Dark History: Hitler's Linz & the Führerstadt

What's the walk about?

Welcome to a sober and necessary walk through the city Adolf Hitler called his home town. Linz is where he went to school, where he lived with his mother until her death in December 1907, and where he dreamed of becoming an artist. On 12 March 1938 he returned in triumph, spoke from the balcony of the Old Town Hall and decided, that very night, on the full annexation of Austria. Later he planned to rebuild Linz as his Führerstadt, a monumental capital of art and industry of which only the Nibelungenbrücke and its two bridgehead buildings were ever completed. On this walk we follow that arc from a boy's sketchbook to the plans of a dictator, and we remember the people his regime destroyed: the Jewish community of Linz, the prisoners of the Gestapo, the forced labourers of the Hermann-Göring-Werke and the dead of nearby Mauthausen. This is a walk of remembrance, not entertainment. Please keep a respectful demeanor at the memorial sites along the route.

What you'll see

1. 1

   Humboldtstraße 31, Hitler's Boyhood Home

   Residence

2. 2

   Former Gestapo Headquarters, Langgasse 13

   Memorial

3. 3

   Bischofshof, Herrenstraße 19

   Building

4. 4

   Former Realschule, Steingasse 6, Hitler's School

   building

5. 5

   Landestheater, the Rienzi Night

   Theatre

6. 6

   Landstraße 12, Practice of Dr. Eduard Bloch

   Building

7. 7

   Linz Synagogue, Bethlehemstraße 26

   Synagogue

8. 8

   Old Cathedral (Alter Dom), Hitler's Confirmation

   Church

9. 9

   Hauptplatz & Old Town Hall Balcony, 12 March 1938

   Square

10. 10

    Nibelungenbrücke & Bridgehead Buildings, Führerstadt Linz

    Bridge

11. 11

    Urfahr Bridgehead & Ars Electronica Center, the Unbuilt Gau Forum

    square

12. 12

    Blütenstraße 9, Urfahr, the Death of Klara Hitler

    Residence