Hauptplatz & Old Town Hall Balcony, 12 March 1938
The small wrought iron balcony of the Old Town Hall is where Hitler, on the evening of 12 March 1938, told a roaring crowd of tens of thousands that Providence had sent him to bring his homeland into the Reich. The cheering in this square convinced him to annex Austria completely, and the city has kept the balcony silent ever since.
Su questo luogo
Linz's Hauptplatz is one of the largest and most elegant squares in Austria, 219 metres long and framed by pastel baroque houses around the 20 metre Trinity Column of 1723. On the evening of 12 March 1938 it became the stage for the Anschluss. Hitler, who had crossed the border at his birthplace Braunau that afternoon, reached the square around eight o'clock to find some sixty thousand people, swastika banners on every façade and the square already renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz. From the modest balcony of the Old Town Hall, built in 1778 for reading out laws and court verdicts, he spoke beside the new Nazi Chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Gauleiter August Eigruber, while Heinrich Himmler's SS men were already purging the police and drawing up arrest lists. Moved by the frenzy, Hitler abandoned his plan for a gradual union and, at lunch in the nearby Hotel Weinzinger the next day, announced the complete annexation of Austria. After 1945 Linz struggled with the legacy of that balcony. Since 1988 it has not been used for any public appearance, and a historians' commission confirmed in 2025 that this deliberate silence is the right form of remembrance.
Fatti principali
- 60000 people — Estimated crowd packed into the square to hear Hitler speak on the evening of 12 March 1938
- 1778 year — The Old Town Hall balcony was built to proclaim council decisions and court verdicts to the crowd below
- 1988 year — Since then the city of Linz has deliberately not used the balcony for any public event
📍 Hauptplatz 1, 4020, Linz