Thanks to the university, its professors and the young people it attracted and produced, Innsbruck also sniffed the morning air of the Enlightenment in the 18th century in the era of Maria Theresa, even if the Jesuit faculty leadership put the brakes on it. 1741 saw the founding of the Societas Academica Litteraria a circle of scholars in the Taxispalais. The masonic lodge was founded in 1777 To the three mountains, four years later, the Tyrolean Society for Arts and Science was founded. The spirit of reason in the time of Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph also found its way into Innsbruck's elite. Spurred on by the French Revolution, some students even declared their allegiance to the Jacobins. Under Emperor Franz, all these associations were banned and strictly monitored after the declaration of war on France in 1794. Enlightenment ideas were frowned upon by large sections of the population even before the French Revolution. At the latest after the beheading of Marie Antoinette, the Emperor's sister, and the outbreak of war between the French Republic and the monarchies of Europe, they were considered dangerous. Who wanted to be considered a Jacobin when it came to defending their homeland?

After the Napoleonic Wars, Innsbruck was slow to recover, both economically and mentally. Adalbert Stifter (1805 -1868), probably the most famous writer of Austrian Romanticism, described Innsbruck in the 1830s in his travelogue Tyrol and Vorarlberg as follows:

„The inns were bad, the pavements wretched, long gutters overhung the narrow streets, which were bordered on both sides by dull arches... the beautiful banks of the Inn were unpaved, but covered with heaps of rubbish and criss-crossed by cesspools.“

Die kleine Stadt am Rande des Kaiserreiches hatte etwas mehr als 12.000 Einwohner, „ohne die Soldaten, Studenten und Fremden zu rechnen“. University, grammar school, Reading casino, music club, theatre and museum were evidence of a developing, modern urban culture. There was a Deutsches Kaffeehaus, a Restoration in the courtyard garden and several traditional inns such as the White cross, the Österreichischen Hofwhich Grape, das Katzung, das Mouthingeach of which Goldenen Adler, Stern und Hirsch. After 1830, the open sewers were blocked and made more hygienic, roads were repaired and bridges renovated. The overdue straightening and taming of the Inn and Sill rivers, which had begun before the turmoil of war, was also tackled. The biggest innovation for the population came in 1830, when oil lamps lit up the town at night. It was probably just a dim twilight created by the more than 150 lamps mounted on pillars and arm chandeliers, but for contemporaries it was a true revolution.

Die bayerische Besatzung war verschwunden, die Ideen der Denker der Aufklärung und der Französischen Revolution hatten sich aber in einigen Köpfen des städtischen Milieus verfangen. Natürlich waren es keine atheistischen, sozialistischen oder gar umstürzlerischen Gedanken, die sich breit machten. Es ging vor allem um wirtschaftliche, politische und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe des Bürgertums. Das Vereinswesen feierte eine Renaissance. Was heute wenig spektakulär klingt, war zur Regierungszeit Metternichs aufsehenerregend. Zwischen dem Beginn der Napoleonischen Kriege mit dem revolutionären Frankreich 1797 und dem Wiener Kongress waren Vereine allgemein verboten gewesen. Wer auf sich hielt, trat nun einer dieser neuartigen Gesellschaften bei. "Innsbruck has a music society, an agricultural society and a mining and geological society." stand etwa im Reiseführer Beda Webers wie ein Qualitätssiegel für die Stadt zu lesen. Es galt das tugendhafte Miteinander zum Wohl der weniger Begüterten und die Erziehung der Massen mit dem Treiben in den Vereinen zu forcieren. Wissenschaft, Literatur, Theater und Musik, aber auch Initiativen wie der Innsbruck Beautification Association, but also practical institutions such as the voluntary fire brigade established themselves as pillars of a previously unknown civil society. One of the first associations to be formed was the Innsbruck Music Society, from which the Tyrolean State Conservatory emerged. In keeping with the spirit of the times, men and women were not members of the same organisations. Women were mainly involved in charitable organisations such as the Women's association for the promotion of infant care centres and female industrial schools. Female participation in the political discourse was not desired.

In addition to Christian charity, a thirst for recognition and prestige were probably also major incentives for members to get involved in the clubs. People met to see and be seen. Good deeds, demonstrating education and leading a virtuous life were then, as now, the best PR for oneself.

Club life also served as entertainment on long evenings without electric light, television and the internet. Students, civil servants, members of the lower nobility and academics met in the pubs and coffee houses to exchange ideas. This was not only about highly intellectual and abstract matters, but also about profane realpolitik such as the suspension of internal tariffs, which made people's lives unnecessarily expensive. Culturally, the bourgeois educated elite in the Romantic and Biedermeier periods discovered the cultural escape into an intact past for themselves. After decades of political confusion, war and hardship, people wanted a distraction from the recent past, just as they did after 1945. Antiquity and its thinkers celebrated a second renaissance in Innsbruck, as in the rest of Europe. Romantic thinkers of the 18th and early 19th centuries such as Winckelmann, Lessing and Hegel were influential. The Greeks were „Noble simplicity and quiet greatness" attested. Goethe wanted the "Search the land of the Greeks with your soul" and travelled to Italy in search of his longing for the good, pre-Christian times in which the people of the Golden Age cultivated an informal relationship with their gods. Roman Stoic virtues were transported into the modern age as role models and formed the basis for bourgeois frugality and patriotism, which became very fashionable. Philologists combed through the texts of ancient writers and philosophers and conveyed a pleasing "Best of" into the 19th century. Columns, sphinxes, busts and statues with classical proportions adorned palaces, administrative buildings and museums such as the Ferdinandeum. Students and intellectuals such as the Briton Lord Byron were so inspired by the Panhellenism and the idea of nationalism that they risked their lives in the Greek struggle for independence against the Ottoman Empire. After the end of the Holy Roman Empire, Pan-Germanism became the political fashion of the liberal bourgeoisie in Innsbruck.

Kanzler Clemens von Metternichs (1773 – 1859) Polizeistaat hielt diese gesellschaftlichen Regungen lange Zeit unter Kontrolle. Zeitungen, Flugblätter, Schriften mussten sich an die Vorgaben der strengen Zensur anpassen oder im Untergrund verbreitet werden. Autoren wie Hermann von Gilm (1812 – 1864) und Johann Senn (1792 – 1857), an beide erinnern heute Straßen in Innsbruck, verbreiteten in Tirol anonym politisch motivierte Literatur. Der vielleicht bekannteste Public Intellectual des Vormärz war wahrscheinlich Adolf Pichler (1819 – 1900), dem bereits kurz nach seinem Ableben unter gänzlich anderen Vorzeichen in der Stadtpolitik der späten Monarchie ein Denkmal gewidmet wurde und nach dem heute das Bundesrealgymnasium am gleichnamigen Platz gewidmet ist. Bücher und Vereine standen unter Generalverdacht. Der Innsbrucker Musikverein lehrte im Rahmen seiner Ausbildung auch die Deklamation, das Vortragen von Texten, Musik und Reden, die Inhalte wurden von der Obrigkeit streng überwacht. Alle Arten von Vereinen wie die Innsbrucker Liedertafel and student fraternities, even the members of the Ferdinandeum were spied on. The social movements forming in the working-class neighbourhoods were particularly targeted by Metternich's secret police. Despite their demonstrative loyalty to the emperor, the marksmen were also on the list of institutions to be observed. They were considered too rebellious, not only towards foreign powers, but also towards the Viennese central government. The mix of Greater German nationalist ideas and Tyrolean patriotism presented with the pathos of Romanticism seems strangely harmless today, but was neither comfortable nor acceptable to the Metternich state apparatus.

However, political activism was a marginal phenomenon that only occupied a small elite. After the mines and salt works had lost their profitability in the 17th century and transit lost its economic importance due to the new trade routes across the Atlantic, Tyrol had become a poor region. The Napoleonic Wars had raged for over 20 years. The year 1809 went down as Tyrolean heroic age in the historiography of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the consequences of heroism were barely highlighted. Although the Austrian Empire was one of the victorious powers after the Congress of Vienna, its economic situation was miserable. As after the world wars of the 20th century, many men had not returned home during the coalition wars. The university, which drew young aristocrats into the city's economic cycle, was not reopened until 1826. Unlike industrial locations in Bohemia, Moravia, Prussia or England, the hard-to-reach city in the Alps was only just beginning to develop into a modern labour market. Tourism was also still in its infancy and was not a Cash Cow. It is no wonder that hardly any buildings in the Biedermeier style have survived in Innsbruck. And then there was a volcano on the other side of the world that had an undue influence on the fate of the city of Innsbruck. In 1815, Tambora erupted in Indonesia and sent a huge cloud of dust, sulphur and ash around the world. In 1816 Year without summer into history. All over Europe, there were freak weather conditions, floods and failed harvests. The Alps, an already difficult part of the world to farm, were not exempt from this.

The economic upheavals and price increases led to hardship and misery, especially among the poorer sections of the population. In the 19th century, caring for the poor was a task for the communities, usually with the support of wealthy citizens as patrons with the idea of Christian charity. The state, the community, the church and the newly emerging civil society in the form of associations began to look after the welfare of the poorest sections of the population. Charity concerts, collections and appeals for donations were organised. The measures often contained an enlightened component, even if the means to an end seem strange and alien today. In Innsbruck, for example, a begging ordinance came into force that banned dispossessed people from marrying. Almost 1000 citizens were categorised as alms recipients and beggars.

As the need grew and the city coffers became emptier, Innsbruck came up with an innovation that was to last for over 100 years: The New Year's apology card. Even back then, it was customary to visit relatives on the first day of the year to give each other a Happy New Year to make a wish. It was also customary for needy families and beggars to knock on the doors of wealthy citizens to ask for alms at New Year. The introduction of the New Year's relief card killed several birds with one stone. The buyers of the card were able to institutionalise and support their poorer members in a regulated way, similar to the way street newspapers are bought today. Twenty is possible. At the same time, the New Year's apology card served as a way of avoiding the unpopular obligatory visits to relatives. Those who hung the card on their front door also signalled to those in need that no further requests for alms were necessary, as they had already paid their contribution. Last but not least, the noble donors were also favourably mentioned in the media so that everyone could see how much they cared for their less fortunate fellow human beings in the name of charity.

The New Year's apology cards were a complete success. At their premiere at the turn of the year from 1819 to 1820, 600 were sold. Many communities adopted the Innsbruck recipe. In the magazine "The Imperial and Royal Privileged Bothe of and for Tyrol and Vorarlberg", the proceeds for Bruneck, Bozen, Trient, Rovereto, Schwaz, Imst, Bregenz and Innsbruck were published on 12 February. Other institutions such as fire brigades and associations also adopted the well-functioning custom to raise funds for their cause. The construction of the new Höttinger parish church was financed to a large extent from the proceeds of specially issued apology cards in addition to donations. The varied designs ranged from Christian motifs to portraits of well-known personalities, official buildings, new buildings, sights and curiosities. Many of the designs can still be seen in the Innsbruck City Archives.

Maria Theresa ranks among the most important figures in Austrian history. Particularly significant were her domestic reforms, many of which had a tangible impact on the everyday lives of Innsbruck’s inhabitants and are still visible today in the city’s built environment. Together with her most influential advisers—Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, Joseph von Sonnenfels, and Wenzel Anton Kaunitz—she succeeded in transforming the so‑called Austrian hereditary lands into a modern state. Instead of governing her territories through the local nobility, she relied on a centralized, professional administration. In keeping with Enlightenment thought, her advisers recognized that the welfare of the state depended on the health and level of education of its individual subjects. An early healthcare reform of 1742 obliged the professors of medicine at the University of Innsbruck not only to teach but also to ensure the operation of the municipal hospital in the Neustadt district. A school reform likewise reshaped the educational landscape within the city walls, both spatially and conceptually. Due to a lack of space, the school was relocated from Domplatz to Kiebachgasse, and its educational mission was redefined. Subjects were expected to remain Catholic, but their loyalty was to be directed toward the state. Education was placed under centralized state control in order to develop talents in a targeted manner. The aim was not to raise critical, humanistic intellectuals, but rather to train personnel for the state administrative apparatus. This reform laid the foundation for later social mobility. Through military service and civil administration, non‑nobles were now able to pursue careers and climb the social ladder. Any improvement of the individual was regarded as a gain for the whole. Further measures followed that affected not only the national economy but also the daily lives of most people. The standardization of weights and measures made the tax system more precise and less susceptible to abuse. For farmers, the harmonization of laws meant that their livelihoods were less dependent on local landlords and their arbitrary decisions. The Robot—the unpaid compulsory labor owed by peasants to their landlords—was also abolished under Maria Theresa. A shift in thinking likewise took place in criminal prosecution and the judicial system. In 1747, a small police force was established in Innsbruck to oversee market regulation, trade and guild regulations, control of foreigners, and public morals. Above all, this served to regulate the provision of goods in favor of consumers. Not only poor quality but also price gouging was punished. The strictness of early food inspections is illustrated by a police record from 1748, in which a butcher from Pradl was fined for exceeding the legally fixed meat prices. This denser network of regulations and improved law enforcement went hand in hand with a more humane system of punishment. Although the criminal code Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana did not abolish torture, it did strictly regulate its use. Yet despite Maria Theresa’s self‑presentation as a pious mother of the land and her reputation today as an Enlightenment ruler, the devoutly Catholic sovereign was uncompromising when it came to power and religion. In keeping with Enlightenment thought, she ordered critical investigations into superstitions such as vampirism, which was widespread in the eastern parts of her realm, and initiated the final end of the witch trials. At the same time, however, Protestants were ruthlessly expelled from the country. Many Tyroleans were forced to leave their homeland and resettle in more remote regions of the Habsburg monarchy.

In crown lands such as Tyrol, which had previously enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, Maria Theresa’s reforms were met with little approval. Centralization remains a sensitive issue in Austrian politics to this day. With the exception of a few liberals, people saw themselves more as an independent, autonomous land and less as part of a modern territorial state. The clergy also resented their new subordinate role, which was further intensified under Joseph II. For the local nobility, the reforms meant not only a loss of status and autonomy but also higher taxes and levies. Taxes, duties, and customs revenues that had long provided Innsbruck with reliable income were now collected centrally and only partially returned through fiscal redistribution. To mitigate the social decline of sons from impoverished noble families and prepare them for state service, Maria Theresa founded the Theresianum, which also had a branch in Innsbruck from 1775 onward. As so often, time smoothed over former conflicts, and today Innsbruck’s inhabitants take pride in having hosted one of the most significant rulers in Austrian history. Not only the Triumphal Arch and the Imperial Palace (Hofburg), but also the Turnvereinshaus and the New City School recall the Theresian era, a period in which the state began to intervene ever more deeply in the lives of its citizens from the moment they entered school.

The period between the French Revolution and the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 was a markedly warlike one. Many of the political attitudes and animosities toward other groups, as well as the European nationalism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—which would also shape the history of Innsbruck—had their roots in the conflicts of this era. The monarchies of Europe, led by the Catholic Habsburgs, declared war on the French Republic. Although revolutionary Paris was far away and there was as yet no comprehensive press system for the dissemination of news, the godlessness of the murderers of Marie Antoinette was effectively propagated through pamphlets and church pulpits. Fear spread that the revolutionary slogan “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” and its underlying principles might take hold across Europe. A young general named Napoleon Bonaparte advanced across the Alps with his Italian army during the Coalition Wars and encountered Austrian troops there. This was not merely a struggle over territory and power, but a clash of systems. The Grande Armée of revolutionary France faced the forces of the conservative and Catholic Habsburgs.

Tyrolean marksmen were actively involved in the fighting to defend the country's borders against the invading French. The men were used to handling weapons and were considered skilled marksmen. The historian Ludwig Denk put it this way in an essay in 1860:

"...The Tyrolean's main passion is shooting. Early on, the father takes his son hunting. It is not uncommon to see boys running around with loaded rifles, climbing high mountains and shooting birds or squirrels..."

The strength of companies such as the Höttingen Riflemen, founded in 1796, did not lie in open field battles but in guerrilla warfare. Moreover, they had a secret weapon on their side against what was then the most advanced and modern army in the world: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Since 1719, Jesuit missionaries had travelled even into the most remote side valleys, successfully establishing devotion to the Sacred Heart as a unifying element in the struggle against pagan practices and Protestantism. Now, faced with the godless revolutionary French, it seemed only logical that the Sacred Heart would watch protectively over the Tyrolean warriors of God. In desperate situations, the Tyrolean troops renewed their covenant with the Sacred Heart—which had already been employed as a spiritual weapon against external enemies in 1703—to seek protection and support. Against all odds, the riflemen were successful in their defensive struggle. It was the abbot of Stams Abbey who proposed to the provincial estates that henceforth “the Feast of the Divine Heart of Jesus should be celebrated annually with a solemn church service, should Tyrol be delivered from the impending danger of the enemy.” Each year, the Sacred Heart celebrations were announced and discussed with great pomp in the press. Especially in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they constituted an explosive mixture of popular superstition, Catholicism, and national resentment directed against all things French and Italian. Countless soldiers continued to place their trust in the Sacred Heart even amid the technologised warfare of the First World War, carrying images of this symbol with them through the hail of shells. Alongside Cranach’s Madonna of Mercy, depictions of the Sacred Heart remain to this day among the most popular Christian motifs in Tyrol and adorn the façades of countless buildings. Habsburg Tyrol emerged from the turmoil of war enlarged—albeit without notable success on the battlefields, and probably not without invoking the Sacred Heart. In the final throes of the Holy Roman Empire, shortly before its dissolution in 1803, the archiepiscopal territory of Trentino became part of the crown land. The provincial capital, however, had shrunk. Fallen soldiers and war-related economic hardships led to a decline in Innsbruck’s population from a little over 9,500 around 1750 to approximately 8,800.

After the Napoleonic Wars, Tyrol’s borders remained largely peaceful for around thirty years. This changed with the Italian Risorgimento, the national movement led by Sardinia‑Piedmont and France. In 1848, 1859, and 1866, the so-called Italian Wars of Unification took place. Over the course of the nineteenth century—at the latest since 1848—a veritable nationalist fervour swept through young men of the upper classes across Europe. Volunteer armies sprang up everywhere. Students and academics organised themselves in fraternities; gymnasts and riflemen alike sought to prove their newfound love of nation on the battlefield, supporting official armies against whatever enemy they faced. During this period, Innsbruck served as an important supply hub as a garrison town. Following the Congress of Vienna, the Tyrolean Jäger Corps became the Imperial and Royal Tyrolean Kaiserjäger Regiment, an elite unit deployed in these conflicts. Volunteer units such as the Innsbruck Academics or the Stubai Riflemen also fought in Italy. Thousands fell in combat against a coalition consisting of the archenemy France, the godless Garibaldians in their red shirts, and the threat posed by the Kingdom of Italy, which was being formed at Austria’s expense under the leadership of the Francophile House of Savoy from Piedmont. Media outlets inflamed public sentiment away from the front lines. The Innsbrucker Zeitung preached loyalty to the emperor and a Greater German‑Tyrolean nationalism in its articles, railed against Italians and Frenchmen, and praised the courage of Tyrolean soldiers.

“The strong occupation of the heights at the exit of the Valsugana near Primolano and Le Tezze has often given the Innsbruck Academics I and the Stubai riflemen cause to undertake voluntary excursions against Le Tezze, Fonzago, and Fastro, as well as to the right bank of the Brenta and the heights opposite the small camps of the Sette Comuni… On the 19th, the Stubai riflemen had already struck down several enemies when they ventured down for the first time, creeping up on them…”

The most famous battle of the Wars of Unification took place at Solferino in 1859 near Lake Garda. Appalled by the bloodshed, Henry Dunant decided to found the Red Cross. Writer Joseph Roth described the events on the opening pages of his classic novel Radetzky March:

"In the battle of Solferino, he (note: Lieutenant Trotta) commanded a platoon as an infantry lieutenant. The battle had been going on for half an hour. Three paces in front of him he saw the white backs of his soldiers. The first row of his platoon was kneeling, the second was standing. Everyone was cheerful and certain of victory. They had eaten copiously and drunk brandy at the expense and in honour of the emperor, who had been in the field since yesterday. Here and there one fell out of line."

The year 1866 proved particularly devastating for the Austrian Empire. In Italy, Venetia and Lombardy were lost. In the north, the Habsburg army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz. After this brief “brotherly war,” Prussia assumed leadership of the German Confederation—the successor to the Holy Roman Empire—from the Habsburgs. The Austrian Empire’s reorientation toward the east meant that Innsbruck definitively became a city on the western periphery of the realm. This development was accompanied by a revival of the national idea, especially prevalent among Innsbruck’s liberal upper bourgeoisie. Support for the so‑called Greater German solution—advocating a shared statehood with the German Empire instead of the Austro‑Hungarian Monarchy—was particularly strong in the city. The extent to which this German Question divided Innsbruck became evident more than thirty years later, when the city council proposed naming a street after the “Iron Chancellor” Bismarck, who had borne primary responsibility for the war between Austria and Prussia. While conservative loyalists to the emperor reacted with outrage, the Greater German liberals around Mayor Wilhelm Greil were enthusiastic. After the Second World War, the lost Battle of Königgrätz served Austrian arguments portraying Austria as the first victim of National Socialism, as the country had already been excluded from a pan‑German state in 1866. With the Tummelplatz, the Pradl Military Cemetery, and the Kaiserjäger Museum on Bergisel, the city still possesses several sites of memory commemorating these bloody conflicts, in which many Innsbruck residents marched off to war and never returned.

It was almost not Gavrilo Princip, but a student from Innsbruck who changed the fate of the world. It was thanks to chance that the 20-year-old Serb was stopped in 1913 because he bragged to a waitress that he was planning to assassinate the heir to the throne. It was only when the world-changing shooting in Sarajevo actually took place that an article about it appeared in the media. After the actual assassination of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June, it was impossible to foresee what impact the First World War that broke out as a result would have on the world and people's everyday lives. However, two days after the assassination of the Habsburg in Sarajevo, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten already prophetic: "We have reached a turning point - perhaps the "turning point" - in the fortunes of this empire".

Enthusiasm for the war in 1914 was also high in Innsbruck. From the "Gott, Kaiser und VaterlandDriven by the "spirit of the times", most people unanimously welcomed the attack on Serbia. Politicians, the clergy and the press joined in the general rejoicing. In addition to the imperial appeal "To my peoples", which appeared in all the media of the empire, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten On 29 July, the day after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, the media published an article about the capture of Belgrade by Prince Eugene in 1717. The tone in the media was celebratory, although not entirely without foreboding of what was to come.

"The Emperor's appeal to his people will be deeply felt. The internal strife has been silenced and the speculations of our enemies about unrest and similar things have been miserably put to shame. Above all, the Germans stand by the Emperor and the Empire in their old and well-tried loyalty: this time, too, they are ready to stand up for dynasty and fatherland with their blood. We are facing difficult days; no one can even guess what fate will bring us, what it will bring to Europe, what it will bring to the world. We can only trust with our old Emperor in our strength and in God and cherish the confidence that, if we find unity and stick together, we must be granted victory, for we did not want war and our cause is that of justice!"

Theologians such as Joseph Seeber (1856 - 1919) and Anton Müllner alias Bruder Willram (1870 - 1919) who, with her sermons and writings such as "Das blutige Jahr" elevated the war to a crusade against France and Italy.

Many Innsbruckers volunteered for the campaign against Serbia, which was thought to be a matter of a few weeks or months. Such a large number of volunteers came from outside the city to join the military commissions that Innsbruck was almost bursting at the seams. Nobody could have guessed how different things would turn out. Even after the first battles in distant Galicia, it was clear that it would not be a matter of months. Kaiserjäger and other Tyrolean troops were literally burnt out. Poor equipment, a lack of supplies and the catastrophic leadership of the high command under Konrad von Hötzendorf led to the deaths of thousands or to captivity, where hunger, abuse and forced labour awaited them.

In 1915, the Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the side of France and England. This meant that the front went right through what was then Tyrol. From the Ortler in the west across northern Lake Garda to the Sextener Dolomiten the battles of the mountain war took place. Innsbruck was not directly affected by the fighting. However, the war could at least be heard as far as the provincial capital, as was reported in the newspaper of 7 July 1915:

„Bald nach Beginn der Feindseligkeiten der Italiener konnte man in der Gegend der Serlesspitze deutlich Kanonendonner wahrnehmen, der von einem der Kampfplätze im Süden Tirols kam, wahrscheinlich von der Vielgereuter Hochebene. In den letzten Tagen ist nun in Innsbruck selbst und im Nordosten der Stadt unzweifelhaft der Schall von Geschützdonner festgestellt worden, einzelne starke Schläge, die dumpf, nicht rollend und tönend über den Brenner herüberklangen. Eine Täuschung ist ausgeschlossen. In Innsbruck selbst ist der Donner der Kanonen schwerer festzustellen, weil hier der Lärm zu groß ist, es wurde aber doch einmal abends ungefähr um 9 Uhr, als einigermaßen Ruhe herrschte, dieser unzweifelhafte von unseren Mörsern herrührender Donner gehört.“

Until the transfer of regular troops from the Eastern Front to the Tyrolean borders, the national defence depended on the Standschützen, a troop made up of men under 21, over 42 or unfit for regular military service. The casualty figures were correspondingly high.

Although the front was relatively far away from Innsbruck, the war also penetrated civilian life. Due to the mass mobilisation of a large part of the working male population, many businesses came to a complete standstill. Shelves in shops remained empty, public transport came to a standstill, craftsmen and labourers were missing everywhere. There was often a shortage of coal and firewood. Hunger and cold became bitter enemies of women, children, the wounded and those unfit for war in the city. This experience of the total involvement of society as a whole was new to the people. Barracks were erected in the Höttinger Au to house prisoners of war. Transports of wounded brought such a large number of horribly injured people that many civilian buildings such as the university library, which was currently under construction, or Ambras Castle were converted into military hospitals. The Pradl military cemetery was established to cope with the large number of fallen soldiers. A predecessor to tram line 3 was set up to transport the wounded from the railway station to the new garrison hospital, today's Conrad barracks in Pradl. The companies that were still able to produce were subordinated to the war economy. However, the longer the war lasted, the fewer there were. By the winter of 1917, Innsbruck's economy had almost completely collapsed.

As the war drew to a close, so did the front. In February 1918, the Italian air force managed to drop three bombs on Innsbruck. In this winter, which was known as Hunger winter When the war went down in European history, the shortages also made themselves felt. In the final years of the war, food was supplied via ration coupons. 500 g of meat, 60 g of butter and 2 kg of potatoes were the basic diet per person - per week, mind you. Archive photos show the long queues of desperate and hungry people outside the food shops. There were repeated protests and strikes. Politicians, trade unionists, workers and war returnees saw their chance for change. Under the motto Peace, bread and the right to vote a wide variety of parties united in resistance to the war. At this time, most people were already aware that the war was lost and what fate awaited Tyrol, as this article from 6 October 1918 shows:

 „Aeußere und innere Feinde würfeln heute um das Land Andreas Hofers. Der letzte Wurf ist noch grausamer; schändlicher ist noch nie ein freies Land geschachert worden. Das Blut unserer Väter, Söhne und Brüder ist umsonst geflossen, wenn dieser schändliche Plan Wirklichkeit werden soll. Der letzte Wurf ist noch nicht getan. Darum auf Tiroler, zum Tiroler Volkstag in Brixen am 13. Oktober 1918 (nächsten Sonntag). Deutscher Boden muß deutsch bleiben, Tiroler Boden muß tirolisch bleiben. Tiroler entscheidet selbst über Eure Zukunft!“

On 4 November, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy finally agreed an armistice. This gave the Allies the right to occupy areas of the monarchy. The very next day, Bavarian troops entered Innsbruck. Austria's ally Germany was still at war with Italy and was afraid that the front could be moved closer to the German Reich in North Tyrol. Fortunately for Innsbruck and the surrounding area, however, Germany also surrendered a week later on 11 November. This meant that the major battles between regular armies did not take place.

Nevertheless, Innsbruck was in danger. Huge columns of military vehicles, trains full of soldiers and thousands of emaciated soldiers making their way home from the front on foot passed through the city. Those who could, jumped on one of the overcrowded trains or a car to leave the Brenner Pass behind them to get home. In November 1918, more than 270 soldiers lost their lives during these daring manoeuvres or had to be admitted to one of the city's military hospitals. The city not only had to keep its own citizens in check and guarantee rations, but also protect itself from looting. In order to maintain public order, the Tyrolean National Council formed a People's Army on 5 November made up of schoolchildren, students, workers and citizens. On 23 November 1918, Italian troops occupied the city and the surrounding area. Mayor Greil's appeasement to the people of Innsbruck to surrender the city without rioting was successful. 5000 men had to find shelter in the starving and miserable city. Schools were turned into barracks. Although there were isolated riots, hunger riots and looting, there were no armed clashes with the occupying troops or even a Bolshevik revolution as in Munich.

Over 1200 Innsbruck residents lost their lives on the battlefields and in military hospitals, over 600 were wounded. Memorials to the First World War and its victims can be found in Innsbruck, particularly at churches and cemeteries. The Kaiserjägermuseum on Mount Isel displays uniforms, weapons and pictures of the battle. Streets in Innsbruck are dedicated to the two theologians Anton Müllner and Josef Seeber. A street was also named after the commander-in-chief of the Imperial and Royal Army on the Southern Front, Archduke Eugene. There is a memorial to the unsuccessful commander in front of the Hofgarten. The eastern part of the Amras military cemetery commemorates the Italian occupation.

One of the most important figures in the town's history was Wilhelm Greil (1850 - 1923). From 1896 to 1923, the entrepreneur held the office of mayor, having previously helped to shape the city's fortunes as deputy mayor. It was a time of growth, the incorporation of entire neighbourhoods, technical innovations and new media. The four decades between the economic crisis of 1873 and the First World War were characterised by unprecedented economic growth and rapid modernisation. Private investment in infrastructure such as railways, energy and electricity was desired by the state and favoured by tax breaks in order to lead the countries and cities of the ailing Danube monarchy into the modern age. The city's economy boomed. Businesses sprang up in the new districts of Pradl and Wilten, attracting workers. Tourism also brought fresh capital into the city. At the same time, however, the concentration of people in a confined space under sometimes precarious hygiene conditions also brought problems. The outskirts of the city and the neighbouring villages in particular were regularly plagued by typhus.

Innsbruck city politics, in which Greil was active, was characterised by the struggle between liberal and conservative forces. Greil belonged to the "Deutschen Volkspartei", a liberal and national-Great German party. What appears to be a contradiction today, liberal and national, was a politically common and well-functioning pair of ideas in the 19th century. The Pan-Germanism was not a political peculiarity of a radical right-wing minority, but rather a centrist trend, particularly in German-speaking cities in the Reich, which was significant in various forms across almost all parties until after the Second World War. Innsbruckers who were self-respecting did not describe themselves as Austrians, but as Germans. Those who were members of the liberal Innsbrucker Nachrichten of the period around the turn of the century, you will find countless articles in which the common ground between the German Empire and the German-speaking countries was made the topic of the day, while distancing themselves from other ethnic groups within the multinational Habsburg Empire. Greil was a skilful politician who operated within the predetermined power structures of his time. He knew how to skilfully manoeuvre around the traditional powers, the monarchy and the clergy and to come to terms with them.

Taxes, social policy, education, housing and the design of public spaces were discussed with passion and fervour. Due to an electoral system based on voting rights via property classes, only around 10% of the entire population of Innsbruck were able to go to the ballot box. Women were excluded as a matter of principle. Relative suffrage applied within the three electoral bodies, which meant as much as: The winner takes it all. Greil wohne passenderweise ähnlich wie ein Renaissancefürst. Er entstammte der großbürgerlichen Upper Class. Sein Vater konnte es sich leisten, im Palais Lodron in der Maria-Theresienstraße die Homebase der Familie zu gründen. Massenparteien wie die Sozialdemokratie konnten sich bis zur Wahlrechtsreform der Ersten Republik nicht durchsetzen. Konservative hatten es in Innsbruck auf Grund der Bevölkerungszusammensetzung, besonders bis zur Eingemeindung von Wilten und Pradl, ebenfalls schwer. Bürgermeister Greil konnte auf 100% Rückhalt im Gemeinderat bauen, was die Entscheidungsfindung und Lenkung natürlich erheblich vereinfachte. Bei aller Effizienz, die Innsbrucker Bürgermeister bei oberflächlicher Betrachtung an den Tag legten, sollte man nicht vergessen, dass das nur möglich war, weil sie als Teil einer Elite aus Unternehmern, Handelstreibenden und Freiberuflern ohne nennenswerte Opposition und Rücksichtnahme auf andere Bevölkerungsgruppen wie Arbeitern, Handwerkern und Angestellten in einer Art gewählten Diktatur durchregierten. Das Reichsgemeindegesetz von 1862 verlieh Städten wie Innsbruck und damit den Bürgermeistern größere Befugnisse. Es verwundert kaum, dass die Amtskette, die Greil zu seinem 60. Geburtstag von seinen Kollegen im Gemeinderat verliehen bekam, den Ordensketten des alten Adels erstaunlich ähnelte.

Under Greil's aegis and the general economic upturn, fuelled by private investment, Innsbruck expanded at a rapid pace. In true merchant style, the municipal council purchased land with foresight in order to enable the city to innovate. The politician Greil was able to rely on the civil servants and town planners Eduard Klingler, Jakob Albert and Theodor Prachensky for the major building projects of the time. Infrastructure projects such as the new town hall in Maria-Theresienstraße in 1897, the opening of the Mittelgebirgsbahn railway, the Hungerburgbahn and the Karwendelbahn wurden während seiner Regierungszeit umgesetzt. Weitere gut sichtbare Meilensteine waren die Erneuerung des Marktplatzes und der Bau der Markthalle. Neben den prestigeträchtigen Großprojekten entstanden in den letzten Jahrzehnten des 19. Jahrhunderts aber viele unauffällige Revolutionen. Vieles, was in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts vorangetrieben wurde, gehört heute zum Alltag. Für die Menschen dieser Zeit waren diese Dinge aber eine echte Sensation und lebensverändernd. Bereits Greils Vorgänger Bürgermeister Heinrich Falk (1840 – 1917) hatte erheblich zur Modernisierung der Stadt und zur Besiedelung des Saggen beigetragen. Seit 1859 war die Beleuchtung der Stadt mit Gasrohrleitungen stetig vorangeschritten. Mit dem Wachstum der Stadt und der Modernisierung wurden die Senkgruben, die in Hinterhöfen der Häuser als Abort dienten und nach Entleerung an umliegende Landwirte als Dünger verkauft wurden, zu einer Unzumutbarkeit für immer mehr Menschen. 1880 wurde das RaggingThe city was responsible for the emptying of the lavatories. Two pneumatic machines were to make the process at least a little more hygienic. Between 1887 and 1891, Innsbruck was equipped with a modern high-pressure water pipeline, which could also be used to supply fresh water to flats on higher floors. For those who could afford it, this was the first opportunity to install a flush toilet in their own home.

Greil continued this campaign of modernisation. After decades of discussions, the construction of a modern alluvial sewerage system began in 1903. Starting in the city centre, more and more districts were connected to this now commonplace luxury. By 1908, only the Koatlackler Mariahilf und St. Nikolaus nicht an das Kanalsystem angeschlossen. Auch der neue Schlachthof im Saggen erhöhte Hygiene und Sauberkeit in der Stadt. Schlecht kontrollierte Hofschlachtungen gehörten mit wenigen Ausnahmen der Vergangenheit an. Das Vieh kam im Zug am Sillspitz an und wurde in der modernen Anlage fachgerecht geschlachtet. Greil überführte auch das Gaswerk in Pradl und das Elektrizitätswerk in Mühlau in städtischen Besitz. Die Straßenbeleuchtung wurde im 20. Jahrhundert von den Gaslaternen auf elektrisches Licht umgestellt. 1888 übersiedelte das Krankenhaus von der Maria-Theresienstraße an seinen heutigen Standort. Bürgermeister und Gemeinderat konnten sich bei dieser Innsbrucker Renaissance neben der wachsenden Wirtschaftskraft in der Vorkriegszeit auch auf Mäzen aus dem Bürgertum stützen. Waren technische Neuerungen und Infrastruktur Sache der Liberalen, verblieb die Fürsorge der Ärmsten weiterhin bei klerikal gesinnten Kräften, wenn auch nicht mehr bei der Kirche selbst. Freiherr Johann von Sieberer stiftete das Greisenasyl und das Waisenhaus im Saggen. Leonhard Lang stiftete das Gebäude in der Maria-Theresienstraße, in der sich bis heute das Rathaus befindet gegen das Versprechen der Stadt ein Lehrlingsheim zu bauen.

Im Gegensatz zur boomenden Vorkriegsära war die Zeit nach 1914 vom Krisenmanagement geprägt. In seinen letzten Amtsjahren begleitete Greil Innsbruck am Übergang von der Habsburgermonarchie zur Republik durch Jahre, die vor allem durch Hunger, Elend, Mittelknappheit und Unsicherheit geprägt waren. Er war 68 Jahre alt, als italienische Truppen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg die Stadt besetzten und Tirol am Brenner geteilt wurde. Das Ende der Monarchie und des Zensuswahlrechts bedeuteten auch den Niedergang der Liberalen in Innsbruck, auch wenn Greil das in seiner aktiven Karriere nur teilweise miterlebte. 1919 konnten die Sozialdemokraten in Innsbruck zwar zum ersten Mal den Wahlsieg davontragen, dank der Mehrheiten im Gemeinderat blieb Greil aber Bürgermeister. 1928 verstarb er als Ehrenbürger der Stadt Innsbruck im Alter von 78 Jahren. Die Wilhelm-Greil-Straße war noch zu seinen Lebzeiten nach ihm benannt worden.

During the Middle Ages, Innsbruck officially developed into a city. Formal recognition by the territorial prince in 1239 brought with it an entirely new system for its citizens. Market rights, building rights, customs rights, and an independent jurisdiction were gradually transferred to the city. Urban citizens were no longer subject to their feudal lord, but to the city’s jurisdiction—at least within the city walls. The well-known saying “city air makes one free” derives from the fact that after one year of residence in the city, a person was released from all obligations to their former lord. Unlike unfree peasants and servants, citizens could freely dispose of their property and determine their way of life. Naturally, they also had rights and obligations. Citizens did not pay tithes, but instead paid taxes to the city. Which group within the city was required to pay which taxes could be determined by the city government itself. The city, in turn, did not have to pass these taxes on directly, but could freely dispose of its budget after paying a fixed levy to the territorial prince. In addition to city defense, expenditures included care for the sick and the poor. Needy citizens could obtain meals from the “boiling kitchen” (Siedeküche), provided they held civic rights. The city government paid particular attention to contagious diseases such as the plague, which periodically tormented the population. In return for their rights, every citizen had to swear the civic oath. This oath included the obligation to pay taxes and perform military service. In addition to defending the city, citizens were also deployed beyond its walls. In 1406, a contingent together with mercenaries confronted an Appenzell army to defend the Upper Inn Valley. From 1511 onward, according to Emperor Maximilian’s Landlibell, the city council was also obliged to provide a contingent of conscripts for territorial defense. In addition, there were volunteers who could enlist for military service in the city’s Freifähnlein; for example, Innsbruck citizens were among the defenders of Vienna during the Ottoman siege of 1529.

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.

Because of these restrictions, Innsbruck had a completely different social composition from the surrounding villages. Craftsmen, merchants, officials, and servants shaped the cityscape. Merchants were often itinerant, while officials and courtly retinues also came to Innsbruck temporarily in the entourage of a prince and did not possess civic rights. It was the craftsmen who exercised a large part of political power within the citizenry. Unlike peasants, they belonged to the mobile social strata of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. After completing their apprenticeship, they went on their journeyman’s travels before taking the master craftsman’s examination and either returning home or settling in another city. Craftsmen were not only vectors of technical knowledge; cultural, social, and political ideas also spread through them. The craft guilds partly exercised their own jurisdiction alongside the municipal courts over their members. They were social structures within the urban framework that exerted considerable influence on politics. Wages, prices, and social life were regulated by the guilds under the supervision of the territorial prince. One could speak of an early form of social partnership, as the guilds also provided social security for their members in cases of illness or occupational disability. Each trade—such as locksmiths, tanners, armorers, carpenters, bakers, butchers, or blacksmiths—had its own guild headed by a master.

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."

The mayor represented the city vis-à-vis the other estates and the territorial prince, who exercised supreme authority over the city with varying intensity depending on the period. Each councilor had clearly assigned duties, such as overseeing market rights and the quality of goods offered, managing the hospital and poor relief, or regulating customs—particularly important for Innsbruck. The city council was also responsible for discipline, ensuring social order and adherence to prevailing moral standards. Alcohol consumption and time spent in taverns were regulated differently at various times. Poorer segments of the population not only could not afford frequent visits, they were also permitted to enter taverns only at certain times. This was intended to prevent excessive drunkenness and begging from the upper classes. The council monitored the quality and safety of food in a manner similar to an early market authority, as cities had an interest in maintaining quality businesses to remain attractive as economic centers and destinations for visitors. In all these political processes, it should be borne in mind that in the 16th century Innsbruck had around 5,000 inhabitants, only a small proportion of whom possessed civic rights. The propertyless, itinerant people, the unemployed, servants, diplomats, employees, women, and students were not enfranchised citizens. Voting was a privilege of the male upper class.

Contrary to popular belief, the Middle Ages were not a lawless era of arbitrariness. At both municipal and territorial levels, there were legal codes that regulated in detail what was permitted and what was forbidden. Depending on the ruler and prevailing moral standards, these regulations could vary considerably. Carrying weapons, swearing, prostitution, noise, making music, blasphemy, children playing—everything and everyone could fall under the scrutiny of the authorities. If one also considers regulations on trade, customs, professional practice by guilds, and price controls imposed by the magistrate, pre- and early modern life was no less regulated than today. The difference lay in oversight and enforcement, which authorities often lacked. If someone was caught committing an unlawful or immoral act, there were courts that passed judgment. Medieval court days were held outdoors at the Dingstätte. The tradition of the Ding goes back to the ancient Germanic Thing, where all free men gathered to administer justice. The city council appointed a judge responsible for all offenses not subject to capital jurisdiction, assisted by a panel of sworn jurors. Punishments ranged from fines to the pillory and imprisonment. The observance of religious order was also monitored by the city. “Heretics” and dissenters were not disciplined by the Church but by the municipal authorities. Punishment involved methods less humane than those customary today, though torture was not applied arbitrarily. Its use as part of judicial procedure in particularly serious cases was regulated. Until the 17th century, suspects and criminals in Innsbruck were imprisoned and interrogated in the Kräuterturm at the southeastern corner of the city wall, at today’s Herzog-Otto-Ufer. Both trials and punishments were public events. Opposite the city tower stood the Narrenhäusel, a cage in which people were imprisoned and displayed. For lesser offenses, offenders were paraded through the city on the wooden “shame donkey.” The pillory stood in the suburb that is today Maria-Theresien-Straße. There was no police force, but the city judge employed assistants, and guards were stationed at the city gates to maintain order. It was a civic duty to assist in the apprehension of criminals. Vigilante justice was forbidden.

Jurisdiction between municipal and territorial courts was regulated as early as 1288 in the Urbarbuch. Serious crimes remained under the authority of the territorial court. Capital jurisdiction covered offenses such as theft, murder, or arson. The territorial court for all communities south of the Inn between Ampass and Götzens was located at Sonnenburg, south above Innsbruck. In the 14th century, the Sonnenburg court moved to the Upper City Square in front of the Innsbruck city tower, later into the town hall, and in the early modern period to Götzens. With the centralization of justice in the 18th century, the Sonnenburg court returned to Innsbruck and found accommodation under changing names and in various buildings, such as the Leuthaus in Wilten, on Innrain, or at the Ettnau manor, known as the Malfatti-Schlössl, on Höttinger Gasse.

From the late 15th century onward, Innsbruck’s executioner was centralized and responsible for several courts, residing in Hall. Execution sites changed over time. A gallows long stood on a hill in today’s Dreiheiligen district directly by the main road. The Köpflplatz was located until 1731 at today’s corner of Fallbachgasse and Weiherburggasse in Anpruggen. In Hötting, the gallows stood behind the Chapel of the Great God. The present chapel, which alongside a Baroque crucifix features ceramic figures by the renowned artist Max Spielmann (1906–1984), was relocated during roadworks in the 1960s. While Spielmann’s Dance of Death memorial commemorates those killed in the Second World War, those sentenced to death once sent a final prayer heavenward here before the noose was placed around their necks or their heads were severed—depending on social status and the nature of the crime. It was not uncommon for the condemned to give their executioner a kind of gratuity so that he would aim as precisely as possible to make the execution as painless as possible. Much could go wrong: if the sword missed its mark, the noose was improperly placed, or the rope broke, the suffering of the condemned increased. For authorities and public order, particularly dangerous offenders such as the “heretic” Jakob Hutter or the captured leaders of the Peasants’ Revolts of 1525 and 1526 were publicly executed in front of the Golden Roof. “Aggravated” punishments such as quartering or breaking on the wheel—derived from the Latin poena—were not routine but could be ordered in special cases. Executions were public demonstrations of authority and served as a form of purification of society and as a deterrent. Large crowds gathered to accompany the condemned on their final journey. On execution days, university lectures were suspended to allow students to attend and be morally instructed. The bodies of those executed were often left hanging and buried outside consecrated cemetery grounds or handed over to the university for study purposes. The last public execution in Austrian history took place in 1868. Although executions thereafter were still far from gentle, killings by strangulation at the gallows—used until the 1950s—were no longer public spectacles.

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.