Prejudice and racism towards immigrants were and are common in Innsbruck, as in all societies. Whether Syrian refugees since 2015 or Turkish guest workers in the 1970s and 80s, the foreign usually generates little well-disposed animosity in the average Tyrolean. Today, Italy may be Innsbruck's favourite travel destination and pizzerias part of everyday gastronomic life, but for a long time our southern neighbours were the most suspiciously eyed population group. What the Viennese Jew and Brick Bohemia were the Tyrolean's Wall's.

The aversion to Italians in Innsbruck can look back on a long tradition. Although Italy did not exist as an independent state, the political landscape was characterised by many small counties, city states and principalities between Lake Garda and Sicily. The individual regions also differed in terms of language and culture. Nevertheless, over time people began to see themselves as Italians. During the Middle Ages and the early modern period, they were mainly resident in Innsbruck as members of the civil service, courtiers, bankers or even wives of various sovereigns. The antipathy between Italians und Germans was mutual. Some were regarded as dishonourable, unreliable, snobbish, vain, morally corrupt and lazy, others as uncivilised, barbaric, uneducated and pigs.

With the wars between 1848 and 1866, hatred of all things Italian reached a new high in the Holy Land Tyrolalthough many Wallsche served in the k.u.k. army and most of the rural population among the Italian-speaking Tyroleans were loyal to the monarchy. The Italians under Garibaldi were regarded as godless rebels and republicans and were castigated from the church pulpits between Kufstein and Riva del Garda in both Italian and German.

The Tyrolean press landscape, which experienced an upswing after liberalisation in 1867, played a major role in the conflict. What today Social Media The newspapers of the time took over the role of the press, which contributed to social division. Conservatives, Catholics, Greater Germans, liberals and socialists each had their own press organs. Loyal readers of these hardly neutral papers lived in their opinion bubble. On the Italian side, the socialist Cesare Battisti (1875 - 1916), who was executed by the Austrian military during the war for high treason on the gallows, stood out. The journalist and politician, who had studied in Vienna and was therefore considered by many to be not just an enemy but a traitor, fuelled the conflict in the newspapers Il Popolo und L'Avvenire repeatedly fired with a sharp pen.

Associations also played a key role in the hardening of the fronts. Not only had the press law been reformed in 1867, but it was now also easier to found associations. This triggered a veritable boom. Sports clubs, gymnastics clubs, theatre groups, shooting clubs and the Innsbrucker Liedertafel often served as a kind of preliminary organisation that took a political stance and also agitated. The club members met in their own pubs and organised regular club evenings, often in public. The student fraternities were particularly politically active and extremist in their opinions. The young men came from the upper middle classes or the aristocracy and were used to buying and carrying weapons. A third of the students in Innsbruck belonged to a fraternity, of which just under half were of German nationalist orientation. Unlike today, it was not uncommon for them to appear in public in their full dress uniform, complete with sabre, beret and ribbon, often armed with a cane and revolver.

It is therefore not surprising that their habitat was a particular flashpoint. One of the biggest political points of contention in the autonomy debate and the desire to join the Kingdom of Italy was a separate Italian university. The loss of Padua meant that Tyroleans of Italian descent no longer had the opportunity to study in their native language at home. Although attending the university was actually only a matter for a small elite, irredentist, anti-Austrian Tyrolean members of parliament from Trentino were able to emotionally charge the issue again and again as a symbol of the desired autonomy and fuelled hatred of Habsburg. The debate as to whether a university in Trieste, the favoured location of the Italian-speaking representatives, Innsbruck, Trento or Rovereto should be targeted, went on for years. Wilhelm Greil was admonished for his incorrect behaviour towards the Italian population by the Imperial-Royal Governor. All language groups within the monarchy were to be treated equally by law from 1867 onwards.  

A look at the statistics shows just how great the fears of German nationalists that Italian students would overrun the country were. Even then, facts were often replaced in the discourse by gut feelings and racially motivated populism. After the incorporation of Pradl and Wilten in 1904, Innsbruck had just over 50,000 inhabitants. The proportion of students was just over 1000 and less than 2%. Of the approximately 3000 people of Italian descent, most of them Welschtiroler from Trentino, only just over 100 were enrolled at the university. The majority of the Wallschen made up labourers, innkeepers, traders and soldiers. Many had been living in and around Innsbruck for a long time. Many settled in Wilten in particular. Soon a small diaspora came together in the somewhat more favourable workers' village on the lower town square. Anton Gutmann sold Italian wines in his winery cooperative Riva in Leopoldstraße 30, and across the street you could eat well and cheaply at the Gasthaus Steneck specialities south of the Brenner. The majority were part of a different everyday culture, but as subjects of the monarchy they spoke excellent German; only a small proportion came from Dalmatia or Trieste and were actually foreign speakers. In keeping with the spirit of the times, they also founded sports clubs such as the Club Ciclistico oder die Unione Ginnasticasocialist-oriented workers' and consumer organisations, music clubs and student fraternities.

Although the students only made up a small proportion of them, they and the demand for an institute with Italian as the language of examination and teaching received above-average attention. Conservative and German nationalist politicians, students and the media saw an Italian university as a threat to Tyrolean Germanness. In addition to the ethnic and racist resentment towards the southern neighbours, Catholics in particular were also afraid of characters such as Cesare Battisti, who, as a socialist, embodied evil incarnate. Mayor Wilhelm Greil capitalised on the general hostility towards Italian-speaking residents and students in a similar populist manner as his Viennese counterpart Karl Lueger did in Vienna with his anti-Semitic propaganda.

After some back and forth, it was decided in September 1904 to establish a provisional law faculty in Innsbruck. This was intended to separate the students without marginalising one of the groups. From the outset, however, the project was not under a favourable star. Nobody wanted to rent the necessary premises to the university. Finally, the enterprising master builder Anton Fritz made a flat available in one of his tenement houses at Liebeneggstraße 8. At the inaugural lecture and the festive evening event in the White Cross Inn On 3 November, celebrities such as Battisti and the future Italian Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi were in attendance. The later the evening, the more exuberant the atmosphere. When shouts of invective such as "Porchi tedeschi“ and „Abbasso Austria" (Note: German pigs and down with Austria), the situation escalated. A mob of German-speaking students armed with sticks, knives and revolvers laid siege to the White cross, in which the Italians, who were also largely armed, entrenched themselves. A troop of Kaiserjäger successfully broke up the first riot. In the process, the painter August Pezzey (1875 - 1904) was accidentally fatally wounded by an overly nervous soldier with a bayonet thrust.

The Innsbrucker Nachrichten appeared after the night-time activities on 4 November under the headline: "German blood has flowed!". The editor present reported 100 to 200 revolver shots fired by the Italians at the "Crowd of German students" who had gathered in front of the White Cross Inn. The nine wounded were listed by name, followed by an astonishingly detailed account of what had happened, including Pezzey's wound. The news of the young man's death unleashed a storm of acts of revenge and violence. As with every riot, the convinced German nationalists were joined by onlookers and rioters who enjoyed going overboard in the anonymity of the crowd without any great political conviction. While the detained Italians in the completely overcrowded prison sang the martial anthem Inno di Garibaldi the city saw serious riots against Italian restaurants and businesses. The premises of the White Cross Inn were completely vandalised except for a portrait of Emperor Franz Josef. Rioters threw stones at the residence of the governor, Palais Trapp, as his wife had Italian roots. The building in Liebeneggstraße, which Anton Fritz had made available to the university, was destroyed, as was the architect's private residence.

August Pezzey, who died in the turmoil and came from a Ladin family, was declared a "German hero" in a national frenzy by politicians and the press. He was given a grave of honour at Innsbruck's West Cemetery. At his funeral, attended by thousands of mourners, Mayor Greil read out a pathetic speech:

"...A gloriously beautiful death was granted to you on the field of honour for the German people... In the fight against impudent acts of violence you breathed your last as a martyr for the German cause..."

Reports from the Fatti di Innsbruck made it into the international press and played a decisive role in the resignation of Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. Depending on the medium, the Italians were portrayed as dishonourable bandits or courageous national heroes, the Austrians as pan-Germanist barbarians or bulwarks against the Wallsche seen. On 17 November, just two weeks after the ceremonial opening, the Italian faculty in Innsbruck was dissolved again. The language group was denied its own university within Austria-Hungary until the end of the monarchy in 1918. The long tradition of viewing Italians as dishonourable and lazy was further fuelled by Italy's entry into the war on the side of the Entente. To this day, many Tyroleans keep the negative prejudices against their southern neighbours alive. 

The First World War not only brought ruling dynasties and empires to an end, the 1920s also saw many changes in art, music, literature and architecture. While jazz, atonal music and expressionism failed to establish themselves in little Innsbruck, a handful of architects changed the cityscape in an astonishing way. Inspired by new forms of design such as the Bauhaus style, skyscrapers from the USA and the Soviet Modernism from the revolutionary USSR, sensational projects emerged in Innsbruck. The best-known representatives of the avant-garde who brought about this new way of designing public space in Tyrol were Lois Welzenbacher, Siegfried Mazagg, Theodor Prachensky and Clemens Holzmeister. Each of these architects had their own idiosyncrasies, making the Tiroler Moderne nur schwer eindeutig zu definieren ist. Allen gemeinsam war die Abwendung von der klassizistischen Architektur der Vorkriegszeit unter gleichzeitiger Beibehaltung typischer alpiner Materialien und Elemente unter dem Motto Form follows function. Lois Welzenbacher schrieb 1920 in einem Artikel der Zeitschrift Tyrolean highlands about the architecture of this period:

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

The best-known and most impressive representative of the so-called Tiroler Moderne was Franz Baumann (1892 - 1974). Unlike Holzmeister or Welzenbacher, he had no academic training. Baumann was born in Innsbruck in 1892, the son of a postal clerk. The theologian, publicist and war propagandist Anton Müllner, alias Bruder Willram became aware of Franz Baumann's talent as a draughtsman and enabled the young man to attend the Staatsgewerbeschule, today's HTL, at the age of 14. It was here that he met his future brother-in-law Theodor Prachensky. Together with Baumann's sister Maria, the two young men went on excursions in the area around Innsbruck to paint pictures of the mountains and nature. During his school years, he gained his first professional experience as a bricklayer at the construction company Huter & Söhne. In 1910 Baumann followed his friend Prachensky to Merano to work for the company Musch & Lun zu arbeiten. Meran war damals Tirols wichtigster Tourismusort mit internationalen Kurgästen. Unter dem Architekten Adalbert Erlebach machte er erste Erfahrungen bei der Planung von Großprojekten wie Hotels und Seilbahnen. Wie den Großteil seiner Generation riss der Erste Weltkrieg auch Baumann aus Berufsleben und Alltag. An der Italienfront erlitt er im Kampfeinsatz einen Bauchschuss, von dem er sich in einem Lazarett in Prag erholte. In dieser ansonsten tatenlosen Zeit malte er Stadtansichten von Bauwerken in und rund um Prag. Diese Bilder, die ihm später bei der Visualisierung seiner Pläne helfen sollten, wurden in seiner einzigen Ausstellung 1919 präsentiert.

Baumann's breakthrough came in the second half of the 1920s. He was able to win the tenders for the remodelling of the Weinhaus Happ in the old town and the Nordkettenbahn railway. In addition to his creativity and ability to think holistically, he was also able to harmonise his architectural approach with the legal situation and the modern requirements of tendering in the 1920s. Construction was a state matter, the Tyrolean Heritage Protection Association together with the district administration, was the final authority responsible for the assessment and authorisation of construction projects. During his time in Merano, Baumann was already involved with the Homeland Security Association came into contact with it. Kunibert Zimmeter had founded this association together with Gotthard Graf Trapp in the final years of the monarchy. In "Our Tyrol. A heritage book" he wrote:

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

The economic boom of the late 1920s saw the emergence of a new clientele and clientele that placed new demands on buildings and therefore on the construction industry. In many Tyrolean villages, hotels had replaced churches as the largest building in the townscape. The aristocratic distance from the mountains had given way to a bourgeois enthusiasm for sport. This called for new solutions at new heights. No more grand hotels were built at 1500 m for spa holidays, but a complete infrastructure for skiers in high alpine terrain such as the Nordkette. The Tyrolean Heritage Protection Association ensured that nature and townscape were protected from overly fashionable trends, excessive tourism and ugly industrial buildings. Building projects had to blend harmoniously, attractively and appropriately into the environment. Despite the social and artistic innovations of the time, architects had to keep the typical regional character in mind. This was precisely the strength of Baumann's approach to holistic building in the Tyrolean sense. All technical functions and details, the embedding of the buildings in the landscape, taking into account the topography and sunlight, played a role for him, who was not officially allowed to use the title of architect. He thus followed the "Rules for those who build in the mountains" by the architect Adolf Loos from 1913:

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

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

Baumann designed even the smallest details, from the exterior lighting to the furniture, and integrated them into his overall concept of the Tiroler Moderne in.

From 1927, Baumann worked independently in his studio in Schöpfstraße in Wilten. He repeatedly came into contact with his brother-in-law and employee of the building authority, Theodor Prachensky. From 1929, the two of them worked together to design the building for the new Hötting secondary school on Fürstenweg. Although boys and girls still had to be planned separately in the traditional way, the building was otherwise completely in keeping with the style of the Neuen Sachlichkeit and the principle Light, air and sun.

In his heyday, he employed 14 people in his office. Thanks to his modern approach, which combined function, aesthetics and economical construction, he survived the economic crisis well. Only the 1000-mark barrier, die Hitler 1934 über Österreich verhängte, um die Republik finanziell in Bredouille zu bringen, brachte sein Architekturbüro wie die gesamte Wirtschaft in Probleme. Nicht nur die Arbeitslosenquote im Tourismus verdreifachte sich innerhalb kürzester Zeit, auch die Baubranche geriet in Schwierigkeiten. 1935 wurde Baumann zum Leiter der Zentralvereinigung für Architekten, nachdem er mit einer Ausnahmegenehmigung ausgestattet diesen Berufstitel endlich tragen durfte. Im gleichen Jahr plante er die Hörtnaglsiedlung in the west of the city.

After the Anschluss in 1938, he quickly joined the NSDAP. On the one hand, like his colleague Lois Welzenbacher, he was probably not averse to the ideas of National Socialism, but on the other he was able to further his career as chairman of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in Tyrol. In this position, he courageously opposed the destructive furore with which those in power wanted to change Innsbruck's cityscape, which did not correspond to his idea of urban planning. The mayor of Innsbruck, Egon Denz, wanted to remove the Triumphal Gate and St Anne's Column in order to make more room for traffic in Maria-Theresienstraße. The city centre was still a transit area from the Brenner Pass in the south to reach the main road to the east and west on today's Innrain. At the request of Gauleiter Franz Hofer, a statue of Adolf Hitler was to be erected in place of St Anne's Column. Hofer also wanted to have the church towers of the collegiate church blown up. Baumann's opinion on these plans was negative. When the matter made it to Albert Speer's desk, he agreed with him. From this point onwards, Baumann was no longer awarded any public projects by Gauleiter Hofer.

After being questioned as part of the denazification process, Baumann began working at the city building authority, probably on the recommendation of his brother-in-law Prachensky. Baumann was fully exonerated, among other things by a statement from the Abbot of Wilten, whose church towers he had saved, but his reputation as an architect could no longer be repaired. Moreover, his studio in Schöpfstraße had been destroyed by a bomb in 1944. In his post-war career, he was responsible for the renovation of buildings damaged by the war. Under his leadership, Boznerplatz with the Rudolfsbrunnen fountain was rebuilt as well as Burggraben and the new Stadtsäle (Note: today House of Music).

Franz Baumann died in 1974 and his paintings, sketches and drawings are highly sought-after and highly traded. Anyone who takes a close look at recent major projects such as the city library, the PEMA towers and many of Innsbruck's housing estates will recognise the approaches of the Tiroler Moderne rediscover even today.

Auf den Landesfürsten Friedl mit der leeren Tasche folgte sein Sohn Siegmund der Münzreiche (1427 – 1496). Der Start des jungen Mannes an der Spitze des Landes war holprig. Als sein Vater starb, war Siegmund erst 12 Jahre alt. Deshalb nahm ihn sein Onkel Friedrich III., der Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire und Vater Maximilians I., in unfreiwillige Obhut und Vormundschaft. Man könnte sagen, Siegmund startete seine Karriere als Geisel des Kaisers, seines eigenen Vetters. Tirol war mittlerweile eine reiche Grafschaft, die direkte Kontrolle darüber wollte der Kaiser nur ungern aufgeben. Der Tiroler Landtag hatte zwischenzeitlich die Regierungsgeschäfte in Ermangelung eines Landesfürsten übernommen und damit politisches Gewicht bewiesen. Erst als die Landstände gegen diese Bevormundung protestierten, konnte Siegmund sein Amt antreten. Mit 18 Jahren zog er in Innsbruck ein, um seine Karriere als CEO Tirols zu starten. Unter seiner Ägide kam es zu vielen Innovationen auf der einen Seite, zu einem aufgeblähten und teuren Hofstaat auf der anderen. In Innsbruck und Umgebung zog das städtische Leben neues Handwerk an. 1453 eröffnete in der heutigen Universitätsstraße die Landesfürstliche Silberschmelze. 1484 ließ Siegmund die Münzprägeanstalt von Meran in Südtirol nach Hall verlegen, was ihm den Beinamen Siegmund der Münzreiche brought in. Two years later, a princely mill was built on the Sill Canal, which was to form the basis for the early industrialisation that developed in the following years. He issued the Schwaz mountain regulations, die zum Vorbild für alle Bergwerke der Habsburger werden sollte. Den Bergbeamten wurden, ähnlich den Universitäten, mehr Rechte innerhalb ihres Wirkungsbereiches gegeben. Für die Bergarbeiter gab es Sonderregelungen innerhalb der Gesellschaft, waren sie doch heiß begehrte Arbeitskräfte. Man kann von einer frühen sozial- und arbeitsrechtlichen Vereinbarung sprechen. Die Bergleute arbeiteten hart, verdienten aber verhältnismäßig gut. Dasselbe galt für die Prägeanstalt und die Haller Salinen. Eine frühe Form bürgerlicher Mittelschicht begann sich durch diese Möglichkeiten am Arbeitsmarkt herauszubilden.

During his opulent reign, Innsbruck had become a centre of attraction for craftsmen, goldsmiths and artists. The immigrants often came from the aristocracy and did not want to give up their lifestyle in Innsbruck. A special form of metal industry established itself in Mühlau. Plattner schufen Rüstungen und Harnische für Adelige, die sich sowohl auf Kriegszügen wie auch auf Turnieren standesgemäß präsentieren wollten. Siegmund war ihr bester Kunde. Er kaufte etliche Turnierharnische für sich selbst und als anerkennende Geschenke für Aristokraten ausländischer Höfe und Ehrengäste. Die Werkstätten am Mühlaubach wurden zu den führenden Betrieben ihrer Art weltweit. Erst im 17. Jahrhundert kamen die reich verzierten Rüstungen aus der Mode. Der Stadtturm beim Alten Rathaus als Ausdruck des städtischen Wohlstands und erste Teile der Hofburg wurden unter Siegmund erbaut. Ein Glasmaler siedete sich in Innsbruck an. Dieses Mäzenatentum war wohl auch ein wenig Kompensation für Siegmunds Eheleben. Er hatte in seinen ersten Jahren als Landesfürst Eleonore von Schottland (1433 – 1480), die optisch wenig attraktive 16 Jahre alte Tochter Königs Jakob aus dem Hause Stewart, geheiratet. Die Ehe sollte ohne Kinder bleiben, dafür aber kulturell umso fruchtbarer sein. Die Hofbibliothek wuchs im Gleichschritt mit Siegmunds und Eleonores humanistisch gelehrten Gästen. Beide galten als kunstsinnig und literarisch interessiert. Bücher waren in der Zeit vor der Erfindung des Buchdrucks ein teures Hobby. Auch fahrendes Volk und Schausteller waren am Hof gerne gesehen, um die einheimischen und internationalen Gäste zu unterhalten.

During his opulent reign, Innsbruck became a magnet for craftsmen, goldsmiths, and artists. Many of the immigrants came from aristocratic backgrounds and did not wish to abandon their lifestyle upon settling in Innsbruck. In Mühlau, a special form of metalworking industry took hold. Armorers produced suits of armor for nobles who wanted to present themselves appropriately on military campaigns as well as at tournaments. Sigismund was their best customer. He purchased numerous tournament armors for himself and as tokens of appreciation for aristocrats from foreign courts and distinguished guests. The workshops along the Mühlau stream became the leading enterprises of their kind worldwide. Only in the seventeenth century did the richly decorated armors fall out of fashion. The city tower next to the Old Town Hall, as an expression of urban prosperity, and the first parts of the Hofburg were built under Sigismund’s rule. A glass painter settled in Innsbruck. This patronage was perhaps also a form of compensation for Sigismund’s married life. In his early years as territorial prince, he married Eleanor of Scotland (1433–1480), the sixteen-year-old, physically rather unattractive daughter of King James of the House of Stewart. The marriage would remain childless, but culturally it proved all the more fruitful. The court library grew in step with the humanistically educated guests welcomed by Sigismund and Eleanor. Both were considered artistically inclined and interested in literature. Books were an expensive hobby in the era before the invention of printing. Traveling performers and entertainers were also welcome at court, helping to amuse domestic and international guests. Sigismund’s opulent lifestyle cost him not only a great deal of money but also political reputation—and ultimately, probably, his princely throne. In his second marriage, he wed Catherine of Saxony (1468–1524), a lady from a high-ranking princely electoral house. It was likely due to the influence and courtly expenditures of Sigismund and his two wives that the Coin-Rich’s expenses eventually exceeded income from taxes, salt works, and mines. At the princely wedding in 1484, the bride’s procession alone consisted of fifty-four wagons. Guests had to be housed and fed in Innsbruck. Even with a wife forty years his junior, the now senile Sigismund was not granted a male heir—an especially bitter fact considering the thirty illegitimate children attributed to him. At the same time, conditions grew harsher for those unable to keep pace with the city’s new rhythm of life. At that time, Innsbruck had approximately 2,000 citizens. Sigismund’s court comprised 500 people, not including his wife’s household. These “outsiders” attracted considerable attention in Innsbruck. The gap between social classes widened, and the estates grew concerned about the strained state finances. By the end of his reign, Sigismund’s court had become excessively bloated and costly. A lost war against the Swiss Confederates obligated him to make payments, and a conflict with Venice also ended unfavorably. Sigismund was forced to mortgage Habsburg possessions in Alsace and the present-day Breisgau to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the future father-in-law of Maximilian I. He sold the Austrian Forelands to the Duchy of Bavaria at a bargain price and pledged the Tyrolean silver mines to Jakob Fugger. The Bavarian Wittelsbachs sought to regain control of Tyrol through an inheritance treaty with the age-related mentally diminished Sigismund. Only imperial pressure and the swift intervention of the Tyrolean Estates and Maximilian made it possible for the country to remain in the hands of the House of Habsburg. In 1490, Maximilian assumed the office of territorial prince, even though Sigismund was still alive. This reunited all Habsburg hereditary lands under one ruler. Sigismund was not the most successful ruler Tyrol ever had, but thanks to his clearly visible contributions to Innsbruck’s cultural rise, he continues to enjoy a measure of respect in popular memory.

The smart and liberal Crown Prince Rudolf (1858 - 1889) was regarded as the Favourite of the nations of the Habsburg Empire. In many ways, his life can be read as exemplary for the period between 1848 and the outbreak of the First World War, when technical ideas were developing at breakneck speed, newspapers were spreading political ideas from different camps with unprecedented circulation and at the same time Catholicism, superstition and spiritualism were commonplace. Interest in science, art, culture and customs was also omnipresent in Innsbruck. The vast majority of Innsbruckers did not have the material means or the status of Habsburgs, but the fashions and trends under which they lived were the same. The upper middle classes emulated the same ideals as the crown prince, just as Rudolf always saw himself as part of the upper middle classes. He was considered well-read and educated and was interested in a wide range of subjects in keeping with the spirit of the times. In addition to Greek and Latin, he also spoke French, Hungarian, Czech and Croatian. As a private citizen, he devoted himself to science and travelling through the countries of the monarchy. Rudolf arranged for the publication of of the Kronprinzenwerk, a natural science encyclopaedia. Volume 13 was published in 1893, which dealt with the crown land of Tyrol. He wrote liberal articles in the "Neue Wiener Tagblatt" under a pseudonym. Among other things, he wanted to promote land and land reforms by taxing large landowners more heavily and granting the individual nationalities of the Habsburg Empire more rights. He was particularly unpopular in conservative, rural Tyrol and among the military. Among the liberal-minded people of Innsbruck, on the other hand, he was seen as a hope for a renewal of the monarchy in the sense of a modern, federal state. The Rudolf's Fountain in Innsbruck on Boznerplatz does not commemorate the crown prince, but he was present at its inauguration. As an advocate of rationalism and enlightenment, Rudolf despised the widespread belief in supernatural beings and spirits, while around him new churches sprang up like mushrooms and the upper class indulged in seances and spiritualistic superstitions. The popular piety of the late monarchy led to large-scale projects such as the parish churches of St Nicholas and Hötting. 

Despite, or perhaps because of his aristocratic background, Rudolf's private life was turbulent, but not atypical of the time, in which parents and teachers were less approachable educators and more distant figures of respect. Children were brought up strictly. Neither teachers nor parents shied away from corporal punishment, even if there were limits, laws and rules for the use of domestic violence. Militarism and a focus on future gainful employment prevented the kind of childhood and youth we know today. Young men from the upper classes lived out their soldierly daydreams as armed and uniformed members of student fraternities. It is no wonder that the enthusiasm for war, God, Emperor and Fatherland was great in the birth cohorts of the last decades of the 19th century. Rudolf's early years, when he had to undergo a military education under General Gondrecourt at the request of Emperor Franz Josef, were also less than luxurious. It was only after his mother Elisabeth intervened that harassment such as water cures, drill in the rain and snow and being woken up with pistol shots were removed from the six-year-old crown prince's daily programme. 

Like many of his contemporaries, Rudolf, as a member of the upper class, found himself in an unhappy, arranged marriage. The 19th century was not the age of love marriages, even if the Romantic and Biedermeier periods are often praised as such. Marriages between peasants were often arranged on financial grounds. Aristocrats and members of the upper middle classes married for reasons of social status and with the aim of preserving the dynasty. In the upper classes, wives were often their husband's jewellery and head of the household. Only when the often older husband had died could widows enjoy a life apart from this role. Servants, maids, farmhands and maidservants were forbidden to marry for a long time. The danger that they would be unable to support their children and thus become a burden on the community was too great for the communities. This double standard of the aristocracy and upper middle classes towards the Pofl meant that illegal abortions, full orphanages and children growing up with relatives in the country instead of their parents were part of everyday life. Throughout his life, Rudolf was also not averse to the fairer sex outside of marriage. In the last months of his life, he had an affair with Mary Vetsera, a girl from rich Hungarian nobility who was considered particularly beautiful and was only 17 years old. Many of his subjects were like Rudolf. It is true that hardly anyone could boast of claiming a Hungarian aristocrat as a playmate. Even in Innsbruck's high society, it was common to listen to the priest's sermon from the pulpit on Sundays and have an extramarital affair or visit a brothel at the same time. 

Rudolf's life ended tragically. On 30 January 1889, the severely depressed Rudolf, marked by alcohol, morphine and gonorrhoea, met up with Vetsera after spending the previous night with his long-term lover, the prostitute Maria „Mizzi“ Kaspar, had spent the night. Under circumstances that have never been fully clarified, he first killed the young woman and then himself with a shot to the head. The suicide was never recognised by the Habsburg family. Zita (1892 - 1989), the widow of the last Emperor Karl, still spoke of an assassination attempt in the 1980s. The discussion surrounding the burial of the heir to the throne and his mistress showed the double standards of society. Suicide was considered a grave sin and actually prevented a Christian burial. Vetsera was buried inconspicuously at the cemetery in Heiligenkreuz near Mayerling in a small grave next to the cemetery wall, while Rudolf was given a state funeral after imperial intervention with the Pope and was laid to rest in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna.