Can Contraband Bring Linz the Victory It So Desperately Needs?
Linz vs. Vilnius
Copyright: Ewald Kutzenberger
The “Linz vs. Vilnius” Capital of Culture duel’s next skirmish on Wednesday, March 4 has to do with history. Books were once smuggled into Lithuania as well as into Upper Austria’s Salzkammergut region. The audience will crown the more spectacular narrative.
In the wake of bitter defeats in the two previous showdowns, Linz is under intense pressure at this event being staged in the library of Linz’s Catholic Theological Private University. The contestants are both literary scholars and journalists: Cornelius Hell representing Lithuania and Edmund Brandner for Austria. They’ll be squaring off with two historic episodes. During the time of Russian rule, books in Lithuanian had to be imported in clandestine fashion. Something similar went on during the Counter-Reformation in the Salzkammergut, where book smugglers supplied Lutheran Bibles to the last Protestant enclaves in the Alps.The evening will be moderated as charmingly as ever by Messrs. Juhann and Jod. Be there—to relive history and to experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!
Linz vs. Vilnius
Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 8 PM
Library of the Catholic Theological Private University Linz, Bethlehemstraße 20
Free admission
