In the late 1920s, pioneering building projects were realised in Innsbruck. Franz Baumann designed, based on the internationally popular White modernitythe stations of the Nordkettenbahn in the style of the Tiroler Moderne. Fritz Concert's municipal indoor swimming pool was intended to architecturally manifest the ideals of the life reform movement. A street in Innsbruck was dedicated to both architects. However, neither of them was to change Innsbruck as lastingly as Theodor Prachensky (1888 - 1970).

As an employee of the Innsbruck building authority between 1913 and 1953, he was primarily responsible for housing and infrastructure projects in the interwar period. The projects he realised are not as spectacular as the mountain stations of his brother-in-law Baumann. Prachensky's buildings, which have survived the times, often appear sober and purely functional. With the large housing estates of the 1920s and 30s, the Krieger memorial chapel at Pradl cemetery and the old labour office (today a branch of Innsbruck University behind the current AMS building), Innsbruck is home to many of Prachensky's buildings that document the contemporary history of the interwar period and the changing political and state influences that he himself was subject to as a person. However, if you look at his drawings in the Archive for Architecture at the University of Innsbruck, you realise that Prachensky was more of an artist than a technician, as his paintings prove. Many of his spectacular designs, such as the Sozialdemokratische Volkshaus in der Salurnerstraße, sein Kaiserschützendenkmal oder die Friedens- und Heldenkirche were not realised.

His biography reads like an outline of Austrian history in the 20th century. Prachensky worked as an architect and civil servant under five different state models. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy was followed by the First Republic, which was replaced by the authoritarian corporative state. In 1938, the country was annexed by Nazi Germany. The Second Republic was proclaimed at the end of the war in 1945.

In 1908, Prachensky graduated from the construction department of the Innsbruck trade school. From 1909, he worked partly together with Franz Baumann, whose sister Maria he was to marry in 1913, at the renowned architectural firm Musch & Lun in Merano, at that time also still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In his private life, 1913 was a groundbreaking year for him: Theodor and Maria got married and started the private building project of their own home Haus Prachensky at Berg Isel Weg 20 and Theodor took up his post at the Innsbruck City Council under Chief Building Officer Jakob Albert.

Instead of having to struggle through the difficult economic situation in the private sector after the war, Prachensky worked in the public sector. The important projects influenced by social democratic ideas could only be started after the first and most difficult post-war years, characterised by inflation and supply shortages. The first was the Schlachthausblock im Saggen zwischen 1922 und 1925. Es folgten mehrere Infrastrukturprojekte wie der Mandelsbergerblock, der Pembaurblock and the kindergarten and secondary school in Pembaurstraße, which were primarily intended for the socially disadvantaged and the working class affected by the war and the post-war period. The labour office designed in 1931 behind the current AMS building in Wilten was also an important innovation in the social welfare system. Since the founding of the Republic in 1918, the labour office has helped to place jobseekers with employers and curb unemployment.

His importance increased again during the years of the renewed economic crisis in the 1930s. Another turning point in Prachensky's career was the next change in Austria's form of government. Despite the shift to the right under Dollfuß, including the banning of the Social Democratic Party in 1933 and the Anschluss in 1938, he was able to remain in the civil service as a senior civil servant. His brother-in-law Franz Baumann, with whom he realised several building projects, was politically close to the right, as shown by his joining the NSDAP as early as May 1938. Together with Jakob Albert, Prachensky realised South Tyrolean housing estates under the National Socialists from 1939. Unlike several members of his family, he himself was never a member or supporter of the NSDAP.

After the Second World War, he remained active for a further eight years as Chief Planning Officer for the city of Innsbruck. In addition to his work as a construction planner and architect, Prachensky was a keen painter.

His father Josef Prachensky, who went down in Tyrolean history as one of the founders of social democracy, probably had a great influence on his work as an architect and urban planner in line with international social democratically orientated architecture.

In addition to his father's political views, the disappearance of the Habsburg monarchy and his impressions of military service in the First World War also had an influence on Prachensky. Although he said he was against the war, he volunteered for military service in 1915 as a one-year volunteer with the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger. Perhaps it was the expectations placed on him as a civil servant during the war, perhaps the general enthusiasm that prompted him to take this step, the statements and the deed are contradictory. The war memorial chapel at the Pradl cemetery and the Kaiserschützenkapelle on Tummelplatz, which he designed together with Clemens Holzmeister, as well as his unrealised designs for a Kaiserjäger monument and the Friedens- und Heldenkirche Innsbruckare probably products of Prachensky's life experience.

He died in Innsbruck at the age of 82. His sons, grandsons and great-grandsons continued his creative legacy as architects, designers, photographers and painters in various disciplines. In 2017, parts of the cross-generational work of the Prachensky family of artists were exhibited in the former brewery Adambräu mit einer Ausstellung gezeigt.

Few times are more difficult to grasp than the interwar period. The Roaring TwentiesJazz and automobiles come to mind, as do inflation and the economic crisis. As part of the young Austrian Republic, Innsbruck's population largely belonged to the faction of poverty, economic crisis and political polarisation. The country was deeply divided between the Social Democrats and the Christian Socials. 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.

The Republican Protection League on the side of the Social Democrats and the Christian-socially orientated home defence forces - for the sake of simplicity, the various groups are summarised under this collective term - were hostile to each other. Many politicians and functionaries on both sides, like a large proportion of the male population, had fought at the front during the war and were correspondingly militarised. In Innsbruck, there were repeated small clashes between the opposing groups of Social Democrats, National Socialists and the Heimwehr. The largest outbreak of violence in what is now Innsbruck was the Höttinger Saalschlacht 1932, during which the leader of the Tyrolean Home Defence Richard Steidle (1881 - 1940) was injured.

After years of civil war-like conditions, the Christian Socialists under Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß (1892 - 1934) prevailed in 1933 and abolished parliament. Dollfuß's goal was to establish the so-called Austrian corporative statea one-party state without opposition, curtailing elementary rights such as freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. In Tyrol in 1933, the Tiroler Wochenzeitung was newly founded to function as a party organ. The entire state apparatus was to be organised along the lines of Mussolini's fascism in Italy under the Vaterländischen Front united: Anti-socialist, authoritarian, conservative in its view of society, anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and militarised.

Dollfuß was extremely popular in Tyrol, as photographs of the packed square in front of the Hofburg during one of his speeches in 1933 show. Dollfuß' Catholic-motivated policies were the closest thing to the Habsburg monarchy and were also supported by the Church. The unspoken long-term goal was the restoration of the monarchy. In 1931, a number of Tyrolean mayors joined forces to have the entry ban for the Habsburgs lifted. The separation of the sexes in schools and the reorganisation of the curriculum for girls while at the same time providing pre-military training for boys was also in the interests of a large part of the population.

On 25 July 1934, the banned National Socialists attempted a coup in Vienna, in which Dollfuß was killed. In Innsbruck, the "Verfügung des Regierungskommissärs der Landeshauptstadt Tirols“ der Platz vor dem Tiroler Landestheater als Dollfußplatz led. Dollfuß had met with the Heimwehr leader Richard Steidle at a rally here two weeks before his death.

Dollfuß' successor as Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg (1897 - 1977) was a Tyrolean by birth and a member of the Innsbruck student fraternity Austria. Er betrieb lange Zeit eine Rechtsanwaltskanzlei in Innsbruck. 1930 gründete er eine paramilitärische Einheit mit namens Ostmärkische Sturmscharenwhich formed the counterweight of the Christian Socials to the radical Heimwehr groups. After the February Uprising of 1934, as Minister of Justice in the Dollfuß cabinet, he was jointly responsible for the execution of several imprisoned Social Democrats.

However, Austrofascism was unable to turn the tide in the 1930s, especially economically. The unemployment rate in 1933 was 25%. The restriction of social welfare, which was introduced at the beginning of the First Republick was introduced had dramatic effects. The long-term unemployed were excluded from receiving social benefits as "Discontinued" excluded.

Despite the city's efforts to create modern living space, many Innsbruck residents still lived in shacks. Bathrooms or one bedroom per person were the exception. Since the great growth of Innsbruck from the 1880s onwards, the housing situation was precarious for many people. The railways, industrialisation, refugees from the German-speaking regions of Italy and the economic crisis had pushed Innsbruck to the brink of the possible. After Vienna, Innsbruck had the second highest number of residents per house. Rents for housing were so high that workers often slept in stages in order to share the costs. Although new blocks of flats and homeless shelters were built, particularly in Pradl, such as the workers' hostel in Amthorstraße in 1907, the hostel in Hunoldstraße and the Pembaurblock, this was not enough to deal with the situation. Several shanty towns and settlements were built on the outskirts of the city, founded by the marginalised, the desperate and those left behind who found no place in the system.

The best known and most notorious to date was the Bocksiedlung on the site of today's Reichenau. From 1930, several families settled in barracks and caravans between the airport, which was located there at the time, and the barracks of the Reichenau concentration camp. The legend of its origins speaks of Otto and Josefa Rauth as the founders, whose caravan was stranded here. Rauth was not only economically poor, but also morally poor as an avowed communist in Tyrolean terms. His raft, Noah's Ark, with which he wanted to reach the Soviet Union via the Inn and Danube, was anchored in front of Gasthof Sandwirt.

Gradually, an area emerged on the edge of both the town and society, which was run by the unofficial mayor of the estate, Johann Bock (1900 - 1975), like an independent commune. He regulated the agendas in his sphere of influence in a rough and ready manner.

The Bockala had a terrible reputation among the good citizens of the city. And despite all the historical smoothing and nostalgia, probably not without good reason. As helpful and supportive as the often eccentric residents of the estate could be among themselves, physical violence and petty crime were commonplace. Excessive alcohol consumption was common practice.

The roads were not tarmac. There was no running water, sewage system or sanitary facilities, nor was there a regular power supply. Even the supply of drinking water was precarious for a long time, which meant there was a constant risk of epidemics.

Not all of the residents were unemployed or criminals. It was people who fell through the system who settled in the Bocksiedlung. Having the wrong party membership could be enough to prevent you from getting a flat in Innsbruck in the 1930s. Karl Jaworak, who carried out an assassination attempt on Federal Chancellor Prelate Ignaz Seipel in 1924, lived at Reichenau 5a from 1958 after his imprisonment and deportation to a concentration camp during the Nazi regime.

The furnishings of the Bocksiedlung dwellings were just as heterogeneous as the inhabitants. There were caravans and circus wagons, wooden barracks, corrugated iron huts, brick and concrete houses. The Bocksiedlung also had no fixed boundaries. Bockala In Innsbruck, being a citizen was a social status that largely originated in the imagination of the population.

Within the settlement, the houses and carriages built were rented out and sold. With the toleration of the city of Innsbruck, inherited values were created. The residents cultivated self-sufficient gardens and kept livestock, and dogs and cats were also on the menu in meagre times.

The air raids of the Second World War exacerbated the housing situation in Innsbruck and left the Bocksiedlung grow. At its peak, there are said to have been around 50 accommodations. The barracks of the Reichenau concentration camp were also used as sleeping quarters after the last imprisoned National Socialists held there were transferred or released, although the concentration camp was not part of the Bocksiedlung in the narrower sense.

The beginning of the end was the 1964 Olympic Games and a fire in the settlement a year earlier. Malicious tongues claim that this was set to speed up the eviction. In 1967, Mayor Alois Lugger and Johann Bock negotiated the next steps and compensation from the municipality for the eviction, reportedly in an alcohol-fuelled atmosphere. In 1976, the last quarters were evacuated due to hygienic deficiencies.

Many former residents of the Bocksiedlung were relocated to municipal flats in Pradl, the Reichenau and in the O-Village quartered here. The customs of the Bocksiedlung lived on for a number of years, which accounts for the poor reputation of the urban apartment blocks in these neighbourhoods to this day.

A reappraisal of what many historians call the Austrofascism has hardly ever happened in Austria. In the church of St Jakob im Defereggen in East Tyrol or in the parish church of Fritzens, for example, pictures of Dollfuß as the protector of the Catholic Church can still be seen, more or less without comment. In many respects, the legacy of the divided situation of the interwar period extends to the present day. To this day, there are red and black motorists' clubs, sports associations, rescue organisations and alpine associations whose roots go back to this period.

The history of the Bocksiedlung was compiled in many interviews and painstaking detail work by the city archives for the book "Bocksiedlung. A piece of Innsbruck" of the city archive.

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.