City Development

The face of Linz changed dramatically with technological developments in transport. The most striking was probably breaking through the Schmidtor in 1862, which created a direct connection between the Landstraße and the Hauptplatz. After the collapse of the old wooden bridge, the Donaubrücke was rebuilt as an iron construction in 1872. Numerous modifications were made along Landstraße and in Urfahr. Parks and gardens were laid out, new suburbs such as the Neustadtviertel were built systematically.

Despite the construction boom there was a great discrepancy between the increase in population and the state of housing. Living conditions for the poorer section of the population were especially miserable. Individual companies built workers' houses for their workforce, in order to keep qualified workers in their businesses. But it did not remove the shortage of housing.