origin

The clues are inexorably accumulating in Hausruck, interest in the region’s history is on the rise. One facet—a not insignificant one—is the question of what role National Socialism played in this part of Upper Austria. It’s only been in recent years that the process of coming to terms with this issue has made some headway.
The mission of the ARGE Schlier http://www.schlier.at/ initiative is preserving, documenting and providing orderly access to the architectural remnants of Schlier, a Nazi armaments production facility in the town of Zipf, Upper Austria. On its website are images of numerous documents that reveal a few little-known details of Hausruck’s history. For instance, during World War II, no beer was being brewed at Brauerei Zipf; the facility was converted into a rocket proving ground, and all the buildings were painted black to hide them from Allied eyes at night. Probably the most famous member of the staff was Wernher von Braun, later one of the leading lights of the US space flight program. During the war, he was involved in the development of the V2 rocket, and helped Hermann Oberth upgrade the rocket test facility’s safety features after Oberth’s daughter and others died in an accident. “Saurüssel”, a documentary film by Chris Müller, takes up this topic and reports from Hausruck about things that used to be in these parts, things that had long been forgotten but are now resurfacing nonetheless. The film is being screened at Ars Electronica 2011 in conjunction with ORIGIN CINEMA.

Re: Hausruck—Neuland is filling up; the discovery site is attracting researchers; photographic material showing an investigator on a fact-finding mission has been leaked to Ars Electronica. If you want to be there on September 1 in Hausruck for Neuland, then follow this link to wherever it takes you nachrichten.at about Wernher von Braun.