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Linz

Statutory city in Upper Austria, Austria

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Blick vom Standort Kollegium Aloisianum, Freinbergstraße 32 auf Linz
Radler59 ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 4.0

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The area of present-day Linz was the site of the Roman settlement of Lentia. Linz was first documented in medieval sources and developed as a commercial and administrative centre within the Duchy of Austria and later the Habsburg monarchy. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city underwent significant industrialisation, including the establishment and expansion of steel and chemical production facilities. The city's economy subsequently diversified, with services, higher education, and research institutions becoming important components of local economic activity.

Linz is home to several universities, museums, and annual festivals. In 2009, the city was designated a European Capital of Culture.

History

Linz originated as a Roman fort named Lentia, established in the first century. The name reflects its location at a bend in the Danube (Celtic root lentos = "bendable"). This strategic position on the river made it the first Roman fort in the Noricum region, protecting a vital transportation route.

The name "Linz" in its present form was first documented in 799.

Linz was mentioned as a fortified city in 1236 and was granted city rights in 1324.

Johannes Kepler spent several years of his life in the city teaching mathematics. On 15 May 1618 he discovered Kepler's laws of planetary motion. The local public university Johannes Kepler University Linz is named for him.

The Oeconomische Encyclopädie (also simply known as the Krünitz), with the entry about Linz being written around 1800, describes the city as well built and fortified and its economy as growing, partially because of its location on the Danube and the connection to routes to Hungary and Vienna. At that time, the city had a population of 16,000–17,000. Major industries were the productions of gunpowder, iron, steel, salt, and firewood. The wool industry was particularly important: a wool manufactory, established in 1672, was the biggest in then-Austria, or rather, the Austrian states. It was nationalized in 1754. Plans, made in 1770, of selling it to a tradesman were canceled. Although it kept production going, by the end of the 18th century its golden era was over. When the Krünitz entry was written, the manufactuary had a yearly revenue of 1.5 million Gulden and was generating 100,000 in profit and was employing around 30,000 people.

Anton Bruckner spent the years between 1855 and 1868 working as a local composer and organist in the Old Cathedral, Linz. The Brucknerhaus is named for him.

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn (an Austrian town near the German border) and moved to Linz during his childhood. The notorious Holocaust bureaucrat Adolf Eichmann also spent his youth in Linz. Until the end of his life, Hitler considered Linz to be his hometown. Hitler effected the founding of the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra, which began presenting concerts in autumn 1943. His plan for one of the bell towers in Linz to play a theme from Bruckner's Fourth Symphony never came to pass.

During World War II Linz was a giant industrial complex in support of the Nazi war effort. Hermann Göring supervised the construction of the Voest complex, ultimately a gigantic construction site built by slave labour. The Mauthausen concentration camp was established to the east of Linz, but three Mauthausen sub-camps were within the Voest complex.

In addition to an ordnance depot Linz had a benzol plant which was bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II. The city's confrontation with its Nazi past resulted in the renaming of many streets. In 1945, immediately after the end of the Nazi dictatorship, 39 streets in Linz were renamed, but from 1946 to 1987, only two streets were renamed. However, since 1988, 17 new traffic areas were named after victims of National Socialism or resistance fighters.

After the Second World War, Linz became part of the American occupation zone in Austria and underwent postwar reconstruction. During the following decades, the city developed into one of Austria's main economic centres. In 2009, Linz was designated a European Capital of Culture.

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Source and licence. Adapted from the Wikipedia article “Linz” (this version, 2026-09-30) by its contributors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Lablypedia has left out its tables, references and most pictures, and linked it to other Lablypedia articles.