The First World War not only brought states and ruling dynasties to an end; it also marked a turning point for art, music, literature, and architecture. In Innsbruck, a handful of planners transformed the cityscape during the two decades of the First Republic. Inspired by new design movements such as the Bauhaus style from Germany, skyscrapers from the United States, Italian Futurism, and Soviet Modernism from the revolutionary USSR, remarkable architectural projects emerged in Innsbruck. The best-known representatives of the avant-garde who introduced this new approach to shaping public space in Tyrol were Lois Welzenbacher, Siegfried Mazagg, Theodor Prachensky, and Clemens Holzmeister. Each of these architects had distinct characteristics, making the Tyrolean Modern Movement (Tiroler Moderne) difficult to define precisely. Their common feature was a departure from the classical architecture of the pre-war era while retaining typical Alpine materials and architectural elements, following the principle of “Form Follows Function.” In a 1920 article for the magazine Tiroler Hochland, Lois Welzenbacher wrote about the architecture of his time:

"As far as we can judge today, it is clear that the 19th century lacked the strength to create its own distinct style. It is the age of stillness... Thus details were reproduced with historical accuracy, mostly without any particular meaning or purpose, and without a harmonious overall picture that would have arisen from factual or artistic necessity."

The most prominent and visually influential representative of the so-called Tyrolean Modern Movement in Innsbruck was Franz Baumann (1892–1974). Unlike Holzmeister or Welzenbacher, he never received an academic education. Baumann was born in Innsbruck in 1892, the son of a postal official. His religious education teacher, the now controversial theologian and writer Anton Müller, known by the pseudonym Brother Willram, recognized the young Franz Baumann’s talent for drawing and enabled him to attend the Imperial-Royal State Trade School (k.k. Staatsgewerbeschule) at the age of fourteen. There he met his future brother-in-law Theodor Prachensky, who would also play a significant role in his professional life. During his school years, Baumann gained practical experience as a bricklayer with the construction company Huter & Söhne and began producing landscape drawings around Innsbruck together with his sister Maria and Prachensky. In 1910, Baumann followed his friend to Merano to take up employment with the renowned construction firm Musch & Lun. The former Tyrolean capital was then the most important tourist destination in Tyrol, attracting an international clientele of spa visitors. Under Adalbert Erlebach, who would later play a key role in the development of Hungerburg, Baumann gained his first experience in planning large-scale projects such as hotels and cable cars. Important for his later career was not only his technical education but also his first encounters with the Tyrolean Heritage Protection Association (Tiroler Heimatschutzverband). Kunibert Zimmeter had founded this organization together with Gotthard Graf Trapp. Since building regulations were a provincial matter, the Tyrolean Heritage Protection Association, together with the district authorities, acted as the final authority responsible for evaluating and approving construction projects. In many Tyrolean villages, hotels had replaced churches as the largest buildings in the local skyline. The aim was to prevent tourism and industrial developments from overwhelming traditional village character. In Our Tyrol: A Homeland Protection Book, Zimmeter wrote:

"Let us look at the flattening of our private lives, our amusements, at the centre of which, significantly, is the cinema, at the literary ephemera of our newspaper reading, at the hopeless and costly excesses of fashion in the field of women's clothing, let us take a look at our homes with the miserable factory furniture and all the dreadful products of our so-called gallantry goods industry, Things that thousands of people work to produce, creating worthless bric-a-brac in the process, or let us look at our apartment blocks and villas with their cement façades simulating palaces, countless superfluous towers and gables, our hotels with their pompous façades, what a waste of the people's wealth, what an abundance of tastelessness we must find there."

After four years, Baumann’s career was abruptly interrupted. Like most of his generation, the First World War tore him away from both work and everyday life. While serving on the Italian Front, he suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and recovered in a military hospital in Prague. During this otherwise inactive period, he painted cityscapes depicting buildings in and around Prague. These urban views, which later helped him visualize architectural designs, were exhibited at his only exhibition in 1919. His breakthrough in construction came the following year. Baumann unexpectedly won the competitions for the renovation of the Weinhaus Happ in Innsbruck’s Old Town and for the Nordkette Cable Railway. Besides his creativity, his success stemmed from the alignment between his architectural philosophy and the requirements of both the Tyrolean Heritage Protection Association and the public tenders issued by the young First Republic. In the economic upswing of the late 1920s, a new class of customers and visitors emerged in tourism. The aristocratic distance toward the mountains had given way to a middle-class enthusiasm for sports. No longer were grand hotels built at elevations of 1,500 meters for health resorts; instead, functional infrastructure for skiers in high alpine terrain, such as on the Nordkette, was constructed. Buildings were expected to blend harmoniously into their surroundings while remaining attractive and practical. Despite the social and artistic innovations of the era, architects still had to take regional character into account. This was precisely where Baumann’s approach to holistic building in a Tyrolean context excelled. From exterior lighting to furniture, Baumann designed even the smallest details and integrated them into his overall concept of the Tyrolean Modern Movement. Every technical function and detail, as well as environmental conditions, topography, and sunlight, played a role for him. Although he was officially not permitted to use the professional title of architect, he followed the principles outlined by architect Adolf Loos (1870–1933) in his essay Rules for the Person Building in the Mountains:

Don't build picturesquely. Leave such effects to the walls, the mountains and the sun. The man who dresses picturesquely is not picturesque, but a buffoon. The farmer does not dress picturesquely. But he is...

Pay attention to the forms in which the farmer builds. For they are ancestral wisdom, congealed substance. But seek out the reason for the mould. If advances in technology have made it possible to improve the mould, then this improvement should always be used. The flail will be replaced by the threshing machine."

Beginning in 1927, Baumann operated his own studio on Schöpfstraße in the Wilten district. At the height of its success, his office employed fourteen staff members. Time and again, his professional path crossed with that of his friend and brother-in-law Theodor Prachensky. Together, beginning in 1929, they planned the new secondary school in Hötting on Fürstenweg. Although separate wings for boys and girls still had to be included according to contemporary conventions, the building otherwise fully embodied the style of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) and the principle of “Light, Air, and Sun.” Thanks to his modern approach, which combined functionality, aesthetics, tradition, and economical construction, Baumann weathered the economic crisis that began in the late 1920s relatively well. It was only the 1,000-Mark Blockade, imposed by Hitler on Austria in 1933 in an attempt to place financial pressure on the Republic, that caused serious problems for his architectural practice. Not only did unemployment in the tourism sector triple within a short period of time, but the construction industry also entered a severe downturn. In 1935, Baumann became head of the Central Association of Architects, after receiving a special exemption allowing him to use the professional title of architect despite lacking a formal academic qualification. With Austria’s annexation by Germany in 1938, he quickly joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). On the one hand, like his colleague Lois Welzenbacher, he may have been sympathetic to certain ideas of National Socialism. On the other hand, membership enabled him to advance his career as chairman of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in Tyrol. In this position, however, he repeatedly opposed the radical alterations to Innsbruck’s cityscape that the Nazi authorities wished to implement. Innsbruck’s mayor, Egon Denz, wanted the Triumphal Arch and St. Anne’s Column removed in order to create more space for traffic in Maria-Theresien-Straße. At that time, the city center still served as the principal traffic route connecting the Brenner Pass in the south with the federal highway leading east and west along what is now the Innrain. A statue of Adolf Hitler was intended to replace St. Anne’s Column. Gauleiter Franz Hofer also planned to have the towers of the Court Church blown up. In his official capacity, Baumann assessed both projects negatively. When the matter eventually reached the desk of Albert Speer, Speer agreed with Baumann’s assessment. From that point onward, Gauleiter Hofer no longer awarded Baumann any public projects. However, this courageous stance probably spared him more serious consequences after the war. After being questioned during the denazification process following the war, Baumann began working in the municipal building department, likely also on the recommendation of his brother-in-law Theodor Prachensky. Although Baumann was fully exonerated, partly due to testimony from the abbot of Wilten, whose church towers he had helped save, his reputation as an architect could no longer be fully restored. Another setback was the destruction of his studio on Schöpfstraße, which was hit by a bomb in 1944. In his postwar career, Baumann became responsible for the restoration of buildings damaged during the war. Under his supervision, the Boznerplatz and its Rudolf Fountain were rebuilt, while the Burggraben area and the New City Halls (Neue Stadtsäle) behind the Tyrolean State Theatre were redesigned. Franz Baumann died in 1974. Today, his paintings, sketches, and drawings are highly sought after and command substantial prices on the art market. Anyone who carefully examines more recent large-scale projects in Innsbruck, such as the City Library, the PEMA Towers, and many of the city’s residential developments, can still recognize elements of the Tyrolean Modern Movement today.