Perfect forgery

“Gürtel meeting zone”: prankster fools the city

Posters and mailings about the alleged conversion of the Gürtel into a car-free meeting zone can be found all over Währing.(Bild: Paul Pichler)

A perfectly forged construction site announcement for the conversion of Vienna's Gürtel into a car-free paradise was distributed throughout the district of Währing. Everything points to a frustrated Viennese as the perpetrator. The city has not yet decided how to deal with this.

Right down to details such as fonts, logos and the typical project visualizations, everything on the "official" announcement matched - and yet it puzzled "Krone" reader Paul Pichler that from December the Gürtel was to be "rebuilt from the Währinger Straße junction to the Jörgerstraße junction and redesigned as a meeting zone". Surely you would have read something about this in the newspaper beforehand? Yes, you would have.

Puzzling over motives
The town hall also quickly confirmed that the construction site information distributed throughout the area was a fake - no trees were being planted on the Gürtel, no cycle path was being widened and no meeting zones were being created. The fake construction site information was also circulated online and even received some approval. Others believed that it was intended to increase the anger of motorists towards the city or climate protectors.

Among some residents, the vision of a car-free belt was met with approval.(Bild: Paul Pichler)

Local residents probably the perpetrators
It is not known who is really responsible for the hoax. The "perpetrator profile" points to someone from the area who, firstly, is reasonably good at graphic design and computers - and less good at grammar and spelling, as evidenced by a few mistakes - and, secondly, wants to "improve the quality of life" in the area.

The letter also refers to "complaints and requests from citizens", traffic safety concerns and the "massive exceedance of exhaust emission limits that has been going on for years". According to the city, this is the first time such a falsification has occurred. A complaint is being considered. After all, presumption of authority is punishable by up to six months in prison.