There were 115 eventful years in Innsbruck's history between the last Count of Andechs and the first Tyrolean sovereign from the House of Habsburg. For around 100 years after the last Count of Andechs, the Counts of Tyrol controlled the destiny of the province and thus to a large extent the city of Innsbruck. Meinhard II of Tyrol (1239 - 1295) was able to expand his territory with skilful politics and a little luck. He managed to unite the patchwork from his ancestral castle in Meran into a county. Alongside the prince-bishops of Brixen and Trento, who were not politically disempowered until the 19th century, the Counts of Tyrol were the most powerful rulers in what we know today as Trentino, North and South Tyrol.

Meinhard's territory was economically and politically more contemporary than the prince-bishoprics. He relied on a modern administration. He was assisted by Florentine merchants and bankers, the most modern business consultants in Europe at the time. In order to create a certain degree of legal certainty for the estates, entrepreneurs and subjects, he had a codified land law drawn up. For the first time, all properties in Tyrol were standardised in a land register. Meinhard broke the episcopal minting sovereignty and had coins minted with the Tyrolean eagle as the coat of arms, following the Italian model. This curtailed the de facto power of the church. Although the bishops of Brixen and Trento were still landowners and lords of the manor, their imperial fiefdoms only existed formally, as their connection to and dependence on the County of Tyrol were too close. Land in the mountainsbut from the official Dominium Tirolis, the reign of Tyrol. The city of Innsbruck also grew under Meinhard. Around 1500 people had settled here. Where today the Maria-Theresienstraße invites you to stroll around, the Neustadt approached. Meinhard found his final resting place in Stams Abbey, where Tyrol's winter sports elite are trained today.

His son and successor as Tyrolean sovereign Duke Henry of Carinthia (1265 - 1335) was one of the most important nobles in the Holy Roman Empire as King of Bohemia. Thanks to his possessions in south-east Europe, Henry was one of the most powerful princes. He was a keen promoter of cities, whose importance he recognised. In Innsbruck, he sponsored the construction of the citizens' hospital in the new town. However, he was not granted a male successor. Even before his death, however, Henry had ensured that his daughter Margarethe of Tyrol-Görz (1318 - 1369) was able to succeed him. She succeeded him as sovereign at the age of 17. The young woman thus became entangled in the maelstrom of the most powerful dynasties of her time: Habsburg, Wittelsbach and Luxembourg. She entered into a marital union with two of them, to the third of which she was to bequeath the province of Tyrol and thus the city of Innsbruck at the end of her reign. After the death of her father, she was married to Johann Heinrich from the House of Luxembourg, the son of the new King of Bohemia. Johann Heinrich was even younger than his wife and merely served as his father's foot in the door to the Tyrolean princely throne. He was a thorn in the side of the Habsburgs and Wittelsbachs, as well as the local nobility. His regency was a disaster. Strikes broke out at the Hall salt works, which were leased to Florentine financiers and were the centrepiece of the Tyrolean economy alongside the customs duties. Despite the financial problems, the courtly behaviour of Johann Heinrich, who was considered infantile, is said to have been lavish.

Without further ado, he was expelled from the country by the Tyrolean estates in 1341 with the support of Emperor Ludwig, a Wittelsbach, in a coup planned together with Margarethe. Described as beautiful but quick-tempered, domineering and sexually insatiable, Margarethe is said to have been less than enamoured of her childishly weak husband's horizontal performance. He is said to have bitten his wife's nipples during an unsuccessful sexual intercourse. A chronicler of the time who was sympathetic to the emperor spoke of Johann Heinrich's "inpotencia coeundi“, probably caused by his youthful immaturity. These rumours were skilfully spread throughout the empire in order to give the emperor the opportunity to appoint his son Louis of Brandenburg as Margaret's husband and thus as prince of the important transit country of Tyrol. The as Tyrolean marriage scandal The coup, which has gone down in history, caused a widespread crisis. Even the philosopher and papal critic William von Ockham, who is still well-known today, commented on it. The problem was not just the divorce in and of itself, but that Margarethe was not divorced from her first husband at the time of her second marriage. The emperor and his supporters considered the marriage between John Henry, who was considered impotent, and Margarethe to be unconsummated and therefore null and void.

The fourth important political power in Central Europe at the time, the Pope, saw things differently. Pope Benedict XII placed a curse on the emperor and his son because of the „unholy“ marriage between the Tyrolean princess Margarethe and Ludwig of Wittelsbach. In addition to moral concerns, the Pope also had political reasons for doing so. Both he and the Habsburgs were in military conflict with the Wittelsbach emperor and wanted to weaken the influence of this dynasty. This Interdictum was one of the harshest punishments for people in the Middle Ages. It forbade the holding of masses and the giving of communion in the country's churches. It was probably during this period that Margaret was nicknamed by the people Maultasch and was described as particularly ugly. There are no contemporary portraits that would indicate a deformed mouth. The images we have of Margarethe Maultasch today date from the late 15th century at the earliest, when the medieval marriage scandal was first historically reworked.

Margaret's reign was characterised by crises for which she was not responsible, but which were nevertheless blamed on her. The 14th century brought global warming, which also resulted in a great plague of locusts in Innsbruck. Crop failure and hunger were the result. But that was not all. After the fire of 1333 in Anbruggen seven years later, another major fire devastated Wilten and Innsbruck, including the parish church of St Jakob. From 1348 to 1350, the plague ravaged Europe. The disease travelled from Venice via Trento and the Adige Valley to Innsbruck. The Black death decimated the population dramatically. In some parts of Tyrol, the population was reduced by more than half. Not only the number of deaths, but also the gruesome way in which the victims died in great pain and physical deformity left an impression on the pious population. There is not much information on the outbreak of the plague in Innsbruck in the archives, but the consequences of the epidemic were devastating, as they were throughout Europe. In her will, an Innsbruck woman who fell ill with the plague spoke of the "common dying that is going on in the country".

People could not explain phenomena such as crop failures and plague. Many saw the desolation of the country, which was plagued by wars, plague and climate, as a consequence of the papal curse and a punishment from God and held Margarethe and her husband Louis responsible. The reasons for illness and misery were in fact probably to be found outside of papal curses and propaganda. Like many cities, Innsbruck had neither paved streets nor a sewage system or drinking water supply. Animals and people shared the cramped space within the city walls. The living conditions were unhygienic. These conditions were similar in all medieval towns. Improvements came from Italy, which was progressive at the time. The first medical school was established in Salerno in the 11th century. Under Federico II, the medical and pharmacy professions were separated and regulated in 1241. Although pharmacists had to prove that they had training and professional experience, they were a mixture of healers, mystics, herbalists, alchemists and shamans. A pharmacy was first mentioned in Innsbruck in 1303. It was officially founded in 1326. In Creator's housetoday's Herzog-Friedrich-Straße 19 was the Court and town pharmacy located here. Today, it is considered the oldest pharmacy still in existence in Austria. In 1350, the Lower city pool in today's Badgasse, at that time popularly known as Furnace hole mentioned here. Baths were not only used for cleansing, but medical care was also provided by bathers according to the standards of the time. Bathers were travelling or local healers who treated the sick, stitched wounds or pulled teeth. The supernatural was considered real, even in medical care. The scientific approach of the few physicians of the time was not necessarily superior to that of the practice-orientated bathers. The prevailing doctrine at universities up until modern times was the Four juices doctrine. According to this theory, there was a balance of blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile in the body. An imbalance of these juices leads to illness. The balance was disturbed by a blasphemous lifestyle, poor diet, excessive sexual activity or miasmas in the air. Water also had a reputation for penetrating through the skin and destroying the Juice ratio in the human body, which is why you should be given a bath after bathing.

After the Wittelsbachs, Luxembourgers and Habsburgs had fought over Tyrol for decades, a happy ending was finally reached. Rudolf IV of the House of Habsburg intervened with the Pope and was able to negotiate the lifting of the interdict in 1359 in exchange for considerable financial compensation at the expense of Margaret and Louis. At the same time, a document is said to have been drawn up that is now considered a forgery: in this document, Margaret bequeathed the land of Tyrol to Rudolf IV and the Habsburg family.

This succession occurred soon afterwards. One year after Margaret's husband and Tyrolean sovereign Ludwig died in 1361, her son Meinhard III also passed away. If Filippo Villani's history is to be believed, although it was not written until around 1400, it is said that Meinhard III, who was already known during her lifetime as Kriemhild Margarethe, who was notorious for her deaths, may not have been innocent of both deaths together with a lover. As the mother of the last prince of the Tyrolean dynasty, Margarethe handed over the reins of government to Rudolf IV (1339 - 1365) of Habsburg in 1363 with the consent of the Tyrolean nobility. Tyrol was part of the dynasty that also ruled over the Archduchy of Austria.

The Dukes of Bavaria from the House of Wittelsbach refused to recognise this inheritance treaty, which declared their claims to Tyrol null and void. In 1363, they moved towards Innsbruck to rectify the law by force of arms. However, Rudolf IV had won over important local nobles to his side. The document confirming the Tyrolean inheritance may not have been genuine, but the real political balance of power favoured the Habsburgs. He also won the towns of Innsbruck and Hall over to his side with promises. The citizens of Innsbruck, who were obliged to do military service, were able to successfully defend the city, which was fortified by Andechsburg Castle and the city walls. It may be an irony of fate that it was the Wittelsbach Ludwig who, as sovereign ruler of Tyrol, had the city walls raised and reinforced just eight years earlier. After taking power in Tyrol, Rudolf confirmed the city hospital and a temporary exemption from customs duties as well as the right to levy the Great Customs Duty with great gratitude.

With the acquisition of Tyrol, the Habsburg family was able to close an important geographical gap within its sphere of influence. Although there were repeated incursions by Bavarian troops, for example the abbot of Wilten Abbey was abducted and taken hostage, the Inn Valley and Innsbruck were gladly part of the Habsburg lands. The incorporation of the city into the much larger territory of the Habsburgs meant that Innsbruck became even more important, while the actual capital Merano was further marginalised. In addition to the north-south transport of goods, the city on the Inn had now also become a west-east transport hub between the eastern Austrian lands and the old Habsburg possessions in the west. For the survivors of the great plague wave of 1348 and the political turmoil, there was an economic upswing. Labour had become scarce due to the shrinking population, but greater resources were available per capita. For those Innsbruck residents who had survived the turbulent first half of the 14th century, better times were to come.

Hardly anything remains of the time of Margarethe Maultasch and her husbands in the Innsbruck cityscape. Not only was their time characterised by political and economic hardship, the wars and the plague almost brought customs revenue to a standstill. There was no money for grand buildings. Innsbruck was also not yet a royal seat. Several fires and earthquakes, but above all the building frenzy of subsequent provincial and city rulers caused the medieval Innsbruck to disappear. But it is still alive in memories and legends. Margarethe "Maultasch" is one of the most famous female figures in Tyrolean history. Contradictory reports, motivated by various interests, which were written about her during her lifetime, leave room for interpretation. Her biography is suitable as a blueprint for a character in the TV series Games of Thrones. It is said to have been involved in the defence of Tyrol Castle against an approaching Veneto-Lombard army with "unbroken courage and manly determination“ and „with a small group of soldiers“ led the defence and even led an escape attempt from the city. Her opponents, on the other hand, saw her as a man-hungry, insatiable and immoral vamp. Whether she was a ruthless murderer or an innocent pawn of foreign powers - we will probably never know. Margarethe and her successor on the throne of the Tyrolean prince Rudolf IV of Habsburg are portrayed at the fountain on the Rudolf's Fountain immortalised in stone on Boznerplatz, the former Margarethenplatz.

Der intelligente und liberale Kronprinz Rudolf (1858 – 1889) galt als der Favourite of the nations des Habsburgerreichs. Sein Leben kann in vielerlei Hinsicht als exemplarisch für die Zeit zwischen 1848 und dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs gelesen werden, in der sich technische Ideen rasend schnell entwickelten, Zeitungen politische Ideen verschiedener Lager in noch nie zuvor dagewesener Auflage verbreiten und gleichzeitig Katholizismus, Aberglaube und Spiritismus gang und gäbe waren. Das Interesse für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Kultur sowie Sitten und war auch in Innsbruck allgegenwärtig. Der allergrößte Teil der Innsbrucker hatte nicht die materiellen Möglichkeiten oder den Status eines Habsburgers, die Moden und Strömungen, unter denen sie lebten, waren aber dieselben. Das Großbürgertum eiferte den gleichen Idealen wie der Kronprinz nach, so wie Rudolf sich stets als Teil dieses Großbürgertums sah. Er galt als belesen und gebildet und interessierte sich ganz im Zeitgeist für ein breites Spektrum an Themen. Er sprach neben Griechisch und Latein auch Französisch, Ungarisch, Tschechisch und Kroatisch. Als Privatier widmete er sich der Wissenschaft und dem Reisen durch die Länder der Monarchie. Rudolf veranlasste die Herausgabe of the Kronprinzenwerk, einer naturwissenschaftlichen Enzyklopädie. 1893 erschien Band 13, der das Kronland Tirol behandelte. Er verfasste liberale Artikel im "Neue Wiener Tagblatt" unter einem Pseudonym. Er wollte unter anderem Grund- und Bodenreformen vorantreiben durch stärkere Besteuerung der Großgrundbesitzer und den einzelnen Nationalitäten des Habsburgerreichs mehr Rechte zugestehen. Besonders im konservativen, ländlichen Tirol und unter Militärs war äußerst unbeliebt. Bei den liberal gesinnten Innsbruckern hingegen galt er als Hoffnung für eine Erneuerung der Monarchie im Sinne eines modernen, föderalen Staates. Der Rudolf's Fountain in Innsbruck am Boznerplatz erinnert zwar nicht an den Kronprinzen, bei seiner Einweihung war er aber zugegen. Als Verfechter von Rationalismus und Aufklärung verachtete Rudolf den weit verbreiteten Glauben an übernatürliche Wesen und Geister während um ihn herum neue Kirchen wie Pilze aus dem Boden schossen und die Upper Class sich Seancen und spiritistischem Aberglauben hingab. Die Volksfrömmigkeit der späten Monarchie führte zu Großprojekten wie den Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus und Hötting. 

Rudolfs Privatleben war trotz, oder gerade wegen seines aristokratischen Hintergrundes, turbulent, allerdings nicht untypisch für diese Zeit, in der Eltern und Lehrer weniger nahbare Erziehungspersonen als vielmehr distanzierte Respektpersonen darstellten. Kinder wurden streng erzogen. Weder Lehrer noch Eltern schreckten vor körperlicher Züchtigung zurück, auch wenn es Grenzen, Gesetze und Regeln für den Einsatz von häuslicher Gewalt gab. Militarismus und Fokus auf die zukünftige Erwerbsarbeit verhinderten Kindheit und Jugend, wie wir sie heute kennen. Junge Männer aus der Oberschicht lebten ihre soldatischen Tagträume als bewaffnete und uniformierte Mitglieder von Studentenverbindungen aus. Es ist kein Wunder, dass die Begeisterung für den Krieg, Gott, Kaiser und Vaterland in den Geburtsjahrgängen der letzten Jahrzehnte des 19. Jahrhunderts groß war. Auch Rudolfs frühe Jahre, als er auf Wunsch Kaiser Franz Josef eine soldatische Erziehung unter General Gondrecourt durchlaufen musste, waren wenig luxuriös. Erst nach Einschreiten seiner Mutter Elisabeth wurden Schikanen wie Wasserkuren, Exerzieren in Regen und Schnee und das Aufwecken mit Pistolenschüssen aus dem täglichen Programm des sechsjährigen Kronprinzen genommen. 

Wie viele seiner Zeitgenossen fand sich auch Rudolf als Mitglied der Oberschicht in einer unglücklichen, da arrangierten Ehe wieder. Das 19. Jahrhundert war nicht das Zeitalter der Liebesheiraten, auch wenn Romantik und Biedermeierzeit gerne dahingehend gerühmt werden. Ehen unter Bauersleuten wurden häufig nach finanziellen Gesichtspunkten geschlossen. Aristokraten und Mitglieder des hohen Bürgertums heirateten aus Standesdünkel und mit dem Ziel, die Dynastie zu erhalten. In der Oberschicht waren Ehefrauen häufig Schmuck ihres Gatten und Oberhaupt des Haushaltes. Erst wenn der oft ältere Ehemann verstorben war, konnten auch Witwen ihr Leben abseits dieser Rolle genießen. Dienstboten, Hausmädchen, Knechten und Mägden war die Hochzeit lange untersagt. Die Gefahr, dass sie als Vermögenslose ihre Kinder nicht ernähren konnten und damit zur Last für die Allgemeinheit wurden, war den Gemeinden zu groß. Diese Doppelmoral von Aristokratie und Großbürgertum gegenüber dem Pofl führte dazu, dass illegale Abtreibungen, volle Waisenhäuser und Kinder, die bei Verwandten am Land anstatt bei ihren Eltern aufwuchsen, gelebter Alltag waren. Zeit seines Lebens war auch Rudolf dem schönen Geschlecht außerhalb der Ehe nicht abgeneigt. In seinen letzten Lebensmonaten unterhielt er eine Affäre mit der als besonders schön geltenden Mary Vetsera, einem erst 17 Jahre alten Mädchen aus reichem ungarischem Adel. Wie Rudolf hielten es auch viele seiner Untertanen. Zwar konnte sich kaum jemand rühmen, eine ungarische Aristokratin als Gespielin für sich zu beanspruchen. Auch in der Innsbrucker High Society war es üblich, sonntags der Predigt des Pfarrers von der Kanzel zu lauschen und gleichzeitig eine außereheliche Beziehung zu pflegen oder ein Bordell zu besuchen. 

Rudolfs Leben endete tragisch. Am 30. Januar 1889 traf sich der schwer depressive, von Alkohol, Morphium und Gonorrhö gezeichnete Rudolf mit Vetsera, nachdem er die Nacht zuvor mit seiner Langzeitgeliebten, der Prostituierten Maria „Mizzi“ Kaspar, verbracht hatte. Unter nie vollständig geklärten Umständen tötete er zuerst die junge Frau und dann sich selbst mit einem Schuss in den Kopf. Von der Familie Habsburg wurde der Selbstmord nie anerkannt. Zita (1892 – 1989), die Witwe des letzten Kaisers Karl, sprach noch in den 1980ern von einem Mordanschlag. Die Diskussion um die Beisetzung des Thronfolgers und seiner Geliebten zeigte die Doppelmoral der Gesellschaft. Selbstmord galt als schwere Sünde und verhinderte eigentlich ein christliches Begräbnis. Vetsera wurde am Friedhof in Heiligenkreuz bei Mayerling in einem kleinen Grab an der Friedhofsmauer unauffällig beigesetzt, während Rudolf nach kaiserlicher Intervention beim Papst ein Staatsbegräbnis erhielt und seine letzte Ruhe in der Kapuzinergruft in Wien erhielt.

Today, Innsbruck's city centre is characterised by buildings and monuments that commemorate the Habsburg family. For many centuries, the Habsburgs were a European ruling dynasty whose sphere of influence included a wide variety of territories. At the zenith of their power, they were the rulers of a "Reich, in dem die Sonne nie untergeht". Through wars and skilful marriage and power politics, they sat at the levers of power between South America and the Ukraine in various eras. Innsbruck was repeatedly the centre of power for this dynasty. The relationship was particularly intense between the 15th and 17th centuries. Due to its strategically favourable location between the Italian cities and German centres such as Augsburg and Regensburg, Innsbruck was given a special place in the empire at the latest after its elevation to a royal seat under Emperor Maximilian.

Tyrol was a province and, as a conservative region, usually favoured the dynasty. Even after its time as a royal seat, the birth of new children of the ruling family was celebrated with parades and processions, deaths were mourned in memorial masses and archdukes, kings and emperors were immortalised in public spaces with statues and pictures. The Habsburgs also valued the loyalty of their Alpine subjects to the Nibelung. In the 19th century, the Jesuit Hartmann Grisar wrote the following about the celebrations to mark the birth of Archduke Leopold in 1716:

„But what an imposing sight it was when, as night fell, the Abbot of Wilten held the final religious function in front of St Anne's Column, which had been consecrated by the blood of the country, surrounded by rows of students and the packed crowd; when, by the light of thousands of burning lights and torches, the whole town, together with the studying youth, the hope of the country, implored heaven for a blessing for the Emperor's newborn first son.“

 Its inaccessible location made it the perfect refuge in troubled and crisis-ridden times. Charles V (1500 - 1558) fled during a conflict with the Protestant Schmalkaldischen Bund to Innsbruck for some time. Ferdinand I (1793 - 1875) allowed his family to stay in Innsbruck, far away from the Ottoman threat in eastern Austria. Shortly before his coronation in the turbulent summer of the 1848 revolution, Franz Josef I enjoyed the seclusion of Innsbruck together with his brother Maximilian, who was later shot by insurgent nationalists as Emperor of Mexico. A plaque at the Alpengasthof Heiligwasser above Igls reminds us that the monarch spent the night here as part of his ascent of the Patscherkofel. Some of the Tyrolean sovereigns from the House of Habsburg had no special relationship with Tyrol, nor did they have any particular affection for this German land. Ferdinand I (1503 - 1564) was educated at the Spanish court. Maximilian's grandson Charles V had grown up in Burgundy. When he set foot on Spanish soil for the first time at the age of 17 to take over his mother Joan's inheritance of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, he did not speak a word of Spanish. When he was elected German Emperor in 1519, he did not speak a word of German.

Not all Habsburgs were happy to be „allowed“ to be in Innsbruck. Married princes and princesses such as Maximilian's second wife Bianca Maria Sforza or Ferdinand II's second wife Anna Caterina Gonzaga were stranded in the harsh, German-speaking mountains after the wedding without being asked. If you also imagine what a move and marriage from Italy to Tyrol to a foreign man meant for a teenager, you can imagine how difficult life was for the princesses. Until the 20th century, children of the aristocracy were primarily brought up to be politically married. There was no opposition to this. One might imagine courtly life to be ostentatious, but privacy was not provided for in all this luxury.

Innsbruck experienced its Habsburg heyday when the city was the main residence of the Tyrolean sovereigns. Ferdinand II, Maximilian III and Leopold V and their wives left their mark on the city during their reigns. When Sigismund Franz von Habsburg (1630 - 1665) died childless as the last sovereign prince, the title of residence city was also history and Tyrol was ruled by a governor. Tyrolean mining had lost its importance and did not require any special attention. Shortly afterwards, the Habsburgs lost their possessions in Western Europe along with Spain and Burgundy, which moved Innsbruck from the centre to the periphery of the empire. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy of the 19th century, Innsbruck was the western outpost of a huge empire that stretched as far as today's Ukraine. Franz Josef I (1830 - 1916) ruled over a multi-ethnic empire between 1848 and 1916. However, his neo-absolutist concept of rule was out of date. Although Austria had had a parliament and a constitution since 1867, the emperor regarded this government as "his". Ministers were responsible to the emperor, who was above the government. In the second half of the 19th century, the ailing empire collapsed. On 28 October 1918, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, and on 29 October, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs left the monarchy. The last Emperor Charles abdicated on 11 November. On 12 November, "Deutschösterreich zur demokratischen Republik, in der alle Gewalt vom Volke ausgeht“. The chapter of the Habsburgs was over.

Despite all the national, economic and democratic problems that existed in the multi-ethnic states that were subject to the Habsburgs in various compositions and forms, the subsequent nation states were sometimes much less successful in reconciling the interests of minorities and cultural differences within their territories. Since the eastward enlargement of the EU, the Habsburg monarchy has been seen by some well-meaning historians as a pre-modern predecessor of the European Union. Together with the Catholic Church, the Habsburgs shaped the public sphere through architecture, art and culture. Goldenes DachlThe Hofburg, the Triumphal Gate, Ambras Castle, the Leopold Fountain and many other buildings still remind us of the presence of the most important ruling dynasty in European history in Innsbruck.

Many tyroleans see themselves as an own nation. With „Tirol isch lei oans“, „Zu Mantua in Banden“ and „Dem Land Tirol die Treue", the federal state has three more or less official anthems. As in other federal states, there are historical reasons for this pronounced local patriotism. Tyrolean freedom and independence are often invoked as a local shrine to underpin this. It is often referred to as the first democracy in mainland Europe, which is probably an exaggeration considering the feudal and hierarchical history of the country up until the 20th century. However, the country cannot be denied a certain peculiarity in its development, even if it was less about the participation of broad sections of the population and more about the local elites curtailing the power of the sovereign.

The first act was what the Innsbruck historian Otto Stolz (1881 - 1957) in the 1950s exuberantly described, in reference to English history, as the Magna Charta Libertatum celebrated. After the marriage of the Bavarian Ludwig von Wittelsbach to the Tyrolean princess Margarete von Tirol-Görz, the Bavarian Wittelsbachs were rulers of Tyrol for a short time. In order to win over the Tyrolean population to his side, Ludwig decided to offer the provincial estates a treat in the 14th century. In the Großen Freiheitsbrief of 1342, Louis promised the Tyroleans that he would not enact any laws or tax increases without first consulting the provincial estates. However, there can be no question of a democratic constitution as understood in the 21st century, as these provincial estates were primarily the aristocratic, landowning classes, who represented their interests accordingly. Although one copy of the document mentioned the inclusion of peasants as a class in the Diet, this version never became official.

As the towns and bourgeoisie gained more political clout in the 15th century due to their economic importance, a counterweight to the nobility developed within the estates. At the Diet of 1423 under Frederick IV, 18 members of the nobility met 18 members of the towns and peasantry for the first time. Gradually, a fixed composition developed in the provincial diets of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Tyrolean bishops of Brixen and Trento, the abbots of the Tyrolean monasteries, the nobility, representatives of the towns and the peasantry were all represented. The provincial governor presided over the meeting. Of course, the resolutions and wishes of the provincial parliament were not binding for the prince, but it was probably a reassuring feeling for the ruler to know that the representatives of the population were on his side or that difficult decisions were supported. 

Another important document for the country was the Tiroler Landlibell. In 1511, Maximilian stipulated, among other things, that Tyrolean soldiers should only be called up for military service in defence of their own country. The reason for Maximilian's generosity was less his love for the Tyroleans than the need to keep the Tyrolean mines running instead of burning out the precious labourers and the peasantry that supplied them on the battlefields of Europe. The fact that in Landlibell At the same time, massive restrictions on the population and higher costs are often forgotten. The Landlibell regulated not only the strength of the troop contingents but also the special taxes that were levied. The nobility and clergy had to use the capital gains from their estates as a tax base, which often amounted to a rough estimate. Towns, on the other hand, were taxed according to the number of fireplaces in the houses, which could be calculated quite accurately. Coveted miners were exempt from these taxes and only had to serve in the army in extreme emergencies.

This special regulation for national defence, as laid down in the Landlibell, was one of the reasons for the uprising of 1809, when young Tyroleans were conscripted for the mobilisation of the armed forces as part of general conscription. To this day, the Napoleonic Wars, when the Catholic crown land was threatened by the "godless French" and the revolutionary social order, characterise the Tyrolean self-image. During this defensive struggle, an alliance was formed between Catholicism and Tyrol. The Tyrolean marksmen entrusted their fate to the heart of Jesus before a decisive battle against Napoleon's armies in June 1796 and entered into a covenant with God personally, which would protect their Heiliges Land Tirol was supposed to protect her. Another identity-forming legend from 1796 centres around a young woman from the village of Spinges. Katharina Lanz, who was known as the Jungfrau von Spinges went down in the history of the country as an identity-forming national heroine, is said to have motivated the almost defeated Tyrolean troops with her imperious demeanour in battle to such an extent that they were ultimately able to achieve victory over the French superiority. Depending on the account, she is said to have taught Napoleon's troops to fear with a pitchfork, a flail or a scythe similar to the French Maid Joan of Arc. Legends and traditions surrounding the marksmen and the feeling of being an independent nation chosen by God, which happened to be attached to the Republic of Austria, go back to these legends.

The particular identities of the individual crown lands did not correspond to what enlightened politicians imagined a modern state to be. Under Maria Theresa, the central state was strengthened vis-à-vis the crown lands and the local nobility. The subjects' sense of belonging should not be to the province of Tyrol, but to the House of Habsburg. In the 19th century, the aim was to strengthen identification with the monarchy and develop a national consciousness. The press, visits by the ruling family, monuments such as the Rudolfsbrunnen or the opening of Mount Isel with Hofer as a Tyrolean loyal to the emperor were intended to help turn the population into subjects loyal to the emperor.

When the Habsburg Empire collapsed after the First World War, the crown land of Tyrol also broke up. What had been known as South Tyrol until 1918, the Italian-speaking part of the province between Riva on Lake Garda and Salurn in the Adige Valley, became Trentino with Trento as its capital. The German-speaking part of the province between Neumarkt and the Brenner Pass is now South Tyrol / Alto Adige, an autonomous region of the Republic of Italy with the capital Bolzano.

Throughout the centuries, Innsbruckers have felt themselves to be Tyroleans, Germans, Catholics and subjects of the emperor. Before 1945, however, hardly anyone felt Austrian. It was only after the Second World War that a sense of belonging to Austria slowly began to develop in Tyrol. To this day, however, many Tyroleans are proud of their local identity and like to distinguish themselves from the inhabitants of other federal states and countries. For many Tyroleans, after more than 100 years, the Brenner Pass still represents a Injustice limit even if the Europa der Regionen cooperates politically across borders at EU level.

The legend of the Holy Landthe independent Tyrolean nation and the first mainland democracy has survived to this day. The bon mot "bisch a Tiroler bisch a Mensch, bisch koana, bisch a Oasch" summarises Tyrolean nationalism succinctly. The fact that the historic crown land of Tyrol was a multi-ethnic construct with Italians, Ladins, Cimbrians and Rhaeto-Romans is often overlooked in right-wing circles. Laws from the federal capital of Vienna or even the EU in Brussels are still viewed with scepticism today. Nationalists on both sides of the Brenner Pass still make use of the Jungfrau von Spingesthe heart of Jesus and Andreas Hofer, to publicise their concerns. The Säcularfeier des Bundes Tirols mit dem göttlichen Herzen Jesu was still celebrated in the 20th century with great participation from the political elite.

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 is difficult to define clearly. What they all had in common was a departure from the classicist architecture of the pre-war period. Lois Welzenbacher wrote in 1920 in an article in the magazine 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 to work. At the time, Merano was Tyrol's most important tourist resort with international spa guests. Under the architect Adalbert Erlebach, he gained his first experience in the planning of large-scale projects such as hotels and cable cars.

Like the majority of his generation, the First World War tore Baumann from his professional and everyday life. On the Italian front, he was shot in the stomach while fighting, from which he recovered in a military hospital in Prague. During this otherwise idle time, he painted cityscapes of buildings in and around Prague. These pictures, which would later help him to visualise his plans, were presented in his only exhibition in 1919.

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 barrierwhich Hitler imposed on Austria in 1934 in order to put the Republic in financial difficulties, caused problems for his architectural practice and the economy as a whole. Not only did the unemployment rate in tourism triple within a very short space of time, but the construction industry also got into difficulties. In 1935, Baumann became head of the Central Association of Architects after he was finally allowed to use this professional title with a special licence. In the same year, he planned the 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.