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.

Auch in Innsbruck war die Begeisterung für den Krieg 1914 groß gewesen. Vom Nationalismus und der Begeisterung für „Gott, Kaiser und Vaterland“ der Zeit angetrieben, begrüßten Bauernsöhne und Studenten den Krieg zum allergrößten Teil einhellig. Klerus und Presse stimmten in den allgemeinen Jubel mit ein und heizten die Sache weiter an. Besonders „verdient“ machten sich dabei auch Theologen wie Joseph Seeber (1856 – 1919) und 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, the defence of the country depended on the Standschützen, a troop made up of men under 21, over 42 or unfit for regular military service. Every day, unedifying news from the front, coffins and prisoners of war arrived. Wounded transports unloaded human material for the hospitals in the hinterland. The Pradl military cemetery was established to cope with the large number of fallen soldiers.

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 there were air raids, 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. In order to maintain public order, defence groups were formed from schoolchildren, students, workers and citizens. The town not only had to keep its own citizens in check and guarantee food supplies, but also protect itself from looting.

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. There were hardly any riots.

The economic prospects in Innsbruck were miserable in the post-war years. Although the Republic of German-Austria had been proclaimed, it was unclear what would happen to Tyrol. At the peace negotiations in Paris, the Brenner Pass was declared the new border. The historic Tyrol was divided in two. 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. A passage from the short story collection "Die Front über den Gipfeln" (The Front above the Peaks) by the National Socialist author Karl Springenschmid reflects the general mood:

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

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

The annexation to Germany was approved by 98% in a vote in Tyrol, but never materialised. A separate republic with Bavaria was also on the cards. Many people, especially civil servants and public sector employees, had lost their jobs. Tourism was non-existent. It was not until 1923, with the currency reorganisation under Chancellor Ignaz Seipel, that Innsbruck slowly began to recover.

Places of remembrance of the First World War in Innsbruck can be found above all at churches, which commemorate the fallen parishioners, and cemeteries. The Pradl cemetery is particularly interesting. Innsbruck street names are dedicated to the two theologians Anton Müllner and Josef Seeber.