St. Nikolaus, Mariahilf, Hötting and Mühlau

Wenn man so will, nahm Innsbruck im 12. Jahrhundert seinen Anfang bei den bunten Häusern am nördlichen Innufer. 1133 wurde in den heutigen Stadtteilen Mariahilf und St. Nikolaus von den Fürsten von Andechs ein Markt gegründet, von dem man in Urkunden als Ynbruggen spoke. As the town slowly moved across the Inn, the name "Inn" became established for the parts north of the bridge. Anpruggen. Even then, Innsbruck was an important hub for trade. A considerable proportion of the goods traffic between the German lands in the north and the northern Italian cities in the south travelled via Innsbruck. For a long time, the road led to the west via today's Schneeburggasse in Hötting, as the area of land in the valley, which is now the Höttinger Au, was a marshland. The Mariahilfstraße along the Inn was only opened up as a main transport route with the increase in trade in the 16th century.

The first craftsmen and inns had already settled here, and after the road was built, the area along the Inn expanded westwards. Silver from Schwaz and salt from Hall were traded along the salt road towards Switzerland. Until 1837, the main road through the Obere Anpruggen eine Sackgasse und offiziell als Obere Innbrückenstraße bekannt. Den Namen Mariahilfstraße erhielt sie von der gleichnamigen Kirche. Erst mit der Eröffnung der Kettenbrücke im Saggen im 19. Jahrhundert verlor die Mariahilfstraße wieder an Bedeutung als Verkehrsader.

The transport routes to the east led directly through today's St-Nikolaus-Gasse. For a very long time, St Nicholas was considered a wretched part of the city. It is no coincidence that the district bears the name of St Nicholas of Myra, as he was, among other things, the patron saint of those less favoured by life, such as prostitutes and criminals. St. Nicholas was home to everything that was not wanted in the city but was necessary for its functioning, such as the execution site, popularly known as Köpflplatz, and the penitentiary and workhouse. From the Middle Ages until 1789, the special sickhouse for people with infectious diseases such as the plague was located here. While the normal hospital was still in the immediate vicinity of the town, the infectious sick and the socially most vulnerable in society were kept further away from the centre. The Jewish cemetery was also located in St. Nikolaus am Judenbühel, just below the Alpine Zoo. The drinking water pipeline from the Nordkette, which was built under Maximilian in 1485 and fed Innsbruck's fountains, ran through St. Nikolaus. Innsbruck was very fortunate to have access to fresh drinking water from the nearby mountains. Until the drinking water pipeline was built, Innsbruck, like other towns, was dependent on the water in the fountains. The water was often stale and full of pathogens. It was not for nothing that beer and wine were considered safer everyday drinks than water.

The name Koatlackler für seine Anwohner kommt einerseits von den häufig überlaufenden Wasserleitungen, die die Stadt von den Bergen kommend versorgten, andererseits von Überschwemmungen und dem von der Stadt abgeleiteten, verschmutzten Wasser, das flussabwärts in St. Nikolaus landete, eben in der Koatlackn. Einen großen Teil zur Verunreinigung trugen auch die Metzger und die Fleischbank an der Innbrücke bei, die ihre Fleischabfälle im Inn entsorgten, der sie flussabwärts trug. Heute finden sich in den „bunten“ Stadtteilen Anpruggens, St. Nikolaus und Mariahilf, entlang des Inns viele Kneipen, Lokale und kleine Geschäfte.

Hötting was a village in its own right until it was incorporated in 1938. With its 8,000 inhabitants, it was one of the largest communities in Tyrol in the 20th century. The Allerheiligenhöfe and the Galgenbühel, another execution site from days gone by alongside the Köpflplatz at the eastern entrance to the town in St. Nikolaus, marked the western end of the municipality. Successful craft businesses were the reason for the self-confidence with which Höttinger confronted the city of Innsbruck. Economically, the village was on a par with the city for a long time. It was only with the development of the new Saggen district and the incorporation of Pradl and Wilten that Innsbruck finally overtook its neighbour from above.

After industrialisation, the workers of factories such as the Rauchmühle moved to Hötting. The people of Hötting were always regarded as wild fellows. Children from Hötting were considered bad company for the Innsbruck kids. In 1923, the newspaper reported:

"Recently, two pistols were taken from a 14-year-old boy in Schneeburggasse, with which he had allegedly amused himself by shooting sparrows. Shortly before, the dog of the tradesman Inwinkel had been shot in the square. The bullet penetrated the animal's head. As many children were playing in the square, it was fortunate that the shooting did not cause any major damage. The case is likely to have legal repercussions."

Anders als in der Stadt mit Angestellten in Handel und Verwaltung, Universitätsprofessoren, Ärzten und Anwälten waren hier vor allem Handwerker, Büchsengießer, Bauern und Arbeiter aus dem Bergwerk unter der Hungerburg ansässig. Im politisch radikalen und aufgeheizten Klima der Zwischenkriegszeit galt das Dorf oberhalb Innsbrucks als das „Rote Hötting“. Die Höttinger Saalschlacht von 1932, die in Innsbruck legendären Ruf genießt, war dem Ruf des Stadtteils als heißes Pflaster ebenfalls zuträglich.

Das im Osten angrenzende Mühlau war dank dem Weyrerareal ebenfalls von der Industrialisierung ergriffen worden. Mühlau war auch Standort einer Kuranstalt. Was heute undenkbar wäre, funktionierte im Innsbruck des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wenige Meter von der Textilfabrik entfernt gab es mit dem Badehaus Mühlau eine Kuranstalt. Innsbruck war mittlerweile gut an das Bahnnetz angebunden und leicht für Gäste erreichbar. Das Bergpanorama, das Gäste genossen, versprühte alpinen Charme, ermöglichte dem nicht ausschließlich an der Gesundheit interessierten Reisenden und seiner Begleitung, anders als in abgelegenen Orten wie Davos, trotzdem ein wenig urbane Zerstreuung zwischen den Anwendungen, wie im Magazin Der Alpenfreund 1870 zu lesen war:

"But if the alpine lover is blessed with a family, there is no need to worry about the nervous conditions and seizures of his beloved wife or the scrophulic ailments of one of his children. He just takes his loved ones with him to Mühlau, leaves the healing confidently to the care of the owner of the aforementioned establishment, Dr Schlechter, who will know how to achieve his healing purposes with cold water cures, brine baths, gymnastics and electro-magnetism, and - walk confidently towards heaven on the mountains himself! (Note: quoted from sagen.at)"

Today, the Mühlau bathhouse is a residential building worth seeing that has been architecturally preserved in the style of the 19th century at Anton-Rauch-Straße 30. Today, Hötting and Mühlau are middle-class neighbourhoods where neither magnetic treatments are administered nor subversive dangers threaten.