Demo before Burschenbundball: Police hope for “little traffic disruption”

While up to 2,000 people attended the rally in the years before Corona, the police only expect around 300 participants on Saturday. No problems are expected, but they are well prepared and deployed with personnel “in the lower three-digit range”, according to police spokesman David Furtner. In the event that the operation turns out to be larger, there are still enough officials “in reserve”.

The “annual event for members of national weapon student associations living in Upper Austria, their relatives and friends” has – apart from the pandemic years – taken place regularly since 1948, according to the organizers. For many years, a demo by the alliance “Linz against the Right” has had almost as much tradition as the event itself, and it will take place again today. It starts at 5:30 p.m. on the square in front of the Ars Electronica Center and leads to the restricted area at Martin Luther Platz on Landstrasse.

The rally has an impact on public transport in the Linz city area. From 5 p.m. until the end of the demo, a rail replacement service must be set up, there is no tram running between the main station and Sonnensteinstraße or Landgutstraße at this time. However, the Nibelungen Bridge can be used by cars without restrictions. “We are doing everything we can to keep traffic running as smoothly as possible and hope that the disruption will be as small as possible,” says Furtner. The ball starts at 8.30 p.m. in the Palais Kaufmännischer Verein.