Innsbruck hatte sich von einem römischen Castell während des Mittelalters zu einer Stadt entwickelt. Diese formale Anerkennung Innsbrucks als Stadt durch den Landesfürsten brachte ein gänzlich neues System für die Bürger mit sich. Marktrecht, Baurecht, Zollrecht und eine eigene Gerichtsbarkeit gingen nach und nach auf die Stadt über. Die Stadtbürger unterlagen nicht mehr ihrem Grundherrn, sondern der städtischen Gerichtsbarkeit, zumindest innerhalb der Stadtmauern. Das geflügelte Wort "Stadtluft macht frei" rührt daher, dass man nach einem Jahr in der Stadt von allen Verbindlichkeiten seines ehemaligen Grundherrn frei war. Bürger konnten anders als unfreie Bauern und Dienstleute frei über ihren Besitz und ihre Lebensführung verfügen. Bürger lieferten keinen Zehent ab, sondern bezahlten Steuern an die Stadt. Welche Gruppe innerhalb der Stadt welche Steuer zu bezahlen hatte, konnte die Stadtregierung selbst festlegen. Die Stadt wiederum musste diese Steuern nicht direkt abliefern, sondern konnte nach Abzug einer fixen Abgabe an den Landesfürsten frei über ihr Budget verfügen. Zu den Ausgaben neben der Verteidigung gehörte die Kranken- und Armenfürsorge. Notleidende Bürger konnten in der „Boiling kitchen" food, if they had the right of citizenship. The city government paid particular attention to infectious diseases such as the plague.

In addition to taxes, customs duties were an important source of income for Innsbruck. Customs duties were levied at the city gate at the Inn bridge. There were two types of customs duty. The small duty was based on the number of draught animals in the wagon, the large duty on the type and quantity of goods. The customs revenue was shared between Innsbruck and Hall. Hall had the task of maintaining the Inn bridge. 

Jeder Bürger musste im Gegenzug für seine Rechte den Bürgereid leisten. Dieser Bürgereid beinhaltete die Verpflichtung zur Abgabe von Steuern und die militärische Verteidigung der Stadt. Ab 1511 war der Stadtrat laut dem Landlibell Kaiser Maximilians auch verpflichtet ein Kontingent an Wehrpflichtigen für die Landesverteidigung zu stellen. Darüber hinaus gab es Freiwillige, die sich im Freifähnlein For example, during the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529, Innsbruckers were among the city's defenders.

Im 15. Jahrhundert wurde der Platz eng im rasch wachsenden Innsbruck. Das Bürgerrecht wurde zu einem exklusiven Gut. Nur nur noch freien Untertanen aus ehelicher Geburt war es möglich, das Stadtrecht zu erlangen. Um Bürger zu werden, mussten entweder Hausbesitz oder Fähigkeiten in einem Handwerk nachgewiesen werden, an der die Zünfte der Stadt interessiert waren. Der Streit darum, wer ein „echter“ Innsbrucker ist, und wer nicht, hält sich bis heute. Dass Migration und Austausch mit anderen immer schon die Garantie für Wohlstand waren und Innsbruck zu der lebenswerten Stadt gemacht haben, die sie heute ist, wird dabei oft vergessen.

Innsbruck hatte wegen dieser Beschränkungen eine gänzlich andere soziale Zusammensetzung als die umliegenden Dörfer. Handwerker, Händler, Beamte und Dienstboten des Hofstaats bestimmten das Stadtbild. Händler waren oft fahrendes Volk, Beamte und Hofstaat kamen ebenfalls im Gefolge eines Fürsten für kurze Zeit nach Innsbruck und besaßen kein Bürgerrecht. Es waren die Handwerker, die einen großen Teil der politischen Macht innerhalb der Bürgerschaft ausübten. Sie zählten, anders als Bauern, zu den mobilen Schichten im Mittelalter und der frühen Neuzeit. Sie gingen nach der Lehrzeit auf die Walz, bevor sie sich der Meisterprüfung unterzogen und entweder nach Hause zurückkehrten oder sich in einer anderen Stadt niederließen. Über Handwerker erfolgte nicht nur Wissenstransfer, auch kulturelle, soziale und politische Ideen verbreiteten sich durch sie. Die Handwerkszünfte übten teilweise eine eigene Gerichtsbarkeit neben der städtischen Gerichtsbarkeit unter ihren Mitgliedern aus. Es waren soziale Strukturen innerhalb der Stadtstruktur, die großen Einfluss auf die Politik hatten. Löhne, Preise und das soziale Leben wurden von den Zünften unter Aufsicht des Landesfürsten geregelt. Man könnte von einer frühen Sozialpartnerschaft sprechen, sorgten die Zünfte doch auch für die soziale Sicherheit ihrer Mitglieder bei Krankheit oder Berufsunfähigkeit. Die einzelnen Gewerbe wie Schlosser, Gerber, Plattner, Tischler, Bäcker, Metzger oder Schmiede hatten jeweils ihre Zunft, der ein Meister vorstand.

Ab dem 14. Jahrhundert besaß Innsbruck nachweisbar einen Stadtrat, den sogenannten Gemain, und einen Bürgermeister, der von der Bürgerschaft jährlich gewählt wurde. Es waren keine geheimen, sondern öffentliche Wahlen, die alljährlich rund um die Weihnachtszeit abgehalten wurden. Im Innsbrucker Geschichtsalmanach von 1948 findet man Aufzeichnungen über die Wahl des Jahres 1598.

The Feast of St. Erhard, i.e., January 8th, played a significant role in the lives of the citizens of Innsbruck each year. On this day, they gathered to elect the city officials, namely the mayor, city judge, public orator, and the twelve-member council. A detailed account of the election process between 1598 and 1607 is provided by a protocol preserved in the city archive: "... The ringing of the great bell summoned the council and the citizenry to the town hall, and once the honorable council and the entire community were assembled at the town hall, the honorable council first convened in the council chamber and heard the farewell of the outgoing mayor of the previous year, Augustin Tauscher."

The mayor represented the city vis-à-vis the other estates and the sovereign, who exercised overlordship over the city to a greater or lesser extent depending on the era. Each city councillor had their own clearly assigned tasks to fulfil, such as the supervision of market law, the care of the hospital and poor relief or the customs regulations, which were particularly important for Innsbruck. In all these political processes, one should always remember that Innsbruck had around 5,000 inhabitants in the 16th century, only a small proportion of whom had citizenship. The dispossessed, travellers, unemployed, servants, diplomats, employees, women and students were not entitled to vote. Voting was a privilege of the male upper class.

Entgegen landläufiger Meinung war das Mittelalter keine rechtfreie Zeit der Willkür. In Innsbruck, wie auch im Land Tirol, gab es einen Kodex, der Recht und Unrecht sowie Rechte und Pflichten von Bürgern sehr genau regelte. Bezieht man die Regeln für Handel, Zölle, Ausübung des Berufes durch Gilden, Preisfestsetzung durch den Magistrat und Strafrecht mit ein, war das vor- und frühmoderne Zusammenleben sogar wesentlich stärker reguliert als heute. Diese Bestimmungen änderten sich nach den Sitten der Zeit.

Die mittelalterlichen Gerichtstage wurden an der „Dingstätte" is held outdoors. The tradition of the Thing goes back to the old Germanic Thing, bei dem sich alle freien Männer versammelten, um Recht zu sprechen. Der Stadtrat bestellte einen Richter, der für alle Vergehen zuständig war, die nicht dem Blutgericht unterlagen. Ihm zur Seite stand ein Kollegium aus mehreren Geschworenen. Strafen reichten von Geldbußen über Pranger und Kerker. Auch die Einhaltung der religiösen Ordnung wurde von der Stadt überwacht. „Ketzer“ und Querdenker wurden nicht von der Kirche, sondern der Stadtregierung gemaßregelt.

The penal system also included less humane methods than are common today, but torture was not used indiscriminately and arbitrarily. However, torture was also regulated as part of the procedure in particularly serious cases. Until the 17th century, suspects and criminals in Innsbruck were Kräuterturm at the south-east corner of the city wall, on what is now Herzog-Otto-Ufer. Both the trial and the serving of the sentence were public trials. The city tower was Fool's cottagea cage in which people were locked up and put on display. On the wooden Schandesel you were dragged through the town for minor offences. The pillory was located in the suburb, today's Maria-Theresien-Straße. There was no police force, but the town magistrate employed servants and town watchmen were posted at the town gates to keep the peace. It was a civic duty to help catch criminals. Vigilante justice was forbidden.

The responsibilities between municipal and manorial justice had been regulated in the Urbarbuch since 1288. The provincial court still had jurisdiction over serious offences. Crimes such as theft, murder and arson were subject to this blood law. The provincial court for all municipalities south of the Inn between Ampass and Götzens was located on the Sonnenburgwhich was located to the south above Innsbruck. In the 14th century, the Sonnenburg district court moved to the upper town square in front of the Innsbruck city tower, later to the town hall and in the early modern period to Götzens. With the centralisation of the law in the 18th century, the court moved to Götzens. Sonnenburg back to Innsbruck and was housed under different names and in different buildings such as the Leuthaus in Wilten, on the Innrain or at the Ettnau residence, known as the Malfatti Castlein the Höttinger Gasse.

From the late 15th century, Innsbruck's executioner was centralised and responsible for several courts and was based in Hall. The execution centres were located in several places over the years. For a long time, there was a gallows on a hill in today's Dreiheiligen district, right next to the main road. The Köpflplatz was located until 1731 at today's corner of Fallbachgasse / Weiherburggasse in Anpruggen. It was not uncommon for the condemned man to give his executioner a kind of tip so that he would endeavour to aim as accurately as possible in order to make the execution as painless as possible. Delinquents who were particularly harmful to the authorities and public order, such as the "heretic" Jakob Hutter or the captured leaders of the peasant uprisings of 1525 and 1526, were executed before the executioner. Goldenen Dachl executed in a manner suitable for the public. "Embarrassing" punishments such as quartering or wheeling, from the Latin word poena were not the order of the day, but could be ordered in special cases. Executions were a public demonstration of the authorities' power. It was seen as a way of cleansing society of criminals. The bodies of the executed were often left hanging as a deterrent and buried outside the consecrated area of the cemeteries.

With the centralisation of law under Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the 18th century and the General Civil Code in the 19th century under Franz I, the law passed from cities and sovereigns to the monarch and their administrative bodies at various levels. Torture was abolished. The Enlightenment had fundamentally changed the concept of law, punishment and rehabilitation. The collection of taxes was also centralised, which resulted in a great loss of importance for the local nobility and an increase in the status of the civil service. With the increasing centralisation under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, taxes and customs duties were also gradually centralised and collected by the Imperial Court Chamber. As a result, Innsbruck, like many municipalities at the time, lost a large amount of revenue, which was only partially offset by equalisation.

The Tyrolean Prince Frederick IV (1382 - 1439) lived during a turbulent period in Habsburg and Innsbruck history. A long beard covered the face of the prince, who is described in many chronicles and reports as arbitrary, power-hungry, deceitful and devious. Frederick was described as a sexaholic who, when in doubt, did not shy away from violence to get his way. His positive image was only given to him in the centuries after his death. Whether he was a miserly moral scoundrel or a skilful politician and friend of the common man - the key dates of his life would be suitable material for an adventurous medieval film.

At the age of 24, Frederick took over the county of Tyrol as well as the regency of Vorderösterreich. Vorderösterreich? So Vorarlberg? Not quite. Vorderösterreich was understood to mean the Habsburg possessions in Switzerland, Vorarlberg, Alsace and Baden-Württemberg, among others. Tyrol and Vorderösterreich had been administered jointly since Frederick as Upper Austria. This made him one of the most powerful princes of the Heiligen Römischen Reiches. From the beginning of his reign, he was involved in costly wars against hostile powers on the country's borders and competition within the Heiligen Römischen Reiches involved. In the west, the Appenzellers rose up against the Habsburgs, in the south there was an uprising in Trento and Henry of Rottenburg instigated a feud north of the Inn. These were the last conflicts to be fought in the manner of pure knightly armies.

Like his predecessor in the princely chair, Margaret, Frederick also came into conflict with the Pope. In his time, there was a pope in Avignon, France, as well as a pope in Rome. This papal issue was to be resolved at the Council of Constance, perhaps the most important political event of the late Middle Ages in Europe. Frederick sided with John XXIII. The King of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund from the Luxembourg dynasty, who backed the antipope in Avignon, had his rival within the empire, Frederick, rewarded with the Eight and imprisoned. This meant not only deprivation of liberty and expulsion from the church, but also the loss of his territories and property. His opponents gave him the nickname Friedl mit der leeren Tasche.

Back in Innsbruck after an adventurous escape from prison, Frederick had to grant reforms to the population, especially the landowning lesser nobility and the towns, in recognition of their support in times of great need. In addition to the clergy, nobility and towns, the courts, which were responsible for the administration of the rural communities, were also allowed to send their representatives to the provincial parliament.

Frederick's nickname remained in the vernacular, even though at the end of his reign he was one of the richest princes in Europe of his time thanks to the rich mining wealth in Schwaz and Gossensass as well as customs duties and tolls on trade between Venice and Augsburg. The largest silver mine in Europe and the mining industry also had a lasting effect on the social structure of Innsbruck. The power of the guilds increased. Although Innsbruck was dependent on the surrounding area for food supplies, the growing prosperity of the city made it easier to manoeuvre through this time of crisis than in purely rural areas. When Frederick died, Tyrol had risen to become an important province within the Habsburg Empire thanks to the silver discoveries in Schwaz.

Although Innsbruck had grown, it was still a small town. In 1420, Frederick decided to make the city on the Inn his residence. Merano had been the ancestral seat of the Counts of Tyrol and remained the official Tyrolean capital until 1849. In fact, Innsbruck had been in the lead since Frederick's move at the latest. It was during his reign that the arcades in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße were laid out and the city tower was built. Throughout Europe, the 15th century was an economically difficult time, characterised by poor harvests due to the generally worse climate than in previous periods. However, thanks to trade and the impetus provided by the relocation of the court, Innsbruck flourished against the European trend. Schwaz, Meran and Innsbruck were the centres of Tyrol. Schwaz, like Detroit in the 20th century, was a booming working-class town thanks to the silver mines, the venerable old town of Merano as the capital resembled Washington and the residential and trading city of Innsbruck became the New York of Tyrol, the centre of power at the time.

Along with the court, which comprised around 400 people, came officials, servants, merchants, financiers and soldiers who brought money into the city. Above all, the craft guilds were to become the economic engine and the basis for the later early industrial production. It is difficult to say what specific effect the relocation of the residence had on Innsbruck's population. However, Frederick's court brought with it a new lifestyle with its new way of doing business. Public houses opened and offered variety in everyday life. Travelling theatres and show artists came to the city. As in many European cities in German-speaking countries, urbanisation spilled over from the Italian countries and brought a specialisation of the professional world and an even greater division of labour.

Immigration and the rapid change in the social fabric also caused problems. The xenophobia of the superstitious, often illiterate and poorly educated population did not diminish at the same pace as conditions changed. Tensions between long-established and new citizens, craftsmen, merchants, farmers and members of the court were part of everyday life in Frederick's Innsbruck.

Due to his many disputes with other princes and the Pope, his wealth from customs duties and the Schwaz mines and his probably eccentric character, Frederick IV was regarded by his contemporaries as a kind of robber baron. It was only later that he received a more favourable press due to the many legends that have grown up around his person since then. He is said to have travelled the country disguised as a beggar in order to find out what the people really thought of him. From the reports commissioned by the Habsburgs from the 16th century onwards, he comes off much better. His affectionate nickname Friedl mit der leeren Tasche carries this image of the good-natured, awkward prince of Tyrol right up to the present day.