If Wilhelm Greil is considered the mayor of the extension, the Viennese-born Eduard Klingler (1861 - 1916) probably deserves the title of its architect. Klingler had a major influence on the cityscape of Innsbruck. He began working for the state of Tyrol in 1883. In 1889 he joined the municipal building authority, becoming its head in 1902. During this period of economic boom, the city began to expand. The two previously independent neighbouring communities of Pradl and Wilten were incorporated in 1904, which contributed massively to its growth. From 1880 to 1900, Innsbruck's population "only" grew from 20,000 to 26,000 inhabitants, while Wilten tripled from 4,000 to 12,000.

The rapid increase in population presented the city administration with major challenges. In addition to the quantitative growth caused by the expansion of the city, Innsbruck also "grew" qualitatively in terms of people's quality of life. The city pushed ahead with building activity. Gas, water and electricity began to become standard. Schools and kindergartens had to be built for the new residents. The demands on medicine and thus the clinic grew. In Innsbruck, the commercial academy, the Leitgebschule, the Pradl cemetery, the dermatological clinic on the hospital grounds, the municipal kindergarten in Michael-Gaismair-Straße, the Trainkaserne (note: today a residential building) and the Tyrolean State Conservatory are on Klingler's account as head of the municipal building department. The Ulrichhaus on Mount Isel, which today houses the Alt-Kaiserjäger-Club, is a building in the local style that is well worth seeing.

The first free elections to the Imperial Council for all male citizens in 1907 changed the social rules of the game. The housing that was built in the working-class neighbourhoods was a reflection of a new society. Workers and employees with political voting rights had different needs than subjects without this right. Unlike in rural Tyrol, where farming families and their servants lived in farmhouses as a clan, life in the city came close to the family life we know today. The lifestyle of city dwellers demanded multi-room flats.

However, the social divide manifested itself not only in the functionality of the flats, but also in the architecture. In keeping with the spirit of the time, the projects were designed in the styles of historicism, classicism and Heimatstil. Until the outbreak of the First World War, clear forms, masks, statues and columns were style-defining elements in the design of new buildings. The ideas that architects had of classical Greece and ancient Rome were realised in a sometimes wild mix. Not only public buildings, but also large apartment blocks and even entire streets such as Sonnenburgstraße, Grillparzerstraße, Stafflerstraße, Kaiser-Josef-Straße and Claudiastraße reflect the style of the time.

Einer der wichtigsten Akteure der Stadtgeschichte war Wilhelm Greil (1850 – 1923). Von 1896 bis 1923 bekleidete der Unternehmer das Amt des Bürgermeisters, nachdem er vorher bereits als Vizebürgermeister die Geschicke der Stadt mitgestaltet hatte. Die zweite Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts war in der Politik vom Kampf liberaler und konservativer Kräfte geprägt. Die Konservativen hatten es, anders als im restlichen Tirol, schwer in Innsbruck, dessen Bevölkerung seit der Zeit Napoleons liberale Morgenluft geschnuppert hatte. Jede Seite hatte nicht nur Politiker, sondern auch Vereine und eigene Zeitungen. Steuern, Gesellschaftspolitik, Bildungswesen, Wohnbau und die Gestaltung des öffentlichen Raumes wurden mit Leidenschaft und Eifer diskutiert. Bedingt durch eine Wahlordnung, die auf das Stimmrecht über Vermögensklassen aufgebaut war, konnten nur etwa 10% der gesamten Innsbrucker Bevölkerung zur Wahlurne schreiten. Dabei galt das relative Wahlrecht innerhalb der drei Wahlkörper, was so viel heißt wie: The winner takes it all. Massenparteien wie die Sozialdemokraten konnten sich bis zur Wahlrechtsreform der Ersten Republik nicht durchsetzen. Bürgermeister wie Greil konnten auf 100% Rückhalt im Gemeinderat bauen, was die Entscheidungsfindung und Lenkung natürlich erheblich vereinfachte.

Greil belonged to the "Deutschen Volkspartei", a liberal and national-Great German party. What appears to us today as a contradiction, liberal and national, was a politically common and well-functioning pair of ideas in the 19th century. Pan-Germanism was not a political peculiarity of a radical right-wing minority, but rather a centrist trend, particularly in German-speaking cities of the Reich, which was important in varying forms through almost all parties until after the Second World War. Whoever issues the liberal Innsbrucker Nachrichten of the period around the turn of the century, you will find countless articles in which the common ground between the German Reich and the German-speaking countries was made the topic of the day.

Greil war ein geschickter Politiker, der sich innerhalb der vorgegebenen Machtstrukturen seiner Zeit bewegte. Er wusste sich um die traditionellen Kräfte, die Monarchie und den Klerus geschickt zu manövrieren und sich mit ihnen zu arrangieren. Die Zeit bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg war von einer allgemeinen wirtschaftlichen Boomzeit charakterisiert. Das verschaffte ihm viel Gestaltungsspielraum. Unter ihm wurde von der Stadt ganz im Sinne des Kaufmanns vorausschauend Grund angekauft, um Projekte zu ermöglichen. Unter Wilhelm Greil erweiterte sich Innsbruck beträchtlich. Albert Gruber hielt zu diesem Wachstum 1907 eine mahnende Rede, in der er vor Wildwuchs in der Stadtplanung und Bodenspekulation.

"It is the most difficult and responsible task facing our city fathers. Up until the 1980s (note: 1880), let's say in view of our circumstances, a certain slow pace was maintained in urban expansion. Since the last 10 years, however, it can be said that cityscapes have been expanding at a tremendous pace. Old houses are being torn down and new ones erected in their place. Of course, if this demolition and construction is carried out haphazardly, without any thought, only for the benefit of the individual, then disasters, so-called architectural crimes, usually occur. In order to prevent such haphazard building, which does not benefit the general public, every city must ensure that individuals cannot do as they please: the city must set a limit to unrestricted speculation in the area of urban expansion. This includes above all land speculation."

Der Politiker Greil konnte sich bei den großen Bauprojekten der Zeit auf die Beamten und Stadtplaner Eduard Klingler, Jakob Albert und Theodor Prachensky stützen. Eine weitere Bebauung mit Einzelhäusern war wegen des Bevölkerungswachstums nicht mehr möglich. 1898 wurde beschlossen, östlich der Claudiastraße nur noch Wohnblöcke anstatt der geordneten Villen im Cottage Stil der Jahrzehnte nach 1850 zu bauen. Auch Infrastrukturprojekte wie das neue Rathaus in der Maria-Theresienstraße 1897, die Hungerburgbahn 1906 und die Karwendelbahn were realised. Other projects included the renovation of the market square and the construction of the market hall.

Vieles, was in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts vorangetrieben wurde, gehört heute zum Alltag. Für die Menschen dieser Zeit waren diese Dinge aber eine echte Sensation und lebensverändernd. Die vier Jahrzehnte zwischen der Wirtschaftskrise 1873 und dem Ersten Weltkrieg von einem nie dagewesenen Wirtschaftswachstum und einer rasenden Modernisierung gekennzeichnet. Die Wirtschaft der Stadt boomte. Betriebe in Pradl und Wilten gründeten sich und lockten Arbeitskräfte an. Auch der Tourismus brachte frisches Kapital in die Stadt. Die Ansammlung an Menschen auf engstem Raum unter teils prekären Hygieneverhältnissen brachte gleichzeitig aber auch Probleme mit sich. Besonders die Randbezirke der Stadt wurden immer wieder von Typhus heimgesucht.

His predecessor, Mayor Heinrich Falk (1840 - 1917), had already contributed significantly to the modernisation of the town and the settlement of Saggen. Since 1859, the lighting of the city with gas pipelines had progressed steadily. Between 1887 and 1891, Innsbruck was equipped with a modern high-pressure water pipeline, which could also be used to supply flats on higher floors with fresh water. Wilhelm Greil arranged for the gas works in Pradl and the electricity works in Mühlau to be taken over into municipal ownership. The street lighting was converted to electric light.

Greil was able to secure Innsbrucker Renaissance on patrons from the town's middle classes. Baron Johann von Sieberer donated the old people's asylum and the orphanage in Saggen. Leonhard Lang donated the building, previously used as a hotel, to which the town hall moved from the old town in 1897, in return for the town's promise to build a home for apprentices.

In his last years in office, Greil accompanied Innsbruck through the transition from the Habsburg Monarchy to the Republic, a period characterised above all by hunger, misery, scarcity of resources and insecurity. He was 68 years old when Italian troops occupied the city after the First World War and Tyrol was divided at the Brenner Pass, which was particularly bitter for him as a representative of German nationalism.

In 1928, former mayor Greil died as an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck at the age of 78. Wilhelm-Greil-Straße was named after him during his lifetime.

Today, Innsbruck is known as a business centre primarily for its university, hospital, administration and tourism. This was not always the case. The first early form of industrialisation began to develop in Innsbruck in the 15th century. Bell and weapon founders such as the Löfflers set up factories in Hötting, Mühlau and Dreiheiligen, which were among the leading factories of their time. Industry not only changed the rules of the social game with the influx of new workers and their families, it also had an impact on the appearance of Innsbruck. The workers, unlike the farmers, were not the subjects of any master. Capital from outside came into the city. Houses and churches were built. The large workshops changed the smell and sound of the city. The smelting works were noisy, the smoke from the furnaces polluted the air.

The second wave of industrialisation came late in Innsbruck compared to other European regions. Members of the lesser nobility invested the money they had received after 1848 as compensation for their land as part of the land relief in industry and business. Farmers without land travelled from the surrounding area to Innsbruck to find work. In 1838, the spinning machine arrived in Pradl over the Arlberg via the Dornbirn company Herrburger & Rhomberg. H&R had acquired a plot of land on the Sillgründe. Thanks to the river's water power, the site was ideal for the heavy machinery used in the textile industry. More than 20 companies used the Sill Canal around 1900, and the noise and exhaust fumes from the engines were hell for the neighbours, as a newspaper article from 1912 shows:

„Entrüstung ruft bei den Bewohnern des nächst dem Hauptbahnhofe gelegenen Stadtteiles der seit einiger Zeit in der hibler´schen Feigenkaffeefabrik aufgestellte Explosionsmotor hervor. Der Lärm, welchen diese Maschine fast den ganzen Tag ununterbrochen verbreitet, stört die ganz Umgebung in der empfindlichsten Weise und muß die umliegenden Wohnungen entwerten. In den am Bahnhofplatze liegenden Hotels sind die früher so gesuchten und beliebten Gartenzimmer kaum mehr zu vermieten. Noch schlimmer als der ruhestörende Lärm aber ist der Qualm und Gestank der neuen Maschine…“

Just like 400 years earlier, the Second Industrial Revolution changed the city forever. Neighbourhoods such as Pradl and Wilten grew rapidly. While the new wealthy business class had villas built in Wilten, Pradl and Saggen and middle-class employees lived in apartment blocks in the same neighbourhoods, the workers were housed in workers' hostels and mass accommodation.

After the revolutionary year of 1848 and the new circumstances, the everyday lives of many Innsbruck residents became even more bourgeois. Innsbruck experienced the kind of gentrification that can be observed today in trendy urban neighbourhoods such as Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. In one of his texts, the Innsbruck writer Josef Leitgeb tells us how people experienced the urbanisation of the formerly rural area:

„…viel fremdes, billig gekleidetes Volk, in wachsenden Wohnblocks zusammengedrängt, morgens, mittags und abends die Straßen füllend, wenn es zur Arbeit ging oder von ihr kam, aus Werkstätten, Läden, Fabriken, vom Bahndienst, die Gesichter oft blaß und vorzeitig alternd, in Haltung, Sprache und Kleidung nichts Persönliches mehr, sondern ein Allgemeines, massenhaft Wiederholtes und Wiederholbares: städtischer Arbeitsmensch. Bahnhof und Gaswerk erschienen als Kern dieser neuen, unsäglich fremden Landschaft.“

The change from rural life in the village to the city involved more than just a change of location. While the landlord in the countryside was still the master of the private lives of his farmhands and maidservants and was able to determine their lifestyles up to the point of sexuality by releasing them for marriage, they were now at least somewhat freer individually. Beda Weber wrote about this in 1851:

„Their social circles are without constraint, and there is a distinctly metropolitan flavour that is not so easy to find elsewhere in Tyrol."

The hitherto unknown phenomenon of leisure time emerged and, together with disposable income, favoured hobbies for a larger number of people. Clubs of all kinds emerged. Parks such as the English Garden at Ambras Castle were no longer exclusively accessible to the aristocracy, but served as recreational areas for the general public. New green spaces such as Rapoldipark and Waltherpark were created.

The existing rifts between the city and the surrounding area deepened, which can still be seen to this day. Anyone travelling from the university city of Innsbruck to one of the nearby side valleys will find a completely different world. Starting with the spoken dialect, the Stubai Valley, just a few kilometres south of Innsbruck, is very different from the provincial capital, not to mention the more distant side valleys such as the Ötztal in the west or the Zillertal in the east of Tyrol.