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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Die Werke der Familie Gumpp bestimmen bis heute sehr stark das Aussehen Innsbrucks. Vor allem die barocken Teile der Stadt sind auf die Hofbaumeister zurückzuführen. Der Begründer der Dynastie in Tirol, Christoph Gumpp (1600-1672) war eigentlich Tischler. Sein Talent allerdings hatte ihn für höhere Weihen auserkoren. Den Beruf des Architekten gab es zu dieser Zeit noch nicht. Michelangelo und Leonardo Da Vinci galten in ihrer Zeit als Handwerker, nicht als Künstler. Der Ruhm ihrer Kunstwerke allerdings hatte den Wert italienischer Baumeister innerhalb der Aristokratie immens nach oben getrieben. Wer auf sich hielt, beschäftigte jemand aus dem Süden am Hof. Christoph Gumpp, obwohl aus dem Schwabenland nach Innsbruck gekommen, trat nach seiner Mitarbeit an der Dreifaltigkeitskirche in die Fußstapfen der von Ferdinand II. hochgeschätzten Renaissance-Architekten aus Italien. Auf Geheiß Ferdinands Nachfolger Leopold V. reiste Gumpp nach Italien, um dort Theaterbauten zu studieren- Er sollte bei den kulturell den Ton angebenden Nachbarn südlich des Brenners sein Wissen für das geplante landesfürstliche Comedihaus aufzupolieren. Gumpps offizielle Tätigkeit als Hofbaumeister begann 1633 und er sollte diesen Titel an die nächsten beiden Generationen weitervererben. Über die folgenden Jahrzehnte sollte Innsbruck einer kompletten Renovierung unterzogen werden. Neue Zeiten bedurften eines neuen Designs, abseits des düsteren, von der Gotik geprägten Mittelalters. Die Gumpps traten nicht nur als Baumeister in Erscheinung. Sie waren Tischler, Maler, Kupferstecher und Architekten, was ihnen erlaubte, ähnlich der Bewegung der Tiroler Moderne rund um Franz Baumann und Clemens Holzmeister Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, Projekte ganzheitlich umzusetzen. Johann Martin Gumpp der Ältere, Georg Anton Gumpp und Johann Martin Gumpp der Jüngere waren für viele der bis heute prägendsten Gebäude zuständig. So stammen die Wiltener Stiftskirche, die Mariahilfkirche, die Johanneskirche und die Spitalskirche von den Gumpps.  Neben Kirchen und ihrer Arbeit als Hofbaumeister machten sie sich auch als Planer von Profanbauten einen Namen. Viele der Bürgerhäuser und Stadtpaläste Innsbrucks wie das Taxispalais oder das Alte Landhaus in der Maria-Theresien-Straße wurden von Ihnen entworfen. Das Meisterstück aber war das Comedihaus, das Christoph Gumpp für Leopold V. und Claudia de Medici im ehemaligen Ballhaus plante. Die überdimensionierten Maße des damals richtungsweisenden Theaters, das in Europa zu den ersten seiner Art überhaupt gehörte, erlaubte nicht nur die Aufführung von Theaterstücken, sondern auch Wasserspiele mit echten Schiffen und aufwändige Pferdeballettaufführungen. Das Comedihaus war ein Gesamtkunstwerk an und für sich, das in seiner damaligen Bedeutung wohl mit dem Festspielhaus in Bayreuth des 19. Jahrhunderts oder der Elbphilharmonie heute verglichen werden muss. Das ehemalige Wohnhaus der Familie Gumpp kann heute noch begutachtet werden, es beherbergt heute die Konditorei Munding, eines der traditionsreichsten Cafés der Stadt.

Today, Innsbruck's city centre is characterised by buildings and monuments that commemorate the Habsburg family. For many centuries, the Habsburgs were a European ruling dynasty whose sphere of influence included a wide variety of territories. At the zenith of their power, they were the rulers of a "Reich, in dem die Sonne nie untergeht". Through wars and skilful marriage and power politics, they sat at the levers of power between South America and the Ukraine in various eras. Innsbruck was repeatedly the centre of power for this dynasty. The relationship was particularly intense between the 15th and 17th centuries. Due to its strategically favourable location between the Italian cities and German centres such as Augsburg and Regensburg, Innsbruck was given a special place in the empire at the latest after its elevation to the status of a royal seat under Emperor Maximilian. Some of the Habsburg rulers had no special relationship with Tyrol, nor did they have any particular affection for this German land. Ferdinand I (1503 - 1564) was educated at the Spanish court. Maximilian's grandson Charles V had grown up in Burgundy. When he set foot on Spanish soil for the first time at the age of 17 to take over his mother Joan's inheritance of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, he did not speak a word of Spanish. When he was elected German Emperor in 1519, he did not speak a word of German.

Tyrol was a province and, as a conservative region, usually favoured by the ruling family. Its inaccessible location made it the perfect refuge in troubled and crisis-ridden times. Charles V (1500 - 1558) fled during a conflict with the Protestant Schmalkaldischen Bund to Innsbruck for some time. Ferdinand I (1793 - 1875) allowed his family to stay in Innsbruck, far away from the Ottoman threat in eastern Austria. Shortly before his coronation in the turbulent summer of the 1848 revolution, Franz Josef I enjoyed the seclusion of Innsbruck together with his brother Maximilian, who was later shot by insurgent nationalists as Emperor of Mexico. A plaque at the Alpengasthof Heiligwasser above Igls reminds us that the monarch spent the night here as part of his ascent of the Patscherkofel.

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

When Sigismund Franz von Habsburg (1630 - 1665) died childless as the last prince of the province, the title of royal seat was also history and Tyrol was ruled by a governor. Tyrolean mining had lost its importance. Shortly afterwards, the Habsburgs lost their possessions in Western Europe along with Spain and Burgundy, moving Innsbruck from the centre to the periphery of the empire. In the Austro-Hungarian monarchy of the 19th century, Innsbruck was the western outpost of a huge empire that stretched as far as today's Ukraine. Franz Josef I (1830 - 1916) ruled over a multi-ethnic empire between 1848 and 1916. However, his neo-absolutist concept of rule was out of date. Although Austria had had a parliament and a constitution since 1867, the emperor regarded this government as "his". Ministers were responsible to the emperor, who was above the government. The ailing empire collapsed in the second half of the 19th century. On 28 October 1918, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, and on 29 October, Croats, Slovenes and Serbs left the monarchy. The last Emperor Charles abdicated on 11 November. On 12 November, "Deutschösterreich zur demokratischen Republik, in der alle Gewalt vom Volke ausgeht“. The chapter of the Habsburgs was over.

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

Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529 - 1595) is one of the most colourful figures in Tyrolean history. His father, Emperor Ferdinand I, gave him an excellent education. He grew up at the Spanish court of his uncle Emperor Charles V. The years in which Ferdinand received his schooling were the early years of Jesuit influence at the Habsburg courts. The young statesman was brought up entirely in the spirit of pious humanism. This was complemented by the customs of the Renaissance aristocracy. At a young age, he travelled through Italy and Burgundy and had become acquainted with a lifestyle at the wealthy courts there that had not yet established itself among the German aristocracy. Ferdinand was what today would be described as a globetrotter, a member of the educated elite or a cosmopolitan. He was considered intelligent, charming and artistic. Among his less eccentric contemporaries, Ferdinand enjoyed a reputation as an immoral and hedonistic libertine. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to have organised debauched and immoral orgies.

Ferdinand's father divided his realm between his sons. Maximilian II, who was rightly suspected of heresy and adherence to Protestant doctrines by his parents, inherited Upper and Lower Austria as well as Bohemia and Hungary. Ferdinand's younger brother Charles ruled in Inner Austria, i.e. Carinthia, Styria and Carniola. The middle child received Tyrol, which at the time extended as far as the Engadine, and the fragmented Habsburg Forelands in the west of the central European possessions.

Ferdinand took over the province of Tyrol as sovereign in turbulent times. He had already spent several years in Innsbruck in his youth. The mines in Schwaz began to become unprofitable due to the cheap silver from America. The flood of silver from the Habsburg possessions in New Spain on the other side of the Atlantic led to inflation. However, these financial problems did not stop Ferdinand from commissioning personal and public infrastructure. The Italian cities of Florence, Venice and Milan were trendsetters in culture, art and architecture. Ferdinand's Tyrolean court was to be in no way inferior to them. To this end, he had Innsbruck remodelled in the spirit of the Renaissance. In keeping with the trend of the time, he imitated the Italian aristocratic courts. Court architect Giovanni Lucchese assisted him in this endeavour. Gone were the days when Germans were considered uncivilised in the more beautiful cities south of the Alps, barbaric or even as Pigs were labelled.

He spent a considerable part of his life at Ambras Castle near Innsbruck, where he amassed one of the most valuable collections of works of art and armour in the world. Ferdinand transformed the castle above the village of Amras into a modern court. His parties, masked balls and parades were legendary. During the wedding of a nephew, he had 1800 calves and 130 oxen roasted. Wine is said to have flowed from the wells instead of water for 10 days.

But Ambras Castle was not the end of Innsbruck's transformation. To the west of the city, an archway still reminds us of the Tiergartena hunting ground for Ferdinand, including a summer house also designed by Lucchese. In order for the prince to reach his weekend residence, a road was laid in the marshy Höttinger Au, which formed the basis for today's Kranebitter Allee. The Lusthaus was replaced in 1786 by what is now known as the Pulverturm The new building, which houses part of the sports science faculty of the University of Innsbruck, replaced the well-known building. The princely sport of hunting was followed in the former Lusthauswhich was the Powder Tower. In the city centre, he had the princely Comedihaus on today's Rennweg. In order to improve Innsbruck's drinking water supply, the Mühlauerbrücke bridge was built under Ferdinand to lay a water pipeline from the Mühlaubach stream into the city centre. The Jesuits, who had arrived in Innsbruck shortly before Ferdinand took office to make life difficult for troublesome reformers and church critics and to reorganise the education system, were given a new church in Silbergasse.

He paid particular attention to the confessional orientation of his flock. Fleecing the population, living in splendour, tolerating Protestantism among his important advisors and at the same time fighting Protestantism among the people was no contradiction for the trained Renaissance prince. Already at the age of 15, he marched under his uncle Charles V in the Schmalkaldic War into battle against the enemies of the Roman Church. As a sovereign, he saw himself as Advocatus Ecclesiae (note: representative of the church) in a confessional absolutist sense, who was responsible for the salvation of his subjects. Coercive measures, the foundation of churches and monasteries such as the Franciscans and the Capuchins in Innsbruck, improved pastoral care and the staging of Jesuit theatre plays such as "The beheading of John" were the weapons of choice against Protestantism. Ferdinand's piety was not artificial, but like most of his contemporaries, he managed to adapt flexibly to the situation.

Ferdinand's politics were suitably influenced by the Italian avant-garde of the time. Machiavelli wrote his work "Il Principe", which stated that rulers were allowed to do whatever was necessary for their success, even if they were incapable of being deposed. Ferdinand II attempted to do justice to this early absolutist style of leadership and issued his Tyrolean Provincial Code A modern set of legal rules by the standards of the time. For his subjects, this meant higher taxes on their earnings as well as extensive restrictions on mountain pastures, fishing and hunting rights. The miners, mining entrepreneurs and foreign trading companies with their offices in Innsbruck also drove up food prices. It could be summarised that Ferdinand enjoyed the exclusive pleasure of hunting on his estates, while his subjects lived at subsistence level due to increasing burdens, prices and game damage.

His relationship life was eccentric for a member of the high aristocracy. Ferdinand's first "semi-wild marriage" was to the commoner Philippine Welser. The sovereign is said to have been downright infatuated with his beautiful wife, which is why he disregarded all the conventions of the time. Their children were excluded from the succession due to the strict social order of the 16th century. After Philippine Welser died, Ferdinand married the devout Anna Caterina Gonzaga, a 16-year-old princess of Mantua, at the age of 53. However, it seems that the two did not feel much affection for each other, especially as Anna Caterina was a niece of Ferdinand. The Habsburgs were less squeamish about marriages between relatives than they were about the marriage of a nobleman to a commoner. However, he was also "only" able to father three daughters with her. Ferdinand's final resting place was in the Silver Chapel with his first wife Philippine Welser.