Danube
Donau, Dunaj, Dunărea, Donava, Duna, Dunav, Дунав, Tuna
River
The Iron Gate, on the Serbian-Romanian border (Iron Gates natural park and Đerdap national park)
Countries	Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania
Cities	Ulm, Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, Győr, Budapest, Vukovar, Novi Sad, Sremski Karlovci, Zemun, Pančevo, Belgrade, Smederevo, Drobeta Turnu-Severin
Primary source	Breg
- location	Martinskapelle, Black Forest, Germany
- elevation	1,078 m (3,537 ft)
- length	49 km (30 mi)
- coordinates	48°05′44″N 08°09′18″E / 48.09556°N 8.155°E / 48.09556; 8.155
Secondary source	Brigach
- location	St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany
- elevation	940 m (3,084 ft)
- length	43 km (27 mi)
- coordinates	48°06′24″N 08°16′51″E / 48.10667°N 8.28083°E / 48.10667; 8.28083
Source confluence
- location	Donaueschingen
- coordinates	47°57′03″N 08°31′13″E / 47.95083°N 8.52028°E / 47.95083; 8.52028
Mouth	Danube Delta
- coordinates	45°13′3″N 29°45′41″E / 45.2175°N 29.76139°E / 45.2175; 29.76139
Length	2,860 km (1,777 mi)
Depth	54 m (177 ft)
- Max. depth	178 m (584 ft)
Basin	817,000 km2 (315,445 sq mi)
Discharge	for before delta
- average	6,500 m3/s (229,545 cu ft/s)
Discharge elsewhere (average)
- Passau	580 m3/s (20,483 cu ft/s) 30 km before town
- Vienna	1,900 m3/s (67,098 cu ft/s)
- Budapest	2,350 m3/s (82,989 cu ft/s)
- Belgrade	4,000 m3/s (141,259 cu ft/s)
Map of Danube River

The Danube (English pronunciation: /ˈdænjuːb/ DAN-yoob) is a river in Central Europe, the continent's second longest after the Volga.

Classified as an international waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen in the Black Forest of Germany at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg. The Danube then flows southeast for 2,872 km (1,785 mi), passing through four Central European capitals before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.

Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river passes through or acts as part of the borders of ten countries. Its drainage basin is shared by Romania (29.0%), Hungary (11.6%), Serbia (10.2%, including Kosovo), Austria (10.0%), Germany (7.0%), Slovakia (5.9%), Bulgaria (5.9%), Croatia (4.4%), Ukraine (3.8%), and Moldova (1.6%).^[1]

Names and etymology[link]

The Danube was known in Latin as Danubius, Danuvius, Ister, in Ancient Greek as Ἴστρος (Istros) . The Dacian/Thracian name was Τάναις/Donaris / Donaris (upper Danube) and Istros (lower Danube).^[2] Its Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas,^[3] "the bringer of luck".^[4]

The name Dānuvius is presumably a loan from Celtic (Gaulish), or possibly Iranic. It is one of a number of river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European language word *dānu, apparently a term for "river", but possibly also of a primeval cosmic river, and of a Vedic river goddess (see Danu (Asura)), perhaps from a root *dā "to flow/swift, rapid, violent, undisciplined." Other river names with the same etymology include Don, Donets, Dnieper and Dniestr. Dniepr,(pre-Slavic Danapir by Gothic historian Jordanes) and Dniestr, from Danapris and Danastius, are presumed from Scythian Iranic *Dānu apara "posterior river" and *Dānu nazdya- "anterior river", respectively.^[5]

The Ancient Greek Istros was a borrowing from Thracian/Dacian meaning "strong, swift", akin to Sanskrit is.iras "swift".^[2]

Since the Norman conquest of England, the English language has used the Latin-derived word Danube. In the languages of the modern countries through which the river flows, it is:

• Bulgarian: Дунав (transliterated: Dunav)
• Croatian: Dunav
• German: Donau pronounced [ˈdoːnaʊ̯]
• Hungarian: Duna pronounced [ˈdunɒ]
• Romanian: Dunărea pronounced [ˈdunəre̯a]
• Serbian: Дунав, Dunav pronounced [dǔnav̞] or [dûnaːv̞]
• Slovak: Dunaj
• Ukrainian: Дунай pronounced [duˈnɑj] (transliterated: Dunai)

Geography[link]

The Danube discharges into the Black Sea.

Drainage basin[link]

In addition to the bordering countries (see above), the drainage basin includes parts of eight more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.6%), the Czech Republic (2.9%), Slovenia (2.0%), Montenegro (0.9%), Switzerland (0.2%), Italy (<0.1%), Poland (<0.1%), the Republic of Macedonia (<0.1%) and Albania (<0.1%).^[1] The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border, 4,049 metres (13,284 ft).^[6]

Tributaries[link]

The Danube's watershed extends into many other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and other shallow-draught boats. From its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are (in order):

Cities[link]

The Donauzusammenfluss, or "Danube confluence", where the Breg and Brigach unite to form the Danube in Donaueschingen, Germany

The Danube in Ulm from the steeple of Ulm Minster, looking southwest

The confluence of the Inn (left), Danube (center), and Ilz (right) in Passau

Budapest on Danube

The Danube flows through the following countries and cities (ordered from the source to mouth):

• Germany
  • Donaueschingen in the State of Baden-Württemberg – Brigach and Breg rivers join to form the Danube river
  • Möhringen an der Donau in Baden-Württemberg
  • Tuttlingen in Baden-Württemberg
  • Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg
  • Riedlingen in Baden-Württemberg
  • Munderkingen in Baden-Württemberg
  • Ehingen in Baden-Württemberg
  • Ulm in Baden-Württemberg
  • Neu-Ulm in Bavaria
  • Günzburg in Bavaria
  • Donauwörth in Bavaria
  • Neuburg an der Donau in Bavaria
  • Ingolstadt in Bavaria
  • Kelheim in Bavaria
  • Regensburg in Bavaria
  • Straubing in Bavaria
  • Deggendorf in Bavaria
  • Passau in Bavaria
• Austria
  • Linz, capital of Upper Austria
  • Krems in Lower Austria
  • Tulln in Lower Austria
  • Vienna – capital of Austria, where the Danube floodplain is called the Lobau, though the Innere Stadt is situated away from the main flow of the Danube (it is bounded by the Donaukanal – 'Danube canal').
• Slovakia
  • Bratislava – capital of Slovakia
  • Komárno
  • Štúrovo
• Hungary
  • Győr
  • Komárom
  • Esztergom
    

    

    Esztergom, in Hungary
  • Visegrád
  • Vác
  • Szentendre
  • Budapest – capital of Hungary
  • Százhalombatta
  • Ráckeve
  • Dunaújváros
  • Paks
  • Kalocsa
  • Baja
  • Mohács
• Croatia
  • Vukovar
  • Ilok
• Serbia
  • Apatin
  • Bačka Palanka
  • Futog
  • Veternik
  • Novi Sad
  • Sremski Karlovci
  • Zemun
  • Belgrade – capital of Serbia
  • Pančevo
  • Smederevo
  • Kovin
  • Veliko Gradište
  • Golubac
  • Donji Milanovac
  • Kladovo
• Bulgaria
  

  

  Danube at Nikopol, Bulgaria in winter
  • Vidin
  • Lom
  • Kozloduy
  • Oryahovo
  • Nikopol
  • Belene
  • Svishtov
  • Ruse
  • Tutrakan
  • Silistra
• Moldova
  • Giurgiuleşti
• Ukraine
  • Reni
  • Izmail
  • Kiliya
  • Vylkove
• Romania
  

  

  The Danube in Sulina, Romania
  • Moldova Nouă
  • Orşova
  • Drobeta-Turnu Severin
  • Calafat
  • Bechet
  • Dăbuleni
  • Corabia
  • Turnu Măgurele
  • Zimnicea
  • Giurgiu
  • Olteniţa
  • Călăraşi
  • Feteşti
  • Cernavodă
  • Hârşova
  • Brăila
  • Galaţi – largest port on Danube
  • Isaccea
  • Tulcea
  • Sulina – last city through which it flows

The Danube flows through four capital cities (shown in bold), more than any river in the world.

The Danube Bend is a curve of the Danube in Hungary, near the city of Visegrád. The Transdanubian Mountains lie on the right bank (left side of the picture), while the North Hungarian Mountains on the left bank (right side of the picture).

Islands[link]

• Ada Kaleh
• Balta Ialomiţei
• Belene Island
• Csepel Island
• Donauinsel
• Great Brăila Island
• Great War Island
• Island of Vukovar
• Island of Šarengrad
• Kozloduy Island
• Margaret Island
• Ostrovul Ciocăneşti
• Ostrovul Mare, Islaz
• Ostrvo (Kostolac)
• Ribarsko Ostrvo, Novi Sad
• Vardim Island
• Žitný ostrov

Sectioning[link]

• Upper Section: From spring to Devín Gate. Danube remains a characteristic mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0.0012% (12 ppm), from Passau to Devín Gate the gradient lessens to 0.0006% (6 ppm).
• Middle Section: From Devín Gate to Iron Gate. The riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0.00006% (0.6 ppm).
• Lower Section: From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0.00003% (0.3 ppm).

Modern navigation[link]

The Danube in Budapest

Fisher in the Danube Delta

Freight ship on the Danube near Vienna

Confluence of Sava into Danube in Belgrade, Serbia

The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania and by river ships to Kelheim, Bavaria, Germany; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm, Württemberg, Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable.

Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992, the river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea (3500 km). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War. Clearance of the resulting debris was completed in 2002, and a temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was removed in 2005.

At the Iron Gate, the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station dam, followed at about 60 km downstream (outside the gorge) by the Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station. On 13 April 2006, a record peak discharge at Iron Gate Dam reached 15,400 m³/s.

There are three artificial waterways built on the Danube: the Danube–Tisa–Danube Canal (DTD) in the Banat and Bačka regions (Vojvodina, northern province of Serbia); the 64 km Danube–Black Sea Canal, between Cernavodă and Constanţa (Romania) finished in 1984, shortens the distance to the Black Sea by 400 km; the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal (about 171 km), finished in 1992, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea.

Piracy[link]

In recent years, shipping companies claim that their vessels suffer from regular pirate attacks on the Serbian and Romanian stretches of the Danube, i.e. inside the European Union's territory, starting from at least 2011.^[7][8][9].

Danube delta[link]

The Danube Delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Its wetlands (on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance) support vast flocks of migratory birds, including the endangered Pygmy Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus). Rival canalization and drainage schemes threaten the delta: see Bastroe Channel. The Danube Delta (Romanian: Delta Dunării pronounced [ˈdelta ˈdunərij]; Ukrainian: Дельта Дунаю, Del'ta Dunaju) is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent.[1] The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania (Tulcea county), while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine (Odessa Oblast). The approximate surface is 4152 km², of which 3446 km² are in Romania. If one includes the lagoons of Razim-Sinoe (1015 km² of which 865 km² water surface), which are located south of the delta proper, but are related to it geologically and ecologically (their combined territory is part of the World Heritage Site), the total area of the Danube Delta reaches 5165 km². The waters of the Danube, which flow into the Black Sea, form the largest and best preserved of Europe's deltas. The Danube delta hosts over 300 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes.

International cooperation[link]

Ecology and environment[link]

Pelicans in the Danube Delta, Romania

The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an organization consisting of 14 member states (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine) and the European Union. The commission, established in 1998, deals with the whole Danube River Basin, which includes tributaries and the groundwater resources. Its goal is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention by promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, improvement and rational use of waters and the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

Navigation[link]

The Danube Commission is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of the river's navigation conditions. It was established in 1948 by seven countries bordering the river. Members include representatives from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia, It meets regularly twice a year. It also convenes groups of experts to consider items provided for in the commission's working plans.

The commission dates to the Paris Conferences of 1856 and 1921, which established for the first time an international regime to safeguard free navigation on the Danube.

Geology[link]

Iron Gates, Serbia-Romania border

Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station, Romania-Serbia

Although the headwaters of the Danube are relatively small today, geologically, the Danube is much older than the Rhine, with which its catchment area competes in today's southern Germany. This has a few interesting geological complications. Since the Rhine is the only river rising in the Alps mountains which flows north towards the North Sea, an invisible line beginning at Piz Lunghin divides large parts of southern Germany, which is sometimes referred to as the European Watershed.

Before the last ice age in the Pleistocene, the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called Urdonau (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb. After the Upper Rhine valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is but a meek reflection of the ancient one.

Since the Swabian Alb is largely shaped of porous limestone, and since the Rhine's level is much lower than the Danube's, today subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube to the Rhine. On many days in the summer, when the Danube carries little water, it completely oozes away noisily into these underground channels at two locations in the Swabian Alp, which are referred to as the Donauversickerung (Danube Sink). Most of this water resurfaces only 12 km south at the Aachtopf, Germany's wellspring with the highest flow, an average of 8500 litres per second, north of Lake Constance—thus feeding the Rhine. The European Water Divide applies only for those waters that pass beyond this point, and only during the days of the year when the Danube carries enough water to survive the sink holes in the Donauversickerung.

Since such large volumes of underground water erode much of the surrounding limestone, it is estimated that the Danube upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, an event called stream capturing

The hydrological parameters of Danube are regularly monitored in Croatia at Batina, Dalj, Vukovar and Ilok.^[10]

History[link]

The Istros on Trajan's column

The oldest bridge across the Danube was constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus between 103-105 CE, directed by Trajan

At Esztergom and Štúrovo, the Danube separates Hungary from Slovakia

River Danube in Vienna

The Danube between Belene and Belene Island, Bulgaria

A look upstream from the Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria during an unusually cold winter (February 2006). A frozen Danube usually occurs just once or twice in a lifetime.

Bratislava does not usually suffer major floods, but the Danube sometimes overflows its right bank

The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures. The Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery cultures of the mid-Danube basin. The third millennium BC Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar, Croatia) is famous for its ceramics. Many sites of the sixth-to-third millennium BC Vinča culture, (Vinča, Serbia) are sited along the Danube. The river was part of the Roman Empire's Limes Germanicus. The Romans often used the river Danube as a northern border for their empire.

Alexander the Great defeated the Triballian king Syrmus and the northern barbarian Thracian and Illyrian tribes by advancing from Macedonia as far as the Danube in 336BC.

Ancient cultural perspectives of the lower Danube[link]

Part of the Danubius or Istros river was also known as (together with the Black Sea) the Okeanos in ancient times, being called the Okeanos Potamos (Okeanos River). The lower Danube was also called the Keras Okeanoio (Gulf or Horn of Okeanos) in the Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodos (Argon. IV. 282). The lower Danube has a slow, deep, wide course, so it can be seen why it was considered as part of the Okeanos.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of the Okeanos Potamos, is the holy island of Alba (Leuke, Pytho Nisi, Isle of Snakes), sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo, greeting the sun rising in the east. Hecateus Abderitas refers to Apollo's island from the region of the Hyperboreans, in the Okeanos. It was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that the hero Achilles was buried (to this day, one of the mouths of the Danube is called Chilia). Old Romanian folk songs recount a white monastery on a white island with nine priests.^[11]

Economics[link]

Drinking water[link]

Along its course, the Danube is a source of drinking water for about twenty million people. In Baden-Württemberg, Germany, almost thirty percent (as of 2004) of the water for the area between Stuttgart, Bad Mergentheim, Aalen and Alb-Donau (district) comes from purified water of the Danube. Other cities such as Ulm and Passau also use some water from the Danube.

In Austria and Hungary, most water is drawn from ground and spring sources, and only in rare cases is water from the Danube used. Most states also find it too difficult to clean the water because of extensive pollution; only parts of Romania where the water is cleaner still obtain drinking water from the Danube on a regular basis.^{[citation needed]}

Navigation and transport[link]

As "Corridor VII" of the European Union, the Danube is an important transport route. Since the opening of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, the river connects the Port of Rotterdam and the industrial centers of Western Europe with the Black Sea and, also, through the Danube – Black Sea Canal, with the Port of Constanţa.

The waterway is designed for large-scale inland vessels (110×11.45 m) but it can carry much larger vessels on most of its course. The Danube has been partly canalized in Germany (5 locks) and Austria (10 locks). Proposals to build a number of new locks to improve navigation have not progressed, due in part to environmental concerns.

Downstream from the Freudenau locks in Vienna, canalization of the Danube was limited to the Gabčíkovo dam and locks near Bratislava and the two double Iron Gate locks in the border stretch of the Danube between Serbia and Romania. These locks have larger dimensions (similar to the locks in the Russian Volga river, some 300 by over 30 m). Downstream of the Iron Gate, the river is free flowing all the way to the Black Sea, a distance of more than 860 kilometres.

The Danube connects with the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal at Kelheim, with the Donaukanal in Vienna, and with the Danube–Black Sea Canal at Cernavodă.

Apart from a couple of secondary navigable branches, the only major navigable rivers linked to the Danube are the Drava, Sava and Tisa. In Serbia, a canal network also connects to the river; the network, known as the Danube–Tisa–Danube Canals, links sections downstream.

Fishing[link]

The importance of fishing on the Danube, which was critical in the Middle Ages, has declined dramatically. Some fishermen are still active at certain points on the river, and the Danube Delta still has an important industry.

Tourism[link]

Wachau Valley near Durnstein.

Important tourist and natural spots along the Danube include the Wachau Valley, the Nationalpark Donau-Auen in Austria, Gemenc in Hungary, the Naturpark Obere Donau in Germany, Kopački rit in Croatia, Iron Gate in Serbia and Romania, the Danube Delta in Romania, and the Srebarna Nature Reserve in Bulgaria.

The Danube Bike Trail (also called Danube Cycle Path or the Donauradweg) is a bicycle trail along the river. It is divided into four sections:

1. Donaueschingen-Passau (559 km)
2. Passau-Vienna (340 km)
3. Vienna-Budapest (306 km)
4. Budapest-Black Sea (1670 km)

Important national parks[link]

• Naturpark Obere Donau (Germany)
• Donauauen zwischen Neuburg und Ingolstadt (Germany) - map
• Nature protection area Donauleiten (Germany)
• Nationalpark Donau Auen (Austria) - map
• Chránená krajinná oblasť Dunajské luhy (Slovakia) - map
• Duna-Ipoly Nemzeti Park (Hungary) - map
• Gemenc (Hungary) - map
• Naturalpark Kopački Rit (Croatia) - map
• Gornje Podunavlje Nature Reserve (Serbia) - map
• Fruška Gora National park (Serbia)
• Koviljsko-petrovaradinski rit Nature Reserve (Serbia)
• Great War Island Nature Reserve (Serbia)
• Đerdap National park (Serbia)
• Iron Gates Natural Park (Romania)
• Persina Nature Park (Bulgaria) - map
• Kalimok-Brushlen Protected Site (Bulgaria) - map
• Srebarna Nature Reserve (Bulgaria) - map
• Natural Park Măcin Mountains (Romania)
• Natural Park Little Pond of Brăila (Romania)
• Biosphere Reserve Danube Delta (Romania) - map

Cultural significance[link]

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (May 2012)

• The Danube is mentioned in the title of a famous waltz by Austrian composer Johann Strauss, An der schönen, blauen Donau (On the Beautiful Blue Danube). This piece is well known across the world and is also used widely as a lullaby. The Waves of the Danube (Romanian: Valurile Dunării) is a waltz by the Romanian composer Ion Ivanovici (1845–1902). Joe Zawinul wrote a symphony about the Danube called Stories of the Danube. It was performed for the first time at the 1993 Bruckner festival, at Linz.

• The Danube figures prominently in the Bulgarian National Anthem, as a symbolic representation of the country's natural beauty. In Lithuanian folklore songs appearance of Danube (Dunojus, Dunojėlis) is more common than the appearance of the longest Lithuanian river Neman.

• The German tradition of landscape painting, the Danube school, was developed in the Danube valley in the 16th century One of Claudio Magris's masterpiece is called Danube (ISBN 1-86046-823-3).

• Jules Verne's The Danube Pilot (1908) ("Le Pilote du Danube") depicts the adventures of fisherman Serge Ladko as he travels down the river. Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, about a boat excursion on the river, is considered one of the greatest stories in the literature of the supernatural.

• The river is the subject of the film The Ister (2004) (official site here [1]). Parts of the German road movie Im Juli take place along the Danube. In Nicolas Roeg's 1980 film Bad Timing, the border crossing over the Danube between Bratislava and Vienna is a recurring site in which the romance between Milena (Teresa Russell), Alex (Art Garfunkel) and Milena's husband Stefan (Denholm Elliot) is played out.

• In the Star Trek universe, the Danube-class runabout is a type of starship used by the Federation Starfleet, most notably in the Deep Space Nine series.

• The river is mentioned a great number of times throughout the Earth's Children Saga by Jean M. Auel, especially in the book The Plains of Passage, when the main characters Ayla and Jondalar travel west along this river, which they call the Great Mother River, due to its big size.

• Miklós Jancsó's film the Blue Danube Waltz (1992)

• The Hungarian sweet speciality, Duna kavics ("Danube Pebbles") is named after the river.

• A Hungarian Folk Ensemble, the Danube Folk Ensemble (Duna Művészegyüttes) is named after the river also. This group is made up of 30 dancers and musicians. During their performances they show the hungarian folk music, dance and costumes.

See also[link]

• 2006 European floods
• List of crossings of the Danube
• Steamboats on the Danube
• The Ister
• Between the Woods and the Water, a travel book telling of a Danubian journey in 1934

Panoramic image of Danube pictured in Ritopek, suburb of Belgrade, Serbia.

There are also Hasidic (Chabad Nigunnim) songs which are called "dunai", dating from around 200 years ago. They are often lullabys and are named after the Dunay river. Farmers around the river used to come to the river and sing spiritual songs to thank their god about the great beauty which they saw every day.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danube

• Map of the Danube in English from Encarta (Archived 2009-10-31)
• Geographic data related to Danube at OpenStreetMap
• Danube watershed map and information from the World Resources Institute
• Danube Panorama Project
• сайт о Дунае
• Danube and the sport of rowing
• Danube river image pool on Flickr
• Danube Tourist Commission
• A Trip Down the Danube - slideshow by Life magazine
• Site dedicated to Danube
• danubemap.eu - The Tourist Map of the Danube

International organizations[link]

• Danube Commission, dealing with navigation and river improvements
• International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River

Individual cities or countries[link]

• Bridges of Budapest over the Danube

v t e The Danube Countries Germany Austria Slovakia Hungary Croatia Serbia Bulgaria Romania Moldova Ukraine Cities Ulm Ingolstadt Regensburg Passau Linz Krems Vienna Bratislava Győr Budapest Dunaújváros Novi Sad Belgrade Pančevo Smederevo Drobeta-Turnu Severin Vidin Giurgiu Ruse Brăila Galați Izmail Tulcea Tributaries Iller Lech Regen Isar Inn Morava Váh Hron Ipeľ Drava Tisza/Tisa Sava Timiș/Tamiš Great Morava Timok Jiu Iskar Olt Osam Yantra Vedea Argeș Ialomița Siret Prut Islands Ada Kaleh (currently submerged) Balta Ialomiţei Belene Island Csepel Island Donauinsel Great Brăila Island Great War Island Island of Vukovar Island of Šarengrad Kozloduy Island Margaret Island Ostrovul Ciocăneşti Ostrovul Mare, Islaz Ostrvo (Kostolac) Vardim Island Žitný ostrov List of crossings

v t e Hydrography of Croatia Rivers Sava Drava Kupa Danube Bosut Korana Bednja Lonja Česma Una Vuka Dobra Cetina Glina Karašica Sutla Orljava Ilova Odra Lika Krapina Krka Pakra Sunja Zrmanja Mura Plitvica Mrežnica Glogovnica Kupčina Mirna Spačva Boljunčica Karašica Raša Neretva Rječina Studva Slunjčica Gacka Jadro Trebišnjica Lakes Vrana (Dalmatia) Dubrava Peruća Prokljan Varaždin Vrana (Cres) Krušćica Plitvice Baćina Valleys, estuaries, canyons, wetlands Lim Paklenica Kopački Rit Waterfalls Skradinski Buk Štrbački Buk

lez:Дунай

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899), also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son (German: Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Strauss was born in St. Ulrich (now a part of Neubau), the son of Johann Strauss I, another composer of dance music. His father did not wish him to become a composer, but rather a banker; however, the son defied his father's wishes, and went on to study music with the composer Joseph Drechsler and the violin with Anton Kollmann, the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera. Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well known as their elder brother.

Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, and the Pizzicato Polka. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the most well-known.

Early life[link]

His father, Johann Strauss I, in an etching from 1835

Strauss was born in St. Ulrich near Vienna (now a part of Neubau), Austria, on October 25, 1825, to the famous composer Johann Strauss I. His father did not want him to become a musician but rather a banker.^[1] Nevertheless, Strauss Junior studied the violin secretly as a child with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon.^[1] When his father discovered his son secretly practising on a violin one day, he gave him a severe whipping, saying that he was going to beat the music out of the boy.^[2] It seems that rather than trying to avoid a Strauss rivalry, the elder Strauss only wanted his son to escape the rigours of a musician's life.^[3] It was only when the father abandoned his family for a mistress, Emilie Trampusch, that the son was able to concentrate fully on a career as a composer with the support of his mother.^[4]

Strauss studied counterpoint and harmony with theorist Professor Joachim Hoffmann,^[1] who owned a private music school. His talents were also recognized by composer Joseph Drechsler, who taught him exercises in harmony. His other violin teacher, Anton Kollmann, who was the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera, also wrote excellent testimonials for him. Armed with these, he approached the Viennese authorities to apply for a license to perform.^[5] He initially formed his small orchestra where he recruited his members at the Zur Stadt Belgrad tavern, where musicians seeking work could be hired easily.^[6]

Debut as a composer[link]

Johann Strauss in his younger years

Johann Strauss I's influence over the local entertainment establishments meant that many of them were wary of offering the younger Strauss a contract for fear of angering the father.^[4] Strauss Jr. was able to persuade the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, a suburb of Vienna, to allow him to perform.^[7] The elder Strauss, in anger at his son's disobedience, and at that of the proprietor, refused to ever play at the Dommayer's Casino again,^[8] which had been the site of many of his earlier triumphs.

Strauss made his debut at Dommayer's in October 1844, where he performed some of his first works, such as the waltzes "Sinngedichte", Op. 1 and "Gunstwerber", Op. 4 and the polka "Herzenslust", Op. 3.^[1] Critics and the press were unanimous in their praise for Strauss's music. A critic for Der Wanderer commented that "Strauss’s name will be worthily continued in his son; children and children’s children can look forward to the future, and three-quarter time will find a strong footing in him."^[1]

Strauss at the beginning of his career.

Despite the initial fanfare, Strauss found his early years as a composer difficult, but he soon won over audiences after accepting commissions to perform away from home. The first major appointment for the young composer was his award of the honorary position of "Kapellmeister of the 2nd Vienna Citizen's Regiment", which had been left vacant following Joseph Lanner's death two years before.^[9]

Vienna was wracked by a bourgeois revolution on February 24, 1848, and the intense rivalry between father and son became much more apparent. Johann Jr. decided to side with the revolutionaries. It was a decision that was professionally disadvantageous, as the Austrian royalty twice denied him the much coveted 'KK Hofballmusikdirektor' position, which was first designated especially for Johann I in recognition of his musical contributions. Further, the younger Strauss was also arrested by the Viennese authorities for publicly playing "La Marseillaise", but was later acquitted.^[10] The elder Strauss remained loyal to the monarchy, and composed his "Radetzky March", Op. 228 (dedicated to the Habsburg field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz), which would become one of his best-known compositions.^[11]

When the elder Strauss died from scarlet fever in Vienna in 1849, the younger Strauss merged both their orchestras and engaged in further tours.^[1] Later, he also composed a number of patriotic marches dedicated to the Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef I, such as the "Kaiser Franz-Josef Marsch" Op. 67 and the "Kaiser Franz Josef Rettungs Jubel-Marsch" Op. 126, probably to ingratiate himself in the eyes of the new monarch, who ascended to the Austrian throne after the 1848 revolution.^[1]

Career advancements[link]

Strauss Jr. eventually surpassed his father's fame, and became one of the most popular waltz composers of the era, extensively touring Austria–Hungary, Poland, and Germany with his orchestra. He applied for the KK Hofballmusikdirektor Music Director of the Royal Court Balls position, which he eventually attained in 1863,^[1] after being denied several times before for his frequent brushes with the local authorities.

In 1853, due to constant mental and physical demands, Strauss suffered a nervous breakdown.^[1] He took a seven-week vacation in the countryside in the summer of that year, on the advice of doctors. Johann's younger brother Josef was persuaded by his family to abandon his career as an engineer and take command of Johann's orchestra in the interim.^[1]

In 1855, Strauss accepted commissions from the management of the Tsarskoye-Selo Railway Company of Saint Petersburg to play in Russia for the Vauxhall Pavilion at Pavlovsk in 1856. He would return to perform in Russia every year until 1865.^[1]

Later, in the 1870s, Strauss and his orchestra toured the United States, where he took part in the Boston Festival at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore and was the lead conductor in a 'Monster Concert' of over 1000 performers,^[12] performing his "Blue Danube" waltz, amongst other pieces, to great acclaim.^[12]

Marriages[link]

Strauss married the singer Henrietta Treffz in 1862, and they remained together until her death in 1878.^[1] Six weeks after her death,^[1][13] Strauss married the actress Angelika Dittrich. Dittrich was not a fervent supporter of his music, and their differences in status and opinion, and especially her indiscretion, led him to seek a divorce.^[1]

Strauss was not granted a divorce by the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore changed religion and nationality, and became a citizen of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in January 1887.^[1] Strauss sought solace in his third wife Adele Deutsch, whom he married in August 1882. She encouraged his creative talent to flow once more in his later years, resulting in many famous compositions, such as the operettas Der Zigeunerbaron and Waldmeister, and the waltzes "Kaiser-Walzer" Op. 437, "Kaiser Jubiläum" Op. 434, and "Klug Gretelein" Op. 462.

Musical rivals and admirers[link]

Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms photographed in Vienna.

Although Strauss was the most sought-after composer of dance music in the latter half of the 19th century, stiff competition was present in the form of Karl Michael Ziehrer and Émile Waldteufel; the latter held a commanding position in Paris.^[14] Phillip Fahrbach also denied the younger Strauss the commanding position of the KK Hofballmusikdirektor when the latter first applied for the post. The German operetta composer Jacques Offenbach, who made his name in Paris, also posed a challenge to Strauss in the operetta field.^[15]

Strauss was admired by other prominent composers: Richard Wagner once admitted that he liked the waltz "Wein, Weib und Gesang" Op. 333.^[16] Richard Strauss (unrelated to the Strauss family), when writing his Rosenkavalier waltzes, said in reference to Johann Strauss, "How could I forget the laughing genius of Vienna?"^[17]

Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss; the latter dedicated his waltz "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" ("Be Embraced, You Millions!"), Op. 443, to him.^[18] A story is told in biographies of both men that Strauss's wife Adele approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. It was usual for the composer to inscribe a few measures of his best-known music, and then sign his name. Brahms, however, inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube", and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."^[19]

Stage works[link]

The most famous of Strauss' operettas are Die Fledermaus, Eine Nacht in Venedig, and Der Zigeunerbaron. Notwithstanding their general lack of modern popularity, there are many dance pieces drawn from themes of his operettas, such as "Cagliostro-Walzer" Op. 370 (from Cagliostro in Wien), "O Schöner Mai" Walzer Op. 375 (from Prinz Methusalem), "Rosen aus dem Süden" Walzer Op. 388 (from Das Spitzentuch der Königin), and "Kuss-Walzer" op. 400 (from Der lustige Krieg), that have survived obscurity and become well-known. Strauss also wrote an opera, Ritter Pázmán,^[20] and was in the middle of composing a ballet, Aschenbrödel, when he died in 1899.^[21]

Death and legacy[link]

A statue of the Waltz King in Stadtpark, Vienna

Silhouette by Otto Böhler

Strauss was diagnosed with pleural pneumonia in the spring of 1899,^[21] and died in Vienna, at the age of 73. He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof. At the time of his death, he was still composing his ballet Aschenbrödel.^[21]

Strauss's music is now regularly performed at the annual Neujahrskonzert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as a result of the efforts by Clemens Krauss who performed a special all-Strauss programme in 1929 with the Viennese orchestra. Many distinguished Strauss interpreters include Willi Boskovsky,^[22] who carried on the "Vorgeiger" tradition of conducting with violin in hand, as is the Strauss family custom, as well as Herbert von Karajan and the opera conductor Riccardo Muti. In addition, the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester, which was formed in 1966, pays tribute to the touring orchestras which once made the Strauss family so famous.^[23]

Most of the Strauss works that are performed today may once have existed in a slightly different form, as Eduard Strauss destroyed much of the original Strauss orchestral archives in a furnace factory in Vienna's Mariahilf district in 1907.^[24] Eduard, then the only surviving brother of the three, took this drastic precaution after agreeing to a pact between himself and brother Josef that whoever outlived the other was to destroy their works. The measure was intended to prevent the Strauss family's works from being claimed by another composer. This may also have been fueled by Strauss's rivalry with another of Vienna's popular waltz and march composers, Karl Michael Ziehrer.^[25]

Portrayals in the media[link]

The lives of the Strauss dynasty members and their world-renowned craft of composing Viennese waltzes are also briefly documented in several television adaptations, such as The Strauss Family (1972), The Strauss Dynasty (1991)^[26] and Strauss, the King of 3/4 Time (1995).^[27] Many other films used his works and melodies, and several films have been based upon the life of the musician, the most famous of which is called The Great Waltz (1938).^[28]

Alfred Hitchcock made a low-budget biographical film of Strauss in 1933 called Waltzes from Vienna.^[29] After a trip to Vienna, Walt Disney was inspired to create four feature films. One of those was The Waltz King, a loosely adapted biopic of Johann Strauss, which aired as part of the Wonderful World of Disney in the U.S. in 1963.^[30] In Mikhail Bulgakov's 1940 (published 1967) novel, The Master and Margarita, Johann Strauss conducts the orchestra during Satan's Great Ball at the invitation of Behemoth.

A Corny Concerto (1943), a Warner Bros cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett with animation by Robert McKimson, features music that was composed by Johann Strauss, and is a parody of Walt Disney's 1940 Fantasia. The cartoon is narrated by Elmer Fudd, parodying Deems Taylor's appearance in Fantasia.

The 1953 animated short "Johann Mouse" from the series Tom and Jerry features a mouse mesmerised by the playing of several Strauss waltzes by the cat.

	"The Blue Danube"
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Works[link]

See List of operettas by Johann Strauss II and List of compositions by Johann Strauss II.

Notes[link]