Linz (Austria)

Industrial city & tourist pearl on the Danube

The origins of the partnership between Linz am Rhein and Linz an der Donau go back more than 100 years. On 23 December 1919, the Linz/Rhine town council decided to provide a sum of 1,000 marks for the people in Austria who were suffering after the end of the First World War. In August 1920, about one hundred children from Linz on the Danube travelled to Linz on the Rhine for a recreational stay with host families that lasted almost two months. Only a few years later, the people of Linz on the Danube had reason to show their appreciation when the economic crisis in Germany reached its peak in 1923. The Linz/Danube volunteer fire brigade donated 100,000 Austrian crowns to their comrades on the Rhine and also sent food parcels.

These events marked the beginning of sometimes more, sometimes less intensive relations between the two cities. Numerous mutual visits, especially by fire brigades, but also by clubs and groups, took place in the following decades, personal friendships developed and even school exchanges were organised. There were also repeated official visits. The relationship gained new momentum when a 90-strong delegation from the Rhine to the Danube set out in 1980.

In October 1987, Theo Lück, mayor of Linz on the Rhine, was the first person to receive the newly created "Great Badge of Honour" from the provincial capital of Linz and affirmed the close ties between the cities with the words "I am a native of Linz and also a citizen of the Danube". A few weeks later, the twinning was finally officially sealed on the Danube, and in the twinning certificate the two city leaders expressed the hope that the now official twinning would contribute to the lasting consolidation of a friendship, the further deepening of good neighbourly relations and thus also to peace and international understanding.