Franciscans, Premonstratensians, Carmelites, Servites, Capuchins, Ursulines. Anyone visiting Innsbruck will walk past many monasteries, usually without realising it. The Jesuits were probably the most politically and socially influential order in the history of the city from the 16th century onwards. The "Soldaten Christi" were founded by the Spanish nobleman Ignatius of Loyola (1491 - 1556) in 1540. Loyola was a moral reformer and influential church politician who had access to the highest circles of power of his time. He wanted to change the church, but unlike Luther, not without the Pope as head. Dissolution of the monasteries' property was also not on his programme. Renewing the faith from the top down instead of destroying the existing order was the motto of the Societas Jesu.

The order quickly gained influence. The organisation and structure adopted from the military, the combination of humanist teachings and Catholic traditions, a penchant for science and education in combination with a mystical popular piety made them attractive to many people who were disappointed by the clergy's medieval decline in morals. With these characteristics, the Jesuits had their finger on the pulse of a time that was characterised by new political, social and economic structures. Like Protestant reformers, they skilfully used the new medium of book printing to disseminate their writings. You could say that they were the denominational continuation of social penetration by the state, new media and double-entry bookkeeping.

The political situation in the middle of the 16th century was muddled and crisis-ridden. Italy was badly affected by the wars between France and the Habsburgs. Large trading groups such as the Fuggers and the Welsers were gaining more and more influence. The German lands had suffered from the Peasants' Wars. Inflation was a threat and the many technical innovations of the period around 1500 frightened many people. But how could the wrath of God be averted because of the misdemeanours of the Renaissance popes and the impending end of the world if not through moral improvement and moral living according to the teachings of Christ?

A keen supporter of the Jesuits in Tyrol was Prince and later Emperor Ferdinand I. Like Ignatius of Loyola, he had grown up in Spain. He had just as many difficulties with the customs of the Germans and the non-existent Reformation movement in Spain as he did with the language. The Tyrolean population, on the other hand, were alienated from their sovereign, who, with his foreign court, could easily be mistaken for an occupying power. A connecting element between the two worlds was the Roman Church, especially the modern Jesuit order.

Probably the most important Jesuit theologian was Petrus Canisius (1521 - 1597). He grew up as Peter Canis in an upper middle-class household in the Netherlands. His father was the mayor of Nijmegen. From an early age, the future church strategist gained his first experience of high politics and learnt courtly behaviour before going to Cologne to study. Canisius was the first member of the order in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. The intelligent and educated young man had a stellar career. Ferdinand summoned him to Vienna, where he was appointed episcopal administrator and responsible for maintaining order at the university. One of his main activities at the university, in addition to teaching and research, was to track down and interrogate university members suspected of Protestantism.

Canisius also spent several years in Innsbruck. The Jesuits were actually supposed to move into the completed Hofkirche to take over the choral prayers for Maximilian I at his burial place. As the highest representative of the order north of the Alps, Canisius politely but firmly refused. He wrote a prayer guide for Ferdinand to set the prince on the right path. In 1563, the emperor managed to lure him to the Alps after all. The scholar was to assist him as an advisor and consultant for a dispute with the Pope during the Council of Trent. In October 1571, the parish of Wilten learnt from him of the victory of the papal-imperial fleet against the Ottomans at Lepanto. From the pulpit, Canisius proclaimed the triumph of the Christian forces against the impending pagan threat in the greatest naval battle in history in the style of a Catholic newsreader.

As a court preacher, Canisius was an advisor to the aristocracy, but his pious enthusiasm also made him a churchman for the masses. On behalf of the Lord, or rather his secular and ecclesiastical masters, he travelled across Europe. Like Martin Luther, he also looked "In the mouth of the people". It should not be forgotten that walking was the primary way of travelling for most people. Canisius is said to have travelled over 100,000 kilometres between the Netherlands, Rome and Poland. He usually stayed in simple inns while travelling. He knew how important it was to get the rural population behind him. While his brothers were proselytising in faraway India, he was proselytising against Protestantism in the German lands. He realised that preaching in Latin was not suitable for immunising peasants, farmhands and maids against the threat posed by Luther's Protestantism to the Roman Church. With his Catechism Petrus Canisius wrote an important German-language collection of ideas in the Catholic struggle against the Reformation, which was quickly translated into all European languages and was long regarded as a guide for the Catholic Church. Between 1555 and 1558, three differently complex versions of the work were created for different audiences. Resourceful editors created a pictorial catechism for illiterate readers in order to bring the ideas of the Church to the people. Canisius also used the new medium of the pamphlet to reach as many people as possible. His writings, together with those of Luther, were probably the most widely read of the 16th century. Until well into the 19th century, and in some regions even after the Second World War, the Kanisias the catechism was affectionately known, was the most influential religious-philosophical work in Tyrol.

However, the strongest and most enduring pillar in the fight against the reformers was education. Canisius saw many bishops and politicians as corrupt, morally corrupt and sinful. Instead of eradicating them, however, they were to reform under the wing of the soldiers of Jesus. By opening new colleges, the Jesuits aimed to improve the education of civil servants, the nobility and the clergy and to set higher moral standards in everyday church life, orientated towards Christian roots. To this end, they founded colleges throughout the empire. Protestant countries and cities had begun German schoolsacademies and grammar schools. As many subjects as possible should be able to read in order to find piety and salvation in individual and direct Bible reading. The Jesuits, on the other hand, concentrated on educating the elite and thus gained lasting influence in the centres of power of the Catholic states.

The Jesuits founded the Latin school in Innsbruck, from which the university would later emerge. The new educational institute had a major impact on the city's development. The intelligentsia was educated here, enabling Innsbruck's rise as an administrative and economic centre. Its activities were interrupted under Joseph II. He disempowered and expropriated ecclesiastical orders, including the Jesuits, whom he had little love for. Under him, the University of Innsbruck was downgraded to a lyceum in 1781. It was not until 1838 that the Jesuits were reappointed to Innsbruck. In addition to professorships at the university, they had the Theresianuma grammar school for the aristocracy, in a leading role.

Thanks to this network of influential posts and education system, the Order grew rapidly and managed to establish a special relationship with the Habsburgs during the Counter-Reformation. Many members of the dynasty can be recognised in their rule and actions as having been influenced by the order from which they received their education. Jesuits such as Bartholomew Viller or Wilhelm Lamormaini were politically influential as confessors and advisors to the Habsburgs in the early modern period. It is no coincidence that the Jesuits are still the adversaries of the Freemasons in countless conspiracy theories and novels and are regarded by many as the modern-day equivalent of the James Bond villain. They were very open to research, the gathering of knowledge and education and wanted to learn to understand the world in terms of Christian creation. For Catholics, this made them a hip antithesis to both the dusty existing religious orders and the Protestants. Faith and empiricism combined to form a kind of pre-modern science that attempted to explain nature and physics. Ferdinand II's collection at Ambras Castle bears witness to the research drive of the time, as do the seemingly absurd alchemical experiments carried out by Emperor Matthias (1557 - 1619).

For all their love of the rational, mysticism also returned to everyday church life under the Jesuits. Passion plays, Easter sepulchres, processions and feast days were intended to soften the strict principles of the faith with drama and spectacle. Work hard - play hard was the motto. The celebrations during processions often degenerated into lavish festivities, which led to fights, sometimes even tumultuous and bloody scenes, similar to today's tent festivals. The bread and wine of the Lord were celebrated in the style of Panem et Circenses (bread and games) in ancient Rome. Petrus Canisius was commissioned by Ferdinand I to write a book about a miracle in Seefeld with the evocative name "Of the highly publicised miracle that took place with the most sacred sacrament of the altar on the Seefeld in the princely county of Tyrol in 1384 and what else is to be considered Christian and useful in this regard." to fuel the pilgrimage there.

This principle of mass social appropriation has survived to this day. The Marian Congregationknown as MK in Innsbruck, was one of the largest youth centres in Europe. In a modern sense, it can certainly be seen in the tradition of the church's gentle introduction to the faith and the education of young people.

The Jesuit order, fully committed to popular belief, was also highly motivated when it came to persecuting witches and people of other faiths. Peter Canisius was one of the masterminds behind the early modern witch hunts:

"Witches are being punished everywhere, and they are multiplying strangely.... They envy children the grace of baptism and deprive them of it. There are large numbers of child murderers among them... Never before in Germany have you seen people so devoted and dedicated to the devil..."

He also attracted attention as an exorcist, especially among noble ladies infected by the virus of Protestantism. Canisius used the attention that witches and people possessed by the devil attracted to publicise the power of the Catholic Church.

The Jesuits were also eagerly involved in the missionary work of pagans in the then recently discovered New World in America and Asia. St Francis Xavier, one of Ignatius of Loyola's first companions, died on a missionary journey to China. In a side chapel of the Jesuit church in Innsbruck, this Soldaten Christi an altar was consecrated.

The Jesuits still hold sway over Innsbruck today. Peter Canisius' stay made the city one of the theological centres of the German-speaking world in the 16th century. His appearance as a preacher and scholar in the city could be compared to Albert Einstein's lectureship at the university in the 1930s. When Innsbruck became its own diocese in 1964 under the Jesuit Paulus Rusch, St Peter Canisius was chosen as its patron saint. Today, Karl-Rahner-Platz is not only home to the Jesuit Church, but also to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Innsbruck. In Saggen, the Collegium Canisianum belongs to the Jesuits. The MK is also still active in youth work.

Few eras are more difficult to grasp than the interwar period. The Roaring TwentiesJazz and automobiles come to mind, as do inflation and the economic crisis. In big cities like Berlin, young ladies behaved as Flappers with a bobbed head, cigarette and short skirts, lascivious to the new sounds, Innsbruck's population, as part of the young Republic of Austria, belonged for the most part to the faction of poverty, economic crisis and political polarisation.

Although the Republic of German-Austria had been proclaimed, it was unclear how things would continue in Austria. The monarchy and nobility were banned. The bureaucratic state of the k.u.k. Empire was seamlessly established under a new flag and name. As the successors to the old crown lands, the federal states were given a great deal of room for manoeuvre in legislation and administration within the framework of federalism. However, enthusiasm for the new state was limited. Not only was the supply situation miserable after the loss of the vast majority of the former Habsburg empire, but people also mistrusted the basic idea of the republic. The monarchy had not been perfect, but only very few people could relate to the idea of democracy. Instead of being subjects of the emperor, they were now citizens, but only citizens of a dwarf state with an oversized capital that was little loved in the provinces instead of a large empire. In the former crown lands, most of which were governed by Christian socialists, people liked to speak of the Viennese water headwho was fed by the yields of the industrious rural population.

Austria was deeply divided. Capital and provinces, city and countryside, citizens, workers and farmers - in the vacuum of the first post-war years, each group wanted to shape the future according to their own ideas. The divide did not only exist on a political level. Morality, family, leisure activities, education, faith, understanding of the law - every area of life was affected. Who should rule? How should wealth, rights and duties be distributed? What should be done with public buildings such as barracks, castles and palaces?

The revolution in Russia and the ensuing civil war with millions of deaths, expropriation and a complete reversal of the system cast a long shadow over Europe. The prospect of Soviet conditions made people afraid. A communist coup was not a real danger, especially in Tyrol, but could be easily instrumentalised in the media as a threat to discredit social democracy.

Italian troops occupied Innsbruck for almost two years after the end of the war. At the peace negotiations in Paris, the Brenner Pass was declared the new border. The historic Tyrol was divided in two. The military was stationed at the Brenner Pass to secure a border that had never existed before and was perceived as unnatural and unjust. Many people on both sides of the Brenner felt betrayed. Although the war was far from won, they did not see themselves as losers to Italy. Hatred of Italians reached its peak in the interwar period, even if the occupying troops were emphatically lenient. A passage from the short story collection "The front above the peaks" by the National Socialist author Karl Springenschmid from the 1930s reflects the general mood:

"The young girl says, 'Becoming Italian would be the worst thing.

Old Tappeiner just nods and grumbles: "I know it myself and we all know it: becoming a whale would be the worst thing."

The newly founded Tyrolean People's Party was at least as hostile to Vienna and the Social Democrats as it was to the Italians. The new Austria seemed too small and not viable. Other federal states were also toying with the idea of seceding from the Republic after the plan to join Germany, which was supported by all parties, was forbidden by the victorious powers of the First World War. The Tyrolean plans, however, were particularly spectacular. From a neutral Alpine state with other federal states, a free state consisting of Tyrol and Bavaria or from Kufstein to Salurn, an annexation to Switzerland to a Catholic church state under papal leadership, there were many ideas. The annexation to Germany was approved by 98% in a vote in Tyrol, but never materialised.

However, high politics was only the framework for the real problems. The epidemic that went down in history as the Spanish flu also took its toll in Innsbruck in the years after the war. Exact figures were not recorded, but the number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 27 - 50 million. Many Innsbruck residents had not returned home from the battlefields and were missing as fathers, husbands and labourers. Many of those who had made it back were wounded and scarred by the horrors of war. As late as February 1920, the "Tyrolean Committee of the Siberians" at the Gasthof Breinößl "...in favour of the fund for the repatriation of our prisoners of war..." a charity evening.

Many people, especially civil servants and public sector employees, had lost their jobs after the League of Nations tied its loan to harsh austerity measures. Tourism as an economic factor was non-existent due to the problems in the neighbouring countries, which were also shaken by the war. It was not until the currency reorganisation and the introduction of the schilling as the new currency in 1925 under Chancellor Ignaz Seipel that Innsbruck slowly began to recover. Major projects such as the Tivoli, the municipal indoor swimming pool, new schools and apartment blocks could only be realised after the first post-war problems had been overcome.

The first republic was a difficult birth from the remnants of the former monarchy and it was not to last long. Despite many post-war problems, however, the First Republic also saw many positive developments. Subjects became citizens. What began in the time of Maria Theresa was now continued under new auspices. The change from subject to citizen was characterised not only by a new right to vote, but above all by the increased care of the state. Schools, kindergartens, labour offices, hospitals and municipal housing estates replaced the benevolence of wealthy citizens, the monarchy and the church. Times were hard and the new system had not yet been honed.

To this day, much of the Austrian state and Innsbruck's cityscape and infrastructure are based on what emerged after the collapse of the monarchy. In Innsbruck, there are no conscious memorials to the emergence of the First Republic in Austria. The listed housing projects such as the Schlachthofblock, the Pembaurblock or the Mandelsbergerblock in Saggen as well as in Pradl and Wilten are contemporary witnesses in stone.

It was almost not Gavrilo Princip, but a student from Innsbruck who changed the fate of the world. It was thanks to chance that the 20-year-old Serb was stopped in 1913 because he bragged to a waitress that he was planning to assassinate the heir to the throne. It was only when the world-changing shooting in Sarajevo actually took place that an article about it appeared in the media. After the actual assassination of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June, it was impossible to foresee what impact the First World War that broke out as a result would have on the world and people's everyday lives. However, two days after the assassination of the Habsburg in Sarajevo, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten already prophetic: "We have reached a turning point - perhaps the "turning point" - in the fortunes of this empire".

Enthusiasm for the war in 1914 was also high in Innsbruck. From the "Gott, Kaiser und VaterlandDriven by the "spirit of the times", most people unanimously welcomed the attack on Serbia. Politicians, the clergy and the press joined in the general rejoicing. In addition to the imperial appeal "To my peoples", which appeared in all the media of the empire, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten On 29 July, the day after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, the media published an article about the capture of Belgrade by Prince Eugene in 1717. The tone in the media was celebratory, although not entirely without foreboding of what was to come.

"The Emperor's appeal to his people will be deeply felt. The internal strife has been silenced and the speculations of our enemies about unrest and similar things have been miserably put to shame. Above all, the Germans stand by the Emperor and the Empire in their old and well-tried loyalty: this time, too, they are ready to stand up for dynasty and fatherland with their blood. We are facing difficult days; no one can even guess what fate will bring us, what it will bring to Europe, what it will bring to the world. We can only trust with our old Emperor in our strength and in God and cherish the confidence that, if we find unity and stick together, we must be granted victory, for we did not want war and our cause is that of justice!"

Theologians such as Joseph Seeber (1856 - 1919) and Anton Müllner alias Bruder Willram (1870 - 1919) who, with her sermons and writings such as "Das blutige Jahr" elevated the war to a crusade against France and Italy.

Many Innsbruckers volunteered for the campaign against Serbia, which was thought to be a matter of a few weeks or months. Such a large number of volunteers came from outside the city to join the military commissions that Innsbruck was almost bursting at the seams. Nobody could have guessed how different things would turn out. Even after the first battles in distant Galicia, it was clear that it would not be a matter of months.

In 1915, the Kingdom of Italy entered the war on the side of France and England. This meant that the front went right through what was then Tyrol. From the Ortler in the west across northern Lake Garda to the Sextener Dolomiten the battles of the mountain war took place. Innsbruck was not directly affected by the fighting. However, the war could at least be heard as far as the provincial capital, as was reported in the newspaper of 7 July 1915:

„Bald nach Beginn der Feindseligkeiten der Italiener konnte man in der Gegend der Serlesspitze deutlich Kanonendonner wahrnehmen, der von einem der Kampfplätze im Süden Tirols kam, wahrscheinlich von der Vielgereuter Hochebene. In den letzten Tagen ist nun in Innsbruck selbst und im Nordosten der Stadt unzweifelhaft der Schall von Geschützdonner festgestellt worden, einzelne starke Schläge, die dumpf, nicht rollend und tönend über den Brenner herüberklangen. Eine Täuschung ist ausgeschlossen. In Innsbruck selbst ist der Donner der Kanonen schwerer festzustellen, weil hier der Lärm zu groß ist, es wurde aber doch einmal abends ungefähr um 9 Uhr, als einigermaßen Ruhe herrschte, dieser unzweifelhafte von unseren Mörsern herrührender Donner gehört.“

Until the transfer of regular troops from the eastern front to the Tyrolean borders, the national defence depended on the Standschützen, a troop consisting of men under 21, over 42 or unfit for regular military service.

The front was relatively far away from Innsbruck, but the war penetrated civilian life. This experience of the total involvement of society as a whole was new to the people. Barracks were erected in the Höttinger Au to house prisoners of war. Transports of wounded brought such a large number of horribly injured people that many civilian buildings such as the university library, which was currently under construction, or Ambras Castle were converted into military hospitals. The Pradl military cemetery was established to cope with the large number of fallen soldiers. A predecessor to tram line 3 was set up to transport the wounded from the railway station to the new garrison hospital, today's Conrad barracks in Pradl. The population in Innsbruck suffered from shortages, especially in the last winter, which was known as the Hunger winter went down in European history. In the final years of the war, food was supplied via ration coupons. 500 g of meat, 60 g of butter and 2 kg of potatoes were the basic diet per person - per week, mind you. Archive photos show the long queues of desperate and hungry people outside the food shops.

In October 1918, the first air raid alert was sounded, but no damage was done. At this time, most people were already aware that the war was lost and what fate awaited Tyrol, as this article from 6 October 1918 shows:

 „Aeußere und innere Feinde würfeln heute um das Land Andreas Hofers. Der letzte Wurf ist noch grausamer; schändlicher ist noch nie ein freies Land geschachert worden. Das Blut unserer Väter, Söhne und Brüder ist umsonst geflossen, wenn dieser schändliche Plan Wirklichkeit werden soll. Der letzte Wurf ist noch nicht getan. Darum auf Tiroler, zum Tiroler Volkstag in Brixen am 13. Oktober 1918 (nächsten Sonntag). Deutscher Boden muß deutsch bleiben, Tiroler Boden muß tirolisch bleiben. Tiroler entscheidet selbst über Eure Zukunft!“

On 4 November, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy finally agreed an armistice. This gave the Allies the right to occupy areas of the monarchy. The very next day, Bavarian troops entered Innsbruck. Austria's ally Germany was still at war with Italy and was afraid that the front could be moved closer to the German Reich in North Tyrol. Fortunately for Innsbruck and the surrounding area, however, Germany also surrendered a week later on 11 November. This meant that the major battles between regular armies did not take place.

Nevertheless, Innsbruck was in danger. Huge columns of military vehicles, trains full of soldiers and thousands of emaciated soldiers making their way home from the front on foot passed through the city. The city not only had to keep its own citizens in check and guarantee rations, but also protect itself from looting. In order to maintain public order, defence groups were formed from schoolchildren, students, workers and citizens. On 23 November 1918, Italian troops occupied the city and the surrounding area. Mayor Greil's appeasement to the people of Innsbruck to hand over the city without rioting was successful. Although there were isolated riots, hunger riots and looting, there were no armed clashes with the occupying troops or even a Bolshevik revolution as in Munich.

In Innsbruck, memorials to the First World War and the fallen are mainly found at churches and cemeteries. The Kaiserjägermuseum on Mount Isel displays uniforms, weapons and pictures of the battle. Streets in Innsbruck are dedicated to the two theologians Anton Müllner and Josef Seeber. A street was also named after the commander-in-chief of the Imperial and Royal Army on the Southern Front, Archduke Eugene. There is a memorial to the unsuccessful commander in front of the Hofgarten. The eastern part of the Amras military cemetery commemorates the Italian occupation.