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 swept over 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 grew wider and more hateful. Innsbruckers accused the surrounding population of deliberately withholding food for the black market. There were robberies, thefts and woodcutting. Transports at the railway station were guarded by armed units. Obtaining food from a camp was both illegal and commonplace. Children and young people roamed the city hungry and took every opportunity to get something to eat or fuel. The first Tyrolean governor Gruber, himself an illegal member of the resistance during the war, understood 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 popular anger was vented and stones were thrown in the direction of the Landhaus. Tiroler Tageszeitung. The paper was founded in 1945 under the administration of the US armed forces for the purposes of democratisation and denazification, but was transferred the following year to Schlüssel GmbH under the management of ÖVP politician Joseph Moser. Thanks to the high circulation and its almost direct influence on the content, the Tyrolean provincial government was able to steer the public mood:

„Are the broken windows that clattered from the country house into 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?“

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.

"The emergency situation jeopardises the comfort of the home. It eats away at the roots of joie de vivre. No one suffers more than the woman whose happiness is to see a contented, cosy family circle around her. What a strain on mental strength is required by the daily gruelling struggle for a little shopping, the hardship of queuing, the disappointment of rejections and refusals and the look of discouragement on the faces of loved ones tormented by deprivation."

What is in the Tiroler Tageszeitung was only part of the harsh reality of everyday life. 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 delivered in the first winter. Hospital beds were also in short supply. Even though the situation eased after 1947, living conditions in Tyrol remained precarious. It took years before there were any noticeable improvements. Food rationing was discontinued on 1 July 1953. In the same year, Mayor Greiter was able to announce that all the buildings destroyed during the air raids had been repaired.

This was also thanks to the occupying forces. The French troops under Emile Bethouart behaved very mildly and co-operatively 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. Thanks to the uniformed soldiers, many a Tyrolean saw of the 4th Moroccan Mountain Divisionwho made up the majority of the soldiers until September 1945. The French memorial 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 addition to material hardship, society was characterised by the collective trauma of war. The adults of the 1950s were products of the education of the interwar period and National Socialism. Men who had fought at the front could only talk about their horrific experiences in certain circles as war losers; women usually had no forum at all to process their fears and worries. Domestic violence and alcoholism were widespread. Teachers, police officers, politicians and civil servants often came from National Socialist supporters, who did not simply disappear with the end of the war, but were merely hushed up in public. On Innsbruck People's Court Although there were a large number of trials against National Socialists under the direction of the victorious powers, the number of convictions did not reflect the extent of what had happened. The majority of those accused went free. Particularly incriminated representatives of the system were sent to prison for some time, but were able to resume their old lives relatively undisturbed after serving their sentences, at least professionally. It was not just a question of drawing a line under the past decades; yesterday's perpetrators were needed to keep today's society running.

The problem with this strategy of suppression was that no one took responsibility for what had happened, even if there was great enthusiasm and support for National Socialism, especially at the beginning. There was hardly a family that did not have at least one member with a less than glorious history between 1933 and 1945. Shame about what had happened since 1938 and in Austria's politics over the years was mixed with the fear of being treated as a war culprit by the occupying powers of the USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR in a similar way to 1918. A climate arose in which no one, neither those involved nor the following generation, spoke about what had happened. For a long time, this attitude prevented people from coming to terms with what had happened since 1933. The myth of Austria as the first victim of National Socialism, which only began to slowly crumble with the Waldheim affair in the 1980s, was born. Police officers, teachers, judges - they were all left in their jobs despite their political views. Society needed them to keep going.

An example of the generously spread cloak of oblivion with a strong connection to Innsbruck is the life of the doctor Burghard Breitner (1884-1956). Breitner grew up in a well-to-do middle-class household. The Villa Breitner at Mattsee was home to a museum about the German nationalist poet Josef Viktor Scheffel, who was honoured by his father. After graduating from high school, Breitner decided against a career in literature in favour of studying medicine. He then decided to do his military service and began his career as a doctor. In 1912/13 he served as a military doctor in the Balkan War. In 1914, he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was taken prisoner of war by the Russians. As a doctor, he sacrificially cared for his comrades in the prison camp. It was not until 1920 that he was recognised as a hero and "Angel of Siberia" returned to Austria from the prison camp. In 1932, he began his career at the University of Innsbruck. In 1938, Breitner was faced with the problem that, due to his paternal grandmother's Jewish background, he had to take the "Great Aryan proof" could not provide. However, thanks to his good relationship with the Rector of Innsbruck University and important National Socialists, he was ultimately able to continue working at the university hospital. During the Nazi regime, Breitner was responsible for forced sterilisations and "Voluntary emasculation", even though he probably did not personally carry out any of the operations. After the war, the "Angel of Siberia" managed to wriggle through the denazification process with some difficulty. In 1951, he was nominated as a candidate for the VDUa political rallying point for staunch National Socialists, as a candidate for the federal presidential election. Breitner became Rector of the University of Innsbruck in 1952. After his death, the city of Innsbruck dedicated a grave of honour to him at Innsbruck West Cemetery. In Reichenau, a street is dedicated to him in the immediate vicinity of the site of the former concentration camp.

As after the First World War, the housing shortage was one of the most pressing problems after 1945. Innsbruck had been badly affected by the air raids and money for new buildings was scarce. When the first housing estates were built in the 1950s, thrift was the order of the day. Although many of the buildings erected from the 1950s onwards are not very attractive architecturally, they do house interesting works of art. From 1949 there was a project in Austria Art on the building. In the case of buildings realised by the state, 2% of the total expenditure was to flow into artistic design. The implementation of the building law and thus also the administration of the budgets was then, as now, the responsibility of the federal states. Artists were to be financially supported through these public commissions. The idea first emerged in 1919 during the Weimar Republic and was continued by the National Socialists from 1934.

Austria took up art in architecture after the war to design public spaces as part of the reconstruction programme. The public sector, which replaced the aristocracy and bourgeoisie as the property developers of past centuries, was under massive financial pressure. Despite this, the housing projects, which were primarily focussed on function, were not intended to be completely unadorned.

The Tyrolean artists entrusted with the design of the artworks were selected in competitions. The best known of these was Max Weiler, perhaps the most prominent artist in Tyrol in the post-war period, who was responsible for the frescoes in the Theresienkirche on the Hungerburg in Innsbruck, among other things. 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 not only recognised by the Federal Trade School InnsbruckThe school, which is now the HTL and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, was also characterised by the collective experience during the National Socialist era and the war. Fritz Berger had lost his right arm and one eye and had to learn to work with his left hand. Kerle served in Finland as a war painter. He was taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna by Josef Müllner, among others, an artist who had made his mark on art history with busts of Adolf Hitler, Siegfried from the Nibelungen saga and the Karl Lueger monument in Vienna, which remains controversial to this day. Like a large part of the Tyrolean population, these artists as well as politicians and civil servants wanted peace and quiet after the hard and painful years of war in order to let the events of the past decades grow over. The works created as part of Kunst am Bau reflect this attitude towards a new moral image. It was the first time that abstract, formless art found its way into Innsbruck's public space, even if only in an uncritical context. Fairy tales, legends and religious symbols were popular motifs that were immortalised on sgraffiti, mosaics, murals and statues. One could speak of a kind of second wave of Biedermaier art, which symbolised the petty bourgeois lifestyle of people after the war.

Art was also intended to create a new awareness and image of what was considered typically Austrian. In 1955, one in two Austrians still considered themselves to be German. The various motifs depict leisure activities, clothing styles and ideas of the social order and social norms of the post-war period. Women were often depicted in traditional costumes and dirndls, men in lederhosen. The conservative ideal of gender roles was incorporated into the art. Hard-working fathers, well-behaved wives who looked after the home and hearth and children who were eager to learn at school were the ideal image until well into the 1970s. A life straight out of a Peter Alexander film. If you walk through the city carefully, you will find many of the works of art on houses in Pradl and Wilten that are still visible today. The mixture of unattractive architecture and contemporary works of art from the often suppressed post-war period, long idealised and glorified in films and stories, is well worth seeing. Particularly beautiful examples can be found on the façades in Pacherstraße, Hunoldstraße, Ing.-Thommenstraße, Innrain, the Mandelsbergerstraße vocational school or in the inner courtyard between Landhausplatz and Maria-Theresienstraße.

In the 1950s, Innsbruck began to recover from the crisis and war years of the first half of the 20th century. On 15 May 1955, Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl declared with the famous words "Austria is free" and the signing of the State Treaty officially marked the political turning point. In many households, the "political turnaround" became established in the years known as Economic miracle in die Geschichte eingingen, moderater Wohlstand. Zwischen 1953 und 1962 erlaubte ein jährliches Wirtschaftswachstum von über 6% es einem immer größeren Teil der Bevölkerung von lange Zeit exotischen Dingen wie Kühlschränken, einem eigenen Badezimmer oder gar einem Urlaub im Süden zu träumen. Diese Zeit brachte nicht nur materielle, sondern auch gesellschaftliche Veränderung mit sich. Die Wünsche der Menschen wurden mit dem steigenden Wohlstand und dem Lifestyle, der in Werbung und Medien transportiert wurde, ausgefallener. Das Phänomen einer neuen Jugendkultur begann sich zart inmitten der grauen Gesellschaft im kleinen Österreich der Nachkriegszeit breit zu machen. Die Begriffe Teenager and latchkey child entered the Austrian language in the 1950s.

Films brought the big world to Innsbruck. Cinema screenings and cinemas already existed in Innsbruck at the turn of the century, but in the post-war period the programme was adapted to a young audience for the first time. Hardly anyone had a television set in their living room and the programme was meagre. The Chamber light theatre in Wilhelm-Greilstraße, the Laurin cinema in the Gumppstraße, the Central cinema in Maria-Theresienstraße, which Löwen-Lichtspiele in the Höttingergasse and the Leocinema des Katholischen Arbeitervereins in der Anichstraße warben mit skandalträchtigen Filmen um die Gunst des Publikums. Ab 1956 erschien die Zeitschrift BRAVO. Zum ersten Mal gab es ein Medium, das sich an den Interessen Jugendlicher orientierte. Auf der ersten Ausgabe war Marylin Monroe zu sehen, darunter die Frage: „Haben auch Marylins Kurven geheiratet?“ Die großen Stars der ersten Jahre waren James Dean und Peter Kraus, bevor in den 60er Jahren die Beatles übernahmen. Nach dem Summer of Love klärte Dr. Sommer über Liebe und Sex auf. Die allmächtige Deutungshoheit der Kirche über das moralische Verhalten Pubertierender begann zu bröckeln, wenn auch nur langsam. Die erste Foto-Love-Story mit nacktem Busen folgte erst 1982.

Bars, discos, nightclubs, pubs and event venues gradually opened in Innsbruck. Events such as the 5 o'clock tea dance at the Sporthotel Igls attracted young people looking for a mate. Establishments such as the Falconry cellar in the Gilmstraße, the Uptown Jazzsalon in Hötting, the Clima Club in Saggen, the Scotch Club in the Angerzellgasse and the Tangent in Bruneckerstraße had nothing in common with the traditional Tyrolean beer and wine bar. The performances by the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple in the Olympic Hall in 1973 were the high point of Innsbruck's spring awakening for the time being. Innsbruck may not have become London or San Francisco, but it had at least breathed a breath of rock'n'roll.

However, the vast majority of the social life of the city's young people did not take place in disreputable dives, but in the orderly channels of Catholic youth organisations. What is still anchored in cultural memory today as the '68 movement took place in the Holy Land kaum statt. Weder Arbeiter noch Studenten gingen in Scharen auf die Barrikaden. Der Historiker Fritz Keller bezeichnete die 68er Bewegung Österreichs als „Mailüfterl“. Der allergrößte Teil der Studenten entstammte der Oberschicht und hatte die Matura in einem katholisch orientierten Gymnasium absolviert. Zwar gab es in den 1970er Jahren einzelne Gruppen wie die Communist Group Innsbruck or the Committee for Solidarity with Vietnambut there was no mass movement. Beethoven's wisdom that "As long as the Austrians still have brown beer and sausages, they won't revolt," was true.

Trotzdem war die Gesellschaft still und heimlich im Wandel. Ein Blick in die Jahreshitparaden gibt einen Hinweis darauf. Waren es 1964 noch Kaplan Alfred Flury und Freddy mit „Leave the little things“ and „Give me your word" and the Beatles with their German version of "Come, give me your hand die die Top 10 dominierten, änderte sich der Musikgeschmack in den Jahren bis in die 1970er. Zwar fanden sich auch dann immer noch Peter Alexander und Mireille Mathieu in den Charts. Ab 1967 waren es aber internationale Bands mit fremdsprachigen Texten wie The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, The Monkees, Scott McKenzie, Adriano Celentano oder Simon und Garfunkel, die mit teils gesellschaftskritischen Texten die Top Positionen in großer Dichte einnahmen.

Die Speerspitze der konservativen Konterrevolution war der Innsbrucker Bischof Paulus Rusch. Zigaretten, Alkohol, allzu freizügige Mode, Auslandsurlaube, arbeitende Frauen, Nachtlokale, vorehelicher Geschlechtsverkehr, die 40-Stundenwoche, sonntägliche Sportveranstaltungen, Tanzabende, gemischte Geschlechter in Schule und Freizeit – das alles war dem strengen Kirchenmann und Anhänger des Herz-Jesu-Kultes streng zuwider. Peter Paul Rusch war 1903 in München zur Welt gekommen und in Vorarlberg als jüngstes von drei Kindern in einem gutbürgerlichen Haushalt aufgewachsen. Beide Elternteile und seine ältere Schwester starben an Tuberkulose, bevor er die Volljährigkeit erreicht hatte. Rusch musste im jugendlichen Alter von 17 in der kargen Nachkriegszeit früh für sich selbst sorgen. Die Inflation hatte das väterliche Erbe, das ihm ein Studium hätte finanzieren können, im Nu aufgefressen. Rusch arbeitete sechs Jahre lange bei der Bank for Tyrol and Vorarlbergin order to finance his theological studies. He entered the Collegium Canisianum in 1927 and was ordained a priest of the Jesuit order six years later. His stellar career took the intelligent young man first to Lech and Hohenems as chaplain and then back to Innsbruck as head of the seminary. Here he became titular bishop of Lykopolis in 1938, Innsbruck only becoming its own diocese in 1964, and Apostolic Administrator for Tyrol and Vorarlberg. As the youngest bishop in Europe, he had to survive the harassment of the church by the National Socialist rulers. Although his critical attitude towards National Socialism was well known, Rusch himself was never imprisoned. Those in power were too afraid of turning the popular young bishop into a martyr.

After the war, the socially and politically committed bishop was at the forefront of reconstruction efforts. He wanted the church to have more influence on people's everyday lives again. His father had worked his way up from carpenter to architect and probably gave him a soft spot for the building industry. He also had his own experience at BTV. Thanks to his training as a banker, Rusch recognised the opportunities for the church to get involved and make a name for itself as a helper in times of need. It was not only the churches that had been damaged in the war that were rebuilt. The Catholic Youth under Rusch's leadership, was involved free of charge in the construction of the Heiligjahrsiedlung in the Höttinger Au. The diocese bought a building plot from the Ursuline order for this purpose. The loans for the settlers were advanced interest-free by the church. Decades later, his rustic approach to the housing issue would earn him the title of "Red Bishop" to the new home. In the modest little houses with self-catering gardens, in line with the ideas of the dogmatic and frugal "working-class bishop", 41 families, preferably with many children, found a new home.

By alleviating the housing shortage, the greatest threats in the Cold WarCommunism and socialism, from his community. The atheism prescribed by communism and the consumer-orientated capitalism that had swept into Western Europe from the USA after the war were anathema to him. In 1953, Rusch's book "Young worker, where to?". What sounds like revolutionary, left-wing reading from the Kremlin showed the principles of Christian social teaching, which castigated both capitalism and socialism. Families should live modestly in order to live in Christian harmony with the moderate financial means of a single father. Entrepreneurs, employees and workers were to form a peaceful unity. Co-operation instead of class warfare, the basis of today's social partnership. To each his own place in a Christian sense, a kind of modern feudal system that was already planned for use in Dollfuß's corporative state. He shared his political views with Governor Eduard Wallnöfer and Mayor Alois Lugger, who, together with the bishop, organised the Holy Trinity of conservative Tyrol at the time of the economic miracle. Rusch combined this with a latent Catholic anti-Semitism that was still widespread in Tyrol after 1945 and which, thanks to aberrations such as the veneration of the Anderle von Rinn has long been a tradition.

Ein besonderes Anliegen war dem streitbaren Jesuiten Erziehung und Bildung. Die gesellschaftliche Formung quer durch alle Klassen durch die Soldaten Christi konnte in Innsbruck auf eine lange Tradition zurückblicken. Der Jesuitenpater und vormalige Gefängnisseelsorger Alois Mathiowitz (1853 – 1922) gründete 1909 in Pradl den Peter-Mayr-Bund. Sein Ansatz war es, Jugendliche über Freizeitgestaltung und Sport und Erwachsene aus dem Arbeitermilieu durch Vorträge und Volksbildung auf den rechten Weg zu bringen. Das unter seiner Ägide errichtete Arbeiterjugendheim in der Reichenauerstraße dient bis heute als Jugendzentrum und Kindergarten. Auch Rusch hatte Erfahrung mit Jugendlichen. 1936 war er in Vorarlberg zum Landesfeldmeister der Pfadfinder gewählt worden. Trotz eines Sprachfehlers war er ein charismatischer Typ, und bei seinen jungen Kollegen und Jugendlichen überaus beliebt. Nur eine fundierte Erziehung unter den Fittichen der Kirche nach christlichem Modell konnte seiner Meinung nach das Seelenheil der Jugend retten. Um jungen Menschen eine Perspektive zu geben und sie in geordnete Bahnen mit Heim und Familie zu lenken, wurde das Youth building society savings strengthened. In the parishes, kindergartens, youth centres and educational institutions such as the House of encounter am Rennweg in order to have education in the hands of the church from the very beginning.

Neben dem ultrakonservativen Bischof Rusch wuchs eine Generation liberaler Kleriker heran, die sich in die Jugendarbeit einbrachten. In den 1960er und 70er Jahren agierten in Innsbruck zwei kirchliche Jugendbewegungen mit großem Einfluss. Verantwortlich dafür waren Sigmund Kripp und Meinrad Schumacher, die mit neuen Ansätzen in der Pädagogik und einem offeneren Umgang mit heiklen Themen wie Sexualität und Rauschmitteln Teenager und junge Erwachsene für sich gewinnen konnten. Für die Erziehung der Eliten im Sinne des Jesuitenordens sorgte in Innsbruck seit 1578 die Marian Congregation. This youth organisation, still known today as the MK, took care of secondary school pupils. The MK had a strict hierarchical structure in order to give the young Soldaten Christi von Anfang an Gehorsam beizubringen. 1959 übernahm Pater Sigmund Kripp die Leitung der Organisation. Die Jugendlichen errichteten unter seiner Führung mit finanzieller Unterstützung durch Kirche, Staat, Eltern und mit viel Eigenleistung Projekte wie die Mittergrathütte samt eigener Materialseilbahn im Kühtai und das legendäre Jugendheim Kennedyhaus in der Sillgasse. Bei der Grundsteinlegung dieses Jugendzentrums, das mit knapp 1500 Mitgliedern zum größten seiner Art in Europa werden sollte, waren Bundeskanzler Klaus und Mitglieder der amerikanischen Botschaft anwesend, war der Bau doch dem ersten katholischen, erst kürzlich ermordeten Präsidenten der USA gewidmet.

The other church youth organisation in Innsbruck was Z6. The city's youth chaplain, Chaplain Meinrad Schumacher, took care of the youth organisation as part of the Action 4-5-6 to all young people who are in the MK or the Catholic Student Union had no place. Working-class children and apprentices met in various youth centres such as Pradl or Reichenau before the new centre, also built by the members themselves, was opened at Zollerstraße 6 in 1971. Josef Windischer took over the management of the centre. The Z6 already had more to do with what Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda were doing on the big screen on their motorbikes in Easy Rider was shown. Things were rougher here than in the MK. Rock gangs like the Santanas, petty criminals and drug addicts also spent their free time in Z6. While Schumacher reeled off his programme upstairs with the "good" youngsters, Windischer and the Outsiders the basement to help the lost sheep as much as possible.

Ende der 1960er Jahre beschlossen sowohl die MK wie auch das Z6 sich auch für Nichtmitglieder zu öffnen. Mädchen und Bubengruppen wurden teilweise zusammengelegt und auch Nicht-Mitglieder wurden eingelassen. Die beiden Jugendzentren hatten zwar unterschiedliche Zielgruppen, das Konzept aber war gleich. Theologisches Wissen und christliche Moral wurden in spielerischem, altersgerechtem Umfeld vermittelt. Sektionen wie Schach, Fußball, Hockey, Basketball, Musik, Kinofilme und ein Partykeller holten die Bedürfnisse der Jugendlichen nach Spiel, Sport und der Enttabuisierung der ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen ab. Die Jugendzentren boten einen Raum, in dem sich Jugendliche beider Geschlechter begegnen konnten. Besonders die MK blieb aber eine Institution, die nichts mit dem wilden Leben der 68er, wie es in Filmen gerne transportiert wird, zu tun hatte. So fanden zum Beispiel Tanzkurse nicht im Advent, Fasching oder an Samstagen statt, für unter 17jährige waren sie überhaupt verbotene Früchte.

Nevertheless, the youth centres went too far for Bishop Rusch. The critical articles in the MK newspaper We discuss found less and less favour. After years of disputes between the bishop and the youth centre, it came to a showdown in 1973. When Father Kripp published his book Farewell to tomorrow in which he reported on his pedagogical concept and the work in the MK, there were non-public proceedings within the diocese and the Jesuit order against the director of the youth centre. Despite massive protests from parents and members, Kripp was removed. Neither the intervention within the church by the eminent theologian Karl Rahner, nor a petition launched by the artist Paul Flora, nor regional and national outrage in the press could save the overly liberal priest from the wrath of Rusch, who even secured the papal blessing from Rome for his removal from office. In July 1974, the Z6 was also temporarily closed. Rusch had the keys to the youth centre exchanged without further ado, a method he also used at the Catholic Student Union when it got too close to a left-wing action group. The Tiroler Tageszeitung noted this in a small article on 1 August 1974:

"In recent weeks, there had been profound disputes between the educators and the bishop over fundamental issues. According to the bishop, the views expressed in "Z 6" were "no longer in line with church teaching". For example, the leadership of the centre granted young people absolute freedom of conscience without simultaneously recognising objective norms and also permitted sexual relations before marriage."

It was his adherence to conservative values and his stubbornness that damaged Rusch's reputation in the last 20 years of his life. When he was consecrated as the first bishop of the newly founded diocese of Innsbruck in 1964, times were changing. The progressive with practical life experience of the past was overtaken by the modern life of a new generation and the needs of the emerging consumer society. The bishop's constant criticism of the lifestyle of his flock and his stubborn adherence to his overly conservative values, coupled with some bizarre statements, turned the co-founder of development aid into a Brother in needthe young, hands-on bishop of the reconstruction, from the late 1960s onwards as a reason for leaving the church. His concept of repentance and penance took on bizarre forms. He demanded guilt and atonement from the Tyroleans for their misdemeanours during the Nazi era, but at the same time described the denazification laws as too far-reaching and strict. In response to the new sexual practices and abortion laws under Chancellor Kreisky, he said that girls and young women who have premature sexual intercourse are up to twelve times more likely to develop cancer of the mother's organs. Rusch described Hamburg as a cesspool of sin and he suspected that the simple minds of the Tyrolean population were not up to phenomena such as tourism and nightclubs and were tempted to immoral behaviour. He feared that technology and progress were making people too independent of God. He was strictly against the new custom of double income. People should be satisfied with a spiritual family home with a vegetable garden and not strive for more; women should concentrate on their traditional role as housewife and mother.

In 1973, after 35 years at the head of the church community in Tyrol and Innsbruck, Bishop Rusch was made an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck. He resigned from his office in 1981. In 1986, Innsbruck's first bishop was laid to rest in St Jakob's Cathedral. The Bishop Paul's Student Residence The church of St Peter Canisius in the Höttinger Au, which was built under him, commemorates him.

After its closure in 1974, the Z6 youth centre moved to Andreas-Hofer-Straße 11 before finding its current home in Dreiheiligenstraße, in the middle of the working-class district of the early modern period opposite the Pest Church. Jussuf Windischer remained in Innsbruck after working on social projects in Brazil. The father of four children continued to work with socially marginalised groups, was a lecturer at the Social Academy, prison chaplain and director of the Caritas Integration House in Innsbruck.

The MK also still exists today, even though the Kennedy House, which was converted into a Sigmund Kripp House was renamed, no longer exists. In 2005, Kripp was made an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck by his former sodalist and later deputy mayor, like Bishop Rusch before him.

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. To ensure hospitality towards the National Socialists, Mayor Egon Denz had each worker paid a week's wages. On 5 April, Adolf Hitler personally visited Innsbruck 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.