Innsbrucker Nachrichten / 11 February 1921

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

Innsbrucker Nachrichten / 22 April 1922

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

Allgemeiner Tiroler Anzeiger / 3 February 1937

Gang of young burglars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Few eras are more difficult to grasp than the interwar period. The Roaring TwentiesJazz and automobiles come to mind, as do inflation and the economic crisis. In big cities like Berlin, young ladies behaved as Flappers mit Bubikopf, Zigarette und kurzen Röcken zu den neuen Klängen lasziv, Innsbrucks Bevölkerung gehörte als Teil der jungen Republik Österreich zum größten Teil zur Fraktion Armut, Wirtschaftskrise und politischer Polarisierung. Schon die Ausrufung der Republik am Parlament in Wien vor über 100.000 mehr oder minder begeisterten, vor allem aber verunsicherten Menschen verlief mit Tumulten, Schießereien, zwei Toten und 40 Verletzten alles andere als reibungsfrei. Wie es nach dem Ende der Monarchie und dem Wegfall eines großen Teils des Staatsterritoriums weitergehen sollte, wusste niemand. Das neue Österreich erschien zu klein und nicht lebensfähig. Der Beamtenstaat des k.u.k. Reiches setzte sich nahtlos unter neuer Fahne und Namen durch. Die Bundesländer als Nachfolger der alten Kronländer erhielten in der Verfassung im Rahmen des Föderalismus viel Spielraum in Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung. Die Begeisterung für den neuen Staat hielt sich aber in der Bevölkerung in Grenzen. Nicht nur, dass die Versorgungslage nach dem Wegfall des allergrößten Teils des ehemaligen Riesenreiches der Habsburger miserabel war, die Menschen misstrauten dem Grundgedanken der Republik. Die Monarchie war nicht perfekt gewesen, mit dem Gedanken von Demokratie konnten aber nur die allerwenigsten etwas anfangen. Anstatt Untertan des Kaisers war man nun zwar Bürger, allerdings nur Bürger eines Zwergstaates mit überdimensionierter und in den Bundesländern wenig geliebter Hauptstadt anstatt eines großen Reiches. In den ehemaligen Kronländern, die zum großen Teil christlich-sozial regiert wurden, sprach man gerne vom Viennese water headwho was fed by the yields of the industrious rural population.

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

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

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

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

Trouble also loomed in domestic politics. The revolution in Russia and the ensuing civil war with millions of deaths, expropriation and a complete reversal of the system cast its long shadow all the way to Austria. The prospect of Soviet conditions machte den Menschen Angst. Österreich war tief gespalten. Hauptstadt und Bundesländer, Stadt und Land, Bürger, Arbeiter und Bauern – im Vakuum der ersten Nachkriegsjahre wollte jede Gruppe die Zukunft nach ihren Vorstellungen gestalten. Die Kulturkämpfe der späten Monarchie zwischen Konservativen, Liberalen und Sozialisten setzte sich nahtlos fort. Die Kluft bestand nicht nur auf politischer Ebene. Moral, Familie, Freizeitgestaltung, Erziehung, Glaube, Rechtsverständnis – jeder Lebensbereich war betroffen. Wer sollte regieren? Wie sollten Vermögen, Rechte und Pflichten verteilt werden. Ein kommunistischer Umsturz war besonders in Tirol keine reale Gefahr, ließ sich aber medial gut als Bedrohung instrumentalisieren, um die Sozialdemokratie in Verruf zu bringen. 1919 hatte sich in Innsbruck zwar ein Workers', farmers' and soldiers' council nach sowjetischem Vorbild ausgerufen, sein Einfluss blieb aber gering und wurde von keiner Partei unterstützt. Ab 1920 bildeten sich offiziell sogenannten Soldatenräte, die aber christlich-sozial dominiert waren. Das bäuerliche und bürgerliche Lager rechts der Mitte militarisierte sich mit der Tiroler Heimatwehr professioneller und konnte sich über stärkeren Zulauf freuen als linke Gruppen, auch dank kirchlicher Unterstützung. Die Sozialdemokratie wurde von den Kirchkanzeln herab und in konservativen Medien als Jewish Party and homeless traitors to their country. They were all too readily blamed for the lost war and its consequences. The Tiroler Anzeiger summarised the people's fears in a nutshell: "Woe to the Christian people if the Jews=Socialists win the elections!".

With the new municipal council regulations of 1919, which provided for universal suffrage for all adults, the Innsbruck municipal council comprised 40 members. Of the 24,644 citizens called to the ballot box, an incredible 24,060 exercised their right to vote. Three women were already represented in the first municipal council with free elections. While in the rural districts the Tyrolean People's Party as a merger of Farmers' Union, People's Association und Catholic Labour Despite the strong headwinds in Innsbruck, the Social Democrats under the leadership of Martin Rapoldi were always able to win between 30 and 50% of the vote in the first elections in 1919. The fact that the Social Democrats did not succeed in winning the mayor's seat was due to the majorities in the municipal council formed by alliances with other parties. Liberals and Tyrolean People's Party was at least as hostile to social democracy as he was to the federal capital Vienna and the Italian occupiers.

But high politics was only the framework of the actual misery. The as Spanish flu This epidemic, which has gone down in history, also took its toll in Innsbruck in the years following the war. Exact figures were not recorded, but the number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 27 - 50 million. In Innsbruck, at the height of the Spanish flu epidemic, it is estimated that around 100 people fell victim to the disease every day. Many Innsbruck residents had not returned home from the battlefields and were missing as fathers, husbands and labourers. Many of those who had made it back were wounded and scarred by the horrors of war. As late as February 1920, the „Tyrolean Committee of the Siberians" im Gasthof Breinößl "...in favour of the fund for the repatriation of our prisoners of war..." organised a charity evening. Long after the war, the province of Tyrol still needed help from abroad to feed the population. Under the heading "Significant expansion of the American children's aid programme in Tyrol" was published on 9 April 1921 in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten to read: "Taking into account the needs of the province of Tyrol, the American representatives for Austria have most generously increased the daily number of meals to 18,000 portions.“

Then there was unemployment. Civil servants and public sector employees in particular lost their jobs after the League of Nations linked its loan to severe austerity measures. Salaries in the public sector were cut. There were repeated strikes. Tourism as an economic factor was non-existent due to the problems in the neighbouring countries, which were also shaken by the war. The construction industry, which had been booming before the war, collapsed completely. Innsbruck's largest company Huter & Söhne hatte 1913 über 700 Mitarbeiter, am Höhepunkt der Wirtschaftskrise 1933 waren es nur noch 18. Der Mittelstand brach zu einem guten Teil zusammen. Der durchschnittliche Innsbrucker war mittellos und mangelernährt. Oft konnten nicht mehr als 800 Kalorien pro Tag zusammengekratzt werden. Die Kriminalitätsrate war in diesem Klima der Armut höher als je zuvor. Viele Menschen verloren ihre Bleibe. 1922 waren in Innsbruck 3000 Familien auf Wohnungssuche trotz eines städtischen Notwohnungsprogrammes, das bereits mehrere Jahre in Kraft war. In alle verfügbaren Objekte wurden Wohnungen gebaut. Am 11. Februar 1921 fand sich in einer langen Liste in den Innsbrucker Nachrichten on the individual projects that were run, including this item:

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

Very little happened in the first few years. Then politics awoke from its lethargy. The crown, a relic from the monarchy, was replaced by the schilling as Austria's official currency on 1 January 1925. The old currency had lost more than 95% of its value against the dollar between 1918 and 1922, or the pre-war exchange rate. Innsbruck, like many other Austrian municipalities, began to print its own money. The amount of money in circulation rose from 12 billion crowns to over 3 trillion crowns between 1920 and 1922. The result was an epochal inflation.

With the currency reorganisation following the League of Nations loan under Chancellor Ignaz Seipel, not only banks and citizens picked themselves up, but public building contracts also increased again. Innsbruck modernised itself. There was what economists call a false boom. This short-lived economic recovery was a Bubble, However, the city of Innsbruck was awarded major projects such as the Tivoli, the municipal indoor swimming pool, the high road to the Hungerburg, the mountain railways to the Isel and the Nordkette, new schools and apartment blocks. The town bought Lake Achensee and, as the main shareholder of TIWAG, built the power station in Jenbach. The first airport was built in Reichenau in 1925, which also involved Innsbruck in air traffic 65 years after the opening of the railway line. In 1930, the university bridge connected the hospital in Wilten and the Höttinger Au. The Pembaur Bridge and the Prince Eugene Bridge were built on the River Sill. The signature of the new, large mass parties in the design of these projects cannot be overlooked.

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

To this day, much of the Austrian state and Innsbruck's cityscape and infrastructure are based on what emerged after the collapse of the monarchy. In Innsbruck, there are no conscious memorials to the emergence of the First Republic in Austria. The listed residential complexes such as the Slaughterhouse blockthe Pembaurblock or the Mandelsbergerblock oder die Pembaur School are contemporary witnesses turned to stone. Every year since 1925, World Savings Day has commemorated the introduction of the schilling. Children and adults should be educated to handle money responsibly.

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

In the early years of the First Republic, he had a short but stellar career. He was elected a member of the provincial parliament in Tyrol and a member of the first National Council in Vienna. In Innsbruck, he managed to make the Social Democrats the strongest party in the local council. However, due to the anti-socialist stance of the other parliamentary groups in the municipal council, he was never able to fill the position of mayor. Housing construction and the municipal energy supply were of particular concern to him. During Rapoldi's time on the municipal council, the major projects Schlachthofblock and Pembaurblock were built in Dreiheiligen and Pradl, as well as the school and kindergarten in today's Pembaurstraße. He was instrumental in the construction of the Innsbrucker Lichtwerke, today's Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe, was involved. His greatest achievement, however, was the acquisition of Lake Achensee. As early as 1911, the city of Innsbruck under Wilhelm Greil negotiated with the Bavarian monastery of Fiecht to purchase the lake for a power station for the city of Innsbruck's electricity plant. The war interrupted the project. In 1919, negotiations between the local council and the monastery about the purchase of Lake Achensee began anew. The purchase price was finally set at 1.2 million crowns plus the monastery's own electricity requirements. Financing proved difficult in the difficult post-war period. Until 1924, the federal government granted tax relief to municipalities for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. At the last minute, TIWAG, Tiroler Wasserkraft AG, was founded with the city of Innsbruck as the majority owner and the purchase was finalised. Legend has it that due to inflation between 1919 and 1924, it was not possible to buy a lake for the value of the purchase price at the time of payment, but only a man's suit. When the town sold the lake to TIWAG 60 years later, almost a billion schillings was realised, enough to pay off the town's debts. Martin Rapoldi was the driving force behind the construction of the Achensee railway, the Achensee power plant and the founding of Tiroler Wasserkraft TIWAG. In 1926, the enterprising Red journeyman carpenter at the young age of 46 from the consequences of kidney inflammation.

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

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

Industrialisation and the rise of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century transformed society for better and for worse. Urbanisation was increasingly perceived by many people as a burden. Although many workers and employees in Innsbruck had, in absolute terms, more resources at their disposal than ever before, the pressure to participate socially also grew. From the 1890s onwards, several advertising columns (Litfaßsäulen) appeared in Innsbruck, on which artistically designed posters promoted the new variety of products. Department stores and fashion retailers made social differences within an increasingly differentiated society more visible than ever. Anyone who wanted to keep up in the new bourgeois class had to be able to afford membership in this emerging consumer society. At the same time, the strains of industrialisation increased. Traffic on the streets, factory emissions, cramped living conditions in tenement blocks, and the previously unknown haste brought about by the strict structuring of time—which made new illnesses such as neurasthenia socially acceptable—gave rise to counter-movements. Although Innsbruck could not be compared with Paris or London in terms of size or intensity of industrialisation, the social gap was nonetheless enormous for many residents of formerly rural villages such as Pradl and for workers who had migrated from the countryside.

„Light air and sun“ war das Motto der Lebensreform, einer Sammelbewegung alternativer Lebensmodelle, die im späten 19. Jahrhundert in Deutschland im Gleichschritt mit der Entwicklung der Sozialdemokratie ihren Anfang nahm. Beide Ideen waren Reaktionen auf die Lebensbedingungen in den rasant wachsenden Städten. Schon vor der politischen Teilhabe beeinflussten Lebensreform und Sozialdemokratie Gesellschaft, Kunst und Architektur. Man wollte sich von dem, was Max Weber als protestantische Ethik beschrieb, der Industrie, den Stechuhren, ganz allgemein dem rasenden technischen Fortschritt mit allen Auswirkungen auf den Menschen und das Sozialgefüge, abgrenzen. Der Mensch als Individuum, nicht seine Wirtschaftsleistung, sollte wieder im Mittelpunkt stehen. Was dem Arbeiter Karl Marx´ Schriften, waren der gehobenen Bürgerschaft Kunst und Architektur. Der Jugendstil war der künstlerische Ausdruck auf dieses „Back to the origin“ der Jahrhundertwende. Das verspielte Element war das Gegenteil zum stets symmetrischen und aufgeräumten Historismus. Das Winklerhaus ist eines der wenigen im Stadtbild erhaltenen Zeugnisse dieses Zeitgeistes. Seit 1869 erschien die German Quarterly Journal for Public Health Care, which focussed on improving nutrition, hygiene and living space. In 1881 the Austrian Society for Healthcare gegründet. Private Vereine veranstalteten Aufklärungsveranstaltungen zum sauberen und gesunden Leben. Man betrieb politisches Lobbying zur Errichtung von Parks im öffentlichen Raum und der Verbesserung der Infrastruktur wie Bädern, Krankenhäusern, Kanalisation und Wasserleitungen. Assanation und Sozialhygiene waren Schlagwörter einer bürgerlichen Elite, die um ihre Mitmenschen und die Volksgesundheit besorgt war. Anstelle der sozialistischen Revolution sollte der christliche Gedanke der Nächstenliebe die Gesellschaft voranbringen. Wie alle elitären Bewegungen nahm auch die Lebensreform teils absurde und sektenartige Blüten an. Bewegungen wie der Vegetarismus, FKK, Gartenstädte, verschiedene esoterische Strömungen und andere alternative Lebensformen, die sich bis heute in der einen oder anderen Form erhalten konnten, entstanden in dieser Zeit. Auch Orientalismus und Spiritismus feierten in der Upper Class ein fröhliches Dasein.

This often well-intentioned but eccentric lifestyle remained largely inaccessible to workers; however, it formed, in many respects, the ideological core of the realpolitik of a then-young political party. Early Social Democrats confronted the everyday realities of workers and sought practical improvements beyond theoretical doctrine. Their basic demands are strikingly similar to today’s, albeit at a different level. Improving working conditions and housing ranked high on most people’s wish lists. Many tenement blocks were dreary, overcrowded environments lacking infrastructure such as sports facilities or parks. Modern housing estates were to be functional, comfortable, affordable, and integrated with green spaces. These ideas had also taken hold in public institutions. In 1907, Albert Gruber, a professor at the Innsbruck vocational school, wrote:

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

Even before the First World War, changes occurred in everyday political life. Social Democracy had existed as a political party since 1889, but under the Habsburg monarchy its scope for political influence was very limited. Socialism was considered unchristian and viewed with suspicion in the “Holy Land” of Tyrol. Nevertheless, the labour movement was significant as a secularly organised social counterweight and alternative to the Catholic structures that dominated Tyrol. In 1865, the first Tyrolean Workers’ Educational Association was founded in Innsbruck. Workers were to become aware of their position within society in preparation for the impending world revolution. For this, it was essential to possess at least a basic level of education and to be able to read and write. Ten years later, Franz Reisch founded the General Workers’ Association in Innsbruck. Two years after that, the empire-wide “General Workers’, Sick, and Invalids’ Fund” was launched. Despite state repression, considerable gatherings of “radicals” repeatedly took place. From 1893 onwards, the Social Democratic Volkszeitung für Tirol und Vorarlberg was published in Innsbruck as a countervoice to the Catholic press. It was here that a young printer from the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy began his career in Innsbruck’s local politics. The Bohemian-born Josef Prachensky (1861–1931) had discovered the labour movement during the printers’ strike in Vienna while on his journeyman travels. It is no longer entirely clear whether he first fell in love with the city or with his future wife. What is known is that he took over the management of the printing house that published the Social Democratic workers’ newspaper. Prachensky played a key role in founding the Social Democratic Party of Tyrol in 1890. In 1899, he was a driving force behind the opening of the First Tyrolean Workers’ Bakery (Erste Tiroler Arbeiter-Bäckerei, ETAB) on what is now Maximilianstraße. This cooperative aimed to produce high-quality bread under good working and hygienic conditions at fair prices. After several relocations, the ETAB settled on Hallerstraße, where it produced fresh baked goods daily until 1999. With his views and business initiatives, Prachensky quickly gained a reputation as an anarchist—a current within the political left that enjoyed a certain popularity around the turn of the century, but was also feared and discredited due to its often violent activism. In addition to the ETAB, Prachensky supported the “Workers’ Consumers’ Association” and founded the alcohol-free beverage hall at Museumstraße 16, a venue that, in keeping with the ideals of the Lebensreform movement and socialism, sought to improve the general health of the working class. Where people had once fasted according to the Christian calendar, abstinence was now to purify body and mind according to the measure of individual reason and personal well-being. Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), co-author of the Communist Manifesto, had already recognised spirits and hard liquor as a social ill of the working class in the first half of the 19th century. The aim of steering people away from alcohol was shared by socialism and, in many respects, by various Christian organisations that preached abstinence. Alcoholics, after all, could neither launch a world revolution nor lead a God-fearing life according to church ideals—whether Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. How little this approach succeeded in Innsbruck during the Belle Époque is illustrated by the rapid renaming of the establishment from Alcohol-Free to Reform, accompanied by the introduction of alcohol sales and Prachensky’s subsequent bankruptcy. One of his particular political concerns was to limit the influence of the Church within the school system, which in the 19th and early 20th centuries remained very strong even in nominally liberal Innsbruck, which was bound to follow national educational regulations. Although the liberal educational reform of 1869 was intended to push the clergy out of schools, their influence remained considerable in practice. Prachensky advocated giving children from working-class families at least a decent education, in order to provide them with a minimum chance of improving their living conditions. His demands around the turn of the century—for better and more uniform teacher salaries, a reduction in the proportion of religious instruction, support for less affluent children, and smaller class sizes—seem strikingly modern today.

The first free elections to the Imperial Council (Reichsrat) of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy for all male citizens in 1907 altered the political and social balance of power and gave Social Democrats new momentum, even though the census-based voting system still applied at the municipal level. The “common people” (Pöbel, colloquially referred to as Pofl) now had political representation. Important legislation—such as limits on working hours and improvements in working conditions—could now be demanded with greater force. The Crown Land of Tyrol, together with Upper Austria, had the longest working hours in the entire Danube Monarchy. Although trade union membership grew in number, Tyrol remained too heavily shaped by rural structures outside small urban centres to exert significant pressure. After the proclamation of the republic in 1918 and the introduction of universal suffrage at the municipal level, Social Democrats won the most votes in Innsbruck for the first time. However, the fulfilment of their demands still had to wait even after the first municipal elections following 1918. Innsbruck was “red,” but decisive authority over major political issues remained with the conservative provincial government. Although Innsbruck did not experience civil war–like conditions as seen in industrial strongholds such as Vienna, Linz, or Steyr, brawls, assassination attempts, and violence were nonetheless frequent. Prachensky—who, as a Social Democrat, had always resisted being labelled a “radical”—was drawn into the entrenched conflicts of the interwar period and founded the Tyrolean branch of the Republican Protection League (Republikanischer Schutzbund, RESCH), the counterpart to the right-wing paramilitary Heimwehr units.