L. Holzinger, BA Master’s Degree Programme European Studies – Management of EU Projects, 2018

Due to the establishment of the steel and armament factory in the south of the city in 1938, became a steel city. Adolf Hitler, who went to school in Linz, had big plans for the city and wanted it to become his place of retirement. Therefore, it did not only become the capital of the armaments industry but was also foreseen to become an administrative and cultural centre and one of the five ‘Führerstädte’ (Fuehrer City) of the Third Reich. To establish the city, whole new districts were erected as well as three external camps of the concentration camp Mauthausen that should bring forced labourers to work for the armaments industry. Regarding the fast developments of the war, from all of Hitler’s eager plans only the building of the Nibelungenbrücke and a number of residential buildings were realized. After the war Linz struggeled with refugee flows into the city that contributed to a population boom which Linz was only able to tackle in the late 1980s (Linz09.at, 2009a; Linz.at, 2018d).

Nowadays Linz is the capital of Upper and with 205 921 inhabitants by January 1st, 2018 it is still the third largest city in Austria after Vienna and Graz (Linz.at, 2018e). As shown in a survey by the WKO Upper Austria in 2015, Linz counted 107 477 daily commuters traveling to Linz from the surrounding areas but also the nearby province of Lower Austria (WKO 2017: 11). Linz is still an economic centre but saw a shift from the heavy industry to high-technology sectors with a focus on social media and acoustic science, due to the steel crisis in the 1970s and 1980s (Linz09.at, 2009a; ECOTEC, 2010a: 21).

3.2.2 Cultural Life Famous people living in Linz have included Johannes Kepler, a mathematician and scientist, and , a composer. The Johannes Kepler University established in 1966 and the Anton Bruckner Private University have been named after these two men. Linz as a university city is nowadays also known for its cultural sector. The Brucknerhaus, erected in 1974, located at the Danube with its Bruckner Orchestra is an internationally well-known institution. Alongside this Linz also has to offer the OK – Offenes Kulturhaus (1989), which is a centre for contemporary arts and an art laboratory, the Ars Electronica Centre (AEC) (1996), an internationally well-known museum and research centre and the Lentos Kunstmuseum (2003), a modern art museum.

The Ars Electronica Festival, a visionary and internationally well-known festival of the digital arts, took place for the first time in 1979. Together with the festival also the ‘Linzer Klangwolke’ (Linzer cloud of sound) was developed. Alongside the international Brucknerfestival, this has been one of the most popular festivals in Linz. With the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz has found its niche in its competition with Vienna and Salzburg and ever since been putting a strong emphasis on modern, contemporary arts and especially on digital and electronic media, open spaces and the independent and alternative scene (Linz09.at, 2009a).

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