The Middle Ages are often portrayed in books and films as a dark age in which tyrannical aristocrats and bloodthirsty robber barons oppressed mouse-grey clad peasants and women were burned at the stake as witches without trial. This depiction does not correspond to the facts in any way. The Middle Ages were not a colourless era, in fact the period up to 1500 was extremely colourful, nor was it characterised by lawlessness and arbitrariness. The Middle Ages were also not the great time of large-scale witch burnings. This dark episode would not begin until the 16th century. This dark chapter in history began in 1485, partly in Innsbruck with the involvement of Heinrich Kramer, the author of the Witch hammers.

The economic and social circumstances in cities such as pre-modern Innsbruck were a good breeding ground for witch trials. Cities grew at an above-average rate. Officials, court servants, showmen, soldiers, merchants and other "foreign people" caused insecurity. The mortality rate for children under the age of 10 was close to 50%. There were also no weather reports on which farmers could base their activities. Food was permanently scarce, which led to an increased incidence of diseases and deformities of all kinds. Medicine and science were not yet ready to explain all this.

Many things were therefore attributed to supernatural powers. People's superstitions included black magic, which was harmful, and white magic, which was helpful. Saints were asked for help. Processions and prayers were supposed to help people avoid the devil and damnation in the afterlife. Harmful objects such as bone splinters from unbaptised deceased children or pieces of wood from a gallows brought bad luck, while relics were highly sought-after artefacts to protect against this. Even the smallest particles of a saint's body were believed to have powers that could work miracles. Love or sickness spells, curses, devil worship - the reasons why one could be accused of witchcraft in 15th century Innsbruck were manifold.

Heinrich Kramer was a misogynistic, superstitious religious zealot, driven by a belief in the devil and the apocalypse, who unfortunately had been authorised by the Pope to hunt witches and who took advantage of this situation. Like a showman, he travelled the country as an inquisitor and came to Innsbruck in 1485. His lectures and sermons on magic and sorcery fell on fertile ground in Innsbruck. Kramer encouraged his audience to report suspects of witchcraft, which was gratefully accepted. Envy and envy were part of everyday life within the city community. Settling disputes by means of denunciation was a method that some townspeople liked to utilise. 50 people, the majority of them women, were suspected of witchcraft after being denounced by fellow citizens on charges of heresy. After arrests and interrogations, seven people were charged and threatened with the death penalty. The reasons for the charges were manifold. Helene Scheuberin, for example, was accused of having poisoned the knight Jörg Spiess by magic.

It was Bishop Golser of Bressanone who doubted Kramer's account and intervened. His envoy found serious procedural flaws. A lawyer was appointed to represent all seven accused women in court. In the end, all the suspects were released. The bishop asked Kramer to leave Tyrol. "In der Praxis zeigte sich seine Dummheit, denn er unterstellt vieles, was gar nicht erwiesen war," wrote Golser in a letter. This disappointing trial was the start of a dubious career for Kramer, whose honour had been insulted. Following this episode, he wrote his work Der Hexenhammer. Er leitete es sogar bezugnehmend auf Innsbruck ein mit „aber was, wenn ich alle (Fälle) berichten wollte, die allein in jener Stadt gefunden worden sind? Es hieße, ein Buch zu verfassen.“

Kramer's work became the standard work of the inquisitors of Europe. Almost at the same time, book printing celebrated its major breakthrough around 1500 and simplified the distribution of this guide to witch hunting and trials. It should be noted that most witch trials were not heard in church courts. Heresy was a secular crime, for which there were guidelines, at least on paper. Torture was regulated, which did not make it any less terrible, but at least took away some of the arbitrariness.

In Europe, it is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people died as heretics, witches and sorcerers. This affected elites who aroused envy as well as Protestants, marginalised groups and the socially disadvantaged, who were scapegoats for bad weather, illness and other misfortune. The ratio between men and women was around 1:3. Innsbruck was to be spared further waves of witch hunts after 1485. The intervention of Golser and some of the people of Innsbruck played a decisive role in this.

The first years of Emperor Ferdinand I's reign (1503 - 1564) as sovereign of Tyrol were characterised by theological and social unrest. Theological and social tensions increased during this crisis-ridden period. The new law, which had been introduced by Maximilian's administration, stood in opposition to the old customary law. Hunting in the forest and searching for firewood had thus become illegal for the majority of the population. Siegmund's lavish court management and Maximilian's wars, including the pledging of a large part of the state's assets, had put Tyrol's financial situation in dire straits. At this time, two men emerged in Tyrol, Jakob Hutter (1500 - 1536) and Michael Gaismair (1490 - 1532), who threatened the existing order and paid for it with their lives.

Jakob Hutter was the figurehead of the Anabaptists, who were mainly active in the Inn Valley and the Puster Valley in South Tyrol. The first signs of the Little Ice Age caused an increase in crop failures. Many people saw this as a punishment from God for people's sinful lives. Sects such as the Anabaptists preached the pure doctrine of religion in order to free themselves from this guilt and restore order. The Roman Church and the pious Prince Ferdinand were particularly displeased by their attitude towards worldly possessions and baptism. People should freely express their will to join Christianity as adult and responsible citizens and not be baptised as children. The Anabaptists posed a threat to public order for the strictly religious Prince Ferdinand, who was loyal to the Pope, and were welcome scapegoats for the majority of Tyroleans. As early as 1524, three Anabaptists were burned at the stake for heresy in front of the Golden Roof in Innsbruck. Five years later, thousands of Anabaptists were expelled from the country and emigrated to Moravia, today's Czech Republic.

One of them was Jakob Hutter. Having grown up in South Tyrol, his apprenticeship and journeyman years as a hatter took him to Prague and Carinthia, where he probably first came into contact with the Anabaptists and their teachings. When the religious community was also expelled from Moravia in 1535, Jakob Hutter returned to Tyrol. He was captured, taken to Innsbruck and imprisoned in the Kräuterturm gefoltert. Er fand als Anführer der Häretiker für sein Wirken 1536 vor dem Goldenen Dachl his end at the stake.

The community of Hutterischen Brüder kam nach ihrer endgültigen Vertreibung aus den deutschen Ländern und langen Irrfahrten und Fluchten quer durch Europa im 19. Jahrhundert in Nordamerika an. Noch heute gibt es einige hundert Hutterer Kolonien in Kanada und den USA, die noch immer nach dem Gebot der Jerusalemer Gütergemeinschaft in einer Art kommunistischem Urchristentum leben. Wie die Mennoniten und die Amisch leben die Hutterer meist isoliert von der Außenwelt und haben sich eine eigene Form der an das Deutsche angelehnten Sprache erhalten. In Innsbruck erinnern eine kleine Tafel am Goldenen Dachl sowie eine Straße im Westen der Stadt an Jakob Hutter. 2008 hatten die Bischöfe von Brixen und Innsbruck gemeinsam mit den Landeshauptleuten Nord- und Südtirols in einem Brief an den Ältestenrat der Hutterischen Brüder das knapp 500 Jahre vergangene Unrecht an der Täufergemeinschaft eingestanden. 2015 wurde im Saggen eein paar Schritte südwestlich des Panoramagebäudes der Huttererpark eröffnet, in dem das Denkmal „Übrige Brocken“ an das Schicksal und Leid der Verfolgten erinnert.

Der größte Aufruhr im Zuge der Reformation in Tirol war der Bauernaufstand ab 1525, der eng mit dem Namen Michael Gaismairs verbunden ist. Anders als Hutter, der vor allem eine spirituelle Erneuerung forderte, wollte Gaismair auch soziale Veränderungen vorantreiben. Der Tiroler Aufstand war ein Teil dessen, was als Deutscher Bauernkrieg große Teile des Heiligen Römischen Reiches was shaken. It was partly reformist, theological fervour and partly dissatisfaction with the social situation and distribution of goods that drove the rebels. Unlike Martin Luther, Gaismair was not a theologian. He was the son of a mining entrepreneur, one could say educated middle class. While working in the service of the Bishop of Brixen, he saw how the sovereign administration and jurisdiction treated the subjects. In May 1525, he took part in the uprising against the clergy in Brixen. A mob invaded the Neustift monastery and the bishop's property. The enraged subjects plundered the monastery and destroyed the Urbare, the records of the peasants' property, debts and obligations to the lord of the manor. The bishop was also a secular prince and was regarded as a particularly strict sovereign.

The movement quickly gained momentum and spread rapidly. Uprisings took place throughout the country. In Innsbruck, Wilten Abbey, the seat of the landlord of many subjects, was besieged. Gaismair was chosen by the rebels as captain to conduct negotiations with the Tyrolean prince, Ferdinand I, at the provincial parliament in Innsbruck. He drew up a utopian type of provincial constitution. His intention was not to shake Prince Ferdinand himself, but to ask him to Namen Gottes to organise and administer the country more fairly. The clergy were to concern themselves with the salvation of their subjects instead of politics. Land and goods such as mining yields were to be distributed in a socially just manner and interest was to be cancelled. The restrictions on hunting and fishing imposed on the Tyroleans by Ferdinand's predecessor Maximilian I (83) were to be lifted. These concerns were emphasised in the 62 Merano articles collected later on 96 Innsbruck articles have been expanded.

When Gaismair and his delegation negotiated with Ferdinand and his officials in Innsbruck in June 1525, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Kräuterturm imprisoned. After almost two months in prison, he was able to escape and continue his fight from Sterzing. After several defeats, he went to neighbouring Switzerland, which was in revolt against the Habsburgs, where he met the reformer and revolutionary Huldyrich Zwingli. It was here that he wrote down his social-revolutionary national order, which envisaged a Christian state of peasants, craftsmen and miners in which goods were to be communitised. One of the articles read:

„As far as the tithe is concerned, everyone should give it according to the commandment of God, and it should be used as follows: Let every parish have a priest according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, whom the word of God proclaims to the people... what is left over is to be given to the poor."

He was also the army commander of the resistance group against the Habsburgs. The reputation of his military successes reached the Republic of Venice, which had been in constant conflict with the Habsburgs since the war with Siegmund the Rich in Coin in 1477. Gaismair was recognised as Condottiereas an army commander. However, he soon fell out of favour here too. Not only did Venice make peace with the Habsburgs, but his anti-Catholic stance and non-conformist lifestyle also aroused envy and envy. In 1532, he was murdered at his country estate near Venice with more than 40 stab wounds. It is not clear which of the many powers he had set against him was behind this.

No less interesting than his life is his post-mortem career. Gaismair never made it to the general fame of Andreas Hofer in Tyrol. To this day, he is hardly ever talked about in schools. Unlike Hofer, who rose up as a good Catholic against a foreign power, Gaismair was an insurgent, an unpleasant and lateral thinker. A play about the peasant leader by Franz Kranewitter was published in 1899. In the 20th century, Gaismair was interpreted as a fighter against the monarchy and clergy, by the National Socialists as a German hero and liberator of the peasants or by the left as an early communist. The generation of 1968 celebrated the actually pious and God-fearing revolutionary for his ideas on the communisation of property. The Tyrolean journalist and historian Claus Gatterer wrote about the constant reinterpretation of the figure of Gaismair:

 „How much truth is a people allowed to know about its past, about the growth and development of its present? .... According to the respective ideology, long-deserved heroes and saints are toppled from their pedestals and replaced by others who have been disregarded until then; or an established saint is given a new biography without further ado, which fits in with current requirements in terms of the motivation for action.“

Unlike Andreas Hofer, there are hardly any memorials in Innsbruck to Michael Gaismair and the peasant uprising of 1525. A street and a secondary school in Wilten commemorate him.

On Friedl mit der leeren Tasche followed Siegmund der Münzreiche as Prince of Tyrol. Siegmund of Tyrol (1427 - 1496) had the worst possible start to his reign. When his father Frederick IV died, Siegmund was only 12 years old. His uncle Frederick III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and father of Maximilian I, therefore took him into involuntary custody and guardianship. You could say that Siegmund began his career as a hostage of the emperor, his own cousin. Tyrol was now a rich county and the emperor was reluctant to relinquish direct control over it. It was only when the Tyrolean estates protested against this paternalism that Siegmund was able to take office. The Tyrolean Diet had taken over the affairs of government in the absence of a sovereign prince, thus demonstrating its political weight for the first time. At the age of 18, Siegmund moved to Innsbruck to take over the official duties. Four years later, he married Eleanor of Scotland (1433 - 1480), the unattractive 16-year-old daughter of King James of the House of Stewart. The marriage was to remain childless.

In the same year, Siegmund issued the Schwaz mountain regulationswhich was to become the model for all Habsburg mines. Mining officials were given more rights within their sphere of influence, similar to the universities. There were special regulations for miners within society, as they were a highly sought-after labour force. One can speak of an early social and labour law agreement. The miners worked hard, but earned relatively well. They formed a kind of middle class with greater purchasing power. The demand for meat increased. This led to a change in agriculture. In villages close to towns such as Pradl and Amras or in the Tyrolean lowlands near the Hall and Schwaz mines to the east of Innsbruck, farmers discovered livestock farming as a more profitable source of income than arable farming. To this day, the types of cultivation in the different regions of Tyrol vary greatly.

In 1484, Siegmund had the mint moved from Meran in South Tyrol to Hall, which earned him the nickname Siegmund der Münzreiche brought in. For the small town of Hall, which was located in the immediate vicinity of Innsbruck, as well as for Innsbruck itself, this meant an immense increase in value. In reality, however, despite the rich land he had inherited from Frederick IV, Siegmund was not particularly rich in coin, unlike his father, due to his opulent lifestyle. His second marriage was to Katharina of Saxony (1468 - 1524), a lady from a highly aristocratic electoral family. It was probably also thanks to the influence and court behaviour of Siegmund and his two wives that the expenditure of the Coin rich exceeded the income from taxes, salt works and mines in the long term. At the royal wedding in 1484, the bride's procession alone comprised 54 carriages. The guests had to be accommodated and catered for in Innsbruck. Even with a wife 40 years his junior, the now senile Siegmund was granted a male heir, which must have been particularly bitter for him considering the 30 children he was rumoured to have fathered out of wedlock.

Innsbruck flourished under Siegmund's court and coffers. During his opulent reign, the city became a centre of attraction for craftsmen, goldsmiths and artists. The city tower near the Old Town Hall as an expression of the city's prosperity and the first parts of the Hofburg were built under Siegmund. A glass painter settled in Innsbruck and established the tradition of glass painting in Innsbruck. Around 1900, the resulting Stained glass Innsbruck in today's Glasmalereistraße, one of the world's leading companies with branches in New York and Munich. The court library grew in step with Siegmund and Eleonore's humanistically scholarly guests. Both were considered art-loving and interested in literature. Before the invention of printing, books were an expensive hobby. Travellers and showmen were also welcome at court to entertain local and international guests.

At the same time, times became tougher for those who could not keep up with the new pace of life in the city. It can be assumed that there were around 2000 townspeople at this time. Sigmund's court probably consisted of 500 people. These "strangers" caused a sensation in Innsbruck. The gap between the social classes grew. The witch trial of 1485 took place in a climate of envy, resentment and scepticism towards the new customs that had arrived in Innsbruck.

Siegmund was not the most successful ruler of Tyrol, but is still fondly remembered today thanks to his services to the cultural upswing in Innsbruck. When he died, he had already lost his power and, under pressure from the estates, had to hand over rule over Tyrol to Maximilian I. At the end of his reign, his court was overly bloated and expensive. A lost war with the Swiss Confederates obliged him to make payments. Siegmund had to hand over Habsburg possessions in Alsace and what is now Breisgau to Charles the bold of Burgundy, the future father-in-law of Maximilian I. He sold the Austrian Forelands to the Duchy of Bavaria at a ridiculously low price and pledged the Tyrolean silver mines to Jakob Fugger.

Maximilian zählt zu den bedeutendsten Persönlichkeiten der europäischen und der Innsbrucker Stadtgeschichte. Über Tirol soll der passionierte Jäger gesagt haben: "Tirol ist ein grober Bauernkittel, der aber gut wärmt." Er machte Innsbruck in seiner Regierungszeit zu einem der wichtigsten Zentren des Heiligen Römischen Reichs. „Wer immer sich im Leben kein Gedächtnis macht, der hat nach seinem Tod kein Gedächtnis und derselbe Mensch wird mit dem Glockenton vergessen.“ Dieser Angst wirkte Maximilian höchst erfolgreich aktiv entgegen. Unter ihm spielten Propaganda, Bild und Medien eine immer stärkere Rolle, bedingt auch durch den aufkeimenden Buchdruck. Maximilian nutzte Kunst und Kultur, um sich präsent zu halten. So hielt er sich eine Reichskantorei, eine Musikkapelle, die vor allem bei öffentlichen Auftritten und Empfängen internationaler Gesandter zum Einsatz kam. Das Goldene DachlThe Hofburg, the Hofkirche and the Innsbruck Armoury were largely initiated by him, as was the paving of the streets and alleyways of the old town. He had the trade route laid in what is now Mariahilf and improved the city's water supply. Fire regulations had already existed in Innsbruck since 1510 and the new water pipeline, which had been laid to Innsbruck 25 years earlier under Maximilian, opened up new possibilities for fire protection. In 1499 Maximilian ordered the SalvatorikapelleHe began to rebuild a hospital for the needy inhabitants of Innsbruck, who had no right to a place in the Brotherhood's city hospital. He also began to chip away at the privileges of Wilten Abbey, the largest landowner in the present-day city area. Infrastructure owned by the monastery, such as the mill, sawmill and Sill Canal, were to come under greater control of the prince.

The imperial court, which was always based in Innsbruck, transformed Innsbruck's appearance and attitude. Envoys and politicians from all over Europe up to the Ottoman Empire as well as noblemen had their residences built in Innsbruck or stayed in the town's inns. Culturally, it was above all his second wife Bianca Maria Sforza who patronised Innsbruck. Not only did her wedding take place here, she also resided here for a long time, as the city was closer to her home in Milan than Maximilian's other residences. She brought her entire court with her from the Renaissance metropolis to the German lands north of the Alps.

Under Maximilian, Innsbruck not only became a cultural centre of the empire, the city also boomed economically. Among other things, Innsbruck was the centre of the postal service in the empire. The Thurn und Taxis family was granted a monopoly on this important service and chose Innsbruck as the centre of their private imperial postal service.

Maximilian was able to build on the expertise of the gunsmiths who had already established themselves in the foundries in Hötting under his predecessor Siegmund. The most famous of them was Peter "Löffler“ Laiminger. Die Geschichte der Löfflers ist im Roman Der Meister des siebten Siegels excellently processed.

The Fuggers maintained an office in Innsbruck. In addition to his favoured love of Tyrolean nature, the treasures such as salt from Hall and silver from Schwaz were at least as valuable and useful to him. Maximilian financed his lavish court, his election as king by the electors and his many wars by pledging the country's natural resources to the wealthy merchant family from Augsburg, among other things.

Maximilian was long unpopular with Tyrolean farmers during his lifetime. Maximilian curtailed the peasants' rights to the commons. Logging, hunting and fishing were placed under the control of the sovereign and were no longer common property. This had a negative impact on peasant self-sufficiency. Meat and fish, which had long been part of the diet in the Middle Ages, now became a luxury. It was around 1500 that hunters became poachers.

Many Tyroleans had to enforce the imperial will on the battlefields. Many of Maximilian's battles took place in the immediate vicinity of Tyrol. The wars demanded a great deal from the men fit for military service. This only changed in the last years of his reign. The skilful political move of the Tyrolean Landlibells from 1511 Maximilian was able to buy the affection and loyalty of his subjects and limit the influence of the bishops of Brixen and Trento. Maximilian conceded to the Tyroleans in a kind of constitution that they could only be called up as soldiers for the defence of their own country.

It is difficult to summarise Maximilian's work in Innsbruck. He is said to have been downright enamoured of his province of Tyrol. Of course, declarations of love from an emperor flatter the popular psyche to this day. His material legacy with its many magnificent buildings reinforces this positive image. He turned Innsbruck into an imperial residence city and pushed ahead with the modernisation of the infrastructure. Innsbruck became the centre of the armaments industry and grew economically and spatially. The debts he incurred for this and the state assets he pledged to the Fuggers left their mark on Tyrol after his death, at least as much as the strict laws he imposed on the ordinary population. In today's popular imagination, the hard times are not as present as the Goldene Dachl und die in der Schule gelernten weichen Fakten und Legenden rund um den einflussreichen Kaiser. 2019 überschlug man sich mit den Feierlichkeiten zum 500. Todestag des für Innsbruck wohl wichtigsten Habsburgers. Der Wiener wurde wohlwollend eingebürgert. Salzburg hat Mozart, Innsbruck Maximilian, einen Kaiser, den Tiroler, ob seiner damals nicht ungewöhnlichen Leidenschaft für die Jagd passend zur gewünschten Identität Innsbrucks als rauen Gesellen, der am liebsten in den Bergen ist, angepasst haben. Sein markantes Gesicht prangt heute auf allerhand Konsumartikeln, vom Käse bis zum Skilift steht der Kaiser für allerhand Profanes Pate. Lediglich für politische Agenden lässt er sich weniger gut vor den Karren spannen als Andreas Hofer. Wahrscheinlich ist es für den Durchschnittsbürger einfacher, sich mit einem revolutionären Wirt zu identifizieren als mit einem Kaiser.

The Tyrolean prince Frederick IV (1382 - 1439) lived during a turbulent period in the history of the Habsburgs and Innsbruck. The key dates of his life would be suitable material for an adventurous medieval film. At the age of 24, Frederick took over the county of Tyrol as well as the regency of Vorderösterreich. Vorderösterreich? So Vorarlberg? Not quite. The term "Vorderösterreich" referred to the Habsburg possessions in Switzerland, Vorarlberg, Alsace and Baden-Württemberg, among others. Tyrol and Vorderösterreich had been administered together since Frederick as Upper Austria. This made him one of the most powerful princes of the Heiligen Römischen Reiches. From the very beginning, he was involved in costly wars and conflicts against external opponents as well as competition within the Holy Roman Empire. Appenzell rebels in what is now Switzerland, an inner-Tyrolean feud with Henry of Rottenburg and an uprising in Trento were among the last to be led by armies of pure knights.

Like his predecessor in the princely chair, Margaret, Frederick also came into conflict with the Pope. In addition to a pope in Rome, there was also a pope in Avignon, France. Frederick sided with John XXIII. The King of the Holy Roman Empire Sigismund from the Luxembourg dynasty, who backed the antipope in Avignon, had his rival within the empire, Frederick, honoured with the Eight and imprisoned. This meant not only deprivation of liberty, but also the loss of his lands and exclusion from the church. After an adventurous escape from prison, Frederick returned to Innsbruck and had to grant reforms to the population, especially the landowning petty nobility, who supported him, and the towns. In addition to the clergy, the nobility and the towns, Frederick's change in the law also allowed the courts, which were responsible for the administration of the rural communities, to send their representatives to the Diet. His opponents gave him the nickname Friedl mit der leeren Tasche.

This nickname remained in the vernacular, even though at the end of his reign he was one of the richest princes in Europe of his time thanks to the rich silver finds in Schwaz and Gossensass as well as customs duties and tolls on trade between Venice and Augsburg. The social structure in Innsbruck was also influenced by the silver discoveries and the associated mining industry in nearby Schwaz. The power of the guilds increased. Although Innsbruck was dependent on the surrounding area for food supplies, the growing prosperity of the city made it easier to manoeuvre through this time of crisis than in purely rural areas. When Frederick died, Tyrol had risen to become an important state within the Habsburg Empire thanks to the silver discoveries in Schwaz, which was the largest mine in Europe.

Although Innsbruck had grown, it was still a small town. The main reason why he is still known in Innsbruck today is his decision to make the city his residence in 1420. Merano had been the ancestral seat of the Counts of Tyrol and remained the official Tyrolean capital until 1849, when Innsbruck took the lead, at least since Frederick's move. The arcades in Herzog-Friedrich-Straße were built during his reign. Throughout Europe, the 15th century was an economically difficult time, characterised by poor harvests due to the generally worse climate than in previous periods. However, thanks to trade and the impetus provided by the relocation of the royal household, Innsbruck flourished against the European trend. With the court came officials, servants, merchants, financiers and soldiers who brought money into the city. Above all, the craft guilds were to become the economic engine and the basis for the later early industrial production. It is difficult to say what specific effect the relocation of the residence had on Innsbruck's population. However, Frederick's court brought a new social structure with its new way of doing business. Inns opened and offered variety in everyday life. Travelling theatres and show artists came to the city. As in many European cities in German-speaking countries, urbanisation spilled over from the Italian countries and brought a specialisation of the professional world and an even greater division of labour. The influx and changes also caused problems. The xenophobia of the superstitious, often illiterate and poorly educated population did not decrease at the same rate as the conditions changed. Social tensions between long-established and new citizens, craftsmen, merchants, farmers and members of the court were part of everyday life in Frederick's Innsbruck.

Siegmund der Münzreiche was the one who brought Niklas Türing (1427 - 1496) to Innsbruck in the 15th century. The Türings were a family of stonemasons and master builders from what is now Swabia, which at the time was part of the Habsburg Monarchy as part of Vorderösterreich. Innsbruck had been the royal seat of the Tyrolean princes for several decades, but the architectural splendour had not yet arrived north of the Alps. The city was a collection of wooden houses and not very prestigious. For craftsmen and master builders, golden times were dawning, which were to gather even more momentum under Maximilian. There was a real building boom. Aristocrats wanted to have a residence in the city in order to be as close as possible to the centre of power. In the days before the press, a functioning postal system, fax and e-mail, politics was mainly played out through direct contact.

In the course of the late Middle Ages, the early Gothic period and later the Renaissance gave Europe a new architectural guise with a new understanding of architecture and aesthetics. Buildings such as Notre Dame or the Minster of York set the trend that would characterise the whole of Europe until the onset of the Baroque period. Pointed towers, ribbed vaults, bay windows and playful carvings depicting everyday courtly life are some of the typical features that make the heterogeneous style recognisable. The work of the Türings can be traced particularly well in the old town centre. Many of the town houses still have Gothic ground plans, courtyards and carvings. Niklas Türing is responsible for the famous

The Türings shaped Gothic Innsbruck in the transitional period between the Middle Ages and early modern times. Niklas Türing is responsible for the Goldene Dachl to a large extent. He also created the statue of the castle giant Haidl, a particularly tall member of Siegmund's bodyguard, which can be seen today in the town tower. Emperor Maximilian held him in such high esteem that he allowed him to place the family coat of arms of the Türings and his wife, a fountain and a fish, in the vault of the Goldenen Dachls to immortalise him. His son Gregor immortalised himself with the Trautsonhaus in der Herzog-Friedrich-Straße und am Burgriesenhaus in the Domgasse. The last of the Türings to have an influence on the Innsbruck building scene was Niklas Türing the Younger, who began planning the Hofkirche together with Andrea Crivelli. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the influence of the Gothic style began to wane, especially in what is now Austria. Churches in particular were increasingly remodelled and rebuilt in the Baroque style as part of the Counter-Reformation. Today, Türingstraße in the east of Innsbruck is a reminder of the early modern dynasty of master builders.

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.