Quaternionenadler
Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 35
Worth knowing
Under one of the arcades near the entrance to the Old Town lies the Quaternion Eagle, a remarkable symbol of Habsburg power during Maximilian’s era. The Quaternion Eagle, also called the Blood-Ban Eagle, represented the political hierarchy of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. It united the most important institutions of feudal legislation. The double-headed eagle symbolized the monarchy. Beneath its wings, the coats of arms of the individual states of the Holy Roman Empire find protection. In the top row are the coats of arms of the prince-electors who elected the emperor. The four secular electors—Bohemia, Palatinate, Saxony, Brandenburg—and the three ecclesiastical electors—Trier, Cologne, Mainz—were, perhaps for symmetry, complemented by the coat of arms of the Podestà of Rome. The unifying element is the crucified Christ, who brings together the lands and the empire. In the feudal system, the Church was considered the representative of this Maiestas Domini on earth. The four shields above the eagle symbolize the royal houses of France, England, Sicily, and Scotland, which, alongside the Habsburgs, were regarded as anointed and thus equal kings.
The painting of the Quaternion Eagle was created in 1496 on the house of the then city judge Walter Zeller, today known as the Kohlegger House. Maximilian granted Zeller—considered particularly capable and honorable—the High Jurisdiction, the right to impose the death penalty for capital crimes, a privilege normally reserved for the territorial prince. Granting this blood jurisdiction to a city judge remained unique in Innsbruck’s history. Out of pride and gratitude to the emperor, and to emphasize his loyal affiliation with the ruling house, Zeller also had the fire steels of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the coats of arms of the Habsburg hereditary lands incorporated into the Quaternion Eagle. With this powerful artistic manifestation of the Holy Roman Empire, Zeller sought to underscore the legal validity of his position. Not preserved was the decorative inscription added by Zeller’s son, Walter the Younger, as a pious addition on the outside of the building: “Nisi dominus custodiet civitatem, frustra vigilat, cui custodit eam.” (Note: Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps vigil in vain.) That the Gothic painting under the arcades is still visible today is thanks to chance. In the 17th century, the artwork, like many others, was carelessly painted over. It only reappeared during renovation work in the 1930s.
Holy Roman Empire
The Austrian state is a fairly recent invention, as is citizenship. For more than 1000 years, Innsbruck was a land of the Heiligen Römischen Reiches. Innsbruckers were subjects of the emperor. And subjects of the Tyrolean sovereign. And their landlord. If they had citizenship, they were also Innsbruckers. And very probably also Christians. What they were not, at least not until 1806, was Austrian. But what was this Holy Roman Empire? And who was the emperor? And was he really more powerful than the king?
The empire was a union of individual countries, characterised by conflicts and squabbles over power, both between the princes of the empire and between the princes and the emperor. It had no capital. The centre of the empire was where the emperor was, who kept changing his residences. Emperor Maximilian I made Innsbruck one of his residence cities, which was like a turbo boost for the city's development. Until the 19th century, nationality and perceived affiliation played less of a role in nationality than they do today.
Christianity was the bond that held many things together. Institutions such as the Imperial Chamber Court or the Imperial Diet were only introduced in the late Middle Ages and early modern period to facilitate administration and settle disputes between the individual sovereigns. The Goldene Bulle, die unter anderem die Wahl des Kaisers regelten, war eine sehr einfache Form einer frühen Verfassung. Drei geistliche und 4 weltliche Kurfürsten wählten ihr Oberhaupt. Im Reichstag hatten die Fürsten Sitz und Stimme, der Kaiser war von ihnen abhängig. Um sich durchzusetzen, bedurfte er einer starken Hausmacht. Die Habsburger konnten dabei unter anderem auf Tirol zurückgreifen. Tirol war immer wieder Zankapfel zwischen den Habsburgern und den Herzögen von Bayern, obwohl beide dem Holy Roman Empire belonged to. Innsbruck was under the administration of Bavarian princely families several times.
Die Hierarchie innerhalb des feudalen Lehensystems war streng geordnet vom Kaiser bis zum Bauern. Kaiser und Könige erhielten Macht und Legitimation direkt von Gott. Das Feudalsystem war gottgewollt. Bauern, mehr als 90% der mittelalterlichen Bevölkerung, arbeiteten am Feld, um den für das Seelenheil betenden Klerus und die für die Schutzlosen kämpfenden und den Klerus beschützende Aristokratie zu ernähren. Es war eine Dreierbeziehung in der eine Seite Ordnung und Gebete für das Seelenheil der Menschheite, eine Seite Schutz, Leib und Leben und die dritte Seite Gehorsam, Treue und Arbeit einbrachten. Dieses Treueverständnis mag uns Staatsbürgern moderner Prägung fremd erscheinen, sind die Pflichten heutzutage über Steuern, der Einhaltung von Gesetzen, Wahlen oder Präsenzdienst abstrakter und wesentlich weniger persönlich. Bis ins 20. Jahrhundert hinein baute das Feudalsystem aber genau darauf auf. Treue basierte nicht wie die heutige Staatsbürgerschaft auf einem Geburtsrecht. Der „österreichische“ Militär Prinz Eugen mag französischer Abstammung gewesen sein, trotzdem kämpfte er in der Armee Leopolds I., des Kaisers des Heiligen Römischen Reiches against France. He was a subject of the Archduke of Austria with residences in Vienna and Hungary. While you had to be born in the USA to become president, the ruler was not bound to an innate nationality. Emperor Charles V was born in what is now Ghent in Belgium, grew up at the Burgundian court, became King of Spain before inheriting the Archduchy of Austria and later being elected Emperor. Germanicus being German did not mean being German, it mostly referred to the everyday language a person used.
Das Römische im Deutschen war ein jahrhundertealtes Konzept. Als Karl der Große im Jahr 800 in Rom zum Römisch-Deutschen Kaiser gekrönt wurde, trat er das Erbe der römischen Kaiser mit göttlicher Legitimation durch die Salbung des Papstes an. und gleichzeitig als weltlicher Schutzherr des Papstes an. Der Kaiser war im Gegenzug die Schutzmacht des Heiligen Vaters auf Erden. Das Heilige Römische Reich unter dem Mantel des Kaisers hörte erst 1806 zu Zeiten der Napoleonischen Kriege auf zu existieren. Zentraleuropa begann sich ab dieser Zeit langsam in eine Ansammlung von Nationalstaaten nach dem Vorbild Frankreichs und Englands zu verwandeln. Die Idee des Roman Empire ging auf die abenteuerliche, antike Vorstellung zurück, dass das antike Rom weiter Bestand haben musste. Für gläubige Christen war es laut der Lehre der Vier Weltreiche of enormous importance that the empire continued to exist. The basis of the Lehre der Vier Weltreiche was the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. According to this story, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of four successive world empires. According to the prophet, the world would end with the end of the fourth empire. The Christian church father Jerome interpreted these four empires around 400 AD as the succession of Babylon, Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire. In the belief of the Middle Ages, the end of Roman rule also meant the end of the world and therefore Rome could not come to an end. About this so-called Translatio Imperii, also die Übertragung des Rechtsanspruchs des Imperium Romanum der Antike auf die Römisch Deutschen Kaiser nach Karl dem Großen, wurde die Beständigkeit Roms formell gewahrt und die Erde konnte fortbestehen. Dem Kaiser sei Dank, dass es uns heute noch gibt.
Innsbruck and the House of Habsburg
Today, Innsbruck's city centre is characterised by buildings and monuments that commemorate the Habsburg family. For many centuries, the Habsburgs were a European ruling dynasty whose sphere of influence included a wide variety of territories. At the zenith of their power, they were the rulers of a "Reich, in dem die Sonne nie untergeht". Through wars and skilful marriage and power politics, they sat at the levers of power between South America and the Ukraine in various eras. Innsbruck was repeatedly the centre of power for this dynasty. The relationship was particularly intense between the 15th and 17th centuries. Due to its strategically favourable location between the Italian cities and German centres such as Augsburg and Regensburg, Innsbruck was given a special place in the empire at the latest after its elevation to a royal seat under Emperor Maximilian.
Tyrol was a province and, as a conservative region, usually favoured the dynasty. Even after its time as a royal seat, the birth of new children of the ruling family was celebrated with parades and processions, deaths were mourned in memorial masses and archdukes, kings and emperors were immortalised in public spaces with statues and pictures. The Habsburgs also valued the loyalty of their Alpine subjects to the Nibelung. In the 19th century, the Jesuit Hartmann Grisar wrote the following about the celebrations to mark the birth of Archduke Leopold in 1716:
„But what an imposing sight it was when, as night fell, the Abbot of Wilten held the final religious function in front of St Anne's Column, which had been consecrated by the blood of the country, surrounded by rows of students and the packed crowd; when, by the light of thousands of burning lights and torches, the whole town, together with the studying youth, the hope of the country, implored heaven for a blessing for the Emperor's newborn first son.“
Its inaccessible location made it the perfect refuge in troubled and crisis-ridden times. Charles V (1500 - 1558) fled during a conflict with the Protestant Schmalkaldischen Bund to Innsbruck for some time. Ferdinand I (1793 - 1875) allowed his family to stay in Innsbruck, far away from the Ottoman threat in eastern Austria. Shortly before his coronation in the turbulent summer of the 1848 revolution, Franz Josef I enjoyed the seclusion of Innsbruck together with his brother Maximilian, who was later shot by insurgent nationalists as Emperor of Mexico. A plaque at the Alpengasthof Heiligwasser above Igls reminds us that the monarch spent the night here as part of his ascent of the Patscherkofel. Some of the Tyrolean sovereigns from the House of Habsburg had no special relationship with Tyrol, nor did they have any particular affection for this German land. Ferdinand I (1503 - 1564) was educated at the Spanish court. Maximilian's grandson Charles V had grown up in Burgundy. When he set foot on Spanish soil for the first time at the age of 17 to take over his mother Joan's inheritance of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, he did not speak a word of Spanish. When he was elected German Emperor in 1519, he did not speak a word of German.
Not all Habsburgs were happy to be „allowed“ to be in Innsbruck. Married princes and princesses such as Maximilian's second wife Bianca Maria Sforza or Ferdinand II's second wife Anna Caterina Gonzaga were stranded in the harsh, German-speaking mountains after the wedding without being asked. If you also imagine what a move and marriage from Italy to Tyrol to a foreign man meant for a teenager, you can imagine how difficult life was for the princesses. Until the 20th century, children of the aristocracy were primarily brought up to be politically married. There was no opposition to this. One might imagine courtly life to be ostentatious, but privacy was not provided for in all this luxury.
Innsbruck experienced its Habsburg heyday when the city was the main residence of the Tyrolean sovereigns. Ferdinand II, Maximilian III and Leopold V and their wives left their mark on the city during their reigns. When Sigismund Franz von Habsburg (1630 - 1665) died childless as the last sovereign prince, the title of residence city was also history and Tyrol was ruled by a governor. Tyrolean mining had lost its importance and did not require any special attention. Shortly afterwards, the Habsburgs lost their possessions in Western Europe along with Spain and Burgundy, which moved Innsbruck from the centre to the periphery of the empire. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy of the 19th century, Innsbruck was the western outpost of a huge empire that stretched as far as today's Ukraine. Franz Josef I (1830 - 1916) ruled over a multi-ethnic empire between 1848 and 1916. However, his neo-absolutist concept of rule was out of date. Although Austria had had a parliament and a constitution since 1867, the emperor regarded this government as "his". Ministers were responsible to the emperor, who was above the government. In the second half of the 19th century, the ailing empire collapsed. On 28 October 1918, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, and on 29 October, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs left the monarchy. The last Emperor Charles abdicated on 11 November. On 12 November, "Deutschösterreich zur demokratischen Republik, in der alle Gewalt vom Volke ausgeht“. The chapter of the Habsburgs was over.
Despite all the national, economic and democratic problems that existed in the multi-ethnic states that were subject to the Habsburgs in various compositions and forms, the subsequent nation states were sometimes much less successful in reconciling the interests of minorities and cultural differences within their territories. Since the eastward enlargement of the EU, the Habsburg monarchy has been seen by some well-meaning historians as a pre-modern predecessor of the European Union. Together with the Catholic Church, the Habsburgs shaped the public sphere through architecture, art and culture. Goldenes DachlThe Hofburg, the Triumphal Gate, Ambras Castle, the Leopold Fountain and many other buildings still remind us of the presence of the most important ruling dynasty in European history in Innsbruck.
Big City Life in early Innsbruck
Innsbruck hatte sich von einem römischen Castell während des Mittelalters zu einer Stadt entwickelt. Diese formale Anerkennung Innsbrucks als Stadt durch den Landesfürsten brachte ein gänzlich neues System für die Bürger mit sich. Marktrecht, Baurecht, Zollrecht und eine eigene Gerichtsbarkeit gingen nach und nach auf die Stadt über. Stadtbürger unterlagen nicht mehr ihrem Grundherrn, sondern der städtischen Gerichtsbarkeit, zumindest innerhalb der Stadtmauern. Das geflügelte Wort "Stadtluft macht frei" rührt daher, dass man nach einem Jahr in der Stadt von allen Verbindlichkeiten seines ehemaligen Grundherrn frei war. Bürger konnten anders als unfreie Bauern und Dienstleute frei über ihren Besitz und ihre Lebensführung verfügen. Natürlich hatten sie Rechte und Pflichten zu erfüllen. Bürger lieferten zwar keinen Zehent ab, sondern bezahlten Steuern an die Stadt. Welche Gruppe innerhalb der Stadt welche Steuer zu bezahlen hatte, konnte die Stadtregierung selbst festlegen. Die Stadt wiederum musste diese Steuern nicht direkt abliefern, sondern konnte nach Abzug einer fixen Abgabe an den Landesfürsten frei über ihr Budget verfügen. Zu den Ausgaben neben der Stadtverteidigung gehörte die Kranken- und Armenfürsorge. Notleidende Bürger konnten in der „Boiling kitchen“ Speisen beziehen, so sie das Bürgerrecht hatten. Besondere Beachtung schenkte die Stadtregierung ansteckenden Krankheiten wie der Pest, die in regelmäßigen Abständen die Einwohner marterte.
In return for their rights, every citizen had to take the oath of citizenship. This civic oath included the obligation to pay taxes and perform military service. In addition to defending the town, the citizens were also deployed outside the town. In 1406, a delegation together with mercenaries opposed an Appenzell army in defence of the Upper Inn Valley. From 1511, according to Emperor Maximilian's Landlibell, the town council was also obliged to provide a contingent of conscripts for the defence of the country. In addition to this, there were volunteers who Freifähnlein For example, during the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529, Innsbruckers were among the city's defenders.
Im 15. Jahrhundert wurde der Platz eng im rasch wachsenden Innsbruck. Das Bürgerrecht wurde zu einem exklusiven Gut. Nur noch freien Untertanen aus ehelicher Geburt war es möglich, das Stadtrecht zu erlangen. Um Bürger zu werden, mussten entweder Hausbesitz oder Fähigkeiten in einem Handwerk nachgewiesen werden, an der die Zünfte der Stadt interessiert waren. Der Streit darum, wer ein „echter“ Innsbrucker ist, und wer nicht, hält sich bis heute. Dass Migration und Austausch mit anderen immer schon die Garantie für Wohlstand waren und Innsbruck zu der lebenswerten Stadt gemacht haben, die sie heute ist, wird dabei oft vergessen.
Due to these restrictions, Innsbruck had a completely different social composition to the neighbouring villages. Craftsmen, merchants, civil servants and servants of the court dominated the cityscape. Merchants were often travelling people, officials and court servants also came to Innsbruck for a short time as part of a prince's entourage and did not have citizenship. It was the craftsmen who exercised a large part of the political power within the citizenry. Unlike peasants, they belonged to the mobile classes in the Middle Ages and early modern period. After their apprenticeship, they went to the Walzbefore they took the master craftsman's examination and either returned home or settled in another city. Craftsmen not only transferred knowledge, they also spread cultural, social and political ideas. The craft guilds sometimes exercised their own jurisdiction alongside the municipal jurisdiction among their members. They were social structures within the city structure that had a great influence on politics. Wages, prices and social life were regulated by the guilds under the supervision of the sovereign. One could speak of an early social partnership, as the guilds also provided social security for their members in the event of illness or occupational disability. Individual trades such as locksmiths, tanners, platers, carpenters, bakers, butchers and blacksmiths each had their own guild, headed by a master craftsman.
From the 14th century, Innsbruck demonstrably had a city council, the so-called Gemainand a mayor who was elected annually by the citizens. These were not secret but public elections, which were held every year around Christmas time. In the Innsbrucker Geschichtsalmanach von 1948 findet man Aufzeichnungen über die Wahl des Jahres 1598.
The Feast of St. Erhard, i.e., January 8th, played a significant role in the lives of the citizens of Innsbruck each year. On this day, they gathered to elect the city officials, namely the mayor, city judge, public orator, and the twelve-member council. A detailed account of the election process between 1598 and 1607 is provided by a protocol preserved in the city archive: "... The ringing of the great bell summoned the council and the citizenry to the town hall, and once the honorable council and the entire community were assembled at the town hall, the honorable council first convened in the council chamber and heard the farewell of the outgoing mayor of the previous year, Augustin Tauscher."
Der Bürgermeister vertrat die Stadt gegenüber den anderen Ständen und dem Landesfürsten, der die Oberherrschaft über die Stadt je nach Epoche mal mehr, mal weniger intensiv ausübte. Jeder Stadtrat hatte eigene, klar zugeteilte Aufgaben zu erfüllen wie die Überwachung des Marktrechts, die Betreuung des Spitals und der Armenfürsorge oder die für Innsbruck besonders wichtige Zollordnung. Der Konsum von Alkohol und das Verweilen in den Gaststätten war zu verschiedenen Zeiten unterschiedlich geregelt. Ärmeren Bevölkerungsschichten war es nicht nur zu teuer, sie durften auch nur zu gewissen Zeiten in die Gasthäuser. So sollte übermäßiger Trunkenheit und dem Anbetteln der Oberschicht vorgebeugt werden. Der Stadtrat kontrollierte die Qualität und Güte der Speisen ähnlich einem frühen Marktamt, waren Städte doch an der Qualität ihrer Betriebe interessiert, um als Wirtschaftsstandort und für Gäste interessant zu sein. Bei all diesen politischen Vorgängen sollte man sich stets in Erinnerung rufen, dass Innsbruck im 16. Jahrhundert etwa 5000 Einwohner hatte, von denen nur ein kleiner Teil das Bürgerrecht besaß. Besitzlose, fahrendes Volk, Erwerbslose, Dienstboten, Diplomaten, Angestellte, Frauen und Studenten waren keine wahlberechtigten Bürger. Zu wählen war ein Privileg der männlichen Oberschicht.
Contrary to popular belief, the Middle Ages were not a lawless time of arbitrariness. At both local and national level, there were codes that regulated very precisely what was permitted and what was forbidden. This could vary greatly depending on the ruler and the prevailing morals and customs. Carrying weapons, swearing, prostitution, making noise, playing music, blasphemy, children playing - anything and anyone could be targeted by the guardians of the law. If you include the rules for trade, customs duties, the exercise of professions by guilds and price fixing for all kinds of goods by the magistrate, pre-modern and early modern coexistence was no less regulated than it is today. The difference was control and enforcement power, which the authorities often lacked.
If someone was caught committing an unlawful or immoral act, there were courts that passed judgement. The medieval court days were held at the "Dingstätte" is held outdoors. The tradition of the Thing goes back to the old Germanic Thingwhere all free men gathered to dispense justice. The city council appointed a judge who was responsible for all offences that were not subject to the blood court. He was assisted by a panel of several jurors. Punishments ranged from fines to pillorying and imprisonment. The city also monitored compliance with religious order. "Heretics" and dissenters were not reprimanded by the church, but by the city government.
The penal system also included less humane methods than are common today, but torture was not used indiscriminately and arbitrarily. However, torture was also regulated as part of the procedure in particularly serious cases. Until the 17th century, suspects and criminals in Innsbruck were Kräuterturm at the south-east corner of the city wall, on what is now Herzog-Otto-Ufer. Both the trial and the serving of the sentence were public trials. The city tower was Fool's cottagea cage in which people were locked up and put on display. On the wooden Schandesel you were dragged through the town for minor offences. The pillory was located in the suburb, today's Maria-Theresien-Straße. There was no police force, but the town magistrate employed servants and town watchmen were posted at the town gates to keep the peace. It was a civic duty to help catch criminals. Vigilante justice was forbidden.
The responsibilities between municipal and manorial justice had been regulated in the Urbarbuch since 1288. The provincial court still had jurisdiction over serious offences. Crimes such as theft, murder and arson were subject to this blood law. The provincial court for all municipalities south of the Inn between Ampass and Götzens was located on the Sonnenburgwhich was located to the south above Innsbruck. In the 14th century, the Sonnenburg district court moved to the upper town square in front of the Innsbruck city tower, later to the town hall and in the early modern period to Götzens. With the centralisation of the law in the 18th century, the court moved to Götzens. Sonnenburg back to Innsbruck and was housed under different names and in different buildings such as the Leuthaus in Wilten, on the Innrain or at the Ettnau residence, known as the Malfatti Castlein the Höttinger Gasse.
From the late 15th century, Innsbruck's executioner was centralised and responsible for several courts and was based in Hall. The execution centres were located in several places over the years. For a long time, there was a gallows on a hill in today's Dreiheiligen district, right next to the main road. The Köpflplatz was located until 1731 at today's corner of Fallbachgasse / Weiherburggasse in Anpruggen. In Hötting stand der Galgen hinter der Kapelle zum Großen Gott. Die heutige Kapelle, die neben dem barocken Kruzifix Keramikfiguren des bekannten Künstlers Max Spielmann (1906 – 1984) trägt, wurde bei Straßenarbeiten in den 1960er Jahren versetzt. Während Spielmanns Denkmal Totentanz an die Gefallenen des Zweiten Weltkriegs erinnert, konnten zum Tode Verurteilte am letzten Weg hier ein letztes Gebet zum Himmel schicken, bevor ihnen der Strick um den Hals gelegt oder der Kopf abgeschlagen wurde, je nach gesellschaftlichem Status und Art des Verbrechens. Es war nicht unüblich, dass der Verurteilte seinem Henker eine Art Trinkgeld zusteckte, damit sich dieser bemühte, möglichst genau zu zielen, um so die Hinrichtung so schmerzlos wie möglich zu gestalten. Viel konnte schiefgehen. Traf das Schwert nicht genau, wurde die Schlinge nicht sorgfältig umgelegt oder riss gar das Seil, erhöhte sich das Leiden des Verurteilten. Für die Obrigkeit und öffentliche Ordnung besonders schädliche Delinquenten wie der „Ketzer“ Jakob Hutter oder die gefassten Anführer der Bauernaufstände von 1525 und 1526 wurden vor dem Goldenen Dachl executed in a manner suitable for the public. "Embarrassing" punishments such as quartering or wheeling, from the Latin word poena were not the order of the day, but could be ordered in special cases. Executions were a demonstration of power by the authorities and were public. It was seen as a way of cleansing society of criminals and was intended to serve as a deterrent. Large crowds gathered to accompany the gallows bird on its final journey. Classes at the university were suspended on execution days to allow students to attend and purify them. The bodies of the executed were often left hanging and buried outside the consecrated area of the cemeteries or given to the university for study purposes. The last public execution in Austrian history took place in 1868. Even then, people were not squeamish, but the killings on the stranglehold, which was the method of choice for executions until the 1950s, were no longer a spectacle in front of an audience.
With the centralisation of law under Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the 18th century and the General Civil Code in the 19th century under Franz I, the law passed from cities and sovereigns to the monarch and their administrative bodies at various levels. Torture was abolished. The Enlightenment had fundamentally changed the concept of law, punishment and rehabilitation. The collection of taxes was also centralised, which resulted in a great loss of importance for the local nobility and an increase in the status of the civil service. With the increasing centralisation under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, taxes and customs duties were also gradually centralised and collected by the Imperial Court Chamber. As a result, Innsbruck, like many municipalities at the time, lost a large amount of revenue, which was only partially offset by equalisation.