The period between the French Revolution and the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 was a period of war. The monarchies of Europe, led by the Habsburgs, had declared war on the French Republic. Fears were rife that the motto of the Revolution "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" could spread across Europe. A young general named Napoleon Bonaparte was with his italienischen Armee advanced across the Alps as part of the coalition wars and met the Austrian troops there. It was not just a war for territory and power, it was a battle of systems. The Grande Armee of the revolutionary French Republic met the arch-Catholic Habsburgs.

Tyrolean riflemen were involved in the fighting to defend the country's borders against the invading French. Companies such as the Höttinger Schützen, founded in 1796, faced the most advanced and best army in the world at the time. The Cult of the Sacred Heart, which still enjoys great popularity in Tyrol today, dates back to this time. In a hopeless situation, the Tyrolean troops renewed their covenant with the heart of Jesus to ask for protection. It was the abbot of Stams Monastery who petitioned the provincial estates to henceforth organise an annual "das Fest des göttlichen Herzens Jesu mit feierlichem Gottesdienst zu begehen, wenn Tirol von der drohenden Feindesgefahr befreit werde." Every year, the Sacred Heart celebrations were discussed and announced with great pomp in the press. Particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they were an explosive mixture of popular superstition, Catholicism and national resentment against everything French and Italian. Alongside Cranach's Mother of Mercy, the depiction of the heart of Jesus is probably the most popular Christian motif in the Tyrolean region to this day and is emblazoned on the façades of countless houses.

In the war years of 1848, 1859 and 1866, the so-called Italian wars of unification. In the course of the 19th century, at the latest since 1848, there was a veritable national frenzy among young men. Volunteer armies sprang up in all regions of Europe. Students and academics who came together in their associations, gymnasts, marksmen, all wanted to prove their new love of the nation on the battlefield and supported the official armies. Probably the most famous battle of the Wars of unification took place in Solferino near Lake Garda in 1859. Horrified by the bloody events, Henry Durant decided to found the Red Cross. The writer Joseph Roth described the events in the first pages of his classic book, which is well worth reading Radetzkymarsch.

"In the battle of Solferino, he (note: Lieutenant Trotta) commanded a platoon as an infantry lieutenant. The battle had been going on for half an hour. Three paces in front of him he saw the white backs of his soldiers. The first row of his platoon was kneeling, the second was standing. Everyone was cheerful and certain of victory. They had eaten copiously and drunk brandy at the expense and in honour of the emperor, who had been in the field since yesterday. Here and there one fell out of line."

As a garrison town, Innsbruck was an important supply centre. After the Congress of Vienna, the Tyrolean Jägerkorps the k.k. Tiroler Kaiserjägerregiment an elite unit that was deployed in these conflicts. Volunteer units such as the Innsbruck academics or the Stubai Riflemen were fighting in Italy. The media fuelled the atmosphere away from the front line. The "Innsbrucker Zeitung" predigte in ihren Artikeln Kaisertreue und großdeutsch-tirolischen Nationalismus, wetterte gegen das Italienertum und Franzosen und pries den Mut Tiroler Soldaten.

"Die starke Besetzung der Höhen am Ausgange des Valsugana bei Primolano und le Tezze gab schon oft den Innsbrucker-Akademikern I. und den Stubaiern Anlaß, freiwillige Ercur:sionen gegen le Tezze, Fonzago und Fastro, als auch auf das rechte Brenta-Ufer und den Höhen gegen die kleinen Lager von den Sette comuni zu machen...Am 19. schon haben die Stubaier einige Feinde niedergestreckt, als sie sich das erste mal hinunterwagten, indem sie sich ihnen entgegenschlichen..."

The year 1866 was particularly costly for the Austrian Empire, with the loss of Veneto and Lombardy in Italy. At the same time, Prussia took the lead in the German Confederation, the successor organisation to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. For Innsbruck, the withdrawal of the Habsburg Monarchy from the German Confederation meant that it had finally become a city on the western periphery of the empire. The tendency towards so-called Großdeutschen LösungThe idea of statehood together with the German Empire instead of the independent Austrian Empire was more pronounced in Tyrol than in the rest of Austria.

The national aspirations of the individual ethnic groups did not stop at Tyrol, as the Trentino region between Salurn and Riva on Lake Garda also included an Italian-speaking part of the country. In the Tyrolean state parliament, Italian-speaking members of parliament called for so-called Irredentistsmore rights and autonomy for what was then South Tyrol. In Innsbruck, there were repeated tensions and clashes between Italian and German-speaking students. The WallschenThis term for Italians persists to this day and they were considered dishonourable, unreliable and lazy.

With the Tummelplatz, the Pradl military cemetery and the Kaiserjägermuseum on Mount Isel, Innsbruck has several places of remembrance of this time of great loss for the Habsburgs.

After hundreds of years, Innsbruck had developed from a Roman castle into a town. This legal recognition by the sovereign was accompanied by rights and duties: market rights, building rights, customs rights and its own jurisdiction were transferred to the city. The town also monitored compliance with religious order. "Heretics" and dissenters were not reprimanded by the church but by the city government and, in some cases, even sent to prison. The citizens of the city were no longer directly subject to the sovereign, but to the city's jurisdiction, at least within the city walls. The popular saying "Stadtluft macht frei" was due to the fact that after one year in the city, one was free of all obligations to one's former landlord. In return, the citizens had to take the oath of citizenship. This oath included the payment of taxes and the military defence of the town. From 1511, the city council was, according to the Landlibell Emperor Maximilian was also obliged to provide a contingent of conscripts for the defence of the country. In addition to this, there were volunteers who Freifähnlein For example, during the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529, Innsbruckers were among the city's defenders.

Innsbruck had a completely different social composition to the neighbouring villages. Craftsmen, merchants, civil servants and court servants characterised everyday life. Unlike farmers, craftsmen belonged to the mobile classes in the Middle Ages and early modern times. After their apprenticeship, they went to the Walzbefore taking the master craftsman's examination and either returning home or settling in another city. Craftsmen not only transferred knowledge, they also spread cultural, social and political ideas across Europe. The craft guilds sometimes exercised their own jurisdiction alongside the municipal jurisdiction among their members. They were social structures within the city structure that had a great influence on politics. Wages, prices and social life were regulated by the guilds under the supervision of the sovereign. One could speak of an early social partnership, as the guilds also provided social security for their members in the event of illness or occupational disability. Individual trades such as locksmiths, tanners, platers, carpenters, bakers, butchers and blacksmiths each had their own guild, headed by a master craftsman.

In the 15th century, space became tight in the rapidly growing city of Innsbruck under Maximilian I. Only free subjects born in wedlock were able to obtain city rights. Not everyone was allowed to move into the city. To become a citizen of the city, you had to either own a house or have skills in a trade in which the city's guilds were interested. The dispute over who is a "real" Innsbrucker and who is not continues to this day. The fact that migration and exchange with others have always guaranteed prosperity and made Innsbruck the liveable city it is today is often forgotten.

From the 14th century, Innsbruck demonstrably had a city council and a mayor who was elected annually by the citizens. These were not secret but public elections, which were held every year around Christmas time. In the Innsbrucker Geschichtsalmanach von 1948 findet man Aufzeichnungen über die Wahl des Jahres 1598.

The Feast of St. Erhard, i.e., January 8th, played a significant role in the lives of the citizens of Innsbruck each year. On this day, they gathered to elect the city officials, namely the mayor, city judge, public orator, and the twelve-member council. A detailed account of the election process between 1598 and 1607 is provided by a protocol preserved in the city archive: "... The ringing of the great bell summoned the council and the citizenry to the town hall, and once the honorable council and the entire community were assembled at the town hall, the honorable council first convened in the council chamber and heard the farewell of the outgoing mayor of the previous year, Augustin Tauscher."

The mayor represented the city vis-à-vis the other estates and the sovereign, who exercised overlordship over the city to a greater or lesser extent depending on the era. Each city councillor had their own clearly assigned tasks to fulfil, such as the supervision of market law, the care of the hospital and poor relief or the customs regulations, which were particularly important for Innsbruck. In all these political processes, one should always remember that Innsbruck had around 5,000 inhabitants in the 16th century, only a small proportion of whom had citizenship. The dispossessed, travellers, unemployed, servants, diplomats, employees, women and students were not entitled to vote. Voting was a privilege of the male upper class.

From the 14th century onwards, the taxes paid by the citizens no longer had to be passed on to the sovereign. There was a fixed levy from the city to the sovereign. The city government itself could determine which group within the city had to pay which tax. The city was allowed to manage the difference between income and expenditure as it saw fit. In addition to defence, expenditure included the care of the poor. Citizens in need could go to the "Boiling kitchen" meals, if they had the civil right.

In addition to taxes, customs duties were an important source of income for Innsbruck. Customs duties were levied at the city gate at the Inn bridge. There were two types of customs duty. The small duty was based on the number of draught animals in the wagon, the large duty on the type and quantity of goods. The customs revenue was shared between Innsbruck and Hall. Hall had the task of maintaining the Inn bridge.

Contrary to popular belief, the Middle Ages were not a lawless time of arbitrariness. In Innsbruck, as well as in the province of Tyrol, there was a code that regulated right and wrong as well as the rights and duties of citizens very precisely. These regulations changed according to the customs of the time. The medieval court days were organised at the "Dingstätte" is held outdoors. The tradition of the Thing goes back to the old Germanic Thingwhere all free men gathered to dispense justice. The city council appointed a judge who was responsible for all offences that were not subject to the blood court. Punishments ranged from fines to pillorying and imprisonment.

The penal system also included less humane methods than are common today, but torture was not used indiscriminately and arbitrarily. However, torture was also regulated as part of the procedure in particularly serious cases. Until the 17th century, suspects and criminals in Innsbruck were Kräuterturm at the south-east corner of the city wall, on today's Herzog-Otto-Ufer. There was no police force, but the town magistrate employed servants and town watchmen were posted at the town gates to keep the peace. It was a civic duty to help catch criminals. Vigilante justice was forbidden.

The regional court still had to rule on serious offences. Crimes such as theft, murder and arson were subject to this blood law. In the case of Innsbruck, the provincial court was on the Sonnenburgwhich was located south above Innsbruck. From 1817 - 1887 the Leuthaus the seat of the court judge at Wilten Abbey.

From the late 15th century, Innsbruck's executioner was centralised and responsible for several courts and was based in Hall. The execution centres were located in several places over the years. For a long time, there was a gallows on a hill in today's Dreiheiligen district, right next to the main road. The Köpflplatz was located until 1731 at today's corner of Fallbachgasse / Weiherburggasse in Anpruggen. It was not uncommon for the condemned man to give his executioner a kind of tip so that he would endeavour to aim as accurately as possible in order to make the execution as painless as possible. Delinquents who were particularly harmful to the authorities and public order, such as the "heretic" Jakob Hutter or the captured leaders of the peasant uprisings of 1525 and 1526, were executed before the executioner. Goldenen Dachl executed in a manner suitable for the public. "Embarrassing" punishments such as quartering or wheeling, from the Latin word poena were not the order of the day, but could be ordered in special cases. Executions were a public demonstration of the authorities' power. It was seen as a way of cleansing society of criminals. The bodies of the executed were often left hanging as a deterrent and buried outside the consecrated area of the cemeteries.

With the centralisation of law under Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the 18th century and the General Civil Code in the 19th century under Franz I, the law passed from cities and sovereigns to the monarch and their administrative bodies at various levels. Torture was abolished. The Enlightenment had fundamentally changed the concept of law, punishment and rehabilitation. The collection of taxes was also centralised, which resulted in a great loss of importance for the local nobility and an increase in the status of the civil service. With the increasing centralisation under Maria Theresa and Joseph II, taxes and customs duties were also gradually centralised and collected by the Imperial Court Chamber. As a result, Innsbruck, like many municipalities at the time, lost a large amount of revenue, which was only partially offset by equalisation.

The abundance of churches, chapels, crucifixes and murals in public spaces has a peculiar effect on many visitors to Innsbruck from other countries. Not only places of worship, but also many private homes are decorated with depictions of the Holy Family or biblical scenes. The Christian faith and its institutions have characterised everyday life throughout Europe for centuries. Innsbruck, as the residence city of the strictly Catholic Habsburgs and capital of the self-proclaimed Holy Land of Tyrol, was particularly favoured when it came to the decoration of ecclesiastical buildings. The dimensions of the churches alone are gigantic by the standards of the past. In the 16th century, the town with its population of just under 5,000 had several churches that outshone every other building in terms of splendour and size, including the palaces of the aristocracy. Wilten Monastery was a huge complex in the centre of a small farming village that was grouped around it. The spatial dimensions of the places of worship reflect their importance in the political and social structure.

For many Innsbruck residents, the church was not only a moral authority, but also a secular landlord. The Bishop of Brixen was formally on an equal footing with the sovereign. The peasants worked on the bishop's estates in the same way as they worked for a secular prince on his estates. This gave them tax and legal sovereignty over many people. The ecclesiastical landowners were not regarded as less strict, but even as particularly demanding towards their subjects. At the same time, it was also the clergy in Innsbruck who were largely responsible for social welfare, nursing, care for the poor and orphans, feeding and education. The influence of the church extended into the material world in much the same way as the state does today with its tax office, police, education system and labour office. What democracy, parliament and the market economy are to us today, the Bible and pastors were to the people of past centuries: a reality that maintained order. To believe that all churchmen were cynical men of power who exploited their uneducated subjects is not correct. The majority of both the clergy and the nobility were pious and godly, albeit in a way that is difficult to understand from today's perspective.

Unlike today, religion was by no means a private matter. Violations of religion and morals were tried in secular courts and severely penalised. The charge for misconduct was heresy, which encompassed a wide range of offences. Sodomy, i.e. any sexual act that did not serve procreation, sorcery, witchcraft, blasphemy - in short, any deviation from the right belief in God - could be punished with burning. Burning was intended to purify the condemned and destroy them and their sinful behaviour once and for all in order to eradicate evil from the community.

For a long time, the church regulated the everyday social fabric of people down to the smallest details of daily life. Church bells determined people's schedules. Their sound called people to work, to church services or signalled the death of a member of the congregation. People were able to distinguish between individual bell sounds and their meaning. Sundays and public holidays structured the time. Fasting days regulated the diet. Family life, sexuality and individual behaviour had to be guided by the morals laid down by the church. The salvation of the soul in the next life was more important to many people than happiness on earth, as this was in any case predetermined by the events of time and divine will. Purgatory, the last judgement and the torments of hell were a reality and also frightened and disciplined adults.

While Innsbruck's bourgeoisie had been at least gently kissed awake by the ideas of the Enlightenment after the Napoleonic Wars, the majority of people in the surrounding communities remained attached to the mixture of conservative Catholicism and superstitious popular piety.

Faith and the church still have a firm place in the everyday lives of Innsbruck residents, albeit often unnoticed. The resignations from the church in recent decades have put a dent in the official number of members and leisure events are better attended than Sunday masses. However, the Roman Catholic Church still has a lot of ground in and around Innsbruck, even outside the walls of the respective monasteries and educational centres. A number of schools in and around Innsbruck are also under the influence of conservative forces and the church. And anyone who always enjoys a public holiday, pecks one Easter egg after another or lights a candle on the Christmas tree does not have to be a Christian to act in the name of Jesus disguised as tradition.