LINZER STRÜNZER
Nobody knows exactly when the term ‘Linzer Strünzer’ came about.
'Strunzen' is a Rhenish word meaning to cut open, show off or boast.
The people of Linz are said to have built splendid and colourful façades in front of their modest dwellings as early as the Middle Ages, earning the city the name ‘The colourful city on the Rhine’. But like all Rhinelanders, the people of Linz love to tell stories and are never at a loss for a chat.
According to legend, when the Swedish King Gustaf-Adolf besieged the city during the Thirty Years' War and of course wanted to conquer it, the Linz councillors sought advice from Jupp Salzfass, a coiner. After emptying a large glass of Linz wine, he recommended that the strongest and largest citizens of Linz should gather in the evening, light large fires on the hills surrounding Linz and make such a racket with pots and pans that the Swedes would think they were facing a superior force of imperial troops who had arrived overnight as reinforcements in the event of an attack. The fishermen did the rest and lit fires on their boats, which they had brought to the other side of the Rhine in the shadows of darkness, and headed for the town. With this supposed superiority, the Swedes fled and none of them were ever seen in Linz again.
It is said that they all fell victim to the wolves and bears that still lived in the forests along the Rhine at the time. The people of Linz celebrated their victory and, of course, their Jupp Salzfass with a big party at which vast quantities of Linz wine and beer were drunk.