Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529 - 1595) is one of the most colourful figures in Tyrolean history. His father, Emperor Ferdinand I, gave his son an excellent education. He grew up at the Spanish court of his uncle Emperor Charles V. He spent part of his youth at the court in Innsbruck, which was also influenced by Spain at the time. The years in which Ferdinand received his schooling were the early years of Jesuit influence at the Habsburg courts. 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 had taken over the province of Tyrol as sovereign in turbulent times. The mines in Schwaz began to become unprofitable due to the cheap silver from America. The flood of silver from the New World led to inflation. This did not stop him from maintaining an expensive court, while the cost of living rose for the poorer sections of the population. The Italian cities were style-defining in terms of culture, art and architecture. Ferdinand's Tyrolean court was in no way inferior to these cities. His masked balls and parades were legendary. Ferdinand had Innsbruck remodelled in the spirit of the Renaissance. In keeping with the trend of the time, he imitated the Italian aristocratic courts in Florence, Mantua, Ferrara and Milan. Court architect Giovanni Lucchese assisted him in this endeavour. Gone were the days when Germans in the more beautiful cities south of the Alps were regarded as uncivilised, barbaric or even as Pigs were labelled.

But Ambras Castle was not the end of the story. To the west of the town, an archway is a reminder 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. Near the city centre, he had the princely Comedihaus on today's Rennweg.

Ferdinand's politics were also influenced by Italy. Machiavelli wrote his work "Il Principe", which stated that rulers were allowed to do whatever was necessary for their success if they were incompetent and could be deposed. Ferdinand II attempted to do justice to this early absolutist style of leadership and issued a modern set of legal rules for the time with his Tyrolean Provincial Code. The Jesuits, who had arrived in Innsbruck shortly before Ferdinand took office to make life difficult for troublesome reformers and church critics, reorganise the education system and strengthen the church's presence, were given a new church in Silbergasse. It may seem contradictory today that the pleasure-seeking Prince Ferdinand defended the church as a Catholic and counter-reformer, but this was not the case in the late Renaissance period. With his measures against the Jewish population, he was also in line with the Jesuits.

Ferdinand 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'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 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 found his final resting place in the Silver Chapel with his first wife.

Philippine Welser was the wife of Archduke Ferdinand II. The Welsers were one of the wealthiest non-aristocratic families of their time. Her uncle Bartholomäus Welser was similarly wealthy to Jakob Fugger. He had also granted loans to the Habsburgs. Instead of paying off the loans, Emperor Charles V pledged part of the newly annexed lands in America to the Welsers, who in return used the land as a colony. Klein-VenedigVenezuela, with fortresses and settlements. They organised expeditions to discover the legendary land of gold El Dorado to discover. In order to get as much as possible out of their fiefdom, they set up trading posts to take part in the profitable transatlantic slave trade between Europe, West Africa and America. Their brutal behaviour led to complaints at the imperial court, where they were subsequently stripped of their fiefdom.

Ferdinand and Philippine met at a carnival ball in Pilsen. The Habsburg fell head over heels in love with the wealthy woman from Augsburg and married her. Nobody in the House of Habsburg was particularly pleased about the couple's secret marriage, even though the Welser's money was put to good use. Despite their wealth, marriages between commoners and nobles were considered scandalous and not befitting their status. The children were therefore excluded from the succession.

Philippine galt als überaus schön. Ihre Haut sei laut Zeitzeugen so zart gewesen, „man hätte einen Schluck Rotwein durch ihre Kehle fließen sehen können". Ferdinand had Ambras Castle remodelled into its present form for his beloved wife. His brother Maximilian even said that "Ferdinand verzaubert sai" by the beautiful Philippine Welser, when Ferdinand withdrew his troops during the Turkish war to go home to his wife.

Philippine Welser's passion was cooking. A collection of recipes still exists in the Austrian National Library today. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, the art of cookery was practised exclusively by the wealthy and nobility, while the vast majority of subjects had to eat whatever was available. The Middle Ages and modern times, in fact all people up until the 1950s, lived with a permanent lack of calories. Whereas today we eat too much and get ill as a result, our ancestors suffered from illnesses caused by malnutrition. Fruit was just as rare on the menu as meat. The food was monotonous and hardly flavoured. Spices such as exotic pepper were luxury goods that ordinary people could not afford. While the diet of the ordinary citizen was a dull affair, where the main aim was to get the calories for the daily work as efficiently as possible, the attitude towards food and drink began to change in Innsbruck under Ferdinand II and Philippine Welser. The court had contributed to a certain cultivation of manners and customs since Frederick IV, and Philippine Welser and Ferdinand continued to drive this development at Ambras Castle and Weiherburg Castle. The banquets they organised were legendary and often degenerated into orgies.

Herbalism was her second hobbyhorse. Philippine Welser described how plants and herbs could be used to alleviate physical ailments of all kinds. At Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, she had a herb garden created for her hobby and her studies.

According to reports of the time, she was very popular among the Tyrolean population, as she took great care of the poor and needy. The care of the needy, led by the town council and sponsored by wealthy citizens and aristocrats, was not a speciality at the time, but common practice. Closer to salvation in the next life than through Christian charity, Caritasyou could not come.

, konnte man nicht kommen. Ihre letzte Ruhe fand Philippine Welser nach ihrem Tod 1580 in der Silbernen Kapelle in der Innsbrucker Hofkirche. Gemeinsam mit ihren als Säugling verstorbenen Kindern und Ferdinand wurde sie dort begraben. Unterhalb des Schloss Ambras erinnert die Philippine-Welser-Straße an sie.

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.

The 12th century brought economic, scientific and social prosperity to parts of Europe and is regarded as a kind of early Renaissance in the Middle Ages. The Crusades led to increased exchange with the cultures of the Middle East, which were more developed in many respects. Arab scholars brought translations of Greek thinkers such as Aristotle to Europe via southern Spain and Italy. Roman law was rediscovered. The first universities were founded in Italy. Agricultural knowledge allowed the development of towns and larger settlements. One of these settlements was located north of the Wilten monastery between the Inn river and the Nordkette mountain range.

When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, Bavarian tribes took control of the area that is now Innsbruck. They were happy to take over church institutions and structures, as clerics were often the only ones who knew the scriptures. In the time of Charlemagne (748 - 814), the feudal system began to establish itself in Central Europe. The dukes of Bavaria were feudal lords of the German kings and emperors, whose empire extended over large parts of central Europe and northern Italy.

Tyrol had two low Alpine crossings, the Reschen Pass and the Brenner Pass, which were important for the imperial connection between the German lands in the north and the lands in Italy. In 1024, Conrad II, a rival of the Bavarian dukes, was elected king. In order to bring these two Alpine crossings away from his Bavarian rivals and under the control of the Church, which was closer and more loyal to the emperor, Conrad II granted the territory of Tyrol to the bishops of Brixen and Trento as a fief in 1027. In order to administer their lands and exercise jurisdiction, the bishops needed local representatives, the so-called bailiffs. The bailiffs of the Bishop of Brixen were the Counts of Andechs. They came from the area around the Bavarian Ammersee. They administered the central part of the Inn Valley, the Wipp Valley and the Eisack Valley for the bishops. Over the next 200 years, this Bavarian princely family was to become the birthplace of the city of Innsbruck.

Today, Innsbruck stretches along both sides of the Inn. In the 11th century, this area was under the influence of two lords of the manor. To the south of the Inn, the Wilten monastery had its lordship. The area north of the Inn belonged to the Counts of Andechs. While the southern part of the town around the monastery was used for agriculture early on, the alluvial area of the unregulated river could not be cultivated before the High Middle Ages and was sparsely populated. The Andechs family founded the market here in 1133 Anbruggen and connected the northern and southern banks of the Inn via a bridge. The unusable agricultural land had become a trading centre. The bridge greatly facilitated the movement of goods in the Eastern Alps. The customs revenue generated from trade between the German and Italian towns allowed the settlement to prosper. Innsbruck's first surviving coat of arms dates back to 1267 and shows the Inn bridge on the stone boxes used to secure it at the time.

Anbruggen grew rapidly, but the space between the Nordkette and the Inn was limited. In 1180, Berchtold V of Andechs therefore acquired a piece of land on the south side of the Inn from Wilten Monastery. This was the starting signal for Innsbruck. In the course of building the city wall, the Counts of Andechs had the Andechs Castle and moved their ancestral seat from Merano to Innsbruck. This settlement also grew rapidly and sometime between 1187 and 1204 the people of Innsbruck were able to enjoy city rights. The official date of foundation is often taken as 1239, when the last Count of Andechs, Otto VIII, confirmed the town charter in a document. At this time, Innsbruck was already the mint of the Andechs family and would probably have become the capital of their principality. But things turned out differently. Otto died in 1248 without descendants. The Counts of Tyrol took control of the Inn Valley and the city. They made Merano the first capital of the province of Tyrol.

The year 1848 occupies a mythical place in European history. Although the hotspots were not to be found in secluded Tyrol, but in the major metropolises such as Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Milan and Berlin, even in the Holy Land however, the revolutionary year left its mark. In contrast to the rural surroundings, an enlightened educated middle class had developed in Innsbruck. Enlightened people no longer wanted to be subjects of a monarch or sovereign, but citizens with rights and duties towards the state. Students and freelancers demanded political participation, freedom of the press and civil rights. Workers demanded better wages and working conditions. The omnipotence of the church was called into question.

In March 1848, this socially and politically highly explosive mixture erupted in riots in many European cities. In Innsbruck, students and professors celebrated the new freedom of the press with a torchlight procession. It would be foolhardy to speak of a spontaneous outburst of emotion; the date of the procession was postponed from 20 to 21 March due to bad weather. There were hardly any anti-Habsburg riots or attacks; a stray stone thrown into a Jesuit window was one of the highlights of the Alpine version of the 1848 revolution. The students even helped the city magistrate to monitor public order in order to show their gratitude to the monarch for the newly granted freedoms and their loyalty.

The initial enthusiasm for bourgeois achievements was quickly replaced by German nationalist, patriotic fervour in Innsbruck. On 6 April 1848, the German flag was waved by the governor of Tyrol during a ceremonial procession. A German flag was also raised on the city tower. Tricolour was hoisted. While students and conservatives disagreed on freedom of the press, they shared a dislike of the Italian independence movement. Innsbruck students and marksmen marched to Trentino with the support of the k.k. army leadership to Trentino and

The city, home to many Italian speakers, became the arena for this nationality conflict. Combined with copious amounts of alcohol, anti-Italian sentiment in Innsbruck posed more of a threat to public order than civil liberties. An argument between a German-speaking craftsman and an Italian-speaking Ladin, both actually Tyroleans, escalated to such an extent that it almost led to a pogrom against the numerous businesses and restaurants owned by Italian-speaking Tyroleans.

When things continued to boil in Vienna even after March, Emperor Ferdinand fled to Tyrol in May. Innsbruck was once again the emperor's residence, if only for one summer. According to press reports from this time, he was received enthusiastically by the population.

"Wie heißt das Land, dem solche Ehre zu Theil wird, wer ist das Volk, das ein solches Vertrauen genießt in dieser verhängnißvollen Zeit? Stützt sich die Ruhe und Sicherheit hier bloß auf die Sage aus alter Zeit, oder liegt auch in der Gegenwart ein Grund, auf dem man bauen kann, den der Wind nicht weg bläst, und der Sturm nicht erschüttert? Dieses Alipenland heißt Tirol, gefällts dir wohl? Ja, das tirolische Volk allein bewährt in der Mitte des aufgewühlten Europa die Ehrfurcht und Treue, den Muth und die Kraft für sein angestammtes Regentenhaus, während ringsum Auflehnung, Widerspruch. Trotz und Forderung, häufig sogar Aufruhr und Umsturz toben; Tirol allein hält fest ohne Wanken an Sitte und Gehorsam, auf Religion, Wahrheit und Recht, während anderwärts die Frechheit und Lüge, der Wahnsinn und die Leidenschaften herrschen anstatt folgen wollen. Und während im großen Kaiserreiche sich die Bande überall lockern, oder gar zu lösen drohen; wo die Willkühr, von den Begierden getrieben, Gesetze umstürzt, offenen Aufruhr predigt, täglich mit neuen Forderungen losgeht; eigenmächtig ephemere- wie das Wetter wechselnde Einrichtungen schafft; während Wien, die alte sonst so friedliche Kaiserstadt, sich von der erhitzten Phantasie der Jugend lenken und gängeln läßt, und die Räthe des Reichs auf eine schmähliche Weise behandelt, nach Laune beliebig, und mit jakobinischer Anmaßung, über alle Provinzen verfügend, absetzt und anstellt, ja sogar ohne Ehrfurcht, den Kaiaer mit Sturm-Petitionen verfolgt; während jetzt von allen Seiten her Deputationen mit Ergebenheits-Addressen mit Bittgesuchen und Loyalitätsversicherungen dem Kaiser nach Innsbruck folgen, steht Tirol ganz ruhig, gleich einer stillen Insel, mitten im brausenden Meeressturme, und des kleinen Völkchens treue Brust bildet, wie seine Berge und Felsen, eine feste Mauer in Gesetz und Ordnung, für den Kaiser und das Vaterland."

In 1848, Ferdinand left the throne to the young Franz Josef I. In July 1848, the first parliamentary session was held in the Court Riding School in Vienna. The first constitution was enacted. However, the monarchy's desire for reform quickly waned. The new parliament was an imperial council, it could not pass any binding laws, the emperor never attended it during his lifetime and did not understand why the Danube Monarchy, as a divinely appointed monarchy, needed this council.

Nevertheless, the liberalisation that had been gently set in motion took its course in the cities. Innsbruck was given the status of a town with its own statute. Innsbruck's municipal law provided for a right of citizenship that was linked to ownership or the payment of taxes, but legally guaranteed certain rights to members of the community. Birthright citizenship could be acquired by birth, marriage or extraordinary conferment and at least gave male adults the right to vote at municipal level. If you got into financial difficulties, you had the right to basic support from the town.

On 2 June 1848, the first issue of the liberal and pro-German Innsbrucker Zeitung was published, from which the above article on the arrival of the Emperor in Innsbruck is taken. The previously abolished censorship was partially reintroduced. Newspaper publishers had to undergo some harassment by the authorities. Newspapers were not allowed to write against the provincial government, the monarchy or the church.

"Anyone who, by means of printed matter, incites, instigates or attempts to incite others to take action which would bring about the violent separation of a part from the unified state... of the Austrian Empire... or the general Austrian Imperial Diet or the provincial assemblies of the individual crown lands.... Imperial Diet or the Diet of the individual Crown Lands... violently disrupts... shall be punished with severe imprisonment of two to ten years."

After Innsbruck replaced Meran as the provincial capital in 1849 and thus finally became the political centre of Tyrol, political parties were formed. From 1868, the liberal and Greater German orientated party provided the mayor of the city of Innsbruck. The influence of the church declined in Innsbruck in contrast to the surrounding communities. Individualism, capitalism, nationalism and consumerism stepped into the breach. New worlds of work, department stores, theatres, cafés and dance halls did not supplant religion in the city either, but the emphasis changed as a result of the civil liberties won in 1848.

Perhaps the most important change to the law was the Basic relief patent. In Innsbruck, the clergy, above all Wilten Abbey, held a large proportion of the peasant land. The church and nobility were not subject to taxation. In 1848/49, manorial rule and servitude were abolished in Austria. This meant that land rents, tithes and roboters were abolished. The landlords received one third of the value of their land from the state as part of the land relief, one third was regarded as tax relief and one third of the relief had to be paid by the farmers themselves. The farmers were able to pay off this amount in instalments over a period of twenty years. The after-effects can still be felt today. The descendants of the successful farmers of the time enjoy the fruits of prosperity through their inherited landholdings, which can be traced back to the land relief of 1848, as well as political influence through the sale of land for housing, leases and payments from the public purse for infrastructure projects.