After hundreds of years, Innsbruck had developed from a Roman castle into a town. This legal recognition by the sovereign was accompanied by rights and duties: market rights, building rights, customs rights and its own jurisdiction were transferred to the city. The town also monitored compliance with religious order. "Heretics" and dissenters were not reprimanded by the church but by the city government and, in some cases, even sent to prison. The townspeople were no longer directly subject to the sovereign or a landlord, but to the town's jurisdiction, at least within the town walls. The popular saying "Stadtluft macht frei" is due to the fact that after one year in the city one was free of all obligations to one's former landlord and could freely dispose of one's property and lifestyle.

In return, the citizens had to take the oath of citizenship. This civic oath included the payment of taxes and the military defence of the city. From 1511, according to Emperor Maximilian's Landlibell, the city 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.

Innsbruck had a completely different social composition to the neighbouring villages. Craftsmen, merchants, civil servants and court servants characterised everyday life. Unlike farmers, craftsmen belonged to the mobile classes in the Middle Ages and early modern times. After their apprenticeship, they went to the Walzbefore taking the master craftsman's examination and either returning home or settling in another city. Craftsmen not only transferred knowledge, they also spread cultural, social and political ideas across Europe. 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.

In the 15th century, space became tight in the rapidly growing city of Innsbruck. Only free subjects born in wedlock were able to obtain city rights. In order to become a citizen, one had to either own a house or demonstrate skills in a trade in which the city's guilds were interested. The dispute over who is a "real" Innsbrucker and who is not continues to this day. The fact that migration and exchange with others have always guaranteed prosperity and made Innsbruck the liveable city it is today is often forgotten.

From the 14th century, Innsbruck demonstrably had a city council, the so-called Gemain, and 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."

The mayor represented the city vis-à-vis the other estates and the sovereign, who exercised overlordship over the city to a greater or lesser extent depending on the era. Each city councillor had their own clearly assigned tasks to fulfil, such as the supervision of market law, the care of the hospital and poor relief or the customs regulations, which were particularly important for Innsbruck. In all these political processes, one should always remember that Innsbruck had around 5,000 inhabitants in the 16th century, only a small proportion of whom had citizenship. The dispossessed, travellers, unemployed, servants, diplomats, employees, women and students were not entitled to vote. Voting was a privilege of the male upper class.

From the 14th century onwards, the taxes paid by the citizens no longer had to be passed on to the sovereign. There was a fixed levy from the city to the sovereign. The city government itself could determine which group within the city had to pay which tax. The city was allowed to manage the difference between income and expenditure as it saw fit. In addition to defence, expenditure included the care of the sick and poor. Citizens in need could go to the "Boiling kitchen" food, if they had the right of citizenship. The city government paid particular attention to infectious diseases such as the plague.

In addition to taxes, customs duties were an important source of income for Innsbruck. Customs duties were levied at the city gate at the Inn bridge. There were two types of customs duty. The small duty was based on the number of draught animals in the wagon, the large duty on the type and quantity of goods. The customs revenue was shared between Innsbruck and Hall. Hall had the task of maintaining the Inn bridge.

Contrary to popular belief, the Middle Ages were not a lawless time of arbitrariness. In Innsbruck, as in the province of Tyrol, there was a code that regulated right and wrong as well as the rights and duties of citizens very precisely. If you include the rules for trade, customs duties, the exercise of professions by guilds, price fixing by the magistrate and criminal law, pre-modern and early modern coexistence was even more strictly regulated than it is today. These regulations changed according to the customs of the time. The medieval court days were organised 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 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. It was not uncommon for the condemned man to give his executioner a kind of tip so that he would endeavour to aim as accurately as possible in order to make the execution as painless as possible. Delinquents who were particularly harmful to the authorities and public order, such as the "heretic" Jakob Hutter or the captured leaders of the peasant uprisings of 1525 and 1526, were executed before the executioner. 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 public demonstration of the authorities' power. It was seen as a way of cleansing society of criminals. The bodies of the executed were often left hanging as a deterrent and buried outside the consecrated area of the cemeteries.

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. The city administration was also modernised in 1784. Instead of the old city council with a commoner, there was now a mayor supported by a council, but above all by civil servants. This magistrate consisted of paid experts, who were still predominantly subject to the minor nobility, but now had to pass examinations to fulfil their office. While the position of mayor was temporary, civil servants enjoyed a lifelong, permanent position.

The Tyrolean Prince Frederick IV (1382 - 1439) lived during a turbulent period in Habsburg and Innsbruck history. A long beard covered the face of the prince, who is described in many chronicles and reports as arbitrary, power-hungry, deceitful and devious. Frederick was described as a sexaholic who, when in doubt, did not shy away from violence to get his way. His positive image was only given to him in the centuries after his death. Whether he was a miserly moral scoundrel or a skilful politician and friend of the common man - the key dates of his life would be suitable material for an adventurous medieval film.

At the age of 24, Frederick took over the county of Tyrol as well as the regency of Vorderösterreich. Vorderösterreich? So Vorarlberg? Not quite. Vorderösterreich was understood to mean the Habsburg possessions in Switzerland, Vorarlberg, Alsace and Baden-Württemberg, among others. Tyrol and Vorderösterreich had been administered jointly since Frederick as Upper Austria. This made him one of the most powerful princes of the Heiligen Römischen Reiches. From the beginning of his reign, he was involved in costly wars against hostile powers on the country's borders and competition within the Heiligen Römischen Reiches involved. In the west, the Appenzellers rose up against the Habsburgs, in the south there was an uprising in Trento and Henry of Rottenburg instigated a feud north of the Inn. These were the last conflicts to be fought in the manner of pure knightly armies.

Like his predecessor in the princely chair, Margaret, Frederick also came into conflict with the Pope. In his time, there was a pope in Avignon, France, as well as a pope in Rome. This papal issue was to be resolved at the Council of Constance, perhaps the most important political event of the late Middle Ages in Europe. Frederick sided with John XXIII. The King of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund from the Luxembourg dynasty, who backed the antipope in Avignon, had his rival within the empire, Frederick, rewarded with the Eight and imprisoned. This meant not only deprivation of liberty and expulsion from the church, but also the loss of his territories and property. His opponents gave him the nickname Friedl mit der leeren Tasche.

Once back in Innsbruck after an adventurous escape from prison, Frederick had to grant reforms to the population, especially the landowning lesser nobility and the towns, in recognition of their support in times of great need. In addition to the clergy, the nobility and the towns, this change in the law also allowed the courts, which were responsible for the administration of the rural communities, to send their representatives to the provincial parliament.

This nickname remained in the vernacular, even though at the end of his reign he was one of the richest princes in Europe of his time thanks to the rich silver finds in Schwaz and Gossensass as well as customs duties and tolls on trade between Venice and Augsburg. The social fabric of Innsbruck was also influenced by the silver discoveries and the associated mining industry in nearby Schwaz. The largest silver mine in Europe had a lasting impact on the country. The power of the guilds increased. Although Innsbruck was dependent on the surrounding area for food supplies, the growing prosperity of the city made it easier to manoeuvre through this time of crisis than in purely rural areas. When Frederick died, Tyrol had risen to become an important province within the Habsburg Empire thanks to the silver discoveries in Schwaz.

Although Innsbruck had grown, it was still a small town. In 1420, Frederick decided to make the city on the Inn his residence. Merano had been the ancestral seat of the Counts of Tyrol and remained the official Tyrolean capital until 1849. In fact, Innsbruck had been in the lead since Frederick's move at the latest. It was during his reign that the arcades in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße were laid out and the city tower was built. Throughout Europe, the 15th century was an economically difficult time, characterised by poor harvests due to the generally worse climate than in previous periods. However, thanks to trade and the impetus provided by the relocation of the court, Innsbruck flourished against the European trend.

Along with the court, which comprised around 400 people, came officials, servants, merchants, financiers and soldiers who brought money into the city. Above all, the craft guilds were to become the economic engine and the basis for the later early industrial production. It is difficult to say what specific effect the relocation of the residence had on Innsbruck's population. However, Frederick's court brought with it a new lifestyle with its new way of doing business. Public houses opened and offered variety in everyday life. Travelling theatres and show artists came to the city. As in many European cities in German-speaking countries, urbanisation spilled over from the Italian countries and brought a specialisation of the professional world and an even greater division of labour.

Immigration and the rapid change in the social fabric also caused problems. The xenophobia of the superstitious, often illiterate and poorly educated population did not diminish at the same pace as conditions changed. Tensions between long-established and new citizens, craftsmen, merchants, farmers and members of the court were part of everyday life in Frederick's Innsbruck.

Due to his many disputes with other princes and the Pope, his wealth from customs duties and the Schwaz mines and his probably eccentric character, Frederick IV was regarded by his contemporaries as a kind of robber baron. It was only later that he received a more favourable press due to the many legends that have grown up around his person since then. He is said to have travelled the country disguised as a beggar in order to find out what the people really thought of him. From the reports commissioned by the Habsburgs from the 16th century onwards, he comes off much better. His affectionate nickname Friedl mit der leeren Tasche carries this image of the good-natured, awkward prince of Tyrol right up to the present day. Innsbruckers still regard him as one of the fathers of the city.