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Sources for the video

This forest in Austria belongs to Bavaria

In the Pinzgau, in Austria, a forest belongs to the Free State of Bavaria: the Saalforste, around 18,500 hectares of land, almost three times the size of the city of Salzburg. The land remains Austria, only the ground belongs to Bavaria. In Google’s 3D over the Saalach valley, the video tells how this came about and why the treaty of 1829 still applies today. These are the sources, statement by statement.

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Video · 1:08 · with sound, in German

What the video shows

The Saalforste lie in the Salzburg municipalities of Leogang, Lofer, Saalfelden, St. Martin bei Lofer, Unken and Weißbach. According to the Bavarian State Forests they cover 18,529 hectares (2023), of which about 11,160 hectares are timberland and about 7,100 hectares protection forest. That is 185.3 km², almost three times the area of the city of Salzburg with 65.7 km². The ground belongs to the Free State of Bavaria, sovereignty lies with Austria, and since 1957 Austrian law has applied there, especially in agriculture, forestry and hunting. The Saalforste are managed by the St. Martin forestry office of the Bavarian State Forests; Salzburg farmers hold wood and grazing rights there. There is no official open boundary of the Saalforste: the golden area in the video is traced from a forest district map on Wikimedia Commons and covers 94 % of the area.

Just across the border, in Bad Reichenhall, salt was boiled in pans over wood fires. The wood came from the Pinzgau, since the 8th century according to the Historisches Lexikon Bayerns; for this early period there are only indications in the Salzburg property registers, which is why the video says “since the Middle Ages”. It was floated down the Saalach and its tributaries; documented are a dam in the Unken valley in 1554, timber floating in 1775 and a rake at Unken in 1806. The floating ended in 1912 with the Saalach power station.

In 1228 the Pinzgau counties passed as a fief to the Archbishop of Salzburg: the saltworks remained Bavarian, the forest now lay in Salzburg. Quarrels and treaties followed, in 1412, in 1525 in Mühldorf and in 1781 in Munich, and one question remained disputed: was Bavaria only allowed to fell timber there, or did the forest belong to it? Salzburg never accepted ownership. In 1816 Salzburg passed to Austria, and on 18 March 1829 Bavaria and Austria reached an agreement in Vienna: Bavaria received part of the forests “als volles unwiderrufliches Grundeigentum und für ewige Zeiten Steuer- und Abgabenfrey, jedoch unter k. k. oesterreichischer Souveränität” (as full irrevocable ownership and free of taxes and duties for all time, but under Imperial Austrian sovereignty). In this sentence “for all time” belongs to the tax exemption; the ownership is “irrevocable”. About two thirds of the old forests thus stayed with Bavaria (Kroczek, Der Anschnitt; the HLB writes “about a third”). In return Austria was allowed to go on mining salt on the Dürrnberg near Hallein, also beneath Bavarian ground, as it had done since the 13th century beneath the territory of the Prince-Provostry of Berchtesgaden, which has been Bavarian since 1810.

From 1892 the Reichenhall saltworks was heated with coal, by 1911 wood had been replaced entirely. On the Dürrnberg, mining ended on 31 July 1989. The exchange of salt for wood has thus become void, but the treaty still applies, in the version of 25 March 1957, signed in Munich by Minister-President Wilhelm Hoegner and Foreign Minister Leopold Figl, in force since 8 July 1958. Since 1958 Bavaria has paid land tax, turnover tax and the contributions based on the land tax assessment for the Saalforste; it remains exempt from taxes on income, yield and assets. For Bavaria the agreement is an administrative agreement, for Austria a state treaty.

Not in the video: in 1919 the State of Salzburg imposed a levy on timber from the Saalforste and withdrew it under Bavarian pressure (HLB). After 1945 the Saalforste were under Allied control as “German property”; timber exports to Bavaria stopped, the revenue was held in a blocked account. In 1957 the Austrian federal government wrote that the Bavarian privileges had been “wesentlich wertvoller” (considerably more valuable) than the Austrian salt rights (government bill 291 der Beilagen). In 2004 the Bavarian finance minister wanted to sell the Saalforste; this failed because of the agriculture ministry and Minister-President Edmund Stoiber (HLB).

At the end the video asks: “Was hättest du 1829 genommen? Den Wald … oder das Salz?” (What would you have taken in 1829? The forest … or the salt?) Real in the video is Google’s 3D of the Saalach valley; the golden area, the Saalach and the national border are drawn over it, the cross-section through the Dürrnberg is a diagram on terrain from the Copernicus DEM elevation model.

Sources and image credits

Data

For the film we cropped, converted and redrew the data.

Google 3D

The Saalach valley: at the beginning the Saalforste on the Großes Hundshorn with the golden area after the forest district map and the label “Bayern · jenseits der Staatsgrenze” (Bavaria · beyond the national border), then from Bad Reichenhall with its saltworks up the Saalach to the Saalforste near St. Martin and Weißbach, at the end the flight over the Saalforste, pulling back: Google’s photorealistic 3D. In the film the credit stays in the picture for as long as Google’s image is visible: Bild: Google Maps

Picture

  1. OpenStreetMap contributors and MagentaGreen, Saalforste (location of the forest districts of the St. Martin forestry office, the Bavarian Saalforste in Austria, after a map by the Bavarian State Forests, on an OpenStreetMap base map), 19 June 2015. Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. Change: georeferenced (control points: five summits from OpenStreetMap), outline of the forest districts traced and laid into Google’s 3D as a golden area; the map itself is not in the film. The traced area measures 17,472 hectares, 94 % of the Bavarian State Forests’ 18,529 hectares, small patches and pale edges are missing; it shows the location, not an official boundary. On screen “Fläche nach Revierkarte, Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0” (area after the forest district map).

AI, voice and music

No picture in the film is painted or animated with AI: the Saalach valley is Google’s 3D. Drawn are the golden area after the forest district map, the Saalach, the national border, the tiles and labels and the cross-section through the Dürrnberg; its terrain is computed from the elevation model, the tunnels in it are a diagram, not to scale. Voice: Julien El-Bahy, one of the two people behind wohnwahn. Music: Lyria 3 Pro (Google), via OpenRouter. The film has no sound effects.

Each statement in the film and its sources

  1. “Dieser Wald in Österreich gehört Bayern. Das Land bleibt österreichisch, nur der Grund gehört dem Freistaat Bayern.” (This forest in Austria belongs to Bavaria. The land remains Austrian, only the ground belongs to the Free State of Bavaria.) On screen: Google’s 3D over the Saalforste on the Großes Hundshorn, the area after the forest district map in gold, the title card “Pinzgau · Salzburg · Dieser Wald in Österreich gehört Bayern · Das Land bleibt österreichisch”, then the label “Bayern · jenseits der Staatsgrenze” (Bavaria · beyond the national border).

    Bavaria owns the ground, sovereignty stays with Austria; since 1957 Austrian law has applied to the Saalforste. The ground is encumbered: Salzburg farmers hold wood and grazing rights there, which remained unchanged in 1957 (HLB). There is no official open boundary of the Saalforste; the golden area is traced from a forest district map on Wikimedia Commons and covers 94 % of the area. The forest in the first picture lies inside it.

  2. “18.500 Hektar, fast dreimal so groß wie die Stadt Salzburg.” (18,500 hectares, almost three times the size of the city of Salzburg.) On screen: the tile “18.500 Hektar · Grund des Freistaats Bayern” (18,500 hectares · land of the Free State of Bavaria).

    The sources give 18,400 to 18,600 hectares (18,600 in the main text of the Staatszeitung 2018, 18,500 in the HLB); the latest figure from the Bavarian State Forests is 18,529 hectares (2023), i.e. 185.3 km². The city of Salzburg measures 6,568.5 hectares, i.e. 65.7 km²: the Saalforste are 2.82 times as large, hence “almost three times”. The figure refers to the land, not only the forest; about 60 % is wooded.

  3. “Und dahinter steckt … das Salz. In Reichenhall, gleich drüben in Bayern, hat man früher Salz gekocht. In Pfannen, über Holzfeuer.” (And behind it all … is salt. In Reichenhall, just over the border in Bavaria, salt used to be boiled. In pans, over wood fires.) On screen: Google’s 3D over Bad Reichenhall, the label “Saline Reichenhall · Bayern” (Reichenhall saltworks · Bavaria).

    “Used to” means: with wood alone until 1892, entirely without wood only from 1911 (HLB, Staatszeitung). Salt is still boiled in Bad Reichenhall today, in the New Saltworks, without wood.

  4. “Und das Holz holte Reichenhall seit dem Mittelalter aus dem Pinzgau.” (And Reichenhall had been fetching the wood from the Pinzgau since the Middle Ages.) On screen: the Saalach in gold in Google’s 3D, the tile “Brennholz aus dem Pinzgau · auf der Saalach geschwemmt” (firewood from the Pinzgau · floated down the Saalach).

    “Since the Middle Ages” rests on the treaty of 1412 on the protection of the Reichenhall forests in the Pinzgau (HLB, Der Anschnitt); for the 8th century named by the HLB there are only indications in the early Salzburg property registers, which is why the video gives no year. Floating on the Saalach is only documented for the early modern period (a dam in the Unken valley in 1554 according to the Bavarian State Forests, floating in 1775, a rake at Unken in 1806 according to Kroczek); that is why the tile gives no date for the Saalach. The floating ended in 1912 with the Saalach power station.

  5. “Nur: Der Pinzgau gehörte nicht zu Bayern, sondern zu Salzburg. Und jahrhundertelang stritten die beiden: Durfte Bayern dort nur Holz schlagen … oder gehörte ihm der Wald?” (But: the Pinzgau did not belong to Bavaria, but to Salzburg. And for centuries the two quarrelled: was Bavaria only allowed to fell timber there … or did the forest belong to it?) On screen: Google’s 3D over the Saalach valley, the tile “Nur Holz schlagen? · Oder gehört Bayern der Wald?” (only fell timber? · or does the forest belong to Bavaria?), then the label “Saalforste · Wald im Pinzgau, Salzburg” (forest in the Pinzgau, Salzburg).

    “Salzburg” means the Prince-Archbishopric, an ecclesiastical principality of its own; before 1228 the Pinzgau belonged to the Duchy of Bavaria. There were also quarrels over clearing by farmers, forest grazing and boundary marks; the question in the video is the legal question decided in 1829: use or ownership. Treaties regulated the wood supply in 1412, 1525 and 1781; Salzburg never accepted ownership (Bray 1829). Der Anschnitt writes that the treaty of 1781 confirmed Bavaria’s ownership; this contradicts Bray, who as Bavarian negotiator had every reason to say so and denies it. This page follows Bray.

  6. “Salzburg wurde österreichisch, und 1829 kam die Einigung. Bayern bekam einen Teil der Wälder als Eigentum. Unwiderruflich.” (Salzburg became Austrian, and in 1829 came the agreement. Bavaria received part of the forests as property. Irrevocably.) On screen: Google’s 3D over the Saalforste east of Weißbach, the tiles “1829 · Bayern und Österreich einigen sich” (Bavaria and Austria reach an agreement) and “Vertrag 1829 · Eigentum · „unwiderrufliches Grundeigentum““ (treaty 1829 · property · “irrevocable ownership of the land”).

    Salzburg was Bavarian from 1810 to 1816 and passed to Austria on 1 May 1816; that is why Austria concluded the treaty in 1829. In the 1829 treaty text the ownership is called “volles unwiderrufliches Grundeigentum” (full irrevocable ownership of the land); “für ewige Zeiten” (for all time) belongs there to the exemption from taxes and duties; that is why the video says “irrevocably”, which is also the wording of the 1957 version (art. 1). The tax exemption no longer applies in that form: since the revision Bavaria pays land tax (from 1 January 1958), turnover tax and the contributions based on the land tax assessment, and remains exempt from taxes on income, yield and assets (agreement of 1957, § 4; convention as amended in 1957, art. 29; Der Anschnitt 2005, p. 165). How large the part was: about two thirds of the old forests stayed with Bavaria, according to Bray in 1829 (“mehr als zwei Dritteile”, more than two thirds, in Kroczek) and Der Anschnitt (the Saalforste “verkleinerten sich … um ein Drittel”, shrank by a third). The HLB writes “etwa ein Drittel seiner ursprünglichen Besitzungen” (about a third of its original holdings); this stands alone and probably confuses “smaller by a third” with “a third”. The video only says “part”.

  7. “Dafür durfte Österreich am Dürrnberg bei Hallein weiter Salz abbauen, auch unter bayerischem Boden.” (In return Austria was allowed to go on mining salt on the Dürrnberg near Hallein, also beneath Bavarian ground.) On screen: a cross-section through the Dürrnberg with the national border and tunnels, “Schema, nicht maßstäblich · Gelände: Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR, Airbus · bearbeitet” (diagram, not to scale · terrain … · modified).

    “Go on”, because Hallein had been mining beneath Berchtesgaden territory since the 13th century; Berchtesgaden has been Bavarian since 1810, so in 1829 the mining field lay beneath Bavarian ground. In 1829 Austria received no land and no new right; the old right was confirmed. The cross-section is a diagram: the position and length of the tunnels beneath Bavaria have not been surveyed, only the terrain comes from the elevation model. In 1957 the mining field was extended by 200 metres; the extension was returned on 16 October 1997 (Der Anschnitt 2005, p. 166).

  8. “Heute braucht die Saline längst kein Holz mehr.” (Today the saltworks has long since needed no wood.) On screen: Google’s 3D over the Saalforste, the tile “um 1900 · Kohle statt Holz” (around 1900 · coal instead of wood).

    Both years are right; they refer to two steps: from 1892 the pans were fired with coal (HLB), by 1911 wood had been replaced entirely (Staatszeitung, a single source). That is why the screen says “around 1900”. The sources differ on hard coal or lignite; the video only says “coal”.

  9. “Am Dürrnberg endete 1989 der Bergbau.” (On the Dürrnberg, mining ended in 1989.) On screen: the tile “1989 · Ende des Bergbaus am Dürrnberg” (1989 · end of mining on the Dürrnberg).

    The video says “mining”, not “salt”: since 2019 salt has again been produced on the Dürrnberg on a small scale, as a showcase (Salzwelten). The right to the old mining field still exists; only its use ended.

  10. “Der Tausch hat keinen Zweck mehr. Und der Vertrag gilt … trotzdem.” (The exchange no longer serves any purpose. And the treaty still applies … all the same.) On screen: Google’s 3D, the flight pulls back over the Saalforste, the tile “Salinenkonvention · gilt bis heute, Fassung 1957” (salt convention · in force to this day, 1957 version).

    “No longer serves any purpose” means void in substance, not expired: the wood and grazing rights of the Salzburg farmers still apply, as do the duty-free timber exports to Bavaria (at most 40 %, at most 9,000 solid cubic metres a year) and Austria’s right to the old mining field. The treaty was revised on 25 March 1957 in Munich, signed by Minister-President Wilhelm Hoegner and Foreign Minister Leopold Figl. Der Anschnitt 2005 rejects the often-quoted title “Europe’s oldest state treaty”; the video does not use it.

Literature and sources

How wohnwahn measures