Ebensee am Traunsee is an Austrian market town in the Gmunden
district in the Traunviertel and Salzkammergut in Upper Austria with
7677 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2020). The community is located
in the judicial district of Bad Ischl.
Originally located in
the eastern part of the Duchy of Bavaria, the area has belonged to
the Duchy of Styria since 1180, which the Austrian Babenbergs
inherited in 1192. The place Ebensee was first mentioned in 1447.
Since the local brewhouse could not be expanded due to an acute
shortage of wood in the area around Hallstatt, Emperor Rudolf II
ordered the construction of a new Pfannhaus (saline) in Ebensee in
1596, the Saline Ebensee, which was realized from 1604. The first
salt could be boiled on February 8, 1607. The manpower required for
the brewhouse was mainly recruited in Hallstatt, the lumberjacks in
Aussee. The brine was fed in via an almost 40 km long brine line
from the Hallstatt Salt Mountain, which was built under the
technical direction of Ischl forest master Hans Kalß - this is still
in operation and the Gosauzwang brine line bridge is a UNESCO World
Heritage Site Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut .
In 1625
Ebensee already had 1,000 inhabitants. The construction of its own
Catholic church began in 1729. The church was under the Traunkirchen
monastery. Ebensee first became a vicariate in 1771 and an
independent parish in 1786. When in 1733 the salt works workers
wanted to take their free Shrove Tuesday, the "Shrove Tuesday
revolt" occurred.
Catholic parish church Ebensee am Traunsee hl. Josef: The Catholic
parish church, built in 1726 in the Baroque style, is the work of the
Linz master builder Johann Michael Prunner.
Evangelical parish
church Ebensee on Traunsee
Concentration Camp Memorial Gallery: The
memorial exhibition in the concentration camp memorial gallery shows
documents on the construction of the camp and photographs of the
American liberation troops. There are guided tours of the camp grounds.
The concentration camp memorial tunnel is located on the site of the
former 'cement labor camp', near the Finkerleiten settlement, about
three kilometers southeast of Ebensee.
Ebensee Contemporary History
Museum: is located in an old school building from 1779 right in the town
center. The museum shows the history of the Salzkammergut from 1918 to
1955.
There is also this in town
Local history museum.ebensee:
The museum is located in the listed 'Verwesamt' - the former salt works
directorate - which existed from 1605 to 1852. The museum opened in 1974
with a focus on salt production, salt mine history and forestry, but
also other exhibits, such as: B. for the “Scrap carnival” are shown.
Kino Ebensee: is a cultural site with an arthouse cinema and venue for
the Festival of Nations film festival as well as for rock/pop/world
concerts.
Salzkammergut Nature Museum: is located on Salzkammergut
Straße B 145 in the Langwies district and was opened in 2009 and offers
an insight into nature.
Natural monuments
Gassel stalactite
cave: The Gassel stalactite cave is a show cave near the Erlakogel and
is looked after by the Ebensee Caving Association.
Rindbach Falls:
the Rindbach waterfall is located in the municipality
Langbathseen
nature reserve: the nature reserve with Vorderer and Hinterem
Langbathsee is located in the municipality of Ebensee; The Langbathsee
hunting lodge, built for Emperor Franz Josef, is located on the Vorderen
Langbathsee.
Regular events
Film Festival Festival of Nations:
the 'Festival of Nations' - the international film festival for
non-commercial films (amateur films) - took place annually in Ebensee
from 1973 to 2013. The venue was the Ebensee cinema.
Fetzen carnival
parade: Every year on Rose Monday the Ebensee carnival takes place with
the Fetzen carnival parade.
Ebensee Glöcklerlauf, UNESCO cultural
heritage since 2010
Forest bird exhibition as part of the UNESCO
cultural heritage Salzkammergut bird trapping
Originally located in the eastern part of the Duchy of Bavaria, the
area had belonged to the Duchy of Styria since 1180, which the Austrian
Babenbergs inherited in 1192. The town of Ebensee was first mentioned in
1447.
Since the brewhouse there could not be expanded further due
to an acute shortage of wood in the area around Hallstatt, Emperor
Rudolf II ordered from Prague in 1596 the construction of a new panhouse
(saline) in Ebensee, the Ebensee Saline, which was built from 1604. The
first salt was boiled on February 8, 1607. The necessary workers for the
brewhouse were mainly recruited in Hallstatt, the lumberjacks in Aussee.
The brine was supplied via an almost 40 km long brine pipeline from the
Hallstatt Salzberg, which was built under the technical supervision of
the Ischl forest master Hans Kalß - this is still in operation, and the
Gosauzwang brine pipeline bridge is part of the
Hallstatt–Dachstein/Salzkammergut UNESCO World Heritage Site .
In 1625 Ebensee already had 1,000 residents. The construction of our
own Catholic church began in 1729. The church was subordinate to the
Traunkirchen monastery. Ebensee first became a vicariate in 1771 and an
independent parish in 1786. When in 1733 the salt workers wanted to take
away their free Shrove Tuesday, the “Shrove Tuesday Revolt” broke out.
The saltworks, numerous houses and the church tower were destroyed
in a major fire in 1835. During the March Revolution of 1848, a national
guard was set up in Ebensee. The first telegraph was built in Ebensee in
1866. Ebensee was connected to the Austrian railway network in 1877 by
the Salzkammergutbahn, a branch line of the Rudolfsbahn. The railway
line ran from Attnang-Puchheim in Upper Austria to Stainach-Irdning in
Styria. This was intended to promote the emerging tourism and to cover
the vast fuel requirements of the salt mines, which could no longer be
met due to the increasingly scarce forest resources, by supplying them
with coal. The brothers Alfred and Ernest Solvay built an ammonia-soda
factory, the Solvay-Werke in Ebensee, in 1883. The Ebensee Volunteer
Fire Department was founded in 1887.
Electricity was introduced
in 1907 after the construction of a power station on Offenseebach.
During the First World War, 218 residents died and 6 more went missing.
In addition, the place was affected by a major famine in 1917.
The place has been part of the federal state of Upper Austria since
1918. In 1927, a cable car to the Feuerkogel built by Adolf Bleichert &
Co. was opened, the Feuerkogel cable car. Ebensee was made a market town
in 1929. During the Austrian Civil War, a large proportion of Ebensee
workers took part in the general strike in February 1934. The federal
army marched in and crushed the uprising.
After Austria was
annexed to the German Reich on March 13, 1938, Ebensee belonged to the
Oberdonau Gau.
In November 1943, the Ebensee concentration camp
was built as a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp - with the
code name Project Cement; it was used to relocate the Peenemünde rocket
testing facility to a bomb-protected environment. From November 1943 to
May 1945, 8,745 prisoners died in the Ebensee concentration camp. At the
end of April 1945 there were 18,437 prisoners in Ebensee. The camp was
liberated on May 6, 1945 by US troops. During the Second World War, 289
Ebenseers died and another 90 went missing.
After 1945, a DP camp for Jewish “displaced persons” was set up
on the site of the concentration camp. Due to tensions, most of the
Jewish DPs were moved to Bad Gastein.
Flood protection was
built from 1951 to 1957 through the construction of the Traun. The
Protestant church was inaugurated in 1953. A new prestressed
concrete bridge over the Traun was built in 1954. The town's 350th
anniversary took place in 1957. On September 23, 1963, Italian
neo-fascist terrorists carried out explosive attacks on the
saltworks, the Feuerkogel cable car and the Lion Monument. A
gendarme was killed and four other people were injured.
The
new town hall with additional facilities was opened in 1973. The
saltworks was converted into a stock corporation in 1979. In the
same year, a new large salt mine was opened in Ebensee/Steinkogl and
the local history museum was opened in the Salinenverwesamt. A new
Feuerkogel cable car was put into operation in 1986. In 1988,
Ebensee received the title of Upper Austria's most youth-friendly
municipality.
The KV Kino Ebensee was awarded the Upper
Austrian State Culture Prize in 1992 and the art day trip
Pre-Post-Brunft (Christoph Herndler, Reinhard Kannonier, Georg
Nussbaumer, Walter Pilar & Norbert Schweizer) was awarded the Upper
Austrian Promotion Prize for Alternative Cultural Work.
In
1995, a large international 50th anniversary celebration of the
liberation of the Ebensee concentration camp took place. A year
later, the concentration camp memorial tunnel was opened. The former
prisoner in the Ebensee concentration camp, Roberto Castellani from
Prato, became an honorary citizen of the market town of Ebensee in
1997.
The Ebensee Contemporary History Museum was opened in
2001. In 2002, Ebensee became a “bicycle-friendly community” and a
“climate alliance community”. From 2004 to 2005, Ebensee received
new flood protection. Ebensee became Austria’s first “attac
community” in 2005. On September 30, 2005, Solvay closed soda
production. In 2007 the community celebrated its 400th anniversary.
In 2008, Ebensee took part in the decentralized Upper Austrian state
exhibition “Salzkammergut” with the project “Home – Heaven & Hell –
Migration in the Salzkammergut”.
On July 5, 2017, at the
local council meeting, it was decided to rename Ebensee to Ebensee
am Traunsee. On October 31, 2017, the renaming was approved by the
state of Upper Austria.