Just as after the First World War, the housing shortage was one of the most pressing issues after 1945. Innsbruck had been severely affected by air raids, and funds for new construction were scarce. When the first residential complexes were built in the 1950s, frugality was the order of the day. While many of the buildings erected from the 1950s onward are architecturally unremarkable, they house quite interesting works of art. Starting in 1949, Austria introduced the "Kunst am Bau" (Percent for Art) initiative. For state-funded construction projects, 2% of the total expenditure was to be allocated to artistic design. Implementing building legislation—and thus managing these budgets—was the responsibility of the federal states, then as now. In the frugal postwar years, even successful and practical artists like Oswald Haller (1908–1981), who made his living from commercial art and tourism posters, had fallen on hard times. Public procurement was meant to offer them financial support. This concept had first emerged in the Weimar Republic in 1919 and was continued by the National Socialists from 1934 onward. Austria readopted Kunst am Bau after the war to shape public spaces as part of the reconstruction effort. The public sector, replacing the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie as the property developers of past centuries, was under intense financial pressure. Nevertheless, residential projects—though primarily focused on functionality—were not meant to look entirely plain. The Tyrolean artists entrusted with creating these artworks were chosen through open competitions. The most renowned among them was Max Weiler, perhaps the most prominent artist in postwar Tyrol, who was responsible for the frescoes in the Theresienkirche on the Hungerburg in Innsbruck, among other works. Other prominent names include Helmut Rehm (1911–1991), Walter Honeder (1906–2006), Fritz Berger (1916–2002), and Emmerich Kerle (1916–2010). Many of these artists were shaped not only by the Bundesgewerbeschule Innsbruck (today's HTL) and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but also by their collective experience during National Socialism and the war. Fritz Berger had lost his right arm and an eye, forcing him to learn to work with his left hand. Emmerich Kerle served as a war painter in Finland. In Vienna, he was taught by Josef Müllner, an artist who made his mark on art history with busts of Adolf Hitler, Siegfried from the Nibelungen saga, and the still-controversial Karl Lueger Monument in Vienna. Like a large portion of the Tyrolean population, these artists—along with politicians and civil servants—longed for peace and quiet after the harsh and painful war years, wanting to let bygones be bygones regarding the events of recent decades. The works created under Kunst am Bau reflect this attitude toward a new self-image and moral code. It was the first time that abstract, non-representational art entered Innsbruck's public space, albeit only within an uncritical framework. Fairytales, legends, and religious symbols were popular motifs immortalized in sgraffito, mosaics, murals, and statues. One could speak of a sort of second wave of Biedermeier art, symbolizing the petty-bourgeois lifestyle of the postwar population. The art was also intended to create a new awareness and image of what was considered "typically Austrian." As late as 1955, every second Austrian still considered themselves German. The diverse motifs depict leisure activities, clothing styles, and the concepts of social order and norms of the postwar era. Women were frequently portrayed in traditional costume (Tracht and Dirndl), men in Lederhosen. Conservative ideals of gender roles were processed through this art: hardworking fathers, dutiful wives tending to home and hearth, and children eagerly studying in school remained the ideal well into the 1970s. Anyone walking attentively through the city will find many of these artworks still visible on buildings in Pradl and Wilten today. The contrast between plain architecture and contemporary art from a postwar era—often suppressed, yet long romanticized and glorified in films and stories—is well worth seeing. Particularly fine examples can be found on the facades along Pacherstraße, Hunoldstraße, Ing.-Thommenstraße, Innrain, the Landesberufsschule Mandelsbergerstraße, or in the courtyard between Landhausplatz and Maria-Theresien-Straße.