Danube-Auen National Park Danube-Auen National Park Donau-Auen National Park () covers 93 square kilometres in Vienna and Lower Austria and is one of the largest remaining floodplains of the Danube in Middle Europe. The German word Aue (variant Au) means "river island, wetland, floodplain, riparian woodland", i.e. a cultivated landscape in a riparian zone. The words Aue and Au occur in a large number of German place names—including Donau, the German word for the Danube River—and refer to forests, meadows, and wetlands in river and stream lowlands and floodplains. The Danube-Auen National Park protects a large area of lowland forests, meadows, wetlands, and
Steamboats on the Danube Steamboats on the Danube The Danube Steamboat Shipping Company, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft was a shipping company founded in 1829 by the Austrian government for transporting passengers and cargo on the River Danube. In 1880, the DDSG was the world's largest river shipping company with more than 200 steamboat ships and about 1000 cargo tubs. Steamboats on the Danube were, by the end of the 19th century, dominated by the Austrian-based DDSG. A new organisation was formed in 1896, based in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg empire, which was to become a significant player in both the freight haulage and passenger businesses.