Published: Tiroler Tageszeitung / 14 June 1946

Chairman: OLGR. Dr Pfaundler

Assessor: Dr Sternbach.

Public prosecutor: Dr Riccabona

Secretary: Dr Gög1.

Representative of the French Directorate of Justice; Capt Hinsberger

Defence counsel: Dr Kellner, candidate lawyer.

Defendant: Franz Wolf, Federal Railway Secretary, 46 years old, resident in Innsbruck-Wilten.

Facts: The 46-year-old former federal railway secretary Franz Wolf from Innsbruck-Wilten has been a member of the NSDAP since 23 May 1938 with the number 7.295.000 and became block leader in the Wilten-Ost local group in August 1938, cell leader of the NSDAP in 1941 and was also a member of the SA since 1942. His wife, sister and brother-in-law were also party members. Wolf lived in the "Riesen Haymon" inn in Wilten and repeatedly reported the innkeeper Heinrich Pfeifer to the local group leader about political matters. He told him: "This black brood must be removed and reported to the local group leader that Pfeifer had not put up flags on Hitler's birthday and had displayed "cynical behaviour completely unworthy of a businessman" at party meetings; moreover, the "Riese Haymon" was a black stronghold and stomping ground for the black brothers and he urged him to take remedial action. Following repeated complaints from the block leader, the restaurant was closed on 1 April 1943 and Pfeifer's licence was revoked in March 1945 for political unreliability. The local group leader Machek, who frequented the "Riesen Haymon" a lot and was not rebellious towards the landlord, once said: "Pfeifer, what's with you and the wolf, he's always making reports. Why don't you get along?"

Responsibility: Admits at the outset that he used to work at the Free trade union and then at the Vaterländischen Front to have been. He had been an SA man from 1942 to 1944. Asked by the presiding judge why he had made the charges against Pfeifer, Wolf explained that this had been done on the orders of the then local group leader Feuerstein, to whom he then talked his way out during the further interrogation. Incidentally, he then had to admit that he had filed the various charges against Pfeifer. What was new was that Wolf also reported Pfeifer because there had been singing in Pfeifer's pub on the day of mourning for Stalingrad. He had not intended that his complaint should cause serious damage to Pfeifer.

Witness testimony: Innkeeper Pfeifer confirmed as a witness that he had suffered economic damage as a result of the closure and the subsequent revocation of his licence due to Wolf's reports. A flag was not flown on Hitler's birthday because the window frames were under reconstruction. The flagging of the building was the responsibility of the caretaker.

Another witness described the defendant as the "chequer of the whole Haymongasse", because Wolf ran to the local group with everything he thought was worth reporting.

Adjournment: By decision of the People's Court, the trial was adjourned indefinitely for the purpose of hearing further witnesses, obtaining new files and conducting further enquiries with the criminal investigation department.

Published: Innsbrucker Nachrichten / 8 November 1928

The regional leadership of the Tyrolean Home Guard announces: The many enquiries we have received are proof of the lively interest in the upcoming Heimatwehr parade in all patriotic circles of the population. Many people expect to see old friends and acquaintances again on this day, or to be able to welcome relatives from other provinces to Innsbruck on this occasion. In order to make it easier for the people of Innsbruck to communicate with our guests, we are today announcing the accommodation allocated to the individual provincial services for their people:

Styria: Wilten Monastery, Servite Monastery, St Bartlmä Youth Centre, Bierstindl Inns, Riese Haymon, Tivoli, Buchhof, Sonnenburgerhof, Ferrarihof, Airport, Amras Castle

Published: Innsbrucker Tagblatt / 13 October 1877

The Gasthaus zum Riesen Haymon in Wilten is to be purchased by the current tenant of the Stindlwirtschschaft.

Politische Polarisierung prägte neben Hunger das Leben der Menschen in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren. Der Zusammenbruch der Monarchie hatte zwar eine Republik hervorgebracht, die beiden großen Volksparteien, die Sozialdemokraten und die Christlichsozialen, standen sich aber feindselig wie zwei Skorpione gegenüber. Beide Parteien bauten paramilitärische Blöcke auf, um die politische Agenda notfalls auf der Straße mit Gewalt zu untermauern. Der Republican Defence League auf Seiten der Sozialdemokraten und verschiedene christlich-sozial oder gar monarchistisch orientierte Heimwehren, der Einfachheit halber sollen die unterschiedlichen Gruppen unter diesem Sammelbegriff zusammengefasst werden, belauerten sich wie Bürgerkriegsparteien. Viele Politiker und Funktionäre beider Seiten hatten im Krieg an der Front gekämpft und waren dementsprechend militarisiert. Die Tiroler Heimatwehr konnte im ländlichen Tirol dank der Unterstützung der katholischen Kirche auf bessere Infrastruktur und politisches Netzwerk zurückgreifen. Am 12. November 1928, dem zehnten Jahrestag der Gründung der Republik, marschierten am Ersten gesamtösterreichischen Heimwehraufmarsch 18.000 Heimatwehrmänner durch die Stadt, um ihre Überlegenheit am höchsten Feiertag der heimischen Sozialdemokratien zu untermauern. Als Mannschaftsquartier der steirischen Truppen diente unter anderem das Stift Wilten.  

Ab 1930 zeigte auch die NSDAP immer mehr Präsenz im öffentlichen Raum. Besonders unter Studenten und jungen, desillusionierten Arbeitern konnte sie Anhänger gewinnen. 1932 zählte die Partei bereits 2500 Mitglieder in Innsbruck. Immer wieder kam es zu gewaltsamen Zusammenstößen zwischen den verfeindeten politischen Gruppen. Berüchtigt wurde die sogenannte Höttinger Saalschlacht Hötting was not yet part of Innsbruck at that time. The community was mainly inhabited by labourers. In this red National Socialists planned a rally in the Tyrolean bastion at the Gasthof Golden Beara meeting place for the Social Democrats. This provocation ended in a fight that resulted in over 30 people being injured and one death from a stab wound on the National Socialist side. The riots spread throughout the city, with the injured even clashing in the hospital. Only with the help of the gendarmerie and the army was it possible to separate the opponents.

Nach jahrelangen bürgerkriegsähnlichen Zuständen setzten sich 1933 die Christlichsozialen unter Kanzler Engelbert Dollfuß (1892 – 1934) durch und schalteten das Parlament aus. In Innsbruck kam es dabei zu keinen Kampfhandlungen. Am 15. März wurde das Parteihaus der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei Tirol im Hotel Sonne geräumt, der -Anführer des Republikanischen Schutzbundes Gustav Kuprian wegen Hochverrat festgenommen und die einzelnen Gruppen entwaffnet. Das Ziel Dollfuß´ war die Errichtung des sogenannten Austrian corporative statea one-party state without opposition, curtailing elementary rights such as freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. In Tyrol in 1933, the Tiroler Wochenzeitung was newly founded to function as a party organ. The entire state apparatus was to be organised along the lines of Mussolini's fascism in Italy under the Vaterländischen Front united: Anti-socialist, authoritarian, conservative in its view of society, anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and militarised.

Dollfuß was extremely popular in Tyrol, as photographs of the packed square in front of the Hofburg during one of his speeches in 1933 show. His policies were the closest thing to the Habsburg monarchy and were also supported by the Church. The Fatherland Front with its paramilitary units cracked down on socialists. The press was politically controlled and censored. The articles glorified the idyllic rural life. Families with many children were supported financially. The segregation of the sexes in schools and the reorganisation of the curriculum for girls, combined with pre-military training for boys, was also in the interests of a large part of the population. The unspoken long-term goal was the restoration of the monarchy. In 1931, a number of Tyrolean mayors joined forces to have the entry ban for the Habsburgs lifted.

Am 25. Juli 1934 kam es in Wien zu einem Putschversuch der verbotenen Nationalsozialisten, bei dem Dollfuß ums Leben kam. Auch in Innsbruck kam es zu einem Umsturzversuch. Beim Versuch einer Gruppe von Nationalsozialisten die Kontrolle über die Stadt zu gelangen, wurde in der Herrengasse ein Polizist erschossen. Hitler, der die Anschläge nicht angeordnet hatte, distanzierte sich, die österreichischen Gruppen der verbotenen Partei wurden dadurch eingeschränkt. In Innsbruck wurde auf „Verfügung des Regierungskommissärs der Landeshauptstadt Tirols“ der Platz vor dem Tiroler Landestheater als Dollfußplatz led. Dollfuß had met with the Tyrolean Heimwehr leader Richard Steidle at a rally here two weeks before his death.

Dollfuß' successor as Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg (1897 - 1977) was a Tyrolean by birth and a member of the Innsbruck student fraternity Austria. Er betrieb lange Zeit eine Rechtsanwaltskanzlei in Innsbruck. 1930 gründete er eine paramilitärische Einheit mit namens Ostmärkische Sturmscharenwhich formed the counterweight of the Christian Socials to the radical Heimwehr groups. After the February Uprising in 1934, as Minister of Justice in the Dollfuß cabinet, he was jointly responsible for the execution of several Social Democrats.

However, Austrofascism was unable to turn the tide in the 1930s, especially economically. The unemployment rate in 1933 was 25%. The restriction of social welfare, which was introduced at the beginning of the First Republick was introduced had dramatic effects. The long-term unemployed were excluded from receiving social benefits as "Discontinued" excluded.

The housing situation was a particular problem. Despite the city's efforts to create modern living space, many Innsbruck residents still lived in shacks. Bathrooms or one bedroom per person were the exception. Since the great growth of Innsbruck from the 1880s onwards, the housing situation was precarious for many people. The railways, industrialisation, refugees from the German-speaking regions of Italy and the economic crisis had pushed Innsbruck to the brink of the possible. After Vienna, Innsbruck had the second highest number of residents per house. Rents for housing were so high that workers often slept in stages in order to share the costs. Although new blocks of flats and homeless shelters were built, especially in Pradl, such as the workers' hostel in Amthorstraße in 1907, the hostel in Hunoldstraße and the Pembaurblock, this was not enough to deal with the situation. Out of this need and despair, several shanty towns and settlements were created on the outskirts of the city, founded by the marginalised, the desperate and those left behind who found no place in the system.

In the prisoner-of-war camp in the Höttinger Au, people were quartered in the barracks after being mustered out. The best known and most notorious to this day was the Bocksiedlung on the site of today's Reichenau. From 1930, several families settled in barracks and caravans between the airport, which was located there at the time, and the barracks of the Reichenau concentration camp. The legend of its origins speaks of Otto and Josefa Rauth as the founders, whose caravan was stranded here. Rauth was not only economically poor, but also morally poor as an avowed communist in Tyrolean terms. His raft, Noah's Ark, with which he wanted to reach the Soviet Union via the Inn and Danube, was anchored in front of Gasthof Sandwirt.

Gradually, an area emerged on the edge of both the town and society, which was run by the unofficial mayor of the estate, Johann Bock (1900 - 1975), like an independent commune. He regulated the agendas in his sphere of influence in a rough and ready manner.

The Bockala had a terrible reputation among the good citizens of the city. And despite all the historical smoothing and nostalgia, probably not without good reason. As helpful and supportive as the often eccentric residents of the neighbourhood could be, physical violence and petty crime were the order of the day. Excessive alcohol consumption was common practice and the streets were unpaved. There was no running water, sewage system or sanitary facilities, nor was there a regular electricity supply. Even the supply of drinking water was precarious for a long time, which brought with it the constant risk of epidemics.

Many, but not all, of the residents were unemployed or criminals. In many cases, it was people who had fallen through the system who settled in the Bocksiedlung. Having the wrong party membership could be enough to prevent you from getting a flat in Innsbruck in the 1930s. Karl Jaworak, who carried out an assassination attempt on Federal Chancellor Prelate Ignaz Seipel in 1924, lived at Reichenau 5a from 1958 after his imprisonment and deportation to a concentration camp during the Nazi regime.

The furnishings of the Bocksiedlung dwellings were just as heterogeneous as the inhabitants. There were caravans and circus wagons, wooden barracks, corrugated iron huts, brick and concrete houses. The Bocksiedlung also had no fixed boundaries. Bockala In Innsbruck, being a citizen was a social status that largely originated in the imagination of the population.

Within the settlement, the houses and carriages built were rented out and sold. With the toleration of the city of Innsbruck, inherited values were created. The residents cultivated self-sufficient gardens and kept livestock, and dogs and cats were also on the menu in meagre times.

The air raids of the Second World War exacerbated the housing situation in Innsbruck and left the Bocksiedlung grow. At its peak, there are said to have been around 50 accommodations. The barracks of the Reichenau concentration camp were also used as sleeping quarters after the last imprisoned National Socialists held there were transferred or released, although the concentration camp was not part of the Bocksiedlung in the narrower sense.

The beginning of the end was the 1964 Olympic Games and a fire in the settlement a year earlier. Malicious tongues claim that this was set to speed up the eviction. In 1967, Mayor Alois Lugger and Johann Bock negotiated the next steps and compensation from the municipality for the eviction, reportedly in an alcohol-fuelled atmosphere. In 1976, the last quarters were evacuated due to hygienic deficiencies.

Many former residents of the Bocksiedlung were relocated to municipal flats in Pradl, the Reichenau and in the O-Village quartered here. The customs of the Bocksiedlung lived on for a number of years, which accounts for the poor reputation of the urban apartment blocks in these neighbourhoods to this day.

A reappraisal of what many historians call the Austrofascism has hardly ever happened in Austria. In the church of St Jakob im Defereggen in East Tyrol or in the parish church of Fritzens, for example, pictures of Dollfuß as the protector of the Catholic Church can still be seen, more or less without comment. In many respects, the legacy of the divided situation of the interwar period extends to the present day. To this day, there are red and black motorists' clubs, sports associations, rescue organisations and alpine associations whose roots go back to this period.

The history of the Bocksiedlung was compiled in many interviews and painstaking detail work by the city archives for the book "Bocksiedlung. A piece of Innsbruck" of the city archive.

After the end of the war, US troops controlled Tyrol for two months. The victorious French then took over the administration. The Tyroleans were spared the Soviet occupation that descended on eastern Austria. Hunger was the people's greatest enemy, especially in the first three years after the war. May 1945 brought not only the end of the war, but also snow. The winter of 1946/47 went down in Tyrolean climate history as particularly cold and long, the summer as particularly hot and dry. There were crop failures of up to 50%.

The supply situation was catastrophic, especially in the city in the immediate post-war period. The daily procurement of food became a life-threatening concern in the everyday lives of the people of Innsbruck. In addition to the city's own citizens, thousands of Displaced PersonsThe Tyrolean government had to feed a large number of people, freed forced labourers and occupying soldiers. To accomplish this task, the Tyrolean provincial government had to rely on outside help. The chairman of the UNRRA (Note: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), which supplied war zones with essentials, Fiorello La Guardia counted Austria "to those peoples of the world who are closest to starvation.“

Milk, bread, eggs, sugar, flour, fat - there was too little of everything. The French occupation was unable to meet the demand for the required kilocalories per capita, as the local population and the emergency services often lacked supplies. Until 1946, they even took goods from the Tyrolean economy.

Food was supplied via ration cards just a few weeks after the end of the war. Adults had to present a confirmation from the labour office in order to obtain these cards. The rations differed depending on the category of labourer. Heavy labourers, pregnant women and nursing mothers received food with a "value" of 2700 calories. Craftsmen with light occupations, civil servants and freelancers received 1850 kilocalories, white-collar workers 1450 calories. Housewives and other "normal consumers" could only receive 1200 calories.

There were also initiatives such as community kitchens and meals for schoolchildren, which were provided by foreign aid organisations. Care packages arrived from America from the charity organisation Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe. Many children were sent to foster homes in Switzerland in the summer to regain their strength and put a few extra kilos on their ribs.

However, all these measures were not enough for everyone. Housewives and other "normal consumers" in particular suffered from the low allocations. Despite the risk of being arrested, many Innsbruck residents travelled to the surrounding villages to hoard. Those who had money paid sometimes utopian prices to the farmers. Those who had none had to beg for food. In extreme cases, women whose husbands had been killed, captured or were missing saw no other way out than to prostitute themselves. These women, especially the unfortunate ones who became pregnant, had to endure the worst abuse for themselves and their offspring. Austria was still 30 years away from legalised abortion.

Politicians were largely powerless in the face of this. Even in normal times, it was impossible to pacify all interests. Many decisions between the parliament in Vienna, the Tyrolean provincial parliament and Innsbruck town hall were incomprehensible to the people. While children had to do without fruit and vitamins, some farmers legally distilled profitable schnapps. Official buildings and commercial enterprises were given free rein by the Innsbruck electricity company, while private households were restricted access to electricity at several times of the day from October 1945. The same disadvantage for households compared to businesses applied to the supply of coal.

The old rifts between town and country also grew wider and more hateful. Innsbruckers accused the surrounding population of deliberately withholding food for the black market. There were assaults, thefts and woodcutting. Transports at the railway station were guarded by armed units. The first Tyrolean governor Gruber, himself an illegal member of the resistance during the war, sympathised with the situation of the people who rebelled against the system, but was unable to do anything about it. The mayor of Innsbruck, Anton Melzer, also had his hands tied. Not only was it difficult to reconcile the needs of all interest groups, there were repeated cases of corruption and favours to relatives and acquaintances among the civil servants. Gruber's successor in the provincial governor's chair, Alfons Weißgatterer, had to survive several small riots when the people's anger was vented and stones flew towards the provincial parliament:

„Are the broken windows that clattered from the country house onto the street yesterday suitable arguments to prove our will to rebuild? Shouldn't we remember that economic difficulties have never been resolved by demonstrations and rallies in any country?“

Even though the situation eased after 1947, living conditions in Tyrol remained precarious. Food rationing was only stopped on 1 July 1953.

The housing situation was at least as bad. An estimated 30,000 Innsbruck residents were homeless, living in cramped conditions with relatives or in shanty towns such as the former labour camp in Reichenau, the shanty town for displaced persons from the former German territories of Europe, popularly known as the "Ausländerlager", or the "Ausländerlager". Bocksiedlung. There are few reminders of the disastrous state Innsbruck was in after the air raids of the last years of the war in the first years after the war. Tens of thousands of citizens helped to clear rubble and debris from the streets. Maria-Theresien-Straße, Museumstraße, the Bahnhofsviertel, Wilten and Pradlerstraße would probably have been much more attractive if the holes in the streetscape had not had to be quickly filled in order to create living space for the many homeless and returnees as quickly as possible.

However, aesthetics were a luxury that could not be afforded in this situation. The emaciated population needed new living space to escape the unhealthy living conditions in which large families were sometimes quartered in one-room flats. As after the First World War, when the Spanish flu claimed many victims, there was also an increase in dangerous infections in 1945. Vaccines against tuberculosis could not be supplied in the first winter. Hospital beds were also in short supply.

However, Innsbruck was lucky in misfortune. The French troops under Emile Bethouart behaved very mildly towards the former enemy and were friendly and open-minded towards the Tyrolean culture and population. Initially hostile towards the occupying power - yet another war had been lost - the scepticism of the people of Innsbruck gradually gave way. The soldiers were particularly popular with the children because of the chocolates and sweets they handed out. Many people were given jobs within the French administration. Many a Tyrolean saw dark-skinned people for the first time thanks to the uniformed members of the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division, who made up the majority of the soldiers until September 1945.

The monument to the French on Landhausplatz commemorates the French occupation. At the Emile Bethouart footbridgeThe memorial plaque on the river Inn, which connects St. Nikolaus and the city centre, is a good expression of the relationship between the occupation and the population:

"Arrived as a winner.

Remained as a protector.

Returned home as a friend."

In the 1920s and 30s, the NSDAP also grew and prospered in Tyrol. The first local branch of the NSDAP in Innsbruck was founded in 1923. With "Der Nationalsozialist - Combat Gazette for Tyrol and Vorarlberg" published its own weekly newspaper. In 1933, the NSDAP also experienced a meteoric rise in Innsbruck. The general dissatisfaction and disenchantment with politics among the citizens and theatrically staged torchlight processions through the city, including swastika-shaped bonfires on the Nordkette mountain range during the election campaign, helped the party to make huge gains. Over 1800 Innsbruck residents were members of the SA, which had its headquarters at Bürgerstraße 10. While the National Socialists were only able to win 2.8% of the vote in their first municipal council election in 1921, this figure had already risen to 41% by the 1933 elections. Nine mandataries, including the later mayor Egon Denz and the Gauleiter of Tyrol Franz Hofer, were elected to the municipal council. It was not only Hitler's election as Reich Chancellor in Germany, but also campaigns and manifestations in Innsbruck that helped the party, which had been banned in Austria since 1934, to achieve this result. As everywhere else, it was mainly young people in Innsbruck who were enthusiastic about National Socialism. They were attracted by the new, the clearing away of old hierarchies and structures such as the Catholic Church, the upheaval and the unprecedented style. National Socialism was particularly popular among the big German-minded lads in the student fraternities and often also among professors.

When the annexation of Austria to Germany took place in March 1938, civil war-like scenes ensued. Already in the run-up to the invasion, there had been repeated marches and rallies by the National Socialists after the ban on the party had been lifted. Even before Federal Chancellor Schuschnigg gave his last speech to the people before handing over power to the National Socialists with the words "God bless Austria" had closed on 11 March 1938, the National Socialists were already gathering in the city centre to celebrate the invasion of the German troops. The police of the corporative state were partly sympathetic to the riots of the organised manifestations and partly powerless in the face of the goings-on. Although the Landhaus and Maria-Theresien-Straße were cordoned off and secured with machine-gun posts, there was no question of any crackdown by the executive. "One people - one empire - one leader" echoed through the city. The threat of the German military and the deployment of SA troops dispelled the last doubts. More and more of the enthusiastic population joined in. At the Tiroler Landhaus, then still in Maria-Theresienstraße, and at the provisional headquarters of the National Socialists in the Gasthaus Old Innspruggthe swastika flag was hoisted.

On 12 March, the people of Innsbruck gave the German military a frenetic welcome. On 5 April, Adolf Hitler visited Innsbruck in person to be celebrated by the crowd. Archive photos show a euphoric crowd awaiting the Führer, the promise of salvation. Mountain fires in the shape of swastikas were lit on the Nordkette. The referendum on 10 April resulted in a vote of over 99% in favour of Austria's annexation to Germany. After the economic hardship of the interwar period, the economic crisis and the governments under Dollfuß and Schuschnigg, people were tired and wanted change. What kind of change was initially less important than the change itself. "Showing them up there", that was Hitler's promise. The Wehrmacht and industry offered young people a perspective, even those who had little to do with the ideology of National Socialism in and of itself. The fact that there were repeated outbreaks of violence was not unusual for the interwar period in Austria anyway. Unlike today, democracy was not something that anyone could have got used to in the short period between the monarchy in 1918 and the elimination of parliament under Dollfuß in 1933, which was characterised by political extremes. There is no need to abolish something that does not actually exist in the minds of the population.

Tyrol and Vorarlberg were combined into a Reichsgau with Innsbruck as its capital. There was no armed resistance, as the left in Tyrol was not strong enough. There were isolated instances of unorganised subversive behaviour by the Catholic population, especially in some rural communities around Innsbruck. Even though National Socialism was viewed sceptically by a large part of the population, there was hardly any organised resistance. The apparatus of power dominated people's everyday lives too comprehensively. Many jobs and other comforts of life were tied to an at least outwardly loyal attitude to the party. The majority of the population was spared imprisonment, but the fear of it was omnipresent.

The regime under Hofer and Gestapo chief Werner Hilliges also did a great job of suppression. In Tyrol, the church was the biggest obstacle. During National Socialism, the Catholic Church was systematically combated. Catholic schools were converted, youth organisations and associations were banned, monasteries were closed, religious education was abolished and a church tax was introduced. Particularly stubborn priests such as Otto Neururer were sent to concentration camps. Local politicians such as the later Innsbruck mayors Anton Melzer and Franz Greiter also had to flee or were arrested. To summarise the violence and crimes committed against the Jewish population, the clergy, political suspects, civilians and prisoners of war would go beyond the scope of this book.

The Gestapo headquarters were located at Herrengasse 1, where suspects were severely abused and sometimes beaten to death with fists. In 1941, the Reichenau labour camp was set up in Rossau near the Innsbruck building yard. Suspects of all kinds were kept here for forced labour in shabby barracks. Over 130 people died in this camp consisting of 20 barracks due to illness, the poor conditions, labour accidents or executions.

Prisoners were also forced to work at the Messerschmitt factory in the village of Kematen, 10 kilometres from Innsbruck. These included political prisoners, Russian prisoners of war and Jews. The forced labour included, among other things, the construction of the South Tyrolean settlements in the final phase or the tunnels to protect against air raids in the south of Innsbruck. In the Innsbruck clinic, disabled people and those deemed unacceptable by the system, such as homosexuals, were forcibly sterilised.

The memorials to the National Socialist era are few and far between. The Tiroler Landhaus with the Liberation Monument and the building of the Old University are the two most striking memorials. The forecourt of the university and a small column at the southern entrance to the hospital were also designed to commemorate what was probably the darkest chapter in Austria's history.

The abundance of churches, chapels, crucifixes and murals in public spaces has a peculiar effect on many visitors to Innsbruck from other countries. Not only places of worship, but also many private homes are decorated with depictions of the Holy Family or biblical scenes. The Christian faith and its institutions have characterised everyday life throughout Europe for centuries. Innsbruck, as the residence city of the strictly Catholic Habsburgs and capital of the self-proclaimed Holy Land of Tyrol, was particularly favoured when it came to the decoration of ecclesiastical buildings. The dimensions of the churches alone are gigantic by the standards of the past. In the 16th century, the town with its population of just under 5,000 had several churches that outshone every other building in terms of splendour and size, including the palaces of the aristocracy. Wilten Monastery was a huge complex in the centre of a small farming village that was grouped around it. The spatial dimensions of the places of worship reflect their importance in the political and social structure.

For many Innsbruck residents, the church was not only a moral authority, but also a secular landlord. The Bishop of Brixen was formally on an equal footing with the sovereign. The peasants worked on the bishop's estates in the same way as they worked for a secular prince on his estates. This gave them tax and legal sovereignty over many people. The ecclesiastical landowners were not regarded as less strict, but even as particularly demanding towards their subjects. At the same time, it was also the clergy in Innsbruck who were largely responsible for social welfare, nursing, care for the poor and orphans, feeding and education. The influence of the church extended into the material world in much the same way as the state does today with its tax office, police, education system and labour office. What democracy, parliament and the market economy are to us today, the Bible and pastors were to the people of past centuries: a reality that maintained order. To believe that all churchmen were cynical men of power who exploited their uneducated subjects is not correct. The majority of both the clergy and the nobility were pious and godly, albeit in a way that is difficult to understand from today's perspective.

Unlike today, religion was by no means a private matter. Violations of religion and morals were tried in secular courts and severely penalised. The charge for misconduct was heresy, which encompassed a wide range of offences. Sodomy, i.e. any sexual act that did not serve procreation, sorcery, witchcraft, blasphemy - in short, any deviation from the right belief in God - could be punished with burning. Burning was intended to purify the condemned and destroy them and their sinful behaviour once and for all in order to eradicate evil from the community.

For a long time, the church regulated the everyday social fabric of people down to the smallest details of daily life. Church bells determined people's schedules. Their sound called people to work, to church services or signalled the death of a member of the congregation. People were able to distinguish between individual bell sounds and their meaning. Sundays and public holidays structured the time. Fasting days regulated the diet. Family life, sexuality and individual behaviour had to be guided by the morals laid down by the church. The salvation of the soul in the next life was more important to many people than happiness on earth, as this was in any case predetermined by the events of time and divine will. Purgatory, the last judgement and the torments of hell were a reality and also frightened and disciplined adults.

While Innsbruck's bourgeoisie had been at least gently kissed awake by the ideas of the Enlightenment after the Napoleonic Wars, the majority of people in the surrounding communities remained attached to the mixture of conservative Catholicism and superstitious popular piety.

Faith and the church still have a firm place in the everyday lives of Innsbruck residents, albeit often unnoticed. The resignations from the church in recent decades have put a dent in the official number of members and leisure events are better attended than Sunday masses. However, the Roman Catholic Church still has a lot of ground in and around Innsbruck, even outside the walls of the respective monasteries and educational centres. A number of schools in and around Innsbruck are also under the influence of conservative forces and the church. And anyone who always enjoys a public holiday, pecks one Easter egg after another or lights a candle on the Christmas tree does not have to be a Christian to act in the name of Jesus disguised as tradition.

Anyone travelling in Austria will be familiar with the domes and onion domes of churches in villages and towns. This form of church tower originated during the Counter-Reformation and is a typical feature of the Baroque architectural style. They are also predominant in Innsbruck's cityscape. Innsbruck's most famous places of worship, such as the cathedral, St John's Church and the Jesuit Church, are in the Baroque style. Places of worship were meant to be magnificent and splendid, a symbol of the victory of true faith. Religiousness was reflected in art and culture: grand drama, pathos, suffering, splendour and glory combined to create the Baroque style, which had a lasting impact on the entire Catholic-oriented sphere of influence of the Habsburgs and their allies between Spain and Hungary.

The cityscape of Innsbruck changed enormously. The Gumpps and Johann Georg Fischer as master builders as well as Franz Altmutter's paintings have had a lasting impact on Innsbruck to this day. The Old Country House in the historic city centre, the New Country House in Maria-Theresien-Straße, the countless palazzi, paintings, figures - the Baroque was the style-defining element of the House of Habsburg in the 17th and 18th centuries and became an integral part of everyday life. The bourgeoisie did not want to be inferior to the nobles and princes and had their private houses built in the Baroque style. Pictures of saints, depictions of the Mother of God and the heart of Jesus adorned farmhouses.

Baroque was not just an architectural style, it was an attitude to life that began after the end of the Thirty Years' War. The Turkish threat from the east, which culminated in the two sieges of Vienna, determined the foreign policy of the empire, while the Reformation dominated domestic politics. Baroque culture was a central element of Catholicism and its political representation in public, the counter-model to Calvin's and Luther's brittle and austere approach to life. Holidays with a Christian background were introduced to brighten up people's everyday lives. Architecture, music and painting were rich, opulent and lavish. In theatres such as the Comedihaus dramas with a religious background were performed in Innsbruck. Stations of the cross with chapels and depictions of the crucified Jesus dotted the landscape. Popular piety in the form of pilgrimages and the veneration of the Virgin Mary and saints found its way into everyday church life.

The Baroque piety was also used to educate the subjects. Even though the sale of indulgences was no longer a common practice in the Catholic Church after the 16th century, there was still a lively concept of heaven and hell. Through a virtuous life, i.e. a life in accordance with Catholic values and good behaviour as a subject towards the divine order, one could come a big step closer to paradise. The so-called Christian edification literature was popular among the population after the school reformation of the 18th century and showed how life should be lived. The suffering of the crucified Christ for humanity was seen as a symbol of the hardship of the subjects on earth within the feudal system. People used votive images to ask for help in difficult times or to thank the Mother of God for dangers and illnesses they had overcome. Great examples of this can be found on the eastern façade of the basilica in Wilten.

The historian Ernst Hanisch described the Baroque and the influence it had on the Austrian way of life as follows:

„Österreich entstand in seiner modernen Form als Kreuzzugsimperialismus gegen die Türken und im Inneren gegen die Reformatoren. Das brachte Bürokratie und Militär, im Äußeren aber Multiethnien. Staat und Kirche probierten den intimen Lebensbereich der Bürger zu kontrollieren. Jeder musste sich durch den Beichtstuhl reformieren, die Sexualität wurde eingeschränkt, die normengerechte Sexualität wurden erzwungen. Menschen wurden systematisch zum Heucheln angeleitet.“

The rituals and submissive behaviour towards the authorities left their mark on everyday culture, which still distinguishes Catholic countries such as Austria and Italy from Protestant regions such as Germany, England or Scandinavia. The Austrians' passion for academic titles has its origins in the Baroque hierarchies. The expression Baroque prince describes a particularly patriarchal and patronising politician who knows how to charm his audience with grand gestures. While political objectivity is valued in Germany, the style of Austrian politicians is theatrical, in keeping with the Austrian bon mot of "Schaumamal".