Innsbrucker Nachrichten / 11 February 1921

...Now the speaker has presented a generous project for the construction of 18 residential buildings near the municipal abattoir. The construction of a block of houses adjacent to the municipal abattoir is planned to create space for 183 new flats in the form of simple residential buildings. There are plans for 4 flats with 1 room and kitchen/living room, 148 flats with 2 rooms and kitchen/living room and 36 flats with 3 rooms and kitchen/living room, resulting in a total of 581 living spaces. The detailed plans submitted to the municipal council show the appropriate and practical utilisation of the entire complex. The total construction costs for the entire block of 18 residential care houses amount to 49,810,000 K, i.e. almost 50 million crowns. The city, province and state are to each pay one third of the lost construction costs. If the negotiations with the provincial and state governments are cancelled immediately, the construction of 10 houses can begin this year. The municipal council agreed to the planned construction in recognition of the great importance of rapid and energetic realisation.

Innsbrucker Nachrichten / 22 April 1922

...After the opening, the chairman, Mayor Greil, brought an urgent motion to the attention of the municipal council, which the members of the municipal housing welfare committee had tabled in order to pursue the extension of the block of flats at the municipal abattoir, which would result in a total of 163 flats. The construction of the apartment blocks at the abattoir, which had already been decided in 1920, has not yet progressed, but the advanced season as well as the increasing housing shortage make the immediate start of the extension an absolute necessity. The motion calls for the immediate submission of the long-completed construction plans, the invitation to tender for the construction work, the financing of the extension or the sale of dispensable properties in favour of this project and the immediate start of construction.

Allgemeiner Tiroler Anzeiger / 3 February 1937

Gang of young burglars

The Innsbruck criminal investigation department has reportedly arrested two boys aged 15 and 16 who lived in the slaughterhouse block and had been carrying out their robberies from there for more than half a year. They were a real terror to the businessmen of the whole neighbourhood and had the cheek to boast of their crimes to other boys. The following burglaries have been proven so far: Branch of Therese Mölk, Viaduktbogen 5 (large quantities of food, sardines, salami, etc.); grocery store Ischia u. Co., Erzherzog-Eugen-Stratze (vermouth wine and large quantities of sardines): Trafik Plattner, Erzherzog-Eugen-Straße (cigarettes, chocolate and money); Magazin'des Stadtbauamtes im Viadukt bogen (several sacks of coal): Master butcher Tschon, Schlachthofblock (sausages): Rufinatscher general store in Schlachthofblock (large amount of food); two break-ins at the Mölk company (some food, they couldn't take any more because they were scared away both times); display burglary at Hindenburgplatz (several bottles of liqueurs, confectionery and chocolate); display burglary at "Frifa", Wilhelm- Greil-Straße (several handbags, wallets and purses): Display burglary in Maria-Theresien[1]Straße at the Dannhauser company (shirts, pullovers, ties etc.); display burglary at the Hammerle toy shop, Maria-Theresien-Straße (toys): Shoplifting from the Sailer tobacconist's in Pfarrgaffe (they were scared away here); also opportunist thefts from the Stauder and Sterzinger general stores in Pradler Straße (food), Mayer general store in Weyerburggasse (cigarettes), Kritzinger coal store in Defreggerstraße (coal). Some of the stolen items were seized by the police, the food, cigarettes and coal were smuggled or sold by the boys.

From the second half of the 1920s, large housing projects were realised to alleviate the greatest need of the many Innsbruck residents who lived in barracks or with relatives in cramped conditions. Entire new neighbourhoods were built with kindergartens and schools. Sports and leisure centres such as the Tivoli and the municipal indoor swimming pool were built. One of the master builders who made lasting changes to Innsbruck during this period was Theodor Prachensky (1888 - 1970).

As an employee of the Innsbruck building authority between 1913 and 1953, he was responsible for housing and infrastructure projects. The projects he realised are not as spectacular as the mountain stations of his brother-in-law Baumann. Prachensky's buildings, which have stood the test of time, often appear sober and purely functional. However, if you look at his drawings in the Archives of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck, you realise that Prachensky was more of an artist than a technician, as his paintings also prove. Many of his spectacular designs, such as the Sozialdemokratische Volkshaus in der Salurnerstraße, sein Kaiserschützendenkmal oder die Friedens- und Heldenkirche were not realised. Innsbruck is home to the large housing estates of the 1920s and 30s, the Warrior Memorial Chapel at the Pradl cemetery and the old labour office (Note: today a branch of the University of Innsbruck behind the current AMS building in Wilten) many of Prachensky's buildings, which document the contemporary history of the interwar period and the changing political and state influences under which he himself was influenced.

His biography reads like an outline of Austrian history in the early 20th century. Prachensky worked as an architect and civil servant under five different state models. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy was followed by the First Republic, which was replaced by the authoritarian corporative state. In 1938, the country was annexed by Nazi Germany. The Second Republic was proclaimed at the end of the war in 1945.

In 1908, Prachensky graduated from the construction department of the Gewerbeschule Innsbruck, now the HTL. From 1909, he worked partly together with Franz Baumann, whose sister Maria he was to marry in 1913, at the renowned architectural firm Musch & Lun in Merano, at that time also still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In his private life, 1913 was a groundbreaking year for him: Theodor and Maria got married and started the private construction project for their own home Haus Prachensky at Berg Isel Weg 20 and the new family man started work at the Innsbruck City Council under Chief Building Officer Jakob Albert. Instead of having to work his way through the difficult economic situation in the private sector after the war, Prachensky worked in the public sector. The important projects influenced by social democratic ideas could only be started after the first and most difficult post-war years, characterised by inflation and supply shortages. The first was the Schlachthausblock im Saggen zwischen 1922 und 1925. Es folgten mehrere Infrastrukturprojekte wie der Mandelsbergerblock, der Pembaurblock and the kindergarten and secondary school in Pembaurstraße, which were primarily intended for the socially disadvantaged and the working class affected by the war and the post-war period. The labour office designed in 1931 was also an important innovation in the social welfare system. Since the founding of the republic in 1918, the labour office helped to place jobseekers with employers and curb unemployment.

His importance increased again during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Another turning point in Prachensky's career was the next change in Austria's form of government. Despite the shift to the right under Dollfuß, including the banning of the Social Democratic Party in 1933 and the Anschluss in 1938, he was able to remain in the civil service as a senior civil servant. Together with Jakob Albert, Prachensky realised the housing blocks known as the South Tyrolean Settlements under the National Socialists from 1939. Unlike several members of his family, he himself was never a member or supporter of the NSDAP.

His father Josef Prachensky, who went down in Tyrolean history as one of the founders of social democracy, probably had a great influence on his work as an architect and urban planner in line with international social democratically orientated architecture.

In addition to his father's political views, the disappearance of the Habsburg monarchy and his impressions of military service in the First World War also had an influence on Prachensky. Although he said he was against the war, he volunteered for military service in 1915 as a one-year volunteer with the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger. Perhaps it was the expectations placed on him as a civil servant during the war, perhaps the general enthusiasm that prompted him to take this step, the statements and the deed are contradictory. The war memorial chapel at the Pradl cemetery and the Kaiserschützenkapelle on Tummelplatz, which he designed together with Clemens Holzmeister, as well as his unrealised designs for a Kaiserjäger monument and the Friedens- und Heldenkirche Innsbruckare probably products of Prachensky's life experience.

After the Second World War, he remained active for a further eight years as Chief Planning Officer for the city of Innsbruck. In addition to his work as a construction planner and architect, Prachensky was a keen painter. He died in Innsbruck at the age of 82. His sons, grandsons and great-grandsons continued his creative legacy as architects, designers, photographers and painters in various disciplines. In 2017, parts of the cross-generational work of the Prachensky family of artists were exhibited in the former brewery Adambräu mit einer Ausstellung gezeigt.

Few eras are more difficult to grasp than the interwar period. The Roaring TwentiesJazz and automobiles come to mind, as do inflation and the economic crisis. In big cities like Berlin, young ladies behaved as Flappers with a bobbed head, cigarette and short skirts, lascivious to the new sounds, Innsbruck's population, as part of the young Republic of Austria, belonged for the most part to the faction of poverty, economic crisis and political polarisation.

Although the Republic of German-Austria had been proclaimed, it was unclear how things would continue in Austria. The new Austria seemed too small and not viable. The monarchy and nobility were banned. The bureaucratic state of the k.u.k. Empire seamlessly asserted itself under a new flag and name. The federal states, as successors to the old crown lands, were given a great deal of room for manoeuvre in legislation and administration within the framework of federalism. However, enthusiasm for the new state was limited among the population. Not only was the supply situation miserable after the loss of the vast majority of the former Habsburg empire, people mistrusted the basic idea of the republic. The monarchy had not been perfect, but only very few people could relate to the idea of democracy. Instead of being subjects of the emperor, they were now citizens, but only citizens of a dwarf state with an oversized capital that was little loved in the provinces instead of a large empire. In the former crown lands, most of which were governed by Christian socialists, people liked to speak of the Viennese water headwho was fed by the yields of the industrious rural population.

Other federal states also toyed with the idea of seceding from the Republic after the plan to join Germany, which was supported by all parties, was prohibited by the victorious powers of the First World War. The Tyrolean plans, however, were particularly spectacular. From a neutral Alpine state with other federal states, a free state consisting of Tyrol and Bavaria or from Kufstein to Salurn, an annexation to Switzerland and even a Catholic church state under papal leadership, there were many ideas. The most obvious solution was particularly popular. In Tyrol, feeling German was nothing new. So why not align oneself politically with the big brother in the north? This desire was particularly pronounced among urban elites and students. The annexation to Germany was approved by 98% in a vote in Tyrol, but never materialised.

Instead of becoming part of Germany, they were subject to the unloved Wallschen. Italian troops occupied Innsbruck for almost two years after the end of the war. At the peace negotiations in Paris, the Brenner Pass was declared the new border. The historic Tyrol was divided in two. The military was stationed at the Brenner Pass to secure a border that had never existed before and was perceived as unnatural and unjust. In 1924, the Innsbruck municipal council decided to name squares and streets around the main railway station after South Tyrolean towns. Bozner Platz, Brixnerstrasse and Salurnerstrasse still bear their names today. Many people on both sides of the Brenner felt betrayed. Although the war was far from won, they did not see themselves as losers to Italy. Hatred of Italians reached its peak in the interwar period, even if the occupying troops were emphatically lenient. A passage from the short story collection "The front above the peaks" by the National Socialist author Karl Springenschmid from the 1930s reflects the general mood:

"The young girl says, 'Becoming Italian would be the worst thing.

Old Tappeiner just nods and grumbles: "I know it myself and we all know it: becoming a whale would be the worst thing."

Trouble also loomed in domestic politics. The revolution in Russia and the ensuing civil war with millions of deaths, expropriation and a complete reversal of the system cast its long shadow all the way to Austria. The prospect of Soviet conditions made people afraid. Austria was deeply divided. Capital and provinces, city and countryside, citizens, workers and farmers - in the vacuum of the first post-war years, each group wanted to shape the future according to their own ideas. The divide was not only on a political level. Morality, family, leisure activities, education, faith, understanding of the law - every area of life was affected. Who should rule? How should wealth, rights and duties be distributed? A communist coup was not a real danger, especially in Tyrol, but could be easily instrumentalised in the media as a threat to discredit social democracy. In 1919, a communist movement had formed in Innsbruck. Workers', farmers' and soldiers' council modelled on the Soviet model, but its influence remained limited and was not supported by any party. The soldiers' councils officially formed from 1920 onwards were dominated by Christian socialists. The peasant and middle-class camp to the right of centre became militarised as a result of the Tiroler Heimatwehr more professionally and in greater numbers than left-wing groups. Nevertheless, social democracy was criticised from church pulpits and in the conservative media as Jewish Party and homeless traitors to their country. They were all too readily blamed for the lost war and its consequences. The Tiroler Anzeiger summarised the people's fears in a nutshell: "Woe to the Christian people if the Jews=Socialists win the elections!".

While in the rural districts the Tyrolean People's Party as a merger of Farmers' Union, People's Association und Catholic Labour Despite the strong headwinds in Innsbruck, the Social Democrats under the leadership of Martin Rapoldi were able to win between 30 and 50% of the vote in the first elections in 1919. The fact that it did not work out for the comrades with the mayor's seat was due to the majorities in the municipal council through alliances of the other parties. Liberals and Tyrolean People's Party was at least as hostile to social democracy as he was to the federal capital Vienna and the Italian occupiers.

But high politics was only the framework of the actual misery. The as Spanish flu This epidemic, which has gone down in history, also took its toll in Innsbruck in the years following the war. Exact figures were not recorded, but the number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 27 - 50 million. Many Innsbruck residents had not returned home from the battlefields and were missing as fathers, husbands and labourers. Many of those who had made it back were wounded and scarred by the horrors of war. As late as February 1920, the "Tyrolean Committee of the Siberians" at the Gasthof Breinößl "...in favour of the fund for the repatriation of our prisoners of war..." organised a charity evening. Long after the war, the province of Tyrol still needed help from abroad to feed the population. Under the heading "Significant expansion of the American children's aid programme in Tyrol" was published on 9 April 1921 in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten to read: "Taking into account the needs of the province of Tyrol, the American representatives for Austria have most generously increased the daily number of meals to 18,000 portions.“

Then there was unemployment. Civil servants and public sector employees in particular had lost their jobs after the League of Nations tied its loan to harsh austerity measures. Tourism as an economic factor was non-existent due to the problems in the neighbouring countries, which were also shaken by the war. Many people lost their homes. In 1922, 3,000 families were looking for housing in Innsbruck despite a municipal emergency housing programme that had already been in place for several years. Flats were built in all available properties. On 11 February 1921, there was a long list in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten on the individual projects that were run, including this item:

„The municipal hospital abandoned the epidemic barracks in Pradl and made them available to the municipality for the construction of emergency flats. The necessary loan of 295 K (note: crowns) was approved for the construction of 7 emergency flats.“

Very little happened in the first few years. It was only with the currency restructuring and the introduction of the schilling as the new currency in 1925 under Chancellor Ignaz Seipel that Innsbruck slowly began to recover and was able to initiate the modernisation of the city. Major projects such as the Tivoli, the municipal indoor swimming pool, the high road to the Hungerburg, the mountain railways to Mount Isel and the Nordkette, new schools and apartment blocks could only be built after the first post-war problems had been overcome. The signature of the new, large mass parties in the design of these projects cannot be overlooked.

The first republic was a difficult birth from the remnants of the former monarchy and it was not to last long. Despite the post-war problems, however, a lot of positive things also happened in the First Republic. Subjects became citizens. What began in the time of Maria Theresa was now continued under new auspices. The change from subject to citizen was characterised not only by a new right to vote, but above all by the increased care of the state. State regulations, schools, kindergartens, labour offices, hospitals and municipal housing estates replaced the benevolence of the landlord, sovereigns, wealthy citizens, the monarchy and the church.

To this day, much of the Austrian state and Innsbruck's cityscape and infrastructure are based on what emerged after the collapse of the monarchy. In Innsbruck, there are no conscious memorials to the emergence of the First Republic in Austria. The listed residential complexes such as the Slaughterhouse blockthe Pembaurblock or the Mandelsbergerblock oder die Pembaur School are contemporary witnesses turned to stone.

The couple Martin (1880 - 1926) and Maria Rapoldi (1884 - 1975) were among the most impressive personalities in Innsbruck city politics from the end of the monarchy to the post-war period. Martin Rapoldi came to Innsbruck via Carinthia, Vienna and Bohemia. He first came into contact with socially critical ideas during his carpentry apprenticeship. Together with other apprentices, he founded a kind of anarchist trade union in Klagenfurt with youthful fervour. In the capital of the Danube Monarchy and in Zatek in what is now the Czech Republic, he became involved in the trade union and the recently officially founded Social Democratic Party. In 1904, he moved to Innsbruck, where the man in his mid-twenties soon attracted attention as an ambitious organiser and rousing speaker. The following year, he married his wife Maria, who was also politically active. Thanks to his linguistic talent, he took over the Volkszeitungthe press organ of the Tyrolean Social Democrats. Despite initial euphoria in favour of entering the war, including on the part of the Social Democrats, the anti-clerical Pfaffenfresser Rapoldi soon came out in favour of peace and the introduction of universal suffrage at municipal level. After 1918, he was completely in line with the party line and in favour of unification with the German Reich.

In the early years of the First Republic, he had a short but stellar career. He was elected a member of the provincial parliament in Tyrol and a member of the first National Council in Vienna. In Innsbruck, he managed to make the Social Democrats the strongest party in the local council. However, due to the anti-socialist stance of the other parliamentary groups in the municipal council, he was never able to fill the position of mayor. Housing construction and the municipal energy supply were of particular concern to him. During Rapoldi's time on the municipal council, the major projects Schlachthofblock and Pembaurblock were built in Dreiheiligen and Pradl, as well as the school and kindergarten in today's Pembaurstraße. He was instrumental in the construction of the Innsbrucker Lichtwerke, today's Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebeinvolved. At the end of the war, negotiations began between the city of Innsbruck and the St. Georgenberg monastery regarding the purchase of Lake Achensee for the construction of a power plant. Martin Rapoldi was the driving force behind the construction of the Achensee railway, the Achensee power station and the founding of Tiroler Wasserkraft TIWAG. In 1926 the enterprising man died. Red journeyman carpenter at the age of 46 from the consequences of kidney inflammation.

The life of his wife Maria is no less impressive. She came into contact with social democratic ideas at an early age in her parents' household in Wörgl. A trained accountant, she moved to Innsbruck. She probably met her future husband while working for the health insurance company. Despite having two small daughters, Maria was already involved in the regional women's conference of the Social Democrats in 1912. After the death of her husband, she remained active in social democracy. As an employee of the Volkszeitung During the years of Austrofascism, it was repeatedly targeted by the Vaterländischen Front. After the Volkszeitung was banned by the regime as part of the censorship programme, she had to eke out a living as an unemployed widow. She opened a stamp shop in the historic city centre. At the same time, she worked underground at the Red AidShe was also involved in supporting the families of imprisoned members of the Republican Protection League. During the National Socialist era, she was imprisoned for a short time. After the war, she also stepped out of the shadow of her husband Martin, who died young, in an official capacity. From 1946 to 1959, she was a member of Innsbruck's municipal council. She campaigned for social agendas such as old people's homes, children's homes and the improvement of food and health care in the post-war period. As a member of the Tyrolean relief organisation, the city school board, the board of trustees of the Sieberer orphanage and the administrative committee of the Innsbruck secondary school for girls

Martin and Maria Rapoldi are buried in a grave of honour at Innsbruck's Westfriedhof cemetery. The park in Pradl, opened in 1927, also bears the names of the two memorable city politicians. In Kranebitten, the Social Democratic Party erected a monument to him after Martin's early death, which was destroyed by members of the Home Army in 1934.

"Light air and sun" was the motto of the Lebensreform, a collective movement of alternative lifestyles that began in Germany in the late 19th century in step with the development of social democracy. Both movements were reactions to the living conditions in the rapidly growing cities. Urbanisation was increasingly perceived as a burden. The traffic on the streets, the exhaust fumes from the factories, the cramped living conditions in the tenements and the hitherto unknown haste, which made new illnesses such as neurasthenia acceptable, provoked counter-movements. Although Innsbruck was not comparable to Paris or London in terms of city size and the intensity of industrialisation, the fall from grace for many inhabitants of the former rural districts was enormous. The infrastructural problems were also similar.

Since 1869 the German quarterly for public health carewhich focussed on improving nutrition, hygiene and living space. In 1881, the Austrian Society for Healthcare was founded. Private associations organised educational events on clean and healthy living. There was political lobbying for the construction of parks in public spaces and the improvement of infrastructure such as baths, hospitals, sewage systems and water pipes. Assanation und Social hygiene were the slogans of a bourgeois elite concerned about their fellow human beings and public health. Like all elitist movements, the Lebensreform also took on some absurd forms, at least from the perspective of the time. Movements such as vegetarianism, naturism, garden cities, various esoteric movements and other alternative lifestyles, which have survived in one form or another to this day, emerged during this period. 

The seemingly eccentric lifestyle that was possible for wealthy citizens in their villas in Saggen, Wilten and Pradl was usually denied to workers. Many tenement blocks were dreary and overcrowded biotopes with no infrastructure such as sports facilities or parks. It was the early social democrats who politically confronted the realities of workers' lives. Modern housing estates should be functional, comfortable, affordable and connected with green spaces. These views also prevailed in public authorities. Albert Gruber, professor at the Innsbruck trade schoolwrote in 1907:

„I've often heard people say that we in Innsbruck don't need plants, that nature gives us everything, but that's not true. What could be nicer than when working people can walk from their place of work to their home through a series of plants. It turns the journey to and from work into a relaxing walk. Incidentally, there are many reasons why planting trees and gardens in urban areas is beneficial. I do not want to emphasise the interaction between people and plants, which is probably well known. In another way, plants improve the air we breathe by reducing dust.“

Even before the First World War, there were changes in everyday politics. Social democracy as a political movement had officially existed as a political party since 1889, but under the Habsburg monarchy it only had very limited opportunities to organise. The labour movement was particularly important as a social counterweight to the Catholic structures that dominated everything in Tyrol. In 1865, the first Tyrolean Labour education association. Workers should become aware of their position within society before the impending world revolution. For this, it was essential to have a minimum level of education and to be able to read and write. 10 years later, Franz Reisch founded the General Workers' Association in Innsbruck. Another two years later, the "Allgemeine Arbeiter-, Kranken-, und Invaliden-Casse" (General Workers', Sickness and Invalids' Fund) was launched throughout the country. Despite state repression, there were always considerable gatherings of the Radicals. From 1893, the social democratic Volkszeitung was published in Innsbruck as a counter-voice to the Catholic papers.

In 1899, the Erste Tiroler Arbeiter-Bäckerei, or ETAB for short, was opened in what is now Maximilianstraße. The co-operative set itself the goal of producing high-quality bread at fair prices under good working and hygiene conditions. After several relocations, the ETAB ended up in Hallerstraße, where it produced fresh baked goods every day until 1999.

The first free elections within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the Imperial Council for all male citizens in 1907 changed not only the political but also the social balance of power. Monarchy to the Imperial Council for all male citizens in 1907 changed not only the political but also the social balance of power. The Pofel now had a political say. Important laws such as restrictions on working hours and improvements in working conditions could now be demanded with greater vigour. Together with Upper Austria, the crown land of Tyrol had the longest working hours in the entire Danube Monarchy. Although the number of trade union members also increased, Tyrol was too rural outside of the small town centres to be able to exert any significant pressure.

At municipal level, the census electoral law, which had given Greater German liberal and conservative clerical politicians a free pass to power for decades, remained in place until after the war. Even after the first municipal council elections after 1918, the fulfilment of the resulting demands had to wait. The post-war coffers were only meagrely filled. The major infrastructure and housing projects in Innsbruck, such as the Tivoli, the municipal indoor swimming pool, the Pembaur, Mandelsberger and Schlachthof blocks, were not realised until the First Republic.

Josef Prachensky (1861 - 1931), the father of architect and urban planner Theodor Prachensky, was a well-known Innsbruck representative of the Lebensreform and social democracy. He grew up in German-speaking Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a trained book printer, he discovered the labour movement during his wanderings in Vienna during the book printers' strike. After marrying a Tyrolean woman, he settled in Innsbruck, where he worked as an editor for the social democratic Volkszeitung for Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Josef Prachensky supported the Arbeiter-Consum-Vereinwhich Tyrolean labourers' bakery and founded the catering business "Non-alcoholic" in Museumstraße, which aimed to improve general health in the spirit of the life reform movement and socialism. Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895), the co-author of the Communist Manifesto, had already recognised schnapps and brandy as an evil of the working class in the first half of the 19th century. Socialism shared the goal of getting people away from alcohol with church organisations. The world revolution was no more feasible with addicts than a virtuous, God-pleasing life. Prachensky was involved in the founding of the Tyrolean Social Democratic Party in 1890 and, after the First World War, in the founding of the Tyrolean Republican Defence League RESCH, the left-wing counterpart to the right-wing Heimwehr organisations. A particular political concern of his was the restriction of the church on school teaching, which was still very important in the 19th and early 20th century, even in the actually liberal Innsbruck, which had to adhere to the national school regulations.

Life reform and the growing influence of social democracy also influenced art and architecture. People wanted to distance themselves from what Max Weber described as the Protestant ethic, industry, time clocks and, in general, rapid technological progress with all its effects on people and the social fabric. People as individuals, not their economic performance, should once again take centre stage. The culture of the old society, in which the nobility and clergy stood above the rest of society, was to be overcome. Art Nouveau in its playfulness was the artistic response of an eccentric and alternative section of the middle classes to this Back to the origin the turn of the century. In the housing of the First Republic, the architectural style of the Neuen Sachlichkeit the upper hand.

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. The city's economy boomed. Businesses were set 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. Mass parties such as the Social Democrats were unable to assert themselves until the electoral law reform of the First Republic. Conservatives also had a hard time in Innsbruck due to the composition of the population, especially until the incorporation of Wilten and Pradl. Mayor Greil was able to build on 100% support in the municipal council, which naturally made decision-making and steering much easier. For all the efficiency that Innsbruck mayors displayed on the surface, it should not be forgotten that this was only possible because, as part of an elite of entrepreneurs, tradesmen and freelancers, they ruled in a kind of elected dictatorship without any significant opposition or consideration for other population groups such as labourers, craftsmen and employees. The Imperial Municipalities Act of 1862 gave cities such as Innsbruck, and therefore the mayors, greater powers. It is hardly surprising that the chain of office that Greil received from his colleagues in the municipal council on his 60th birthday was remarkably similar to the medal chains of the old nobility.

Under Greil's aegis and the general economic upturn, Innsbruck expanded at a rapid pace. In the style of a merchant, he bought land with foresight 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. He was also extremely open to private investment in the city's economy. Infrastructure projects such as the new town hall in Maria-Theresienstraße in 1897, the Hungerburg railway in 1906 and the Karwendelbahn were realised during his reign. Other highly visible milestones were the renovation of the market square and the construction of the market hall.

In addition to the prestigious large-scale projects, however, many inconspicuous revolutions emerged in the last decades of the 19th century. Much of what was driven forward in the second half of the 19th century is part of everyday life today. For the people of the time, however, these things were a real sensation and life-changing. Greil's predecessor, Mayor Heinrich Falk (1840 - 1917), had already made a significant contribution to the modernisation of the town and the settlement of Saggen. Since 1859, the lighting of the town with gas pipelines had progressed steadily. With the growth of the town and modernisation, the cesspits, which served as privies in the back yards of houses and were sold to surrounding farmers as fertiliser after being emptied, became an unreasonable burden for more and more people. In 1880, the 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 and St. Nikolaus were not connected to the sewerage system. The new abattoir in Saggen also improved hygiene and cleanliness in the city. With a few exceptions, poorly controlled farmyard slaughterhouses were a thing of the past. The cattle arrived at the Sillspitz by train and were professionally slaughtered in the modern facility. Greil also transferred the gasworks in Pradl and the power station in Mühlau to municipal ownership. Street lighting was converted from gas lamps to electric lighting in the 20th century. In 1888, the hospital moved from Maria-Theresienstraße to its current location.

The mayor and municipal council were able to Innsbrucker Renaissance In addition to the growing economic power in the pre-war period, the church could also rely on patrons from the middle classes. While technical innovations and infrastructure were the responsibility of the liberals, the care of the poorest remained with clerically-minded forces, although no longer with the church itself. Baron Johann von Sieberer donated the old people's asylum and the orphanage in Saggen. Leonhard Lang donated the building, previously used as a hotel, to which the town hall moved from the old town in 1897, in return for the town's promise to build a home for apprentices.

In contrast to the booming pre-war era, the period after 1914 was characterised by crisis management. In his final years in office, Greil accompanied Innsbruck through the transition from the Habsburg Monarchy to the Republic, a period characterised above all by hunger, misery, scarcity of resources and insecurity. He was 68 years old when Italian troops occupied the city after the First World War and Tyrol was divided at the Brenner Pass, which was particularly bitter for him as a representative of German nationalism. Although the Social Democrats won their first election in Innsbruck in 1919, Greil remained mayor thanks to the majorities in the municipal council. He died in 1928 as an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck at the age of 78. Wilhelm-Greil-Straße was named after him during his lifetime.