The final decades of the 19th century became known in Austrian history as the Gründerzeit (Founders’ Era). After the economic crisis of 1873, the financial situation recovered and an unprecedented construction boom began. Innsbruck also established a modern banking system. Financial institutions such as the Savings Bank founded in 1821 and the Creditanstalt, whose building erected in 1910 still towers over Maria-Theresien-Straße like a small palace, made it possible to obtain loans, without which entrepreneurship and commerce as we know them today would not have been possible. In some cases, these financial institutions even acted as developers themselves. Between 1880 and 1900, Innsbruck’s population grew from 20,000 to 26,000 inhabitants, while Wilten, incorporated into the city in 1904, even tripled its population from 4,000 to 12,000. The number of buildings increased from 600 to more than 900. Most of them, unlike previous buildings, were multi-story apartment houses. Infrastructure was also modernized. Gas, running water, and electricity became part of everyday life for an increasing number of people. These buildings represented the new society. Entrepreneurs, professionals, employees, and workers had different needs than the legally dependent subjects of previous centuries. The urban lifestyle demanded apartments with several rooms and open spaces for recreation after working hours. Apartment buildings made a modern lifestyle possible even for people who did not own property. Unlike the rural regions of Tyrol, where farming families lived together with servants in farmhouses as part of an extended kinship community, life in the city was already quite close to our present-day understanding of family life. Although the upper middle class had not yet surpassed the nobility, it had reduced the gap considerably and, through its new position on the municipal council, was able not only to commission private building projects but also to decide on public construction projects. The old city hospital in the center of town was replaced by a modern hospital in the west; Sieberer’s orphanage and retirement home were established in Saggen, and a new urban center emerged around the railway station.

The forty years preceding the First World War were a gold rush era for the construction industry. The architecture of the buildings reflected the worldview of their owners. Master builders often assumed several roles and frequently replaced architects altogether. Most clients had very clear ideas about what they wanted. They were not seeking breathtaking new creations but rather copies of or adaptations based on existing buildings. In keeping with the spirit of the age, Innsbruck’s master builders designed structures according to the wishes of their financially powerful clients in the styles of Historicism, Classicism, and the Tyrolean Heimatstil. The style chosen for a home was often not merely an aesthetic decision but also an ideological statement by the owner. Liberals generally preferred Classicism, while conservatives were drawn to the Tyrolean Heimatstil. Whereas the Heimatstil presented itself in a Neo-Baroque form with abundant paintings, clear forms, statues, and columns were characteristic elements of Classical-inspired architecture. In what was sometimes a rather wild mixture of styles, people realized their ideas of classical Greece and ancient Rome. Not only railway stations and public buildings but also large apartment buildings, entire streets, churches, and even cemeteries were built along former country roads in this design. Academics—and those wishing to appear as such—demonstrated their fascination with antiquity through neoclassical façades. Catholic traditionalists commissioned murals depicting saints and scenes from Tyrolean history on their Heimatstil houses. While Neoclassicism predominates in Saggen and Wilten, the district of Pradl is largely characterized by conservative Heimatstil architecture. For a long time, many architectural experts looked down upon the tastes of social climbers and the newly rich. Heinrich Hammer wrote in his standard work Art History of the City of Innsbruck:

"Of course, this first rapid expansion of the city took place in an era that was unfruitful in terms of architectural art, in which architecture, instead of developing an independent, contemporary style, repeated the architectural styles of the past one after the other."

The era of grand villas, which imitated the aristocratic residences of former times with a bourgeois touch, came to an end after several exuberant decades simply because space became scarce. Further development of the city with detached houses was no longer possible. Even today, the area around Falkstraße, Gänsbachstraße, and Bienerstraße is known as Villensaggen, while the areas further east are referred to as Blocksaggen. Wilten and Pradl, however, never experienced this kind of development. Nevertheless, in their gold-rush enthusiasm, developers sealed ever more land with construction. In 1907, Albert Gruber delivered a warning speech about this growth, cautioning against unchecked urban expansion and land speculation.

"It is the most difficult and responsible task facing our city fathers. Up until the 1980s (note: 1880), let's say in view of our circumstances, a certain slow pace was maintained in urban expansion. Since the last 10 years, however, it can be said that cityscapes have been expanding at a tremendous pace. Old houses are being torn down and new ones erected in their place. Of course, if this demolition and construction is carried out haphazardly, without any thought, only for the benefit of the individual, then disasters, so-called architectural crimes, usually occur. In order to prevent such haphazard building, which does not benefit the general public, every city must ensure that individuals cannot do as they please: the city must set a limit to unrestricted speculation in the area of urban expansion. This includes above all land speculation."

A handful of master builders, together with the Innsbruck Building Authority, guided this development. If Wilhelm Greil can be called the mayor of Innsbruck’s expansion, then the Vienna-born Eduard Klingler (1861–1916) certainly deserves the title of its architect. As a public official and master builder, Klingler left a profound mark on Innsbruck’s cityscape. He began working for the Province of Tyrol in 1883. In 1889 he joined the municipal building authority, which he headed from 1902 onward. Among the projects attributed to Klingler as head of the building authority are the Commercial Academy, the Leitgeb School, Pradl Cemetery, the Dermatological Clinic within the hospital complex, the Municipal Kindergarten on Michael-Gaismair-Straße, the Train Barracks (today a residential building), the Market Hall, and the Tyrolean State Conservatory. One particularly noteworthy Heimatstil building designed by him is the Ulrich House on Bergisel, which today serves as the headquarters of the Old Kaiserjäger Club.

The most important construction company in Innsbruck was Johann Huter & Sons. Johann Huter took over his father’s brickworks. In 1856 he acquired the company’s first property, the Huter Grounds, on Innrain. Three years later the first business headquarters was established on Meranerstraße. The company’s official founding came in 1860 when it was registered together with his sons Josef and Peter. Like many of its competitors, Huter & Sons saw itself as a full-service provider. The company included its own brickworks, cement factory, carpentry shop, metal workshop, design office, and construction firm. By the outbreak of the First World War, it employed more than 700 people. In 1906/07, the Huter family built their residential and business headquarters at Kaiser-Josef-Straße 15 in the typical style of the late pre-war years. This stately house combines the Tyrolean Heimatstil, surrounded by gardens and nature, with Neo-Gothic and Neo-Romanesque elements. Well-known buildings erected by Huter & Sons in Innsbruck include the Monastery of Perpetual Adoration, St. Nicholas Parish Church, the first building of the new hospital complex, and several buildings on Claudiaplatz.

The second major player was Josef Retter (1872–1954). Born in Lower Austria with Tyrolean roots, he completed an apprenticeship as a mason before attending the Imperial-Royal State Trade School in Vienna and the master craftsman school of its construction department. After gaining professional experience throughout the Habsburg Monarchy—in Vienna, Croatia, and Bolzano—he was able, thanks to his wife’s dowry, to establish his own construction company in Innsbruck at the age of 29. Like Huter’s company, his enterprise also included a sawmill, a sand and gravel works, and a stonemasonry workshop. In 1904 he built his residential and office building. The dark Neo-Gothic Retter House at Schöpfstraße 23a, with its distinctive bay window supported by columns and a turret, is decorated with a remarkable mosaic representing an allegory of architecture. The relief on the gable depicts the union of art and craftsmanship, symbolizing Retter’s career path. Retter’s buildings particularly shaped Wilten and Saggen. Through projects such as the new Academic Gymnasium, the castle-like Commercial Academy building, the Protestant Christ Church in Saggen, the Zelger House on Anichstraße, Sonnenburg in Wilten, and the Neo-Gothic Mentlberg Castle in Sieglanger, he created many of the most important buildings of this era in Innsbruck.

Late in life but with a similarly practice-orientated background that was typical of 19th century master builders, Anton Fritz started his construction company in 1888. He grew up remotely in Graun in the Vinschgau Valley. After working as a foreman, plasterer and bricklayer, he decided to attend the trade school in Innsbruck at the age of 36. Talent and luck brought him his breakthrough as a planner with the country-style villa at Karmelitergasse 12. In its heyday, his construction company employed 150 people. In 1912, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War and the resulting slump in the construction industry, he handed over his company to his son Adalbert. Anton Fritz's legacy includes his own home at Müllerstraße 4, the Mader house in Glasmalereistraße and houses on Claudiaplatz and Sonnenburgplatz.

With Carl Kohnle, Carl Albert, Karl Lubomirski, and Simon Tommasi, Innsbruck possessed several other master builders who left their mark on the cityscape through typical buildings of the late 19th century. Together, they shaped Innsbruck’s new streets in the prevailing architectural spirit of the final thirty years of the Habsburg Monarchy. Residential houses, railway stations, government buildings, and churches throughout the vast empire stretching from Ukraine to Tyrol looked remarkably similar. New movements such as Art Nouveau gained acceptance only slowly. In Innsbruck, it was the Munich architect Josef Bachmann who introduced a new accent to bourgeois design with the redesign of the façade of the Winkler House. With the outbreak of the First World War, construction activity largely ceased. After the war, the era of neoclassical Historicism and the Heimatstil was definitively over. Times had become harsher, and the requirements for housing had changed. In the period of severe housing shortages in the young Republic of German-Austria, affordable housing and modern sanitary facilities became more important than representative façades and grand rooms. The increasingly professional education of master builders and architects at the Imperial-Royal State Trade School also contributed to a new understanding of construction, replacing the often self-taught veterans of the gold-rush era of Classicism. A stroll through Saggen and parts of Wilten and Pradl still transports visitors back to the Gründerzeit. Claudiaplatz and Sonnenburgplatz are among the most impressive examples. The construction company Huter & Sons still exists today. The company is now located in Sieglanger on Josef-Franz-Huter-Straße, named after its founder. Although the residential building on Kaiser-Josef-Straße no longer bears the company’s name, it remains, in all its opulence, a remarkable relic of the period that permanently transformed Innsbruck’s appearance. In addition to his residence on Schöpfstraße, the district of Wilten contains a second building associated with the Retter family. Opposite the university on Innrain stands Villa Retter. Josef Retter’s eldest daughter, Maria Josefa, who herself had been educated according to the principles of the reform educator Maria Montessori, opened Innsbruck’s first Haus des Kindes (“House of the Child”) in 1932. Above the entrance, a portrait depicts the benefactor Josef Retter. The south façade is adorned with a mosaic in the characteristic style of the 1930s, referring to the building’s original purpose. A smiling blond girl embraces her mother, who is holding a book, and her father, who carries a hammer. The family crypt at Westfriedhof Cemetery is another notable legacy of the Retter family.

The year 1848 occupies a mythical place in European history. Innsbruck was not one of the hotspots like Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Milan or Berlin, but even in the “Holy Land” of Tyrol the revolutionary year left its mark. In contrast to the rural surroundings, an enlightened educated bourgeoisie had developed in Innsbruck. Enlightened people no longer wanted to be subjects of a monarch or territorial prince, but citizens with rights and duties in relation to a modern state. Students and members of the liberal professions demanded political participation, freedom of the press and civil rights. Workers demanded better wages and working conditions. Particularly radical liberals and nationalists even questioned the absolute authority of the Church. In March 1848 this socially and politically highly explosive mixture erupted in uprisings and street fighting in many cities. In Innsbruck, some students and professors celebrated the newly granted freedom of the press with a torchlight procession. On the whole, however, the revolution proceeded quietly in the rather leisurely Tyrol. To speak of a spontaneous outburst of emotion or even a revolution would already be an exaggeration: the date of the procession was postponed from 20 to 21 March because of bad weather. There were hardly any anti-Habsburg riots or violent incidents; a stray stone thrown into a Jesuit window was one of the highlights of the Alpine version of the Revolution of 1848. The students even supported the city magistrate in maintaining public order, thereby demonstrating their gratitude to the monarch for the newly granted freedoms and their loyalty.

The initial enthusiasm for change among the bourgeois elites was soon replaced in Innsbruck by a surge of German-national patriotism. On April 6, 1848, the governor of Tyrol led a ceremonial procession in which the German flag was displayed. A German tricolour was also hoisted on the city tower. While students, workers, liberal-national citizens, republicans, supporters of a constitutional monarchy, and Catholic conservatives could not agree on social issues such as press freedom, they shared a common hostility toward the Italian independence movement, which had spread across northern Italy from Piedmont and Milan. Innsbruck students and riflemen, with the support of the imperial army leadership, marched into the Trentino to suppress unrest and uprisings at an early stage. Notable members of this corps included the already elderly Father Haspinger, who had fought alongside Andreas Hofer in 1809, and Adolf Pichler. Johann Nepomuk Mahl-Schedl, a wealthy owner of Büchsenhausen Castle, even equipped his own company and marched over the Brenner Pass to secure the border. However, the war did not remain confined to the southern borders. Innsbruck itself, as the political and economic center of the multinational crown land of Tyrol and home to many Italian speakers, became an arena of the conflict between nationalities. Combined with ample alcohol consumption, anti-Italian sentiment posed a greater threat to public order than the demand for civil liberties. A dispute between a German-speaking craftsman and an Italian-speaking Ladin escalated to such an extent that it nearly triggered a pogrom against the numerous businesses and inns of Italian-speaking Tyroleans.

The relative calm of Innsbruck suited the imperial court in Vienna, which was under pressure. As unrest in the capital continued after March, Emperor Ferdinand fled to Tyrol in May. According to contemporary press reports, he was enthusiastically welcomed by the population.

"“What is the name of the land to which such an honour falls, what is the people that enjoys such trust in these fateful times? Does the peace and security here rest solely on legend from ancient times, or is there also in the present a foundation on which one can build, which the wind cannot blow away and the storm cannot shake? This Alpine land is called Tyrol, do you like it? Yes, the Tyrolean people alone prove, in the midst of a shaken Europe, reverence and loyalty, courage and strength for their hereditary ruling house, while all around rebellion, contradiction, defiance and demands, often even revolt and upheaval rage; Tyrol alone stands firmly without wavering in custom and obedience, in religion, truth and law, while elsewhere insolence and falsehood, madness and passions prevail …”"

In June, a young Franz Joseph—still not yet emperor—also stopped at the Hofburg on his return from the battlefields of northern Italy instead of traveling directly to Vienna. Innsbruck once again became a royal residence, albeit only for one summer. While blood was shed in Vienna, Milan, and Budapest, the imperial family enjoyed rural Tyrolean life. Ferdinand, Franz Karl, his wife Sophie, and Franz Joseph received guests from foreign courts and were driven by carriage to excursion destinations such as Weiherburg, Stefansbrücke, Kranebitten, and even up to Heiligwasser, and went on hikes. This calm did not last long. Ferdinand, considered no longer fit to rule, handed over power under gentle pressure to Franz Joseph I. In July 1848, the first parliamentary session was held in Vienna, and a constitution came into force. However, the monarchy’s willingness to reform soon waned. The new parliament—the Reichsrat—could not pass binding laws, the emperor never attended it, and he did not understand why a monarchy ordained by God needed such a council.

The subtly initiated liberalization nevertheless ran its course in the cities. Innsbruck was granted the status of a city with its own independent charter (Statutarstadt). In 1850, the "Provisorische Gemeindegesetz für die Landeshauptstadt Innsbruck" ("Provisional Municipal Code for the State Capital of Innsbruck") came into force:

"The municipality is to provide for the sanitation police; it takes care of the paving and maintenance of streets, alleys, and paths, with the exception of those whose maintenance is the responsibility of the Imperial Treasury, as well as for street lighting, the maintenance and cleaning of the main drainage canals, and the maintenance of municipal bridges, fountains, aqueducts, and other facilities, as well as public bathing establishments. It administers the health, fire, market, building, and traffic police, oversees land boundaries, measures, and weights; it is charged with the provision of food supplies, and takes police precautions to avert threats to personal safety and property posed by flooding or other natural disasters."

Innsbruck's municipal law provided for citizenship rights that, while tied to property ownership or tax payments, legally guaranteed certain rights to members of the community. Right of domicile (Heimatrecht) could be acquired through birth, marriage, or extraordinary conferral, granting voting rights at the municipal level to at least adult males. If one fell into financial hardship, one was entitled to basic welfare provided by the city. Within the city government, the Greater German-liberal faction prevailed thanks to the census-based majority voting system, with merchants, tradesmen, industrialists, and innkeepers setting the tone. On June 2, 1848, the first edition of the liberal and Greater German-leaning Innsbrucker Zeitung was published—from which the above article on the emperor's arrival in Innsbruck is taken. Conservatives, on the other hand, read the Volksblatt für Tirol und Vorarlberg. Moderate readers who favored a constitutional monarchy preferred to consume the Bothe für Tirol und Vorarlberg. However, freedom of the press was short-lived. The previously abolished censorship was partially reinstated. Newspaper publishers were subjected to various forms of harassment by the authorities, and newspapers were strictly forbidden from printing content critical of the state government, the monarchy, or the Church.

"Anyone who, by means of printed matter, incites, instigates or attempts to incite others to take action which would bring about the violent separation of a part from the unified state... of the Austrian Empire... or the general Austrian Imperial Diet or the provincial assemblies of the individual crown lands.... Imperial Diet or the Diet of the individual Crown Lands... violently disrupts... shall be punished with severe imprisonment of two to ten years."

After Innsbruck had officially replaced Meran as the provincial capital in 1849 and had thus finally become the political centre of Tyrol, parties began to form. With the establishment of the Catholic-conservative faction and the liberals, a pair of opposing ideas emerged that would shape politics not only until the First World War. Associations of all kinds as political organisations in advance of parties, and newspapers, formed the lines along which society split in all questions of life from the cradle to the grave. From 1868 onwards, the liberal, greater German-oriented party provided the mayor of the city of Innsbruck. The influence of the Church declined in Innsbruck in contrast to the surrounding municipalities. Individualism, capitalism, nationalism and consumption stepped into the breach. New worlds of work, department stores, theatres, cafés and dance halls did not displace religion entirely even in the city, but the weighting shifted as a result of the civil freedoms won in 1848.

The probably most important legal change of 1848 was the land relief patent. In Innsbruck the clergy, especially Wilten Abbey, owned a large part of the agricultural land. The Church and the nobility were exempt from taxes. In 1848/49 feudal lordship and the relationship of subjection were abolished in Austria. Ground rents, tithes and compulsory labour were thus removed. The landowners received one third of the value of their land from the state within the framework of the reform, one third was regarded as tax relief, and one third of the compensation had to be borne by the peasants themselves. They could pay this amount in instalments over twenty years. The after-effects can still be felt today. The descendants of the peasants who were successful at the time enjoy, through inherited land ownership resulting from the 1848 reforms, the fruits of prosperity and also political influence through land sales for housing, leases and compensation payments by public authorities for infrastructure projects. The landowning nobility of the past had to come to terms with the humiliation of taking up bourgeois occupations. The transition from privilege by birth to privileged status within society through financial means, networks and education often succeeded. Many Innsbruck dynasties of academics have their origins in the decades after 1848.

Life also changed for the broader population. The previously unknown phenomenon of leisure time emerged and, together with disposable income available to a greater number of people, fostered hobbies. Civil organisations and associations—from reading circles to choral societies, fire brigades and sports clubs—were founded. The revolutionary year also manifested itself in the cityscape. Parks such as the English Garden at Ambras Castle or the Hofgarten were no longer reserved exclusively for the aristocracy but served citizens as local recreational areas. In St. Nikolaus the Waltherpark was created as a small oasis of calm. One floor above, the first swimming and bathing facility in Tyrol opened at Büchsenhausen Castle; soon afterwards another bath followed in Dreiheiligen. Excursion inns around Innsbruck flourished. Alongside high-end restaurants and hotels, a scene of taverns emerged in which workers and employees could also afford pleasant evenings with theatre, music and dancing.

One of the most important figures in Innsbruck's municipal history was Wilhelm Greil (1850–1928). The entrepreneur held the office of mayor from 1896 to 1923, having previously helped shape the city's fortunes as vice mayor. His tenure was not only long, but also took place during a particularly dynamic era. The four decades between the economic crisis of 1873 and the First World War were marked by unprecedented growth and rapid modernization. It was a time of incorporating entire city districts, technical innovations, and new media. Private investments in infrastructure such as railways, energy, and electricity were encouraged by the state and given tax incentives in order to lead the provinces and cities of the struggling Danube Monarchy into modernity. The city's economy was booming. Businesses emerged in the new districts of Pradl and Wilten, attracting a labor force. Tourism also brought fresh capital into the city. Innsbruck's city council was dominated by the liberal and Pan-German nationalist 'Deutsche Volkspartei' (German People's Party), to which Greil also belonged. It was only with the incorporation of Wilten and Pradl in 1904 that the conservatives were able to gain ground, though they could not fully catch up. Social Democracy played almost no role until 1918. Due to an electoral system based on voting rights categorized by wealth classes, only about 10% of Innsbruck's population could step up to the ballot box. Women were fundamentally excluded. Furthermore, relative voting rights applied within the three electoral colleges, which effectively meant: winner takes it all. Appropriately enough, Mayor Greil lived much like a Renaissance prince. He hailed from the upper-class haute bourgeoisie. His father was able to afford establishing the family's home base in the Palais Lodron on Maria-Theresien-Straße. Thanks to this electoral statute, Mayor Greil could rely on 100% support in the city council well into the era of the First Republic, which naturally simplified decision-making and governance considerably. For all the efficiency that Innsbruck's mayors displayed on a superficial level, one should not forget that this was only possible because, as part of an elite composed of entrepreneurs, merchants, and professionals, they ruled through a form of elected dictatorship—without any significant opposition or consideration for other population groups such as workers, artisans, and employees. The Imperial Municipal Act of 1862 granted cities like Innsbruck, and thus its mayors, far-reaching powers. It is hardly surprising that the chain of office presented to Greil on his 60th birthday by his colleagues on the city council bore an astonishing resemblance to the collar orders of the old nobility. However, Greil was also a skillful politician who adeptly navigated the established power structures and media landscape of his time. Article 17 of the Austrian Basic Law of 1867, known as the December Constitution, secured freedom of expression in the press without prior censorship for the first time—excluding, of course, punishable content such as blasphemy or insulting the authorities. Consequently, a variety of newspapers established themselves, such as the conservative Neue Tiroler Stimme, the social democratic Volkszeitung, or the liberal Innsbrucker Nachrichten, shaping a worldview according to their publishers' preferences. Thanks to the reach of the Innsbrucker Nachrichten, Wilhelm Greil was able to effectively project his view of local politics. Despite his at times fierce speeches—modeled on the platform of Georg Ritter von Schönerer (1842–1921), the founding figure of the Pan-German nationalists—he managed to reach arrangements with conservative forces in the region, even if things frequently clashed in the media and elsewhere. Taxes, social policy, education, housing, and the design of public spaces were debated with passion and zeal, often enough with violence as the ultimate argument.

Unter Greils Ägide und dem allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung erweiterte sich Innsbruck im Eiltempo. Der Gemeinderat kaufte ganz im Stil eines Kaufmanns vorausschauend Grund an, um der Stadt Neuerungen zu ermöglichen. Der Politiker Greil konnte sich bei den großen Bauprojekten der Zeit auf die Beamten und Stadtplaner Eduard Klingler, Jakob Albert und Theodor Prachensky stützen. Infrastrukturprojekte wie das neue Rathaus in der Maria-Theresienstraße 1897, die Eröffnung der Mittelgebirgsbahn, die Hungerburgbahn und die Karwendelbahn wurden während seiner Regierungszeit umgesetzt. Weitere gut sichtbare Meilensteine waren die Erneuerung des Marktplatzes und der Bau der Markthalle. Neben den prestigeträchtigen Großprojekten revolutionierte vor allem Unsichtbares in den letzten Jahrzehnten des 19. Jahrhunderts das Leben vieler Innsbrucker. Bereits Greils Vorgänger Bürgermeister Heinrich Falk (1840 – 1917) hatte erheblich zur Modernisierung der Stadt und zur Besiedelung des Saggen beigetragen. Seit 1859 war die Beleuchtung der Stadt mit Gasrohrleitungen stetig vorangeschritten. Mit dem Wachstum der Stadt und der Modernisierung wurden die Senkgruben, die in Hinterhöfen der Häuser als Abort dienten und nach Entleerung an umliegende Landwirte als Dünger verkauft wurden, zu einer Unzumutbarkeit für immer mehr Menschen. 1880 wurde das Ragging, so der Name im Volksmund für die Entleerung der Aborte, in den Verantwortungsbereich der Stadt übertragen. Zwei pneumatische Maschinen sollten den Vorgang zumindest etwas hygienischer gestalten. Zwischen 1887 und 1891 wurde Innsbruck mit einer modernen Hochdruckwasserleitung ausgestattet, über die auch Wohnungen in höher gelegenen Stockwerken mit frischem Wasser versorgt werden konnten. Wer auf sich hielt und es sich leisten konnte, hatte damit erstmals die Gelegenheit eine Spültoilette im Eigenheim zu installieren. Greil setzte diesen Feldzug der Modernisierung mit einer Vielzahl an Infrastrukturprojekten fort. Die Ansammlung an Menschen auf enger werdendem Raum unter teils prekären Hygieneverhältnissen hatte viele Probleme mit sich. Die Randbezirke der Stadt und die umliegenden Dörfer wurden regelmäßig von Typhus heimgesucht. Nach jahrzehntelangen Diskussionen wurde 1903 mit dem Bau einer modernen Schwemmkanalisation begonnen. Ausgehend von der Innenstadt wurden immer mehr Stadtteile an diesen heute alltäglichen Luxus angeschlossen. 1908 waren nur die Koatlackler Mariahilf und St. Nikolaus nicht an das Kanalsystem angeschlossen. Auch der neue Schlachthof im Saggen erhöhte Hygiene und Sauberkeit in der Stadt. Schlecht kontrollierte Hofschlachtungen gehörten mit wenigen Ausnahmen der Vergangenheit an. Das Vieh kam im Zug am Sillspitz an und wurde in der modernen Anlage fachgerecht geschlachtet. Greil überführte das Gaswerk in Pradl und das Elektrizitätswerk in Mühlau in städtischen Besitz. Die Straßenbeleuchtung wurde im 20. Jahrhundert von den Gaslaternen auf elektrisches Licht umgestellt. 1888 übersiedelte das Krankenhaus von der Maria-Theresienstraße an seinen heutigen Standort. Bürgermeister und Gemeinderat konnten sich bei dieser Innsbrucker Renaissance neben der wachsenden Wirtschaftskraft in der Vorkriegszeit auch auf Mäzen aus dem Bürgertum stützen. Waren technische Neuerungen und Infrastruktur Sache der Liberalen, verblieb die Fürsorge der Ärmsten weiterhin bei klerikal gesinnten Kräften, wenn auch nicht mehr bei der Kirche selbst. Freiherr Johann von Sieberer stiftete das Greisenasyl und das Waisenhaus im Saggen. Leonhard Lang stiftete das Gebäude in der Maria-Theresienstraße, in der sich bis heute das Rathaus befindet gegen das Versprechen der Stadt ein Lehrlingsheim zu bauen. 

In contrast to the booming pre-war era, Greil’s leadership after 1914 was marked by crisis management. In his final years in office, he guided Innsbruck through the transition from the Habsburg monarchy to the republic—a time characterized above all by hunger, hardship, scarcity of resources, and insecurity. He was 68 years old when Tyrol was divided at the Brenner Pass after the war. During his political career, Greil had often exploited general hostility toward Italians (“Walsche”) in a similarly populist manner to his Christian Social counterpart in Vienna, Karl Lueger, who used antisemitic rhetoric. At the end of his career, he had to witness the Italian occupation of Innsbruck. With the introduction of the republic, the census-based voting system was abolished, marking the beginning of the end of liberal dominance in the municipal council. In 1919, the Social Democrats won elections in Innsbruck for the first time. Only due to council majorities and a coalition of Greater German-liberal and conservative-clerical politicians did Greil remain mayor. He died in 1928 at the age of 78 as an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck. Wilhelm-Greil-Straße had already been named after him during his lifetime.

The Tyrolean State Theatre, opposite the Imperial Palace, remains to this day the most striking monument to the city's educated middle-class evening entertainment. Since its existence began, however, this house of high culture has, for the most part, led a rather dreary existence when it comes to audience numbers. From Baroque plays centered on the suffering of Christ in the 16th century to daring productions nearly 500 years later that were often rewarded with little applause by audiences, activity at the State Theatre has always been the passion of a small elite. The majority of Innsbruck’s inhabitants, by contrast, spent their leisure time with more down-to-earth amusements. Travelling performers had already been welcome guests during the Middle Ages, although only under certain conditions. Just as today, public performances in earlier times were subject to strict censorship. What age restrictions for cinema films are today were once limitations placed on performances deemed displeasing to God, extending even to complete bans on theatre and acting under particularly devout provincial rulers. As society became increasingly bourgeois and moral attitudes more enlightened, these rules gradually became less restrictive. This marked the beginning of the institutionalization of theatre. According to its own records, the Pradl Farmers’ Theatre (Pradler Bauerntheater), the oldest folk theatre group in Innsbruck that still exists as an institution today, was founded in 1762. Although its first venue was an open-air stage in the Hötting meadows, and although craftsmen and students as well as farmers were part of the ensemble, this should not diminish either the honour of its name or its origins. While performances at the State Theatre were often staged before half-empty audiences, the amateur actors of the farmers’ theatre enjoyed great popularity with their comedies. Innsbruck residents of all social classes made weekend pilgrimages from the city to performance venues in the surrounding villages or enjoyed the evening entertainment in local inns. Especially popular were the so-called knights’ plays, featuring abducted princesses, heroic rescuers, and clumsy villains. Unlike the serious productions presented in bourgeois theatre, the performers of the farmers’ theatres interacted directly with the audience. Interjections from the spectators were not suppressed but spontaneously incorporated into the play. It could even happen that the audience, not always entirely sober, physically intervened in the action of the performance. In 1870, the Pradl Farmers’ Theatre moved into a hay barn at the Lodron Estate (Lodronischer Hof) on Egerdachstraße that had been converted into a stage. In 1898, the company even toured Vienna. By that time, Innsbruck already possessed a whole range of theatres and venues that entertained audiences with plays and music. In 1892, the Löwenhaus Stage (Löwenhaus-Bühne) opened on Rennweg, on the site where the Tyrolean regional ORF broadcasting centre is located today. The wooden building burned down in the late 1950s, just as state broadcasting was beginning its rise.

From the large number of theatre troupes, one particularly ambitious showman emerged. Ferdinand Exl (1875–1942) broke new ground with part of the Pradl Farmers’ Theatre (Pradler Bauerntheater). For a long time, the accepted wisdom had been: "Anyone who wants to go to a farmers’ theatre will not find what they are looking for in the theatre, and anyone who seeks not merely entertainment but literary inspiration in the theatre does not go to a farmers’ theatre." Exl recognized the trend of the times. Clerks and workers could not afford the exorbitant ticket prices of the State Theatre, nor did they wish to sit through lengthy Wagner operas or plays such as The Sorrows of Young Werther. Nevertheless, audiences did expect a certain level of quality in both content and performance. With the so-called literary folk plays by renowned local authors such as Ludwig Anzengruber, Franz Kranewitter, and Karl Schönherr, Exl succeeded in combining entertainment with artistic quality. Anzengruber summarized this development as follows:

Anzengruber's Tyroleans not only sing Schnaderhüpfel, platteln d'Schuh, swear like Croats and scuffle, but they are also people with a subtle psyche who have their own thoughts about various problems and develop their own philosophy.

The first play staged by Exl, The Priest of Kirchfeld (Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld) by Ludwig Anzengruber, was performed in 1902 at the Österreichischer Hof in Wilten. In 1903, the Exl Stage (Exl Bühne) moved to the Adambräu brewery in Adamgasse. From 1904 to 1915, audience favourites such as Franz Kranewitter’s plays Michael Gaismair and Andre Hofer were performed at the Löwenhaus near the Court Garden (Hofgarten). In addition to theatrical productions, tourists were offered traditional Tyrolean entertainment, including zither performances and “genuine, lively Tyrolean Schuhplattler dancing.” In 1904, the company embarked on its first international tour, travelling to Switzerland and Germany. Both the press and audiences were enthusiastic about the nationalist-leaning plays, performed by sturdy Tyrolean young men and attractive young women. In 1910, Exl finally abandoned amateur status and, in addition to long-serving members of his own family and the Auer family, increasingly hired townspeople and professional actors. The First World War and the resulting travel restrictions put a stop to further touring activities. The troupe became part of the Innsbruck Municipal Theatre (Innsbrucker Stadttheater), whose audiences, during those difficult years, were also receptive to lighter entertainment. After the most difficult post-war years had passed, the company’s fortunes improved once again. Beginning in 1924, the Exl Stage performed regularly not only at the Municipal Theatre during the winter season but also at Vienna’s Raimund Theatre and the Vienna Comedy House (Wiener Komödienhaus). The political developments of the 1930s greatly benefited the German nationalist spirit that permeated many of the plays Exl brought to the stage. Exl had already joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), which was banned in Austria at the time, in 1933. Although Austria’s Christian Social corporative state prohibited the excessively German-nationalist troupe from performing, they received an even more enthusiastic reception during their tours in National Socialist Germany. In 1935, the Exl Stage performed Karl Schönherr’s play Faith and Homeland (Glaube und Heimat) in Berlin. The Berliner Morgenpost of 4 April 1935 described it as: “...art that flows from the depths of German folk culture and returns to the hearts of moved and grateful listeners.” Following Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 (Anschluss), Exl once again enjoyed favourable media attention in his homeland and was celebrated as: “...a counterweight to the completely Judaized, artistically Bolshevized theatre establishment...” In 1942, the founder of the Exl Stage passed away. His wife and son took over the company and, after the war, became part of the Tyrolean State Theatre. During the 1950s, the troupe enjoyed one final successful tour through both West and East Germany before the theatre company was dissolved in 1956.

Times had changed. Cinema killed the theatre star. Motion pictures shown in cinemas began to compete with the stage. Ferdinand Exl had foreseen this development early on. In 1912, his ensemble appeared in the French film Speckbacher, which portrayed the Tyrolean Uprising in a heroic light. The first motion picture had already flickered across a screen in Innsbruck’s Stadtsaal in 1896, only one year after the world’s first public film screenings, before a fascinated audience. Cinema quickly became part of everyday life for many people. In addition to silent films, audiences were shown newsreels that were considered politically desirable, especially during wartime and often served propagandistic purposes. In the following decades, cinemas sprang up like mushrooms. In 1909, a movie theatre opened at Maria-Theresien-Straße 10 and later moved to Maria-Theresien-Straße 37, where it became known as the Zentral. After the war it was transformed into a Nonstop Cinema, where visitors bought a ticket for a continuous programme of newsreels, cartoons, advertisements, and feature films that repeated in an endless cycle. In 1928, the Innsbruck Red Cross opened the Kammer-Lichtspiele cinema in Wilhelm-Greil-Straße in order to finance its new association headquarters. At Maria-Theresien-Straße 17 stood the Triumph, which survived under the name Central until the 1990s. The site now occupied by the youth centre Z6 was once home to the Forum Cinema. In 1933, the Löwenkino opened in Höttinger Gasse. In 1959, it moved as the Metropol into the protected historic Malfatti House opposite the Inn Bridge, where it still exists today. During the final phase of the Second World War, Innsbruck’s largest cinema auditorium opened its doors with the Laurin-Lichtspiele, located in the middle of the South Tyrolean settlement on Gumppstraße. Robert and Walter Kinigadner, two South Tyrolean optants who had already gained experience in the cinema business in Brixen (Bressanone), took over operations of the hall, which could seat 800 viewers. Harmless homeland films alternated with National Socialist propaganda productions. The Exl Stage also used the Laurin, which served as a theatre venue until the 1970s, for theatrical performances. Today, a supermarket occupies the space behind the columns of what was once the building’s grand entrance. Above the checkout area, visitors can still see murals depicting the legend of the mythical dwarf king Laurin and the Germanic hero Dietrich von Bern, executed in the characteristic style of National Socialist art. In 1958, the Leokino opened in the premises of the former Catholic Workers’ Association (Katholischer Arbeiterverein). It remains in operation to this day and is a permanent fixture of Innsbruck’s film scene. At their peak in 1958, Innsbruck’s cinemas recorded an astonishing 3.5 million tickets sold. The most popular films were homeland movies and light-hearted comedies such as Sissi starring Romy Schneider and The White Horse Inn (Im Weißen Rössl) starring Peter Alexander. In the 1970s, cinema also assumed a role in public enlightenment when bare breasts first appeared on the screen. Films such as Schoolgirl Report (Schulmädchen-Report) and Josefine Mutzenbacher brought the sexual revolution a little closer to the people of Tyrol as well.

These moral transgressions came at a time when cinema had already begun to pass the peak of its economic success. The television set in the living room was starting to provide both information and evening entertainment. When the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF) began operations in 1955, hardly anyone yet owned a television set capable of receiving its rather limited programming. That was to change quickly. The audience figures achieved during the post-war period have never been surpassed. From the long list of cinemas that once existed, only a trio remains. The Metropol, housed in the historic Malfatti House (Malfattihaus), attracts audiences with blockbuster films, while the Cinematograph and the Leokino cater to a more alternative crowd. Every August, an open-air cinema takes place at the Zeughaus (the former armoury). Of the many folk theatres, the Pradl troupe has survived to this day, albeit under a new name. In 1958, they found a new home at the cultural inn Bierstindl. The amateur troupe Innsbrucker Ritterspiele (Innsbruck Knights’ Plays) continues to enjoy immense popularity and regularly performs to full houses. The play The Villainous Kuno of Drachenfels (Der Schurkische Kuno von Drachenfels) revives the traditions of past centuries every year, complete with the repeated beheading scene and humorous interaction with the audience. The Landhaus Alpenheim in the Saggen district, now better known as Villa Exl, where the Exl family once lived, is a notable example of Tyrolean vernacular architecture. It features murals by Raphael Thaler and is well worth a visit. Ferdinand Exl is also commemorated by a street bearing his name in the Höttinger Au district. The times had changed. Folk theatre, once a central form of popular entertainment, had to compete first with cinema and later with television. Yet despite these transformations, elements of Innsbruck’s theatrical tradition have endured. While the grand touring companies and the multitude of cinemas have largely disappeared, institutions such as the Leokino, the Metropol, and the successors of the Pradl Farmers’ Theatre continue to preserve and reinterpret a cultural heritage that stretches back centuries.