second part shows the construction works (mainly earthworks) of the Nagymaros dam. It is likely to stir something in even the hardest-hearted pro-power plant engineers, or at least make them more understanding towards those who protest against the plant. The destroyed, industrious landscape alone is frightening enough, although the damage caused by the dam, the submerged islands, flooded archaeological sites, demolished holiday homes, planned flood protection dykes and sluices are, of course, not even visible.

In the third part, pictures with a separate black frame show the Czechoslovakian construction site in Bős (Gabčíkovo) and Dunacsún (Čunovo), where, in addition to earthworks, the power station was already being concreted and the Danube diverted. For the first image, I chose the photo that stayed with me as a small child, watching the huge reinforced concrete blocks fall into the river on TV with my grandfather. We cheered in vain for the river to destroy the dam being built, taking the blocks with it, but eventually the water began to run out, and in the end it barely seeped between the concrete and the crop stone. Then the water dried up in the Szigetköz branch system, leaving vast meanders filled with dead fish.

Although Nagymaros and the Danube bend were partially saved, the struggle is continuous. The plans of the Nagymaros (+Adony +Fajsz) power plants are constantly smouldering under the ash and flare up from time to time during periods of low water. Some things are constant, economic interests in the Danube bend currently override landscape and nature conservation interests. Whether it's new hotel investments or the huge gravel quarry planned for Pilismarót, where work was started in the past precisely because of the power plant investment in Nagymaros, in order to 'save' the gravel deposit from flooding. That is why these photos are important, so that we know what we have gained by not building the power plant in Nagymaros.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

October 1950

Professor Emil Mosonyi puts a proposal at a meeting of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to draw up a programme, to be realized jointly with Czechoslovakia, consisting of two hydroelectric power stations-Gabčíkovo and Nagymaros-for the purposes of energy production, navigation and flood protection.

April 18, 1953

A group chaired by Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Ernő Gerő reviews the preparatory operations. In Gerő's view, all the aims of the construction project could also be accomplished more cheaply without the power station.

July 30, 1958

The National Chief Directorate for Water Management submits a secret proposal to the Political Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party on joint Hungarian-Czechoslovakian utilization of hydroelectric power on the Danube Bend.

August 5, 1958

The Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party Political Committee passes a resolution on the construction of the Nagymaros hydroelectric power station.

February 27, 1962

The National Planning Office and the Chief Directorate for Water Management inform the Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party Political Committee that the feasibility studies for the Nagymaros barrage project have been completed with Soviet assistance.

April 1963

Economic committees representing the two governments agree to the construction of the hydro system. Deadline 1975.

January-February 1974

The two governments endorse the definitive version of the programme for the construction.

September 15, 1977

János Kádár and Gustáv Husák, general secretaries of the two countries' communist parties, announce the decision to build the scheme.

September 16, 1977

Prime ministers Lubomír Strougal and György Lázár sign the international treaty on the construction. Deadline for completion: 1986-1990.

May 12-14, 1980

Three years after the conclusion of the inter-state treaty, members of Hungary's technical and scientific community have their first chance to criticize and express opposition to the project at a conference in Tatabánya.

September 22, 1980

The barrage system is discussed by 400 engineers meeting at the House of Technology in Budapest. Engineers György Hábel and István Molnár criticize the plan and vote against a draft recommendation to the government supporting the project.

December 31, 1980

The Hungarian government suspends work on the project.

November 1981

The periodical Valóság publishes János Vargha's article "Further and Further from Good" (Egyre távolabb a jótól - Dokumentumok a Gabčíkovo— Nagymarosi Vízlépcső-rendszer történetéből), criticising the investment.

October 10, 1983

Prime Ministers Strougal and Lázár reconfirm the original treaty and set a new deadline for completion: 1995.

December 20, 1983

The Presidium of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences comes out in support of suspending construction, but classifies its report top secret until an investigation has been made into the likely environmental damage.

January-February 1984

Public platform debates on the project begin. The Social Committee for the Danube draws up a petition calling for the suspension of construction work until a comprehensive study of its ecological effects has been made, and begins collecting signatures.

Spring-Summer 1984

The Danube Conservation Society is refused a permit to form. Numerous professional associations and university groups and the Hungarian Writers' Association are all dealing with the damaging effects of the hydro scheme.

September 1984

The Danube Circle forms, and decides to issue newsletters without a permit.

November 1984

The Danube Circle, having gathered some 10,000 signatures to copies of a petition, submits it to Parliament and the government. No response is recieved.

December 1984

Apart from the Austrian environmentalists, the Czechoslovak government also protests officially against a projected Danube hydro station at Hainburg. The Austrian government later abandons the scheme.

May 1985

In general elections for the Hungarian Parliament, the public are permitted to put forward nominations for the first time. The problem of the hydro project features during the run-up to the elections.

June 21, 1985

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences holds a working meeting behind closed doors to discuss a proposal to halt the project made by nine independent experts: Mrs József Bozzay, Mihály Erdélyi, György Hábel, Sándor Jakab, Gyula Marót, István Molnár, Zalán Petneházy, Károly Perczel and János Tóth.

Autumn 1985

The European Parliament intervenes against the environmentally damaging project and anti-democratic harassment of the protesters against it.

December 1985

The Danube Circle receives the Right Livelihood Award, the so-called alternative Nobel Prize, in Stockholm, for its campaigning against the hydro scheme.

January 30, 1986

The group demanding a referendum on the Nagymaros project because of its environmental and economic damage reinforce their demand with 6,500 signatures and submit the petition to the Hungarian Presidential Council. The secretary of the Council politely refuses to accept it.

February 6, 1986

The Danube Circle is forced to abandon an "ecological walk" it has announced, because of threats from the police.

April 16, 1986

A political advertisement paid for by 30 Hungarian environmentalists appears in the Vienna paper Die Presse, protesting at the way Austrian firms are exploiting the lack of democracy in Hungary by providing credit and their services as technical contractors for the scheme in exchange for electric power.

May 1986

A Hungarian-Austrian credit agreement is concluded to finance the construction of the Nagymaros power station.

August 1987

The Czechoslovak and Hungarian governments represented by Prime Ministers Lubomír Strougal and Károly Grósz urge the scheme in a joint statement.

April 24, 1988

Hungarian environmentalists hold a protest march from Visegrád to Esztergom.

May 27, 1988

A demonstration is held outside the Austrian Embassy to protest against Austrian involvement in the hydro project.

July 21, 1988

Thirteen Danube conservation groups form the Nagymaros Committee to oppose construction of the barrage scheme.

September 4, 1988

The World Wildlife Fund and the Danube Circle hold a joint conference on the ecological effects of the project.

September 12, 1988

A demonstration by tens of thousands of people outside Parliament calls for a halt to the construction of Nagymaros.

October 3, 1988

Hungarian environmentalists form a human chain across the Budapest bridges, demanding a halt to construction.

October 6-7, 1988

The Hungarian Parliament holds a debate on the barrage scheme for the first time. The decision, with 19 votes against, is to continue construction but impose strict environmental-protection conditions.

October 30, 1988

A torchlight protest is held in Budapest, from Margaret Island to Parliament.

February 6, 1989

The deputy prime ministers of the two countries, Péter Medgyessy and Pavel Hrivnak, sign a protocol accelerating the construction of the project.

February 27, 1989

The Nagymaros Committee submits to Parliament about 140,000 signatures calling for a referendum on the issue.

April 3, 1989

A demonstration by 15,000 people takes place at the Nagymaros construction site.

May 13, 1989

The Hungarian government declares a two-month moratorium on construction of the Nagymaros barrage, which is already 30% complete.

July 20, 1989

The moratorium is extended until October 31. The Hungarian government refuses to agree to further work on the Dunakiliti headwater reservoir and diversion of the Danube for the Gabčíkovo station.

August 18, 1989

The Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry, in a letter of protest, demands compensation of USD 2 billion for the delay to the scheme.

August 31, 1989

Czechoslovak Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec raises the prospect of unilateral diversion of the Danube. This is the first appearance of Variant C.

September 1, 1989

The Hungarian government's reply refers to the suspension of construction, warning that unilateral continuation of the project would bring a deterioration in relations.

October 31, 1989

The Hungarian Parliament passes a resolution on omitting the construction of the Nagymaros station and on seeking to renegotiate the 1977 treaty, with consideration for the ecological aspects, the reliable scientific findings and the national interest. (Some 95% of Hungary's surface water stocks enter from abroad).

February 3, 1990

Slovak, Austrian and Hungarian environmentalists hold a joint protest, forming a human chain between Bratislava and Gabčíkovo.

May 20, 1990

The new Hungarian government formed after the free elections presents its political programme, in which it declares on the basis of expert opinions that the project is faulty, and announces its intention of beginning negotiations with the new Czechoslovak government on rehabilitation of the sites and division of the costs of the damage caused.

July 23, 1991

The Slovak government decides that if the Hungarian side refuses its cooperation, it is possible temporarily to complete the barrage and power station exclusively on Czechoslovak soil (Variant C).

May 18, 1992

After two years of abortive negotiations, the Hungarian government abrogates the 1977 treaty.

October 17, 1992

Environmentalists make a symbolic start to demolishing the part of the Nagymaros barrage that was built.

October 23, 1992

Unilateral diversion of the Danube on Slovak territory into the artificial headwater channel above Gabčíkovo begins.

October 23, 1992

The Hungarian government appeals to the International Court in Hague for legal redress against the arbitrary alteration of the course of the Danube, which forms the frontier between the two countries, and against ecological aggression.