The Danube—Europe’s River Giant
By “Awake!” correspondent in Germany
THE last strains of the Strauss waltz The Blue Danube softly fade away. Visiting Vienna, we are anxious to learn more about this blue Danube, which has inspired waltzers over the years. Wandering through the streets and avenues of the Austrian capital, we inevitably encounter the river. Even in the haze of evening grayness, the Donau (as it is called in German) is intriguing.
The Danube’s source is in Germany’s Black Forest, where trickles become brooks and where rivers are born. This one grows into a 1,770-mile-long giant, which gushes 300,000 cubic feet of water into the Black Sea every second. It is Europe’s most important river as regards its volume of flow, and the Volga is the only one that is longer. From Regensburg, Germany, a train of Danube barges can carry a load of fifty railway boxcars 1,625 miles, through parts of the eight Danube countries, to the Black Sea.
Sitting down here on the bank in early evening, we watch such a train of barges glide through the water. The red, white and green striped pennants identify them as Hungarian. The sailors on board call the river the Duna. Yugoslavians and Bulgarians speak of her as the Dunav. Romanian fishermen put their nets down into the Dunarea. The Czechoslovakian geography student studies the Dunaj, and Russians call the river the Dunay. But regardless of how the name varies, or the way people’s lives along the shore differ, this giant is a binding chain between nations.
Do you see those metal containers on the barges twinkling in Vienna at night? These forty-foot-long “container loads,” as they are called, are designed to carry goods over rail, river and ocean to Asia Minor without unloading. The Danube’s easterly countries have steadily expanded trade with western Europe, and likewise goods from the west are seen on barges floating downstream to Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.
It has become cool here on the bank. But the enchantment of the Danube fascinates us, even as the strains of the Strauss waltz linger on in our minds. We decide on a boat trip down the Danube.
First Leg of the Trip
We board a beautiful excursion ship that in six days will carry us over 1,250 miles down the Danube to the Soviet city of Izmail, located near the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea.
Our steamer heads downstream, and is immediately welcomed to the heavy traffic by a train of barges under the blue, yellow and red flag of Romania. Soon we pass into Czechoslovakia, and east of Vienna we come to Bratislava.
The swelling breadth of the watery highway begins to impress us. From its German childhood and Austrian youth, an adult Czech Danube has developed. The growing pains of a stream cramped by the narrowness of the valley between upper and lower Austria is now behind.
After a few miles of flowing entirely in Czechoslovakia, the Danube soon becomes the boundary between that country and Hungary. In time it turns south, and we grow in anticipation as we approach the Hungarian capital of Budapest, one of the oldest cities of Europe. Buda, the smaller section up on the hill, and Pest, the larger portion stretching out on the plains, form one large city, every street and alley of which seem to lead to and over the river.
We are able to leave the steamer to do some sight-seeing. A stroll through the city reveals eastern Europeans who are greatly inclined toward Western ways. Some say that Budapest is the Paris of the East, where gypsies can aptly portray the lives of the people on their violins.
The ship’s whistle denies us an excursion outside of Budapest to Lake Balaton, its 231 square miles making it the biggest lake in central Europe. Instead, the river offers us a view of the huge Hungarian low plains called Alföld. On the left begin the grasslands. Here are found settlements of national tribes that have remained nomads even into our day.
Under the Sign of the Cross
As the river continues to widen, we see a distant cross on the shore. This religious symbol directs our thoughts back to a frightful drama of terror. Boats loaded down with war-horses and wagons moved down this same river under the sign of the cross—the Crusaders! Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine, who was to become the first Occidental king of Jerusalem, used this river to reach the Black Sea, before sailing on to the Holy Land.
The use of the Danube as transport for armies dragged on for centuries, but her waters could hardly be blamed for the streams of shed human blood that resulted. Eventually, in the fourteenth century, a remnant of defeated crusaders were followed upstream by the Turks, whose brandishing sabers pushed the Ottoman Empire up the Danube Valley as far as Vienna. The chiming of church bells on the river became an alarm, bleakly tolling out coming misery over the waters.
Onward to the Iron Gates
But we are living today, and the characteristic covered well and bucket call our attention back to the Hungarian “puszta.” Here on this vast grazing land horse raising is prominent. Women in colorful skirts and men in wide pants busily go about their chores, while twenty full-blooded stallions acknowledge our presence.
Continuing directly south, we enter Yugoslavia, and on the third day of our trip we reach Belgrade, the country’s capital. This city holds a significant spot on the East-West teeter-totter. The brightly colored pants of the men and the gaily dressed women reflect the variety of the landscape, but a variety with a common denominator: a life of hard work.
Our impressive mile-and-a-quarter-wide giant now turns eastward, becoming the boundary between Yugoslavia and Romania. Then it courageously wedges its way into the Carpathian Mountains.
At the Iron Gates it is funneled down to a mere few hundred feet. The turbulent water rebels, with eddies, whirlpools and reefs, a terror to the sailors of earlier centuries. However, most of the obstructions in the Iron Gates were blasted out toward the end of the nineteenth century and the channel was deepened. Nevertheless, all passengers are speechless at the forceful display of the waters.
Here Romania, There Bulgaria
Near the ancient Roman city of Turnu-Severin, the Danube veers south again. After some miles it once more turns east and forms the boundary between Romania and Bulgaria. The mountains and cliffs politely step back, as we are guided into the lowlands, accompanied by the lutes of fishermen.
Here we find poor, humble people in the service of the world’s luxury. Their catch is sturgeon, which means caviar for the kitchens of the world. They are friendly people whose industrious hands knit colorful shawls and wraps. We see artists trying to capture with brush what God has created. Their lives are all interwoven in the history of the river.
Someone among us says, “Bulgaria is small, but its spirit is large!” This spirit sparked rapid development of the country after the second world war. Industrialization began, factories were erected and highways were built, and good ones too.
Last Leg of the Trip
Rather than continuing all the way eastward to the Black Sea, the Danube cuts north, flowing through Romania toward the Soviet border. At Cernavoda man has built the longest bridge over the river. The ship passes on to the city of Galati, where we turn east toward the Black Sea.
Soon we note that the river conquers the land and continues to fan out into a network of veins and capillaries. It is the delta! The thousand-square-mile delta area is inhabited by people in mud huts, by frogs, fish, woodcocks, sea gulls and storks that instinctively take over possession of chimneys. And we see a star, the red Soviet star, as a reminder that the Kremlin controls the delta.
We leave the ship to see more and reflect upon what we have seen. We have experienced the pulsating life of bustling cities and the simple country life of amiable peasants. The river has carried us not only across national boundaries, but also through the centuries. No, the Danube has not disappointed us.
This river, as it were, speaks seven languages, possesses citizenship in eight countries and simultaneously feeds the Bulgarian peasant and the Parisian millionaire. It plays an important role in the life of the London commercialist and the Hungarian horse raiser. It has impartially served in the armies of nomadic tribes and world powers. But it has also inspired a man to write beautiful music, danced to around the world: The Blue Danube.
[Map on page 9]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
GERMANY
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
AUSTRIA
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
YUGOSLAVIA
BULGARIA
Black Sea
Adriatic Sea
Mediterranean Sea
[Picture on page 10]
The Danube as it winds its way through Austria