Cities are tangible history. The architecture, construction, materials and purpose of buildings are indications of the political, cultural, financial and social circumstances under which they were created. A city is a small world, a microcosm, but not a space closed off from its surroundings. Cities not only tell their own story, but also show the cultural, political and social influences of different eras that have been brought to them.

The identity of a city is fuelled by its buildings, its visitors and inhabitants and the stories that are told about it. Rome has become the Eternal City, Paris the city of love and New York the city that never sleeps. Of course, you shouldn't stop at these stereotypes if you want to get to know these metropolises. Innsbruck has also collected a number of stories and anecdotes over the years. Depending on who wrote about Innsbruck, when and with what background, they provided a different view of the city and thus also shaped its identity.

„Bei Zirl fährt man ins Inntal herab. Die Lage ist unbeschreiblich schön, und der hohe Sonnenduft machte sie ganz herrlich. Der Postillon eilte mehr, als ich wünschte: er hatte noch keine Messe gehört und wollte sie in Innsbruck, es war eben Marientag, um desto andächtiger zu sich nehmen. Nun rasselte es immer an dem Inn hinab, an der Martinswand vorbei, einer steil abgehenden ungeheuern Kalkwand. Zu dem Platze, wohin Kaiser Maximilian sich verstiegen haben soll, getraute ich mir wohl ohne Engel hin und her zu kommen, ob es gleich immer ein frevelhaftes Unternehmen wäre. Innsbruck liegt herrlich in einem breiten, reichen Tale zwischen hohen Felsen und Gebirgen. Erst wollte ich dableiben, aber es ließ mir keine Ruhe. Kurze Zeit ergetzte ich mich an dem Sohne des Wirts, einem leibhaftigen Söller. So begegnen mir nach und nach meine Menschen. Das Fest Mariä Geburt zu feiern, ist alles geputzt. Gesund und wohlhäbig, zu Scharen, wallfahrten sie nach Wilten, einem Andachtsorte, eine Viertelstunde von der Stadt gegen das Gebirge zu. Um zwei Uhr, als mein rollender Wagen das muntere bunte Gedränge teilte, war alles in frohem Zug und Gang.“

Das notierte Johann Wolfgang Goethe 1786 am Brenner in sein Tagebuch, nachdem er am Weg Richtung Italien die Stadt passiert hatte. Der Dichterfürst war ein Vertreter der frühen Romantik und ein Kind der Zeit der Aufklärung. Die exotischen Alpenbewohner Tirols mit ihrem bäuerlichen Erscheinungsbild und ihre Bräuche sowie die wilde Bergwelt faszinierten ihn. Es waren Berichte von Schriftstellern wie Goethe, die den Grundstein für den Tourismus im Alpenraum legen sollten. Ohne die Pionierleistungen der Alpenvereine im 19. Jahrhundert, die den Bergen das Bedrohliche nahmen und es gegen die Faszination austauschten, wären Innsbrucker heute nicht stolze Bürger der selbsternannten Hauptstadt der Alpen und Tourismusweltmeister, sondern Bewohner eines Landstrichs mit hohem wirtschaftlichen EU-Förderungsbedarf.

The description sounded more sober 70 years later. Innsbruckers today may be justifiably proud of their old town centre. In the 19th century, however, people didn't think much of the old walls. Innsbruck had also been gripped by the frenzy of modernisation and a complete redesign of the old town was not only considered. In 1862, a winning design was chosen for the new, neo-Gothic town hall on the site where the Old town hall including the town tower. From today's perspective, it is a stroke of luck that the funds were lacking at the time to realise the bold plans. In a travel report from 1846, however, the following is written about the old part of the city "am Fuße dieser Gebirgsdekoration im Innthale“ zu lesen:

„Alterthümliche Baudenkmale von Kunstinteresse besitzt Innsbruck, mit Ausnahme des goldnen Dachlgebäudes, keine. Zu dem freundlichen Eindruck, den ihr Anblick von dieser Seite hervorbringt, trägt der Umstand wesentlich bei, daß sie nicht, wie man vermuthen könnte, aus einer Mehrzahl von alterthümlichen, sondern im Gegentheil von neuern Gebäuden besteht… Die Häuser der Altstadt, mit Laubengängen nach italienischer Sitte versehen, sind mehrentheils von älterer, schlechter Bauart.“

In den 1920er Jahren ließ der Schriftsteller Ödon von Horvath (1901 – 1938), ein spitzzüngiger Zyniker, der die Schrecken des ersten Weltkriegs und den Zerfall Österreich-Ungarns erlebt hatte, seine Romanfigur Kobler in “Der ewige Spießer“ noch profaner über Innsbruck denken. Die Nachkriegszeit war weniger poetisch als das Zeitalter der Romantik, in dem Goethe lebte.  

„Unter dieser Dunstwolke lag Innsbruck, die Hauptstadt des heiligen Landes Tirol. Kobler wusste nichts weiter von ihr, als dass sie ein berühmtes goldenes Dachl hat, einen preiswerten Tiroler Wein und dass der Reisende, der von Westen ankommt, zur linken Hand einige große Bordelle sehen kann.“

There is no ONE Innsbruck, every era has its own Innsbruck. If you look at old city vedutas and panoramas of Innsbruck, you can see how much the city has changed. The Innsbruck of 1500 has as little to do with the Innsbruck of 1800 as the Innsbruck of 1900 has to do with the Innsbruck of 2000. If you start Innsbruck with the Roman colonisation, you walk through 2000 years of European history.

For a long time, Innsbruck was nothing more than a small fortified town, a bridge and customs station between the trading centres of Augsburg in the north and Venice in the south. A watercolour painted by Albrecht Dürer in 1495 on his journey through Italy shows a Gothic city characterised by walls and towers. Innsbruck had become a royal seat. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Innsbruck was baroqueised, influenced by the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. With the changes in warfare, the city wall and its gates, which had become pointless, disappeared in the 18th century. The fortress-like castle on the Rennweg gave way to the representative Hofburg. The new town grew in the direction of Wilten Abbey to the south, while Saggen was extended to the east and virtually absorbed by the town. If you look at the south of the city from an elevated position, you can see the motorways built after the Second World War through the Inn Valley and from the Brenner Pass, which seem to cut the city in two.

Two millennia after the Roman colonisation, a few revolutions, world wars, Olympiads and expansion and reconstruction phases later, Innsbruck has been a self-proclaimed world city since the turn of the millennium. Or sports city. Or the capital of the Alps. Or a hip, young university city.

The history of a city does not end at its local borders and walls. Innsbruck has been home to emperors, kings, heretics, crooks, merchants, artists, scientists, labourers, princes, generals, mercenaries, soldiers, clergymen, sportsmen, traders, farmers and scientists. A look at the Best of of guests at the entrance to the Goldener Adler inn in the old town provides a cross-section of the prominent visitors. They left their mark on the city and shared their experiences of it with the outside world.

Styles such as Gothic, Baroque or Classicism were not unique to Innsbruck. The cityscape of every era is a reflection of the spirit of the times beyond the city walls. It is interesting to see how much is brought into a city from outside before it is gradually declared to be its very own cultural achievement.

Works of art, buildings and city districts were created for a reason. The historic city centre tells the story of Innsbruck's development in the Middle Ages and early modern times. The city palaces of the aristocracy in Maria-Theresienstraße show early capitalism and the beginnings of the end of the feudal economy. The armoury provides an insight into a time when Innsbruck was the military armaments and power centre of the Alpine region. The residential buildings in Wilten, Saggen and Pradl show the growth and the social, economic and cultural changes of the 19th century, such as the change from an agricultural feudal economy to bourgeois-driven industrialisation. The new buildings of the post-war period, filling in the gaps left by their predecessors, tell of the air raids, the barren post-war period and the recovery.

Unfortunately, a travel guide is not only about collecting information, but also about omitting it. In addition to the sights described, there are many other places that are worth describing. The Olympic Village of the 1960s and 1970s, the village square in Hötting, the Sill Gorge or the north-west of the city would also deserve a place in this work.

It is astonishing that most Innsbruckers' knowledge of their own history ends with a few anecdotes about Emperor Maximilian and Maria Theresa from their primary school science lessons. The events of the period after 1850 in particular are completely unknown to many people, although their achievements and buildings probably have more influence on everyday life than the Golden Roof and the Triumphal Gate. Only slowly and hesitantly is there a willingness and interest in finding places of remembrance for recent history. This makes it all the more interesting to follow this trail through the city. I have deliberately left out the most recent history after the Olympic Games, as it is difficult to make a judgement on this at this early stage. Work in Progress zu bilden.