Linz

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For other uses, see Linz (disambiguation).
Linz
View of Linz from the Pöstlingberg mountain
View of Linz from the Pöstlingberg mountain
Coat of arms of Linz
Coat of arms
Location within Austria
Coordinates: 48°18′11″N 14°17′26″E / 48.30306°N 14.29056°E / 48.30306; 14.29056Coordinates: 48°18′11″N 14°17′26″E / 48.30306°N 14.29056°E / 48.30306; 14.29056{{#coordinates:48|18|11|N|14|17|26|E|type:city(191107)_region:AT-4

|primary |name=

}}
Country Austria
State Upper Austria
District Statutory city
Government
 • Mayor Franz Dobusch (SPÖ)
Area
 • Total 96.048 km2 (Bad rounding hereScript error sq mi)
Elevation 266 m (Bad rounding hereScript error ft)
Population (1 January 2012)[1]
 • Total 191,107
 • Density Bad rounding hereScript error/km2 (Bad rounding hereScript error/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal codes 4010, 402x, 4030, 404x
Area codes 0732, 070
Vehicle registration L
Website www.linz.at
File:Poestlingberg 20050429.jpg
The Pöstlingberg church in Linz
File:Kepler Statue Linz.jpg
A statue of Johannes Kepler in Linz, located on a pathway between Saint Martin's church and the Linz Schloss/castle
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H06156, Linz, Reichswerke "Hermann Göring", Spatenstich.jpg
Hermann-Göring-Werke.

Linz (11px /ˈlɪnts/; German pronunciation: [ˈlɪnt​͡s]) is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (German: Oberösterreich). It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is 191,107, and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about 271,000.

History

Origins

The city was founded by the Romans, who called it Lentia.[2] The name Linz was first recorded in AD 799.

Holy Roman Empire

It was a provincial and local government city of the Holy Roman Empire, and an important trading point connecting several routes, on either side of the river Danube from the East to the West and Bohemia and Poland from north to the Balkans and Italy to the south. Being the city where the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III spent his last years, it was, for a short period of time, the most important city in the empire.[3] It lost its status to Vienna and Prague after the death of the Emperor in 1493. One important inhabitant of the city was Johannes Kepler, who spent several years of his life in the city teaching mathematics. He discovered, on 15 May 1618, the distance-cubed-over-time-squared — or 'third' — law of planetary motion. The local public university, Johannes Kepler University, is named after him. Another famous citizen was Anton Bruckner, who spent the years between 1855 and 1868 working as a local composer and church organist in the city. The local concert hall "Brucknerhaus" and a local private music and arts university are named after him.[citation needed]

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born in the border town of Braunau am Inn but moved to Linz in his childhood. Hitler spent most of his youth in the Linz area, from 1898 until 1907, when he left for Vienna. The family lived first in the village of Leonding on the outskirts of town, and then on the Humboldtstrasse in Linz. Hitler's parents are buried in Leonding.[citation needed] After elementary education in Leonding, Hitler was enrolled in the Realschule (school) in Linz, as was the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Notorious Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann also spent his youth in Linz.

The association of the city with Hitler's childhood warranted an allusion in a poem by W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939: "Accurate scholarship can/Unearth the whole offense/ From Luther until now/ That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz...."[citation needed] To the end of his life, Hitler considered Linz to be his "home town",[4] and envisioned extensive architectural schemes for it, wanting it to become the main cultural centre of the Third Reich.[5] In order to make the city economically vibrant, Hitler initiated a major industrialization of Linz shortly before, and during, World War II. Many factories were dismantled in the newly-acquired Czechoslovakia and then reassembled in Linz,[citation needed] including the Hermann-Göring-Werke (now Voestalpine). In addition to an ordnance depot, Linz has a benzol (oil)[1] plant which was bombed during the Oil Campaign on 16 October 1944.

The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps, located near Linz, were the last Nazi concentration camps to be liberated by the Allies.[citation needed] While in operation, they were the source of quarrying for stone for Hitler's prestige projects across the Reich.[citation needed] The Nazis used slave labor from 30 countries at these camps to assemble the Messerschmitt fighter planes and to manufacture rifles and other weapons for the war effort.[citation needed] Over 141,000 prisoners were exterminated here through work programs as well as gassings and other brutal executions.[citation needed] The main camp in Mauthausen is just 25 kilometres (16 mi) away from Linz. KZ Gusen is only 11.7 km from Linz's city center.

Austrian Civil War

Linz was a key location in the Austrian Civil War. On 12 February 1934 the police arrived at the Hotel Schiff to search for weapons. This was a major facility for the SDAPÖ including their paramilitary force, the Schutzbund.[citation needed]

Post-World War II

After the war, the river Danube that runs through Linz — from the western side to the south-eastern side — which separates the Urfahr district in the north from the rest of Linz — served as the border between the Russian and American occupation troops. The Nibelungen bridge that spans the Danube river from the Hauptplatz (main square) was at that time Linz's version of Checkpoint Charlie. The Nibelungen Brücke with the two bridge head buildings is the only architectural plan Hitler ever carried out in Linz.[citation needed]

Population development

File:UrsulinenkircheLinz-2.jpg
Church of Saints Michael and Ursula, Linz
Year Population
1900 83,356
1951 184,685
1961 195,978
1971 204,889
1981 199,910
1991 203,044
2001 183,504
2006 188,968

The agglomeration includes (parts of) 13 other municipalities with together 271,000 inhabitants. Linz is also part of the Linz-Wels-Steyr metropolitan area of Upper Austria, home to around one third of the state's population (460,000 people) and second-largest urban area in Austria.[6][7]

Districts

Linz is divided into 9 districts and 36 statistical quarters. They are:

  1. Innenstadt: Altstadtviertel, Rathausviertel, Kaplanhofviertel, Neustadtviertel, Volksgartenviertel, Römerberg-Margarethen
  2. Waldegg: Freinberg, Froschberg, Keferfeld, Bindermichl, Spallerhof, Wankmüllerhofviertel, Andreas-Hofer-Platz-Viertel
  3. Lustenau: Makartviertel, Franckviertel, Hafenviertel
  4. St. Peter
  5. Kleinmünchen: Kleinmünchen, Neue Welt, Scharlinz, Bergern, Neue Heimat, Wegscheid, Schörgenhub
  6. Ebelsberg
  7. Urfahr: Alt-Urfahr, Heilham, Hartmayrsiedlung, Harbachsiedlung, Karlhofsiedlung, Auberg
  8. Pöstlingberg:Pöstlingberg, Bachl-Gründberg
  9. St. Magdalena: St. Magdalena, Katzbach, Elmberg

Climate

Climate data for Linz
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 34 38 48 56 66 70 74 74 67 56 42 36
Average low °C (°F) 25 26 33 39 47 53 56 55 50 41 33 28
Precipitation cm (inches) 5
(2) 		5
(1.9) 		5
(2.1) 		7
(2.6) 		9
(3.4) 		11
(4.2) 		12
(4.6) 		10
(4) 		7
(2.8) 		5
(2.1) 		6
(2.2) 		6
(2.3) 		87
(34.2)
Source: Weatherbase [8]

Economy

Linz is an industrial city. The Voestalpine AG is a large steel concern (founded as the "Hermann-Göring-Werke" during World War II), which is known for the LD- ("Linz-Donawitz") procedure for the production of steel. The former "Chemie Linz" chemical group has been split up into several companies. These companies have made Linz one of Austria's most important economic centers.

Transport

Linz serves as an important transportation hub for the region of both Upper Austria and, to a lesser degree, southern Bohemia.

The "Blue Danube" Linz Airport lies about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) southwest of the town centre, in the municipality of Hörsching. Direct flights include Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Vienna with additional seasonal routes added during the summer and winter months. Ryanair flies to London Stansted Airport and Air Berlin flies to Berlin-Tegel Airport.[9]

The city also has a central station (German: Hauptbahnhof) on Austria's main rail axis, the West railway, linking Vienna with western Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There are also varying types of river transport on the Danube, from industrial barges to tourist cruise ships.

Local public transport is provided by trams, buses and trolleybuses, operated by Linz Linien GmbH (part of Linz AG).[10] The Pöstlingbergbahn is a tramway which climbs a small mountain at the northwest edge of the town.

File:Brucknerhaus.jpg
The Brucknerhaus
File:Danube in Linz.jpg
The Eisenbahnbrücke (railway bridge) at night, with the more modern VöestAlpine bridge in the background
File:LentosNightBlue.jpg
The Lentos Art Museum
The Landestheater

Points of interest

The main street "Landstraße" leads from the "Blumauerplatz" to "Taubenmarkt" (Pigeonmarket) near the main square. In the middle of the main square the high "Pestsäule" ("plague column", also known as "Dreifaltigkeitssäule" (Dreifaltigkeit means Holy Trinity)) was built to remember the people who died in the plague epidemics.[11][12]

Near the Schloss/castle, being the former seat of Friedrich the III — the oldest Austrian church is located: Sankt/Saint Martins church. It was built during early medieval Carolingian times.[13]

Other points of interest include:

  • St. Mary's Cathedral (Mariendom), Roman Catholic.,[14] in Gothic-Revival style
  • Pöstlingberg-Kirche: pilgrimage church on the Pöstlingberg hill
  • Brucknerhaus — the concert hall named after the composer Anton Bruckner, who was born in Ansfelden, a small town next to Linz.[15]
  • Gugl Stadium, is home to the LASK (Linzer Athletik Sport Klub), which is claimed to be the third oldest football club in Austria.[16]
  • The Linzer Landestheater[17][18]

Culture

The city is now home to a vibrant music and arts scene that is well-funded by the city and the state of Upper Austria. Between the Lentos Art Museum and the "Brucknerhaus", is the "Donaulände", which is also referred to as "Kulturmeile" ("culture mile"). This is a park alongside the river, which is used mainly by young people to relax and meet in summer. It is also used for the Ars Electronica Festival and the "Linz Fest".[19] Linz has other culture institutions, such as the Posthof, which is near the harbour,[20] and the Stadtwerkstatt, which is by the Danube river.[21] The Pflasterspektakel, an international street art festival, takes place each year in July in and around the Landstraße and the main square.[22] Linz was the European Capital of Culture in 2009, along with Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.[23]

Art

The recently built Lentos (2003) is a modern art gallery, presenting art from the 20th and 21st centuries. It is situated on the south banks of the river Danube. The building can be illuminated at night from the inside with blue, pink, red, and violet, due to its plastic casing.

The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a museum and research facility on the north bank of the Danube (in the Urfahr district), across the river from the Hauptplatz (main square). The AEC is a significant world center for new media arts, attracting a large gathering of technologically-oriented artists every year for the Ars Electronica festival. The AEC museum is home to one of the few public 2D CAVEs in Europe.

Music

The Brucknerhaus, the most important concert hall in Linz is named after Anton Bruckner. It is situated just some 200 meters away from the "Lentos". It is home to the "Bruckner Orchestra", and is frequently used for concerts, as well as Balls and other events.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 36 (1783) in Linz for a concert to be given there, and the work is known today as the Linz Symphony. The first version of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C minor is known as the Linz version.

Colleges and universities

Amongst the many "Gymnasien" (high schools) in Linz, is Linz International School Auhof (LISA), which is one of four IB (International Baccalaureate) schools in Austria, and uses English as main language for instruction.

Sports

The EHC Black Wings Linz play professional ice hockey in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga.

Generali Ladies Linz is annual WTA Tour tennis tournament held in city.

Born in Linz

Living in Linz:

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Austria

Twin towns — Sister cities

Linz is twinned with:[28]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Statistik Austria - Bevölkerung zu Jahres- und Quartalsanfang, 2012-01-01.
  2. ↑ Paul Hofmann (1987-04-05). "Letting Linz Castle cast a spell". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9B0DEED9163BF936A35757C0A961948260&scp=5. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
  3. ↑ Lundy, Darryl. "A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe". The Peerage. http://www.thepeerage.com/p11357.htm#i113570. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  4. ↑ Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: Norton, 1998. p.15
  5. ↑ "Adolf Hitler's hometown in Austria has opened an exhibition...", BBC
  6. ↑ City of Linz Website statistik.at – Retrieved 31 October 2007
  7. ↑ Population linz.at/zahlen – Retrieved 31 October 2007
  8. ↑ "Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Linz, Austria". Weatherbase. 2011. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=1011&refer=wikipedia. Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
  9. ↑ Press release Air Berlin. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  10. ↑ Linz Linien GmbH for Local Transport. Linz AG. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  11. ↑ The Plague Column liwest.at – Retrieved 31 October 2007
  12. ↑ The top of the column linz.at – Retrieved 31 October 2007
  13. ↑ "St. Martin's Church, Linz (in English)". Linz City Tourist Board. http://www.linz.at/english/Tourism/1146.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  14. ↑ "Mariendom (New Cathedral in Linz)". Mariendom. http://www.dioezese-linz.at/redaktion/index.php?page_new=2500. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  15. ↑ Brucknerhaus andreas-praefcke.de – Retrieved 31 October 2007
  16. ↑ "LASK". LASK. http://lask.at/content/lask/home/startseite/index_ger.html. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  17. ↑ George Tabori. "Mein Kampf: Farce in fünf Akten" (in German). Landestheater. http://www.landestheater-linz.at/490_DE-Stuecke-Stueckinfo.htm?stueckid=173. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  18. ↑ "Die Spielzeit 2007/2008". Landestheater. http://www.landestheater-linz.at/257_DE. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  19. ↑ The Lentos homepage lentos.at – Retrieved 10 November 2007
  20. ↑ "Welcome Posthof 04 2008". Posthof. http://www.posthof.at/. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  21. ↑ "Stadtwerkstadt". Stadtwerkstadt. http://www.servus.at/stwst/. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  22. ↑ "Pflasterspektakel Festival". Magistrat der Landeshauptstadt Linz. http://www.pflasterspektakel.at/eng/index_default.asp. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
  23. ↑ "European Capital of Culture". Linz Tourist Board. http://www.linz09.at/en/index.html. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  24. ↑ "Fred Astaire (1899–1987) aka Frederick Austerlitz". Hyde Flippo. http://www.germanhollywood.com/astaire.html#pop4. Retrieved 2008-08-24.[dead link]
  25. ↑ "Doug Hammond biog". Doug Hammond. http://www.doughammond.org/. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  26. ↑ Sulzer, Balduin. "Das musikalische Nashorn" (in German). Gerhard Brössner. http://www.ooejo.eduhi.at/Freiberufliches/Das%20musikalische%20Nashorn/Das%20musikalische%20Nashorn.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-06.[dead link]
  27. ↑ "Andrew Edge". Andrew Edge. http://andrew-edge.blogspot.com/. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  28. ↑ "Sister Cities of Linz". http://www.linz.at/english/life/4612.asp. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
  29. ↑ News Report concerning the Twinning with Linz

External links

40x40px Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Linz
40x40px Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Linz.


af:Linz

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