After the end of the war, US troops controlled the occupied Tyrol for two months. France, the victorious power, then took over the administration. Initially hostile towards the occupying power - yet another war had been lost - the scepticism of the people of Innsbruck gradually faded. Innsbruck was lucky to have the French under Emile Bethouart as the occupying power, as they were very lenient towards the former enemy and were friendly and open-minded towards the Tyrolean culture and population.

The soldiers were particularly popular with children because of the chocolates and sweets they handed out. Many people got jobs within the French administration. Many a Tyrolean saw dark-skinned people for the first time thanks to the soldiers in uniform. On Emile Bethouart footbridgeThe memorial plaque on the river Inn, which connects St. Nikolaus and the city centre, is a good expression of the relationship between the occupation and the population:

"Arrived as a winner.

Remained as a protector.

Returned home as a friend."

The supply situation was very poor, especially in the city in the immediate post-war period. Many Innsbruck residents travelled to the surrounding villages to hoard. Those who had money paid sometimes utopian prices to the farmers, those who didn't had to beg for food. The situation only changed somewhat with the introduction of food ration stamps.

The housing situation was at least as bad. An estimated 30,000 Innsbruck residents were homeless, living in cramped conditions with relatives or in shanty towns such as the former labour camp in Reichenau, in the swampy Höttinger Au or the Bocksiedlung. There are few reminders of the disastrous state Innsbruck was in after the air raids of the last years of the war in the first years after the war. Tens of thousands of citizens helped to clear rubble and debris from the streets. Maria-Theresien-Straße, Museumstraße, the Bahnhofsviertel, Wilten and Pradlerstraße would probably have been much more attractive if the holes in the streetscape had not had to be quickly filled in order to create living space for the many homeless and returnees as quickly as possible.

Although many of the buildings erected from the 1950s onwards are not very attractive architecturally, they do house interesting works of art. From 1949 there was a project in Austria Art on the building. In the case of buildings realised by the state, 2% of the total expenditure was to flow into artistic design. The implementation of the building law and thus also the administration of the budgets was then, as now, the responsibility of the federal states. Artists were to be financially supported through these public commissions. The idea first emerged in 1919 during the Weimar Republic and was continued by the National Socialists from 1934.

Austria took up art in architecture after the war to design public spaces as part of the reconstruction programme. The Tyrolean artists entrusted with designing the artworks were selected in competitions. The best known of these is probably Max Weiler, perhaps the most prominent artist in Tyrol in the post-war period, who was responsible for the frescoes in the Theresienkirche on the Hungerburg in Innsbruck, among other things. Other prominent names include Helmut Rehm (1911 - 1991), Walter Honeder (1906 - 2006), Fritz Berger (1916 - 2002) and Emmerich Kerle (1916 - 2010).

The artists' biographies were not only characterised by the Innsbruck trade school (note: today's HTL Trenkwalderstraße) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna as a common denominator, but also by the shared experience of National Socialism. Fritz Berger had lost his right arm and one eye during the war and had to learn to work with his left hand. Emmerich Kerle was taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna by Josef Müllner, among others, an artist who had made his mark on art history with busts of Adolf Hitler, Siegfried from the Nibelungen saga and the Karl Lueger monument in Vienna, which remains controversial to this day. Kerle served in Finland as a war painter.

Wie ein großer Teil der Tiroler Bevölkerung wollten auch Politiker, Beamte und die Künstler nach den harten und leidvollen Kriegsjahren Ruhe und Frieden, um Gras über das Geschehen der letzten Jahrzehnte wachsen zu lassen. Das Befreiungsdenkmal am Platz vor dem ehemaligen Gauhaus am heutigen Landhausplatz war dafür nicht ideal.

Die im Rahmen von Kunst am Bau entstandenen Werke reflektieren diese Haltung. Märchen, Sagen, religiöse Symbole waren beliebte Motive, die auf den Sgraffitos, Mosaiken, Wandbildern und Statuen verewigt wurden. Noch 1955 betrachtete sich jeder zweite Österreicher als Deutscher. Die Kunst sollte ein neues Bewusstsein und Bild des typisch österreichischen schaffen. Die unterschiedlich ausgeführten Motive zeigen Freizeitaktivitäten, Kleidungsstile und Vorstellungen der sozialen Ordnung und gesellschaftlichen Normen der Nachkriegszeit. Frauen wurden häufig in Tracht und Dirndl, Männer in Lederhosen dargestellt. Geschlechterrollen wurden in der Kunst verarbeitet. Fleißig arbeitende Väter, brave Ehefrauen, die sich um Haus und Herd kümmerten und Kinder, die in der Schule eifrig lernen waren das Idealbild bis weit in die 1970er Jahre.

The problem with this strategy of suppression was that no one took responsibility for what had happened, even if there was great enthusiasm and support for National Socialism, especially at the beginning. Shame about what had happened since 1938 and during the years of Austrian politics was mixed with the fear of being treated as a war culprit by the occupying powers USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR in a similar way to 1918. A climate arose in which no one, neither those involved nor the following generation, spoke about what had happened. Trauma and shame prevented people from coming to terms with the past for a long time. There was hardly a family that did not have at least one member with a less than glorious history between 1933 and 1945.

Der Mythos von Österreich als erstem Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, der erst mit der Affäre Waldheim in den 1980er Jahren langsam zu bröckeln begann, war geboren. Polizisten, Lehrer, Richter – sie alle wurden trotz ihrer politischen Gesinnung an ihrem Platz gelassen. Die Gesellschaft brauchte sie, um am Laufen zu bleiben.

One example with a strong connection to Innsbruck is the life of the doctor Burghard Breitner (1884-1956). He grew up in Mattsee in a well-to-do middle-class household. Villa Breitner was home to a museum dedicated to the German nationalist poet Josef Viktor Scheffel, whom his father greatly admired. After leaving grammar school, Breitner decided against a career in literature in favour of studying medicine. He then decided to do his military service and began his career as a doctor. In 1912/13 he served as a military doctor in the Balkan War. In 1914, he was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was taken prisoner of war by the Russians. It was not until 1920 that he was recognised as a hero and "Angel of Siberia" returned to Austria from the prison camp. In 1932, he began his career at the University of Innsbruck. In 1938, Breitner was faced with the problem that, due to his paternal grandmother's Jewish background, he had to take the "Great Aryan proof" could not provide. However, thanks to his good relationship with the Rector of Innsbruck University and important National Socialists, he was ultimately able to continue working at the university hospital. During the Nazi regime, Breitner was responsible for forced sterilisations and "Voluntary emasculation", even though he probably did not personally carry out any of the operations. After the war, he managed to wriggle through the denazification process with some difficulty. In 1951, he was nominated as a candidate for the federal presidential election by the VDU, a political organisation for former National Socialists. Breitner became Rector of the University of Innsbruck in 1952. After his death, the city of Innsbruck dedicated a grave of honour to him at Innsbruck West Cemetery. In Reichenau, a street is dedicated to him in the immediate vicinity of the site of the former concentration camp.

To this day, National Socialism and the post-war period are hardly a topic in Innsbruck's cityscape. A bronze plaque unveiled in 1972 at the former headquarters of the Gestapo in Herrengasse, Landhausplatz and a memorial in Reichenau on the site of the former labour camp are three of the sparsely populated places of remembrance, whereby Landhausplatz, with the exception of the menorah as a memorial to the November pogroms, is hardly perceived as such.

Wer den Tiroler Kunstkataster durchforstet und aufmerksam durch die Stadt geht, findet viele der noch heute sichtbaren Kunstwerke auf Häusern in Pradl und Wilten. Besonders schöne Beispiele finden sich an den Fassaden in der Pacherstraße, der Hunoldstraße, der Ing.-Thommenstraße, am Innrain, der Landesberufsschule Mandelsbergerstraße oder im Innenhof zwischen Landhausplatz und Maria-Theresienstraße

After smaller battles in the Außerfern and at the Porta Claudia in Scharnitz near Seefeld, the Cactus Division of the US armed forces stood in Zirl at the gates of the Gau capital Innsbruck on 3 May 1945. A handful of resistance fighters led by Fritz Molden and the later Tyrolean governor Karl Gruber had occupied barracks and official facilities in Innsbruck after the Gau leadership, Gestapo and SS had fled the scene. Nevertheless, the GI's did not know what to expect in Innsbruck, as Adolf Hitler had declared Tyrol to be part of the Alpine fortress, the retreat that was to be defended to the last man. If Innsbruck were to become a battlefield, as had been the case in many cities, this would result in the destruction of the city. The fact that it did not come to that and Innsbruck was surrendered without a fight is due to a group of young people who were involved in the US espionage operation Operation Greenup laid the foundations for peaceful capitulation.

The male protagonists of this cinematic coup were Friedrich "Fred" Mayer, Hans Wijnberg, Franz Weber and Anna Niederkircher. The two Jews Mayer and Wijnberg had landed in New York while fleeing National Socialism. They had volunteered for service in Europe and were deployed with the OSS, the US military intelligence service. Weber had been stranded in a prison camp in southern Italy as a deserter from the Wehrmacht. After his war experiences, the staunch Catholic wanted to help overthrow the Nazi regime in his Tyrolean homeland. Together, they were to spy on the supply line over the Brenner Pass from Innsbruck as well as war-relevant infrastructure and industry such as the Messeschmitt factories in Kematen.

On 26 February, the three men and their equipment were dropped by plane over the Ötztal Alps in the wintery high mountains. Using sledges and public transport, they made their way to Oberperfuß, Franz Weber's home village, in the middle of enemy territory with all their equipment. Here they did not encounter Hitler's feared Alpine fortress, but rather support from the community of Oberperfuß, which had always been strictly Catholic, conservative and critical of the regime. Above all, those close to Weber, his sisters Eva, Margarete and Luise, his neighbour Maria Hörtnagl, but above all his fiancée Anni Niederkircher and her mother Anna, the landlady of the Gasthof zur Krone, played invaluable roles in providing supplies, camouflage and accommodation.

Franz Weber was the group's local guide. Fred Mayer mingled with the population in Oberperfuß, Innsbruck and Kematen under various identities, as a Wehrmacht soldier in the officers' mess, as a worker at the Messerschmitt factories or as a French forced labourer. He forged links with other resistance groups and gathered information. Weber's sisters harboured him and provided him with all sorts of things, such as forged papers or a stolen Wehrmacht uniform. Anni Niederkircher was the link between Oberperfuß and Innsbruck. Hans Wijnberg, as a radio operator, maintained communication with the US army base in Bari.

Everyone knew that if their risky operation was discovered, they and their families would be condemned to death. This happened at the end of April. Robert Moser, the radio dealer and resister who had employed Fred Mayer in his shop, was exposed. He was interrogated, tortured and finally beaten and whipped to death at the Gestapo headquarters in Innsbruck's Herrengasse. On 20 April, Fred Mayer was also arrested and tortured in Herrengasse. But he held out, and even more: after revealing himself to be a member of the US secret service, he was able to negotiate with Gauleiter Hofer to have Innsbruck handed over as a free city without a fight. In return for Mayer's assurance that he would be treated as a prisoner of war, Hofer issued an order to the population in a radio address on 2 May to refrain from any fighting.

At 2 pm on 3 May, Fred Mayer, still scarred from his treatment by the Gestapo, reached the US troops near Zirl with this message. A few hours later, the ceasefire came into effect. The vehicles and soldiers were able to enter the town without further bloodshed and destruction.

The memory of the Operation Greenup and the heroic actions of all those involved under extreme danger were not remembered for a long time in favour of the story of self-liberation by the brave Tyrolean people. It was not until 2010 that Fred Mayer, who was honoured with the Purple Heart who had received the US military's highest medal for valour, was honoured by the state of Tyrol late but still at the age of almost 90. Hans Wijnberg received a Medal of Merit from the City of Innsbruck ten years after his death. Franz Weber, who served as a member of the provincial and national councils after the war, was honoured with the Decoration of honour of the province of Tyrol und das Decoration of Honour in Gold of the Republic of Austria. A hard-to-find bronze plaque at the former Gestapo headquarters in Herrengasse commemorates Robert Moser, who was tortured to death. There is a small information plaque at the house at Anichstraße 19, where Mayer was housed during his stay in Innsbruck. This perhaps most impressive episode in Innsbruck's city history only became known to a wider audience with the publication of the gripping book "Codename Brooklyn" by Peter Pirker, which received a great deal of international attention. However, Innsbruck perhaps owes its most enduring legacy to Wijnberg's radio messages: the code name for the city was after the New York neighbourhood where Mayer and he spent a long time, Brooklyn. Innsbruck was reborn after National Socialism as Innsbrooklyn.

Under National Socialism, most political posts and positions in the civil service were reallocated. The Führer cult and the ideas of the National Socialist Party were structurally cemented at all levels. Innsbruck's mayor Franz Fischer was replaced by Egon Denz on 12 March 1938. Governor Josef Schumacher (1894 - 1971) was briefly replaced by Edmund Christoph before Franz Hofer (1902 - 1975) was appointed Gauleiter in May 1938 and Reich Governor from 1940.

Franz Hofer was born into a family of hoteliers in Bad Hofgastein, Salzburg. After attending school in Innsbruck, he ran a radio business. He became a member of the NSDAP in Austria as early as 1931. When the National Socialist Party was banned in Austria, Hofer was imprisoned as its Gauleiter in 1933, but was freed by members of the SA. He was shot during this escape, but was able to flee to Italy. He then travelled to Germany, where he became a German citizen and had a stellar career within the party.

Shortly after the annexation of Austria, Hofer was appointed Gauleiter of Tyrol and Vorarlberg at Hitler's behest on 24 May 1938. During this time, he was heavily involved in the planning of Nazi crimes in Tyrol. Hofer also generously enriched himself personally with aryanised assets. For example, the Villa Schindler at Rennweg 10 into his possession, as well as the Lachhof in Kleinvolderberg near Innsbruck, where he set up a small command centre.

In 1940, he was appointed Reich Governor of Tyrol-Vorarlberg. Hofer's plans were ambitious and Tyrol was a good breeding ground. In relation to the number of inhabitants, there were nowhere more party members in the Austrian districts than here. Hofer was already very close to his goal of having the first completely Jew-free Gau in 1939; one year later, only one Jew was still registered in Tyrol.

When Italy finally came under German control in 1943, Hofer was appointed Supreme Commissioner of the Operational zone Alpine foothills appointed. This zone consisted of Tyrol-Vorarlberg and the Upper Italian provinces. It was also Franz Hofer who came up with the idea of the so-called Alpine fortress, the last bastion of the German people against the enemy. On 12 April 1945, less than a month before the end of the war, he personally submitted this proposal to Adolf Hitler, who then appointed him Reich Defence Commissioner of the Alpine fortress made.

made. After negotiations with the approaching Allied forces, Innsbruck was handed over as an open city without a fight on 3 May 1945 and thus spared the devastating fighting at the end of the war. Despite this sensible measure, Hofer remained a fanatical National Socialist even in defeat, as his speech on the radio on 30 April shows:

"However, should the enemy, despite heroic fighting, be at the gates of Innsbruck, a defence of the Gau capital under the given circumstances would by no means save the worst, but rather destroy the last.... But we want to claw our way into our mountains all the more tenaciously..."

Hofer was arrested a few days later. In October 1948, Hofer escaped from the Dachau internment camp and fled to Germany, where he went into hiding in Mühlheim an der Ruhr under a false name. It is not certain, but quite possible, that the American and British secret services helped the former adversary to escape in order to protect their methods against National Socialism on Tyrolean soil, which were now in use against the Soviet Union, had they been openly discussed at a trial. In 1949, a court in Munich sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison. In July 1953, this judgement was confirmed in Munich, but the sentence was reduced to three years. However, Hofer remained at large due to the crediting of previous prison terms. A court in Austria sentenced him to death in 1949. However, he was not prosecuted. His advocates included the Bishop of Brixen, Johannes Baptist Geisler, and the Tyrolean governor Alfons Weißgatterer. His assets were confiscated by the Republic of Austria in proceedings in Innsbruck in 1950. From 1954, Hofer lived in Germany under his real name. He ran the

From 1954, Hofer lived in Germany under his real name. He ran the Ruhr Armatur GmbHa company specialising in sanitary equipment. Its participation in the Action T4 in Tyrol, the "Destruction of life unworthy of life"Although proceedings were initiated in court, they were discontinued in 1963.

Hofer was a lover of Tyrolean tradition. During his time in Tyrol, he promoted folk music, traditional costumes and Tyrolean marksmen. These associations were officially dissolved in 1938, but under him they were reorganised in the Regular shooters' association transferred. The leader of the Stadtmusikkapelle Wilten-Innsbruck, Sepp Tanzer, whom he appointed leader of the Department of Folk Music in the Reich Chamber of Music composed the "Stammschützenmarsch" for him. A delegation of Tyrolean marksmen was present at Hofer's funeral in Mühlhausen in 1975 to pay their last respects to Hofer, who remained a staunch National Socialist until his death. The construction of the Tiroler Landhaus, which is still the seat of the Tyrolean provincial government today, was begun under Hofer and is still a reminder in stone in the centre of the city.

In the climate of the 1930s, the NSDAP also grew and prospered in Tyrol. The first local branch of the NSDAP in Innsbruck was founded in 1923. With "Der Nationalsozialist - Combat Gazette for Tyrol and Vorarlberg" published its own weekly newspaper. While the National Socialists were only able to win 2.8% of the vote in their first municipal council election in 1921, this figure had already risen to 41% by the 1933 elections. Nine mandataries, including the later mayor Egon Denz and the Gauleiter of Tyrol Franz Hofer, were elected to the municipal council.

Not only Hitler's election as Reich Chancellor in Germany, but also campaigns and manifestations in Innsbruck helped the party, which had been banned in Austria since 1934, to achieve this result. It was not unusual for these manifestations to lead to outbreaks of violence in Austria during the interwar period. When the annexation of Austria to Germany took place in March 1938, a majority of almost 99% in Innsbruck also voted in favour. Even before Federal Chancellor Schuschnigg gave his last speech to the people before handing over power to the National Socialists with the words "God bless Austria" had closed on 11 March 1938, the National Socialists were already gathering in the city centre to celebrate the invasion of the German troops. The swastika flag was hoisted at the Tyrolean Landhaus, then still in Maria-Theresienstraße.

On 12 March, the people of Innsbruck gave the German military a frenetic welcome. A short time later, Adolf Hitler visited Innsbruck in person to be celebrated by the crowd. Archive photos show a euphoric crowd awaiting the Führer, the promise of salvation. After the economic hardship of the interwar period, the economic crisis and the governments under Dollfuß and Schuschnigg, people were tired and wanted change. What kind of change was initially less important than the change itself. "Showing them up there", that was Hitler's promise. The Wehrmacht and industry offered young people a perspective, even those who could do little with the ideology of National Socialism in and of itself. Unlike today, democracy was not something that anyone could have become accustomed to in the short period characterised by political extremes between the monarchy in 1918 and the elimination of parliament under Dollfuß in 1933. There is no need to abolish something that does not actually exist in the minds of the population.

Tyrol and Vorarlberg were combined into a Reichsgau with Innsbruck as its capital. There was no armed resistance, as the left in Tyrol was not strong enough. There were isolated instances of unorganised subversive behaviour by the Catholic population, especially in some rural communities around Innsbruck, and it was only very late that organised resistance was able to gain a foothold in Innsbruck.

However, the regime under Hofer and Gestapo chief Werner Hilliges did a great job of suppression. In Catholic Tyrol, the Church was the biggest obstacle. During National Socialism, the Catholic Church was systematically combated. Catholic schools were converted, youth organisations banned and monasteries closed. Particularly stubborn priests such as Otto Neururer were sent to concentration camps. Local politicians such as the later Innsbruck mayors Anton Melzer and Franz Greiter also had to flee or were arrested. To summarise the violence and crimes committed against the Jewish population, the clergy, political suspects, civilians and prisoners of war would go beyond the scope of this book.

The Gestapo was located in what is now the Provincial Building Directorate at Herrengasse 1. Suspects were severely abused here and sometimes beaten to death with fists. In 1941, the Reichenau labour camp was set up in Rossau near the Innsbruck building yard. Suspects of all kinds were kept here for forced labour in shabby barracks. Over 130 people died in this camp consisting of 20 barracks due to illness, the poor conditions, labour accidents or executions.

Prisoners were also forced to work at the Messerschmitt factory in the village of Kematen, 10 kilometres from Innsbruck. These included political prisoners, Russian prisoners of war and Jews. The forced labour included, among other things, the construction of the South Tyrolean settlements in the final phase or the tunnels to protect against air raids in the south of Innsbruck. Disabled people and those deemed unacceptable by the system, such as homosexuals, were forcibly sterilised in the Innsbruck clinic. The psychiatric clinic in Hall was involved in Nazi crimes against disabled people.

Like the course of the city's history, its appearance is also subject to constant change. The years around 1500 and between 1850 and 1900, when political, economic and social changes took place at a particularly rapid pace, produced particularly visible changes in the cityscape. However, the most drastic event with the greatest impact on the cityscape was probably the air raids on the city during the Second World War.

In addition to the food shortage, people suffered from what the National Socialists called the "Heimatfront" in the city were particularly affected by the Allied air raids. Innsbruck was an important supply station for supplies on the Italian front.

The first Allied air raid on the ill-prepared city took place on the night of 15-16 December 1943. 269 people fell victim to the bombs, 500 were injured and more than 1500 were left homeless. Over 300 buildings, mainly in Wilten and the city centre, were destroyed and damaged. On Monday 18 December, the following were found in the Innsbrucker Nachrichten, dem Vorgänger der Tiroler Tageszeitung, auf der Titelseite allerhand propagandistische Meldungen vom erfolgreichen und heroischen Abwehrkampf der Deutschen Wehrmacht an allen Fronten gegenüber dem Bündnis aus Anglo-Amerikanern und dem Russen, nicht aber vom Bombenangriff auf Innsbruck.

Bombenterror über Innsbruck

Innsbruck, 17. Dez. Der 16. Dezember wird in der Geschichte Innsbrucks als der Tag vermerkt bleiben, an dem der Luftterror der Anglo-Amerikaner die Gauhauptstadt mit der ganzen Schwere dieser gemeinen und brutalen Kampfweise, die man nicht mehr Kriegführung nennen kann, getroffen hat. In mehreren Wellen flogen feindliche Kampfverbände die Stadt an und richteten ihre Angriffe mit zahlreichen Spreng- und Brandbomben gegen die Wohngebiete. Schwerste Schäden an Wohngebäuden, an Krankenhäusern und anderen Gemeinschaftseinrichtungen waren das traurige, alle bisherigen Schäden übersteigende Ergebnis dieses verbrecherischen Überfalles, der über zahlreiche Familien unserer Stadt schwerste Leiden und empfindliche Belastung der Lebensführung, das bittere Los der Vernichtung liebgewordenen Besitzes, der Zerstörung von Heim und Herd und der Heimatlosigkeit gebracht hat. Grenzenloser Haß und das glühende Verlangen diese unmenschliche Untat mit schonungsloser Schärfe zu vergelten, sind die einzige Empfindung, die außer der Auseinandersetzung mit den eigenen und den Gemeinschaftssorgen alle Gemüter bewegt. Wir alle blicken voll Vertrauen auf unsere Soldaten und erwarten mit Zuversicht den Tag, an dem der Führer den Befehl geben wird, ihre geballte Kraft mit neuen Waffen gegen den Feind im Westen einzusetzen, der durch seinen Mord- und Brandterror gegen Wehrlose neuerdings bewiesen hat, daß er sich von den asiatischen Bestien im Osten durch nichts unterscheidet – es wäre denn durch größere Feigheit. Die Luftschutzeinrichtungen der Stadt haben sich ebenso bewährt, wie die Luftschutzdisziplin der Bevölkerung. Bis zur Stunde sind 26 Gefallene gemeldet, deren Zahl sich aller Voraussicht nach nicht wesentlich erhöhen dürfte. Die Hilfsmaßnahmen haben unter Führung der Partei und tatkräftigen Mitarbeit der Wehrmacht sofort und wirkungsvoll eingesetzt.

Diese durch Zensur und Gleichschaltung der Medien fantasievoll gestaltete Nachricht schaffte es gerade mal auf Seite 3. Prominenter wollte man die schlechte Vorbereitung der Stadt auf das absehbare Bombardement wohl nicht dem Volkskörper präsentieren. Ganz so groß wie 1938 nach dem Anschluss, als Hitler am 5. April von 100.000 Menschen in Innsbruck begeistert empfangen worden war, dürfte die Begeisterung für den Nationalsozialismus nicht mehr gewesen sein. Zu groß waren die Schäden an der Stadt und die persönlichen, tragischen Verluste in der Bevölkerung. Im Jänner 1944 begann man Luftschutzstollen und andere Schutzmaßnahmen zu errichten. Die Arbeiten wurden zu einem großen Teil von Gefangenen des Konzentrationslagers Reichenau durchgeführt.

Innsbruck was attacked a total of twenty-two times between 1943 and 1945. Almost 3833, i.e. almost 50%, of the city's buildings were damaged and 504 people died. Fortunately, the city was only the victim of targeted attacks. German cities such as Hamburg or Dresden were completely razed to the ground by the Allies with firestorms and tens of thousands of deaths within a few hours. Many buildings such as the Jesuit Church, Wilten Abbey, the Servite Church, the cathedral and the indoor swimming pool in Amraserstraße were hit.

Historic buildings and monuments received special treatment during the attacks. The Goldene Dachl was protected with a special construction, as was Maximilian's sarcophagus in the Hofkirche. The figures in the Hofkirche, the Schwarzen Mannderwere brought to Kundl. The Mother of Mercy, the famous picture from Innsbruck Cathedral, was transferred to Ötztal during the war.

The air-raid shelter tunnel south of Innsbruck on Brennerstrasse and the markings of houses with air-raid shelters with their black squares and white circles and arrows can still be seen today. In Pradl, where next to Wilten most of the buildings were damaged, bronze plaques on the affected houses indicate that they were hit by a bomb.

Many tyroleans see themselves as an own nation. With „Tirol isch lei oans“, „Zu Mantua in Banden“ and „Dem Land Tirol die Treue", the federal state has three more or less official anthems. There are historical reasons for this pronounced local patriotism. Tyrolean freedom and independence are often invoked as a local shrine to underpin this. It is often referred to as the first democracy in mainland Europe, which is probably a gross exaggeration when you consider the feudal and hierarchical history of the country up until well into the 19th century. However, the country cannot be denied a certain peculiarity in its development, even if it was less about the participation of broad sections of the population and more about curtailing the power of the sovereign.

After the marriage of the Bavarian Ludwig von Wittelsbach to the Tyrolean princess Margarete von Tirol-Görz, the Bavarian Wittelsbachs were rulers of Tyrol for a short time. In order to win over the Tyrolean population to his side, Ludwig decided to offer the provincial estates a treat in the 14th century. In the "Großen Freiheitsbrief" of 1342, Louis promised the Tyroleans that he would not enact any laws or tax increases without first consulting the provincial estates. This Große Freiheitsbrief was henceforth consulted by the representatives of the Tyrolean population in all negotiations with the sovereigns. However, there can be no question of a democratic constitution as understood in the 21st century, as these provincial estates were primarily the aristocratic, landowning classes, who represented their interests accordingly

As the towns and bourgeoisie slowly became more important in the 15th century, a counterweight to the nobility developed within these estates. At the Diet of 1423 under Frederick IV, 18 members of the nobility met 18 members of the towns and peasantry for the first time. Gradually, a fixed composition developed in the provincial diets of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Tyrolean bishops of Brixen and Trento, the abbots of the Tyrolean monasteries, the nobility, representatives of the towns and the peasantry were all represented. The provincial governor presided over the meeting. Of course, the resolutions and wishes of the provincial parliament were not binding for the prince, but it was probably a reassuring feeling for the ruler to know that the representatives of the population were on his side or that difficult decisions were supported. 

Another important document for the country was the Tiroler Landlibell. In 1511, Maximilian stipulated, among other things, that Tyrolean soldiers should only be called up for military service in defence of their own country. The reason for Maximilian's generosity was less his love for the Tyroleans than the need to keep the Tyrolean mines running instead of burning out the precious labourers and the peasantry that supplied them on the battlefields of Europe. This special right of the Tyroleans was one of the reasons for the 1809 uprising, when young Tyroleans were conscripted in the mobilisation of the armed forces as part of general conscription. 

The Napoleonic Wars were a milestone for the Tyrolean self-image when the Catholic crown land was threatened by the "godless French" and the revolutionary social order of 1792. Before a decisive battle against Napoleon's armies in June 1796, the Tyrolean marksmen entrusted their fate to the heart of Jesus and made a covenant with God personally that would guarantee their Heiliges Land Tirol from Napoleon. Another legend from 1796 centres on a young woman from the village of Spinges. Katharina Lanz, who was known as the Jungfrau von Spinges in die Landesgeschichte als identitätsstiftende Nationalheldin einging, soll die beinahe geschlagenen Truppen mit ihrem herrischen Auftreten in der Schlacht solcherart motiviert haben, dass sie schlussendlich den Sieg über die französische Übermacht davontragen konnten. Je nach Darstellung soll sie mit einer Mistgabel, einem Dreschflegel oder einer Sense ähnlich der französischen Jungfrau von Orleans den Truppen Napoleons das Fürchten gelehrt haben. Teile des Tiroler Selbstverständnisses rund um die Schützen und das Nationalgefühl, eine selbstständige und von Gott auserwählte Nation zu sein, die zufällig der Republik Österreich angehängt wurde, geht auf diese Legenden zurück. Nationalisten zu beiden Seiten des Brenners bedienen sich noch heute der Jungfrau von Spingesthe heart of Jesus and Andreas Hofer, to publicise their concerns. The Säcularfeier des Bundes Tirols mit dem göttlichen Herzen Jesu was still celebrated in the 20th century with great participation from the political elite.

The historical Tyrolean nationalism is based on this independent political history of the region and the aversion to everything that comes from Vienna or Brussels that persists to this day, which finds its highest expression in bon mots such as "bisch a Tiroler bisch a Mensch, bisch koana, bisch a Oasch" celebrates. The more centralisation progressed since Maria Theresa, the more Vienna was keen to minimise special rights in the historical crown lands such as Tyrol, Carinthia and Styria. The subjects' sense of belonging should not be to the province of Tyrol, but to the House of Habsburg. In the 19th century, the aim was to strengthen identification with the monarchy. The press, visits by the ruling family, monuments such as the Rudolfsbrunnen or the opening of Mount Isel with Hofer as a Tyrolean loyal to the emperor were intended to help turn the population into subjects loyal to the emperor.

When the Habsburg Empire collapsed after the First World War, the crown land of Tyrol also broke up. What had been known as South Tyrol until 1918, the Italian-speaking part of the province between Riva on Lake Garda and Salurn in the Adige Valley, became Trentino with Trento as its capital. The German-speaking part of the province between Neumarkt and the Brenner Pass is now South Tyrol / Alto Adige, an autonomous region of the Republic of Italy with the capital Bolzano. In the Tyrolean part north of the Brenner Pass, as in many former crown lands, there was an intention to break away from the newly constituted Republic of German-Austria after the lost World War. The small rump of the vanished Habsburg Empire with its oversized capital Vienna was not seen as viable by the majority of people. Throughout the centuries, Innsbruckers felt themselves to be Innsbruckers, Tyroleans, Germans, Catholics and subjects of the Emperor. Before 1945, however, hardly anyone felt Austrian. In a referendum, 99% of Tyroleans voted in favour of annexation to Germany.

It was only after the Second World War that a sense of belonging to Austria began to develop. To this day, however, many Tyroleans are proud of their local identity and like to distinguish themselves from the inhabitants of other federal states and countries. For many Tyroleans, after more than 100 years, the Brenner Pass still represents a Injustice limit even if the Europa der Regionen cooperates politically across borders at EU level. The legend of the Holy Landthe independent Tyrolean nation and first mainland democracy persists to this day. The fact that the historic crown land of Tyrol was a multi-ethnic construct with Italians, Ladins, Cimbri and Rhaeto-Romans is often overlooked in right-wing circles.

In the 1990s, an Austrian television series caused a scandal. The Piefke Saga written by the Tyrolean author Felix Mitterer, describes the relationship between the German holidaymaker family Sattmann and their hosts in a fictitious Tyrolean holiday resort in four bizarrely amusing episodes. Despite all the scepticism about tourism in its current, sometimes extreme, excesses, it should not be forgotten that tourism was an important factor in Innsbruck and the surrounding area in the 19th century, driving the region's development in the long term, and not just economically.

Initially, it was the mountain peaks of the Alps that attracted visitors. For a long time, the area between Mittenwald in Bavaria and Italy was only a kind of transit corridor. Although Innsbruck's inns and innkeepers were already earning money from merchants and the entourage of the court's aristocratic guests in the Middle Ages and early modern times, there was still no question of tourism as we understand it today. In addition to a growing middle class, this also required a new attitude towards the Alps. For a long time, the mountains had been a pure threat to the people. It was mainly the British who set out to conquer the world's mountains after the oceans. From the late 18th century, the era of Romanticism, news of the natural beauty of the Alps spread through travelogues.

In addition to the alpine attraction, it was the wild and exotic Natives Tirols, die international für Aufsehen sorgten. Der bärtige Revoluzzer namens Andreas Hofer, der es mit seinem Bauernheer geschafft hatte, Napoleons Armee in die Knie zu zwingen, erzeugte bei den Briten, den notorischen Erzfeinden der Franzosen, ebenso großes Interesse wie bei deutschen Nationalisten nördlich der Alpen, die in ihm einen frühen Protodeutschen sahen. Die Tiroler galten als unbeugsamer Menschenschlag, archetypisch und ungezähmt, ähnlich den Germanen unter Arminius, die das Imperium Romanum herausgefordert hatten. Die Beschreibungen Innsbrucks aus der Feder des Autors Beda Weber (1798 – 1858) und andere Reiseberichte in der boomenden Presselandschaft dieser Zeit trugen dazu bei, ein attraktives Bild Innsbrucks zu prägen.

Nun mussten die wilden Alpen nur noch der Masse an Touristen zugänglich gemacht werden, die zwar gerne den frühen Abenteurern auf ihren Expeditionen nacheifern wollten, deren Risikobereitschaft und Fitness mit den Wünschen nicht schritthalten konnten. Der German Alpine Club eröffnete 1869 eine Sektion Innsbruck, nachdem der 1862 Österreichische Alpenverein wenig erfolgreich war. Angetrieben vom großdeutschen Gedanken vieler Mitglieder fusionierten die beiden Institutionen 1873. Der Alpenverein ist bis heute bürgerlich geprägt, sein sozialdemokratisches Pendant sind die Naturfreunde. The network of trails grew through its development, as did the number of huts that could accommodate guests. The Tyrolean theologian Franz Senn (1831 - 1884) and the writer Adolf Pichler (1819 - 1900) were instrumental in surveying Tyrol and creating maps. Contrary to popular belief, the Tyroleans were not born mountaineers, but had to be taught the skills to conquer the mountains. Until then, mountains had been one thing above all: dangerous and arduous in everyday agricultural life. Climbing them had hardly occurred to anyone before. The Alpine clubs also trained mountain guides.

From the turn of the century, skiing came into fashion alongside hiking and mountaineering. There were no lifts yet, and to get up the mountains you had to use the skins that are still glued to touring skis today.

The number of guests increased slowly but surely. In addition to the number of travellers who had an impact on life in the small town of Innsbruck, it was also the internationality of the visitors who gradually gave Innsbruck a new look. New hotels, cafés, inns, shops and means of transport were needed to meet the needs of the guests. The working world of many people changed. In June 1896, the Innsbrucker Nachrichten:

„Der Fremdenverkehr in Innsbruck bezifferte sich im Monat Mai auf 5647 Personen. Darunter befanden sich (außer 2763 Reisenden aus Oesterreich-Ungarn) 1974 Reichsdeutsche, 282 Engländer, 65 Italiener, 68 Franzosen, 53 Amerikaner, 51 Russen und 388 Personen aus verschiedenen anderen Ländern.“

Mit dem Grand Hotel Europa hatte 1869 auch in Innsbruck ein Haus ersten Ranges geöffnet und löste die oft in die Jahre gekommenen Gasthöfe in der Altstadt als die Unterkünfte erster Wahl ab. 1892 folgte mit dem Reformhotel Habsburger Hof ein zweiter großer Betrieb, der mit der Nähe zum Bahnhof warb. Was heute eher als Wettbewerbsnachteil angesehen würde, war zu dieser Zeit ein Verkaufsargument. Bahnhöfe waren die Zentren moderner Städte. Die Bahnhofsplätze waren keine überfüllten Verkehrsknotenpunkte wie heute, sondern mondäne und gepflegte Orte vor den architektonisch anspruchsvoll gestalteten Hallen, in denen die Züge ankamen. Der Habsburg Court konnte seinen Gästen auch bereits elektrisches Licht bieten, eine absolute Sensation.

Innsbruck and the surrounding villages were also known for spa holidays, the predecessor of today's wellness, where wealthy clients recovered from various illnesses in an Alpine environment. The Igler Hof, at that time Grandhotel Igler Hof and the Sporthotel Igls, still partly exude the chic of that time. Michael Obexer, the founder of the spa town of Igls and owner of the Grand Hotel, was a tourism pioneer. There were two spas in Egerdach near Amras and in Mühlau. The facilities were not as well-known as the hotspots of the time in Bad Ischl, Marienbad or Baden near Vienna, as can be seen in old photos and postcards, but the treatments with brine, steam, gymnastics and even magnetism were in line with the standards of the time, some of which are still popular with spa and wellness holidaymakers today. Bad Egerdach near Innsbruck had been known as a healing spring since the 17th century. The spring was said to cure gout, skin diseases, anaemia and even the nervous disorder known in the 19th century as neurasthenia, the predecessor of burnout. The institution's chapel still exists today opposite the SOS Children's Village. The baths in Mühlau have existed since 1768 and were converted into an inn and spa in the style of the time in the course of the 19th century. The former bathing establishment is now a residential building worth seeing in Anton-Rauch-Straße.

1888 gründeten die Profiteure des Fremdenverkehrs in Innsbruck die Commission for the promotion of tourism, den Vorgänger des heutigen Tourismusverbands. Durch vereinte Kräfte in Werbung und Qualitätssicherung bei den Beherbergungsbetrieben hofften die einzelnen Betriebe, den Tourismus weiter anzukurbeln. Ab 1880 sorgten neben Werbung in Zeitungen auch Messen dafür, dass Innsbruck und Tirol international Bekanntheit erlangten.

„Alljährlich mehrt sich die Zahl der überseeischen Pilger, die unser Land und dessen gletscherbekrönte Berge zum Verdrusse unserer freundnachbarlichen Schweizer besuchen und manch klingenden Dollar zurücklassen. Die Engländer fangen an Tirol ebenso interessant zu finden wie die Schweiz, die Zahl der Franzosen und Niederländer, die den Sommer bei uns zubringen, mehrt sich von Jahr zu Jahr.“

Postkarten waren die ersten massentauglichen Influencer der Tourismusgeschichte. Viele Betriebe ließen ihre eigenen Postkarten drucken. Verlage produzierten unzählige Sujets der beliebtesten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt. Es ist interessant zu sehen, was damals als sehenswert galt und auf den Karten abgebildet wurde. Anders als heute waren es vor allem die zeitgenössisch modernen Errungenschaften der Stadt: der Leopoldbrunnen, das Stadtcafé beim Theater, die Kettenbrücke, die Zahnradbahn auf die Hungerburg oder die 1845 eröffnete Stefansbrücke an der Brennerstraße, die als Steinbogen aus Quadern die Sill überquerte, waren die Attraktionen. Auch Andreas Hofer war ein gut funktionierendes Testimonial auf den Postkarten: Der Gasthof Schupfen in dem Andreas Hofer sein Hauptquartier hatte und der Berg Isel mit dem großen Andreas-Hofer-Denkmal waren gerne abgebildete Motive.

1914 gab es in Innsbruck 17 Hotels, die Gäste anlockten. Dazu kamen die Sommer- und Winterfrischler in Igls und dem Stubaital. Der Erste Weltkrieg ließ die erste touristische Welle mit einem Streich versanden. Gerade als sich der Fremdenverkehr Ende der 1920er Jahre langsam wieder erholt hatte, kamen mit der Wirtschaftskrise und Hitlers 1000 Mark blockThe next setback came in 1933, when he tried to put pressure on the Austrian government to end the ban on the NSDAP.

It required the Economic miracle in the 1950s and 1960s to revitalise tourism in Innsbruck after the destruction. After the arduous war years and the reconstruction of the European economy, Tyrol and Innsbruck were able to slowly but steadily establish tourism as a stable source of income. Tourism not only brought in foreign currency, but also enabled the locals to create a new image of themselves both internally and externally. The war enemies of past decades became guests and hosts.

Like many other German and Austrian cities, Innsbruck was also the scene of the events that took place on the night of 9 to 10 November 1938 and was known as the Reichskristallnacht and November pogroms form one of the saddest parts of recent history. The Nazi regime took the assassination attempt by a Polish-Jewish student on the German ambassador in Paris as an opportunity to organise pogroms. Starting from the party leadership around Adolf Hitler, orders were given to the local representatives in the cities of the German Reich to accelerate the de-Jewification of Germany and the Aryanisation, the expropriation of the Jewish population.

In contrast to the Jewish population and culture, anti-Semitism was a common tradition in Tyrol. Innsbruck was the centre of Jewish life in western Austria, but there was never a significant number of Jewish citizens. The first immigrants of the Jewish faith came to the city in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Jewish cemetery at the Judenbühel first mentioned in St Nicholas. In 1864, the burial place had to be moved to the western cemetery after it had been damaged several times. In 1880, there were only 109 Jews registered in Innsbruck. In the days before the First World War, in which Jewish soldiers served regularly as subjects of the Habsburg Monarchy, Innsbruck had 500 Jewish citizens.

Political groups based their programmes on anti-Semitism long before the rise of the National Socialists. The Christian Mittelstand party warned its voters of the "harmful Jews" in a leaflet ahead of the 1889 elections. In the churches, anti-Semitic sermons and the legend of the ritual murder in Tyrolean garb of the Anderle von Rinn the order of the day. Josef Seeber, a popular theologian in Tyrol, wrote his version of the Eternal Jews an epic, anti-Semitic ballad.

What was new in 1938 was the open violence. On 9 November, a celebration was held in the city theatre to commemorate the National Socialist coup attempt of 1923 in Munich. The audience was entertained with performances by the Hitler Youth and Richard Wagner's Lohengrin to the swearing-in of the SS members on Adolf Hitler Square in front of the theatre.

After midnight, Gauleiter Hofer and high-ranking members of the SS gathered to discuss the details of the "spontaneous uprising of the German people against the Jews" to go through. Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed. Jewish citizens were abused and beaten up. Richard Berger, Wilhelm Bauer and Richard Graubart were killed. More or less the entire Jewish population was murdered in the days following the Reichspogromnacht forcibly relocated to Vienna.

Considering the ratio of the small Jewish population to the number of victims, Innsbruck was one of the most brutal cities in the German Reich during the November pogroms. The murder of Richard Graubart is well documented. He ran a shoe shop in Museumstraße. He lived with his family in a villa in Gänsbacherstraße in the Saggen district. Under the direction of SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Aichinger, his murderers, some of whom he knew personally, forced their way into the family home. Graubart was stabbed to death, and the doctor who arrived an hour later could only confirm his death. The villa had already been given to a Nazi party functionary before the crime, as had the rest of the Graubart family's property. In the Newest newspaper of 10 November:

"Synagogue in Innsbruck is destroyed... Similar to all cities in Germany, such protests also took place in Innsbruck.... With their anger, the crowd demonstrated their outrage at the cruel bloodshed and called for action against Jews.... To avoid further unrest, many Jews were arrested... Incidentally, the city of Innsbruck and our Gau are looking forward to being freed from the Jewish burden fairly soon, as a process of Aryanisation is being set in motion en masse."

When the riots were brought to trial before the People's Court at Innsbruck Provincial Court after the war, none of the defendants were convicted of murder. Rudolf Schwarz and Robert Huttig, two of the men who had murdered Richard Graubart, were sentenced to 11 and 10 years' imprisonment respectively in 1947, but were pardoned and released from prison in 1951.

It was not until 1981 that the city of Innsbruck erected a memorial plaque at the site of the synagogue destroyed in 1938. In 1993, the new synagogue was opened on the same site in Sillgasse in the presence of Innsbruck's Bishop Reinhold Stecher (1921 - 2013). The small Jewish community of Tyrol and Vorarlberg received a special gift for the inauguration. In November 1938, the neighbours at the time had removed and kept the key to the destroyed door of the old synagogue, which was returned on this day.