The railway came to Europe at breakneck speed. In 1830, the world's first railway line was opened between Liverpool and Manchester. Just a few decades later, the Tyrol, which had been somewhat remote from the main trade routes and economically underdeveloped for some time, was also connected to the world with spectacular railway constructions across the Alps. While travelling had previously been expensive, long and arduous journeys in carriages, on horseback or on foot, the ever-expanding railway network meant unprecedented comfort and speed.

In 1858, Innsbruck was connected to Munich by railway. Twenty years earlier, Alois von Negrelli (1799 - 1858), whose work on the Suez Canal is considered one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century, had already built a "Expert opinion on the railway from Innsbruck via Kufstein to the royal Bavarian border at the Otto Chapel near Kiefersfelden“ vorgelegt. Negrelli hatte in jungen Jahren in der k.k. Baudirektion Innsbruck Dienst getan, kannte die Stadt also sehr gut. Als Platz für den Hauptbahnhof hatte er die Triumphpforte und den Hofgarten ins Spiel gebracht. In einem Brief äußerte er sich über die Bahnlinie durch seine ehemalige Heimat mit diesen Worten:

"...I also hear with the deepest sympathy that the railway from Innsbruck to Kufstein is being taken seriously, as the Laage is very suitable for this and the area along the Inn is so rich in natural products and so populated that I cannot doubt its success, nor will I fail to take an active part in it myself and through my business friends when it comes to the purchase of shares. You have no idea of the new life that such an endeavour will awaken in the other side..."

Until the opening of the railway line over the Brenner Pass in 1867, Innsbruck was a terminus station for trains arriving from the east. The new, spectacular railway line across the Alps connected the northern and southern parts of the country as well as Germany and Italy. Engineer Carl von Etzel (1812 - 1865), who did not live to see the opening of the Brenner Railway due to his early death, had achieved a minor miracle of modernisation with the planning of the project.

With the opening of the Arlberg railway in 1884, Innsbruck had once again become a transport hub between Germany and Italy, France, Switzerland and Vienna. The Stubai Valley railway was opened in 1904 and the Mittenwald railway in 1912. Both projects were planned by Josef Riehl (1842 - 1917) as a private railway entrepreneur. Born in Bolzano, Riehl had gained his first experience with the Brenner railway under Etzel before he opened up the inner-Alpine region with many projects as a pioneer under his own company in 1870.

The railway was the most directly noticeable feature of progress for a large part of the population. The railway viaducts, built from Höttinger Breccie from the nearby quarry, put a physical and visible end to the town in the east towards Pradl. But the railway did not just change the country from a purely technical perspective. It also brought immense social change. The railway stations along the line revitalised the towns immensely. The station forecourt in Innsbruck became one of the new centres of the city. Workers, students, soldiers and tourists flocked to the city in large numbers, bringing with them new lifestyles and ideas. However, not everyone was happy with this development. The petty aristocracy, which had already been severely plucked after 1848, and particularly strict clerics feared the collapse of local agriculture and the final decline in morals caused by the foreigners in the city.

By 1870, Innsbruck's population had risen from 12,000 to 17,000, partly due to the economic stimulus provided by the railway. Local producers benefited from the opportunity to import and export goods cheaply and quickly. The labour market changed. Before the railway lines opened, 9 out of 10 Tyroleans worked in agriculture. With the opening of the Brenner railway, this figure fell to less than 70%. The railway was worth its weight in gold for tourism. It was now possible to reach the remote and exotic mountain world of the Tyrolean Alps. Health resorts such as Igls and entire valleys such as the Stubaital benefited from the development of the railway.

The new means of transport contributed to the democratisation and bourgeoisification of society. Not only for wealthy tourists, but also for subjects who did not belong to the upper class, the railway made excursions into the surrounding area possible. New foods changed people's diet. The first department stores emerged with the appearance of consumer goods that were previously unavailable. The appearance of the people of Innsbruck changed with new, fashionable clothing, which became affordable for many for the first time. The transport of goods on the Inn received its final death blow. In the 1870s, the city's last raft unloading site, where Waltherpark in St. Nikolaus is located today, was closed.

The Die Bundesbahndirektion der K.u.K. General-Direction der österreichischen Staatsbahnen in Innsbruck was one of only three directorates in Cisleithania. New social classes were created by the railway as an employer. People from all walks of life were needed to keep the railway running. Workers and craftsmen were able to climb the social ladder at the railway, similar to the state administration or the military. New professions such as railway attendant, conductor, stoker or engine driver emerged. Working for the railway brought with it a certain prestige. Not only were you part of the most modern industry of the time, the titles and uniforms turned employees and workers into respected figures.

Die Bahn war auch von großer Bedeutung für das Militär. Schon 1866 bei der Schlacht von Königgrätz zwischen Österreich und Preußen war zu ersehen, wie wichtig der Truppentransport in Zukunft sein wird. Österreich war bis 1918 ein Riesenreich, das sich von Vorarlberg und Tirol im Südwesten bis nach Galizien, einem Gebiet im heutigen Polen und der Ukraine im Osten erstreckte. Um die unruhige Südgrenze zum sich neu konstituierenden Königreich Italien zu verstärken, musste die Brennerstrecke ausgebaut werden. Auch später im Ersten Weltkrieg waren Tiroler Soldaten in den ersten Kriegsjahren bis zur Kriegserklärung Italiens an Österreich in Galizien im Einsatz. Als es zur Öffnung der Frontlinie in Südtirol kam, war die Bahn wichtig, um Truppen schnell bewegen zu können.

Carl von Etzel is commemorated today by Ing.-Etzel-Straße in Saggen along the railway viaducts. Josef Riehl is commemorated by Dr.-Ing.-Riehl-Straße in Wilten near the Westbahnhof railway station. As a walker or cyclist, you can cross the Karwendel Bridge in the Höttinger Au one floor below the Karwendel railway and admire the steel framework. You can get a good impression of the golden age of the railway by visiting the ÖBB administration building in Saggen.

In the 1990s, an Austrian television series caused a scandal. The Piefke Saga written by the Tyrolean author Felix Mitterer, describes the relationship between the German holidaymaker family Sattmann and their hosts in a fictitious Tyrolean holiday resort in four bizarrely amusing episodes. Despite all the scepticism about tourism in its current, sometimes extreme, excesses, it should not be forgotten that tourism was an important factor in Innsbruck and the surrounding area in the 19th century, driving the region's development in the long term, and not just economically.

The first travellers to Innsbruck were pilgrims and business people. Traders, journeymen on the road, civil servants, soldiers, entourages of aristocratic guests at court, skilled workers from various trades, miners, clerics, pilgrims and scientists were the first tourists to be drawn to the city between Italy and Germany. Travelling was expensive, dangerous and arduous. In addition, a large proportion of the subjects were not allowed to leave their own land without the permission of their landlord or abbot. Those who travelled usually did so on the cobbler's pony. Although Innsbruck's inns and innkeepers were already earning money from travellers in the Middle Ages and early modern times, there was no question of tourism as we understand it today. It began when a few crazy travellers were drawn to the mountain peaks for the first time. In addition to a growing middle class, this also required a new attitude towards the Alps. For a long time, the mountains had been a pure threat to people. It was mainly the British who set out to conquer the world's mountains after the oceans. From the late 18th century, the era of Romanticism, news of the natural beauty of the Alps spread through travelogues.

In addition to the alpine attraction, it was the wild and exotic Natives Tirols, die international für Aufsehen sorgten. Der bärtige Revoluzzer namens Andreas Hofer, der es mit seinem Bauernheer geschafft hatte, Napoleons Armee in die Knie zu zwingen, erzeugte bei den Briten, den notorischen Erzfeinden der Franzosen, ebenso großes Interesse wie bei deutschen Nationalisten nördlich der Alpen, die in ihm einen frühen Protodeutschen sahen. Die Tiroler galten als unbeugsamer Menschenschlag, archetypisch und ungezähmt, ähnlich den Germanen unter Arminius, die das Imperium Romanum herausgefordert hatten. Die Beschreibungen Innsbrucks aus der Feder des Autors Beda Weber (1798 – 1858) und andere Reiseberichte in der boomenden Presselandschaft dieser Zeit trugen dazu bei, ein attraktives Bild Innsbrucks zu prägen.

Nun mussten die wilden Alpen nur noch der Masse an Touristen zugänglich gemacht werden, die zwar gerne den frühen Abenteurern auf ihren Expeditionen nacheifern wollten, deren Risikobereitschaft und Fitness mit den Wünschen nicht schritthalten konnten. Der German Alpine Club eröffnete 1869 eine Sektion Innsbruck, nachdem der 1862 Österreichische Alpenverein wenig erfolgreich war. Angetrieben vom großdeutschen Gedanken vieler Mitglieder fusionierten die beiden Institutionen 1873. Der Alpenverein ist bis heute bürgerlich geprägt, sein sozialdemokratisches Pendant sind die Naturfreunde. The network of trails grew through its development, as did the number of huts that could accommodate guests. The Tyrolean theologian Franz Senn (1831 - 1884) and the writer Adolf Pichler (1819 - 1900) were instrumental in surveying Tyrol and creating maps. Contrary to popular belief, the Tyroleans were not born mountaineers, but had to be taught the skills to conquer the mountains. Until then, mountains had been one thing above all: dangerous and arduous in everyday agricultural life. Climbing them had hardly occurred to anyone before. The Alpine clubs also trained mountain guides. From the turn of the century, skiing came into fashion alongside hiking and mountaineering. There were no lifts yet, and to get up the mountains you had to use the skins that are still glued to touring skis today. It was not until the 1920s, following the construction of the cable cars on the Nordkette and Patscherkofel mountains, that a wealthy clientele was able to enjoy the modern luxury of mountain lifts while skiing.  

New hotels, cafés, inns, shops and means of transport were needed to meet the needs of the guests. Entrepreneurs such as Robert Nißl, who took over Büchsenhausen Castle in 1865 and converted it into a brewery, invested in the infrastructure. Former aristocratic residences such as Weiherburg Castle became inns and hotels. The revolution in Innsbruck did not take place on the barricades in 1848, but in the tourism industry a few decades later, when resourceful citizens replaced the aristocracy as owners of castles such as Büchsenhausen and Weiherburg.

With the Grand Hotel Europa had also opened a first-class hotel in Innsbruck in 1869, replacing the often outdated inns in the historic city centre as the accommodation of choice. This was followed in 1892 by the contemporary Reformhotel Habsburger Hof a second large company. The Habsburg Court already offered its guests electric light, an absolute sensation. Also located at the railway station was the Arlberger Hof. What would be seen as a competitive disadvantage today was a selling point at the time. Railway stations were the centres of modern cities. Station squares were not overcrowded transport hubs as they are today, but sophisticated and well-kept places in front of the architecturally sophisticated halls where the trains arrived.

The number of guests increased slowly but steadily. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Innsbruck had 200,000 guests. In June 1896, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten:

„Der Fremdenverkehr in Innsbruck bezifferte sich im Monat Mai auf 5647 Personen. Darunter befanden sich (außer 2763 Reisenden aus Oesterreich-Ungarn) 1974 Reichsdeutsche, 282 Engländer, 65 Italiener, 68 Franzosen, 53 Amerikaner, 51 Russen und 388 Personen aus verschiedenen anderen Ländern.“

In addition to the number of travellers who had an impact on life in the small town of Innsbruck, it was also the internationality of the visitors who gradually gave Innsbruck a new look. In addition to the purely touristic infrastructure, the development of general innovations was also accelerated. The wealthy guests could hardly socialise in pubs with cesspits behind their houses. Of course, a sewerage system would have been on the agenda anyway, but the economic factor of tourism made it possible and accelerated the release of funds for the major projects at the turn of the century. This not only changed the appearance of the town, but also people's everyday and working lives. Resourceful entrepreneurs such as Heinrich Menardi managed to expand the value chain to include paid holiday pleasures in addition to board and lodging. In 1880, he opened the Lohnkutscherei und Autovermietung Heinrich Menardi for excursions in the Alpine surroundings. Initially with carriages, and after the First World War with coaches and cars, wealthy tourists were chauffeured as far as Venice. The company still exists today and is now based in the Menardihaus at Wilhelm-Greil-Strasse 17 opposite Landhausplatz, even though over time the transport and trading industry shifted to the more lucrative property sector. Local trade also benefited from the wealthy clientele from abroad.

Innsbruck and the surrounding towns were also known for spa holidays, the predecessor of today's wellness, where well-heeled clients recovered from a wide variety of illnesses in an Alpine environment. The Igler Hof, back then Grandhotel Igler Hof and the Sporthotel Igls, still partly exude the chic of that time. Michael Obexer, the founder of the spa town of Igls and owner of the Grand Hotel, was a tourism pioneer. There were two spas in Egerdach near Amras and in Mühlau. The facilities were not as well-known as the hotspots of the time in Bad Ischl, Marienbad or Baden near Vienna, as can be seen on old photos and postcards, but the treatments with brine, steam, gymnastics and even magnetism were in line with the standards of the time, some of which are still popular with spa and wellness holidaymakers today. Bad Egerdach near Innsbruck had been known as a healing spring since the 17th century. The spring was said to cure gout, skin diseases, anaemia and even the nervous disorder known in the 19th century as neurasthenia, the predecessor of burnout. The institution's chapel still exists today opposite the SOS Children's Village. The bathing establishment in Mühlau has existed since 1768 and was converted into an inn and spa in the style of the time in the course of the 19th century. The former bathing establishment is now a residential building worth seeing in Anton-Rauch-Straße. However, the most spectacular tourist project that Innsbruck ever experienced was probably Hoch Innsbruck, today's Hungerburg. Not only the Hungerburg railway and hotels, but even its own lake was created here after the turn of the century to attract guests.

One of the former owners of the land of the Hungerburg and Innsbruck tourism pioneer, Richard von Attlmayr, was significantly involved in the predecessor of today's tourism association. Since 1881, the Innsbruck Beautification Association to satisfy the increasing needs of guests. The association took care of the construction of hiking and walking trails, the installation of benches and the development of impassable areas such as the Mühlauer Klamm or the Sillschlucht gorge. The striking green benches along many paths are a reminder of the still existing association. 1888 years later, the profiteers of tourism in Innsbruck founded the Commission for the promotion of tourismthe predecessor of today's tourism association. By joining forces in advertising and quality assurance at the accommodation establishments, the individual businesses hoped to further boost tourism.

„Alljährlich mehrt sich die Zahl der überseeischen Pilger, die unser Land und dessen gletscherbekrönte Berge zum Verdrusse unserer freundnachbarlichen Schweizer besuchen und manch klingenden Dollar zurücklassen. Die Engländer fangen an Tirol ebenso interessant zu finden wie die Schweiz, die Zahl der Franzosen und Niederländer, die den Sommer bei uns zubringen, mehrt sich von Jahr zu Jahr.“

Postkarten waren die ersten massentauglichen Influencer der Tourismusgeschichte. Viele Betriebe ließen ihre eigenen Postkarten drucken. Verlage produzierten unzählige Sujets der beliebtesten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt. Es ist interessant zu sehen, was damals als sehenswert galt und auf den Karten abgebildet wurde. Anders als heute waren es vor allem die zeitgenössisch modernen Errungenschaften der Stadt: der Leopoldbrunnen, das Stadtcafé beim Theater, die Kettenbrücke, die Zahnradbahn auf die Hungerburg oder die 1845 eröffnete Stefansbrücke an der Brennerstraße, die als Steinbogen aus Quadern die Sill überquerte, waren die Attraktionen. Auch Andreas Hofer war ein gut funktionierendes Testimonial auf den Postkarten: Der Gasthof Schupfen in dem Andreas Hofer sein Hauptquartier hatte und der Berg Isel mit dem großen Andreas-Hofer-Denkmal waren gerne abgebildete Motive.

1914 gab es in Innsbruck 17 Hotels, die Gäste anlockten. Dazu kamen die Sommer- und Winterfrischler in Igls und dem Stubaital. Der Erste Weltkrieg ließ die erste touristische Welle mit einem Streich versanden. Gerade als sich der Fremdenverkehr Ende der 1920er Jahre langsam wieder erholt hatte, kamen mit der Wirtschaftskrise und Hitlers 1000 Mark blockThe next setback came in 1933, when he tried to put pressure on the Austrian government to end the ban on the NSDAP.

It required the Economic miracle in the 1950s and 1960s to revitalise tourism in Innsbruck after the destruction. After the arduous war years and the reconstruction of the European economy, Tyrol and Innsbruck were able to slowly but steadily establish tourism as a stable source of income, even away from the official hotels and guesthouses. Many Innsbruck families moved together in their already cramped flats to supplement their household budgets by renting out beds to guests from abroad. Tourism not only brought in foreign currency, but also enabled the locals to create a new image of themselves both internally and externally. The war enemies of past decades became guests and hosts.

The last decades of the 19th century were characterised Wilhelminian style in the history of Austria. After an economic crisis in 1873, the city began to expand in a period of recovery. From 1880 to 1900, Innsbruck's population grew from 20,000 to 26,000. Wilten, which was incorporated in 1904, tripled from 4,000 to 12,000. The infrastructure also changed in the wake of technical innovations. Gas, water and electricity became part of everyday life for more and more people. The old town hospital gave way to the new hospital. The orphanage and Sieberer's old people's asylum were built in Saggen. Innsbruck's first telephone went into service in 1893. By the turn of the century, there were already over 300 lines in the city.

The buildings constructed in the new neighbourhoods were a reflection of this new society. Entrepreneurs, freelancers, employees and workers with political voting rights developed different needs than subjects without this right. Unlike in rural Tyrol, where farming families lived in farmhouses together with farmhands and maidservants as a clan, life in the city came close to the family life we know today. The living space had to correspond to this. The lifestyle of city dwellers demanded multi-room flats and open spaces for relaxation after work. The wealthy middle classes, consisting of entrepreneurs and freelancers, had not yet overtaken the aristocracy, but they had narrowed the gap. They were the ones who not only commissioned private building projects, but also decided on public buildings through their position on the local council.

The 40 years before the First World War were a kind of gold-rush period for construction companies, craftsmen, master builders and architects. The buildings reflected the world view of their clients. Master builders combined several roles and often replaced the architect. Most clients had very clear ideas about what they wanted. They were not to be breathtaking new creations, but copies and references to existing buildings. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the Innsbruck master builders designed buildings in the styles of historicism, classicism and Tyrolean Heimatstil in accordance with the wishes of their financially strong clients. Clear forms, statues and columns were style-defining elements in the construction of new buildings. The ideas that people had of classical Greece and ancient Rome were realised in a sometimes wild mix of styles. Not only railway stations and public buildings, but also large apartment blocks and entire streets, even churches and cemeteries were built along the old corridors in this design. The upper middle classes showed their penchant for antiquity with neoclassical façades. Catholic traditionalists had images of saints and depictions of Tyrol's regional history painted on the walls of their Heimatstil houses. While neoclassicism dominates in Saggen and Wilten, most of the buildings in Pradl are in the conservative Heimatstil style.

For a long time, many building experts turned up their noses at the buildings of the upstarts and nouveau riche. Heinrich Hammer wrote in his standard work "Art history of the city of Innsbruck":

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

The era of large villas, which imitated the aristocratic residences of days gone by with a bourgeois touch, came to an end after a few wild decades due to a lack of space. Further development of the urban area with individual houses was no longer possible, the space had become too narrow. In 1898, the municipal council decided to authorise only blocks of flats east of Claudiastrasse instead of the villas in the spacious cottage style. The Falkstrasse / Gänsbachstrasse / Bienerstrasse area is still regarded as the Villensaggenthe areas to the east as Blocksaggen. In Wilten and Pradl, this type of development did not even occur. Nevertheless, master builders sealed more and more ground in the gold rush. Albert Gruber gave a cautionary speech on this growth in 1907, in which he warned against uncontrolled growth in urban planning and land speculation.

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

A handful of master builders and the Innsbruck building authority accompanied this development in Innsbruck. If Wilhelm Greil is described as the mayor of the expansion, the Viennese-born Eduard Klingler (1861 - 1916) probably deserves the title of its architect. Klingler played a key role in shaping Innsbruck's cityscape in his role as a civil servant and master builder. He began working for the state of Tyrol in 1883. In 1889, he joined the municipal building department, which he headed from 1902. In Innsbruck, the commercial academy, the Leitgebule school, the Pradl cemetery, the dermatological clinic in the hospital area, the municipal kindergarten in Michael-Gaismair-Straße, the Trainkaserne (note: today a residential building), the market hall and the Tyrolean State Conservatory are all attributable to Klingler as head of the building department. The Ulrichhaus on Mount Isel, which is now home to the Alt-Kaiserjäger-Club, is a building worth seeing in the Heimatstil style based on his design.

Perhaps the most important construction office in Innsbruck was Johann Huter & Sons. Johann Huter took over his father's small construction business. In 1856, he acquired the first company premises, the Hutergründeon the Innrain. Three years later, the first prestigious headquarters were built in Meranerstraße. The company registration together with his sons Josef and Peter in 1860 marked the official start of the company that still exists today. Huter & Söhne like many of its competitors, saw itself as a complete service provider. The company had its own brickworks, a cement factory, a joinery and a locksmith's shop as well as a planning office and the actual construction company. In 1906/07, the Huters built their own company headquarters at Kaiser-Josef-Straße 15 in the typical style of the last pre-war years. The stately house combines the Tyrolean Heimatstil surrounded by gardens and nature with neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque elements. Famous from Huter & Söhne buildings in Innsbruck include the Monastery of Perpetual Adoration, the parish church of St Nicholas and several buildings on Claudiaplatz.

The second big player was Josef Retter. Born in Tyrol, he grew up in the Wachau region. In his early youth, he completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer before he left the k.k. State Trade School in Vienna and attended the foreman's school in the building trade department. After gaining professional experience in Vienna, Croatia and Bolzano throughout the Danube Monarchy, he was able to open his own construction company in Innsbruck at the age of 29 thanks to his wife's dowry. Like Huter, his company also included a sawmill, a sand and gravel works and a workshop for stonemasonry work. In 1904, he opened his residential and office building at Schöpfstraße 23a, which is still used today as a Rescuer's house is well known. With a new building for the Academic Grammar School and the castle-like school building for the Commercial Academy and the Evangelical Church of Christ in Saggen, the stately Sonnenburg in Wilten and the neo-Gothic Mentlberg Castle on Sieglanger, he realised some of Innsbruck's most outstanding buildings of the period to this day.

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

With Carl Kohnle, Carl Albert, Karl Lubomirski and Simon Tommasi, Innsbruck had other master builders who immortalised themselves in the cityscape with buildings typical of the late 19th century. They all made Innsbruck's new streets shine in the prevailing architectural zeitgeist of the last 30 years of the Danube Monarchy. Residential buildings, railway stations, official buildings and churches in the vast empire between the Ukraine and Tyrol looked similar across the board. New trends such as Art Nouveau emerged only hesitantly. In Innsbruck, it was the Munich architect Josef Bachmann who set a new accent in civic design with the redesign of the façade of the Winklerhaus. Building activity came to a halt at the beginning of the First World War. After the war, the era of neoclassical historicism and Heimatstil was finally history. Walks in Saggen and parts of Wilten and Pradl take you back to the Wilhelminian era. Claudiaplatz and Sonnenburgplatz are among the most impressive examples. The building company Huter and Sons still exists today. The company is now located in Sieglanger in Josef-Franz-Huter-Straße, named after the company founder.

Innsbruck is proud of its many titles. University city, Austria's capital of sport or home to the world's best hospital. If you take a look at the list of the region's largest employers or at its history, Innsbruck is one thing above all: a city of civil servants. The university and provincial hospital are the largest single employers. However, if you add up the public servants at all levels, city, state and federal, and include the outsourced companies owned by the public sector such as ÖBB, TIWAG or Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe as well as teachers and the police, the civil servants are clearly in the majority. At the latest since the relocation of the royal residence under Frederick IV, civil servants have not only made up a considerable proportion of the city's population in quantitative terms, they have also determined the fate of the city in an influential, albeit inconspicuous manner. To this day, it is civil servants who keep things running smoothly. They enforce laws, take care of the planning and maintenance of infrastructure, eagerly keep records of the population in order to collect taxes and draft soldiers.

The first notable bureaucracy probably came with the Roman Empire. The Romans were followed by the brothers of Wilten Abbey in the Middle Ages. The men, who were well versed in writing, not only administered the ducal and their own estates through their Urbare and collected taxes from their peasant subjects, but also compiled baptismal registers, marriage registers and death registers. Although feudal rule required a panoramic view of what was happening within its domain, life in the city in particular was governed by the restrictions of the guilds rather than those of the authorities. There were laws but no police, taxes but no tax office. Urban infrastructure was practically non-existent, as there was no running water, electricity, sewage system, municipal kindergarten, labour office or health insurance. The municipality of Innsbruck, which was elevated to the status of a town, was governed for a long time by a municipal judge, and from the 14th century by a mayor with a municipal council. These were not full-time civil servants, but members of the municipal elite.

In the 15th century, the professional world and society became more differentiated, the armies larger and the tax burdens higher. Traditional customary law was replaced by modern Roman law, which was more difficult for the uninitiated to understand. As the city grew, so did the civil service. The court, administration, customs, taxes, long-distance trade and finance all required clerical staff. The citizens only came into contact with these foreign officials in unpleasant situations, if at all. Maximilian I tightened the reins particularly tightly. His centrally passed laws were implemented locally by the imperial districts. The salaried civil servants permeated the lives of individuals in a way that did not exist in the Middle Ages.

To make matters worse, the civil servants often came from abroad. Italians and Burgundians in particular were in demand as key labourers, but they were alienated from the local population. Not only did they often not speak German, they could read and write, were employees and not subservient farmers and had more money at their disposal. They dressed differently, had different customs and ate different food. Unlike the ruler, they did not appeal to God, but to rules written by men and inspired by antiquity and reason. The laws changed depending on the fashions, customs and moral concepts of the time. In the same way that nature conservation or speed limits on motorways are repeatedly discussed today, even though they make sense, bans on spitting, disposing of the chamber pot, wooden buildings and keeping livestock within the city walls were viewed critically at the time, even though they drastically improved hygiene and safety.

While it had long been customary for citizens to take certain liberties with logging, building, hunting and fishing in the absence of the ruler, the bureaucracy was always present. While the sovereign was seen as a good father to his subjects and bishops and abbots were strict landlords, but could at least offer salvation in return, the new authorities appeared anonymous, aloof, faceless, foreign and distant. The basis for negotiation that you had as a subject in direct contact with your landlord was buried by the merciless law, at least if you could not pay bribes or did not know anyone in a higher position. When unconditional faith in the increasingly corrupt clergy began to crumble and Ferdinand I appointed the Spaniard Salamanca as the country's chief financial administrator, the underlying dissatisfaction turned into open rebellion in 1525. The subjects did not demand the removal of the prince, but a change in the rule of the clergy and foreign officials. Even in the 17th century, it was the country's highest civil servant, Wilhelm Biener, whose head rolled and not that of the sovereign.

Bureaucracy, the rule of the administration, also had advantages for the subjects. It established fixed rules where arbitrariness often prevailed. The law, harmonised across different territories, was more predictable. And with a bit of luck and talent, it was possible to climb the social ladder by serving the public authorities, even without belonging to the nobility. Michael Gaismair, one of the leaders of the 1525 rebellion, was the son of a mining entrepreneur and had been in the service of the provincial governor before his career as a revolutionary.

The next modernisation of the administration took place in the 18th century. Under the enlightened, absolutist monarchs Maria Theresa and Joseph II, a new wind blew right down to the municipal level. Innsbruck was given a police force for the first time. The city administration was modernised in 1784. Instead of the old city council with Common was now ruled by a mayor supported by a council, but above all by civil servants. This magistrate consisted of salaried experts who, although still mainly made up of members of the lesser nobility, now had to pass examinations to qualify for their office. The bureaucracy was given more power at the operational political level. While the position of mayor was limited in time, civil servants enjoyed a lifelong, permanent position. This pragmatisation and a new wave of new laws, which often contradicted tradition, reinforced the reputation of civil servants as being aloof and distant from the people. When the Bavarian occupation of Tyrol added a foreign element, modelled on the French, another uprising broke out in 1809. The mass conscription of young men for military service, the regimentation of religious life and compulsory vaccination, enforced by Bavarian officials, was too much for the Tyrolean soul.

After 1809, bureaucracy found its way into more and more areas of life in the context of industrialisation and new technologies. Not only the state system through taxes and the military, but also the university, schools, construction, railway, post office and institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry required administrative staff. The city grew in terms of inhabitants and businesses. New infrastructure such as gas, sewerage and electricity and new ideas about hygiene, food control, health and education called for new employees in the city magistrate's office. The old town hall in the historic city centre became too small. A planned extension proved to be impossible. In 1897, the officials moved to the new town hall in Maria-Theresien-Straße. In 1905, the Tyrolean provincial government with its various offices found a new home for a short time in Palais Fugger-Taxis before moving to the Gauhaus on Landhausplatz.

When the monarchy collapsed in 1918, the transition was not seamless, but thanks to the structures in place, it was unimaginably smooth. However, it was no longer the emperor who carried the burden of the state, but a host of civil servants and guardians of order who provided water, electricity and a functioning railway network. With Eduard Klingler and Theodor Prachensky, two heads of building authorities in the first half of the 20th century left their mark on Innsbruck's cityscape, which is still clearly visible today. With agendas such as public housing, the labour office, education, urban infrastructure, road construction, public transport, registration and weddings, the Republic took over more or less all the tasks of daily life from the monarchy and the church. So for anyone who is annoyed by excessive officialdom and agonisingly slow bureaucracy on their next visit to the New Town Hall, it is worth remembering that the welfare state in the person of its civil servants manages the social welfare and public infrastructure of thousands of people from the cradle to the grave, mostly unnoticed.