Wer den Beweis benötigt, dass die Innsbrucker stets ein aktives Völkchen waren, könnte das Bild „Winterlandschaft“ des niederländischen Malers Pieter Bruegel (circa 1525 – 1569) aus dem 16. Jahrhundert bemühen. Auf seiner Rückreise von Italien gen Norden hielt der Meister wohl auch in Innsbruck und beobachtete dabei die Bevölkerung beim Eislaufen auf dem zugefrorenen Amraser See. Beda Weber beschrieb in seinem Handbuch für Reisende in Tirol 1851 the leisure habits of the people of Innsbruck, including ice skating on Lake Amras. "The lake not far away (note: Amras), a pool in the mossy area, is used by ice skaters in winter.“ Bis heute ist sportliche Kleidung in jeder Lebenslage für Innsbrucker das Normalste der Welt. Während man in anderen Städten über Funktionskleidung oder Wander- und Sportschuhe in Restaurants oder Büros die Nase rümpft, fällt man am Fuß der Nordkette damit nicht auf.

Das war nicht immer so. Der Weg vom eislaufenden Bauern zum aktiven Bürger war weit. Muse und frei verfügbare Zeit, für Sport wie der Jagd oder Reiten war im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit aber vor allem ein Privileg des Adels. Erst durch die geänderten Lebensumstände des 19. Jahrhunderts hatte ein guter Teil der Bevölkerung, vor allem in den Städten, zum ersten Mal so etwas wie Freizeit. Mehr und mehr arbeiteten Menschen nicht mehr in der Landwirtschaft, sondern als Arbeiter und Angestellte in Büros, Werkstätten und Fabriken nach geregelten Zeitplänen.

The pioneer was the early industrialised England, where workers and employees slowly began to free themselves from the turbo capitalism of early industrialisation. 16-hour days were not only detrimental to workers' health, entrepreneurs also realised that overworking was unprofitable. Healthy and happy workers were better for productivity. Efforts to introduce an 8-hour day had been underway since the 1860s. In 1873, the Austrian book printers pushed through a working day of ten hours. In 1918, Austria switched to a 48-hour week. From 1930, 40 hours per week became the standard working time in industrial companies. People of all classes, no longer just the aristocracy, now had time and energy for hobbies, club life and sporting activities.

In many cases, it was also English tourists who brought sporting trends, disciplines and equipment with them. The financial outlay for the required equipment determined whether the discipline remained the preserve of the middle classes or whether workers could also afford the pleasure. For example, luge was already widespread around the turn of the century, while bobsleigh and skeleton remained elitist sports.

 The beginning of organised club sport was made by the ITV, which Innsbrucker Turnvereinwhich was founded in 1849. Gymnastics was the epitome of sport in German-speaking countries. The idea of competition was not in the foreground. Most clubs had a political background. There were Christian, socialist and Greater German sports clubs. They served as a preliminary organisation for political parties and bodies. More or less all clubs had Aryan clauses in their statutes. Jews therefore founded their own sports clubs. The national movement emerged from the German gymnastics clubs, similar to the student fraternities. The members were supposed to train themselves physically in order to fulfil the national body to serve in the best possible way in the event of war. Sedentary occupations, especially academic ones, became more common, and gymnastics served as a means of compensation. If you see the gymnasts performing their exercises and demonstrations in old pictures, the strictly military character of these events is striking. The Greater German agitator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778 - 1852), commonly known as Gymnastics father Jahn, war nicht nur Vorturner der Nation, sondern auch geistiger Vater des Lützow Free Corps which went into action against Napoleon as a kind of all-German volunteer army. One of the most famous bon mots attributed to this passionate anti-Semite is "Hatred of everything foreign is a German's duty". In Saggen, Jahnstraße and a small park with a monument commemorate Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.

1883 gründeten die Radfahrer den Verein Bicycle Club. The first bicycle races in France and Great Britain took place in 1869. The English city of Coventry was also a pioneer in the production of the elegant steel steeds, which cost a fortune. In the same year, the Innsbruck press had already reported on the modern means of individual transport when "some gentlemen ventured onto the road with several velocipedes ordered by the Peterlongo company". In 1876, cycling was briefly banned in Innsbruck as accidents had repeatedly occurred. Cycling was also quickly recognised by the state as a form of exercise that could be used for military purposes. A Reich war ministerial decree on this can be found in the press:

„Es ist beabsichtigt, wie in den Vorjahren, auch heuer bei den Uebungen mit vereinigten Waffen Radfahrer zu verwenden… Die Commanden der Infanterie- und Tiroler Jägerregimenter sowie der Feldjäger-Bataillone haben jene Personen, welche als Radfahrer in Evidenz stehen und heuer zur Waffenübung verpflichtet sind, zum Einrücken mit ihrem Fahrrade aufzufordern.“

The Velocipedists siedelten sich 1896 im Rahmen der „Internationalen Ausstellung für körperliche Erziehung, Gesundheitspflege und Sport“ im Saggen nahe der Viaduktbögen mit einer Radrennbahn samt Tribüne an. Neben Radrennen fanden hier bis zum Abriss der Anlage Boxkämpfe und Tennismatches statt. Die Innsbrucker Nachrichten berichteten begeistert von dieser Neuerung, war doch der Radsport bis zu den ersten Autorennen europaweit die beliebteste Sportdisziplin:

„Die Innsbrucker Rennbahn, welche in Verbindung mit der internationalen Ausstellung noch im Laufe der nächsten Wochen eröffnet wird, erhält einen Umfang von 400 Metern bei einer Breite von 6 Metern… Die Velociped-Rennbahn, um deren Errichtung sich der Präsident des Tiroler Radfahrer-Verbandes Herr Staatsbahn-Oberingenieur R. v. Weinong, das Hauptverdienst erworben hat, wird eine der hervorragendsten und besteingerichteten Radfahrbahnen des Continents sein. Am. 29. d. M. (Anm.: Juni 1896) wird auf der Innsbrucker Rennbahn zum erstenmale ein großes internationales Radwettfahren abgehalten, welchem dann in der Zukunft alljährlich regelmäßig Velociped-Preisrennen folgen sollen, was der Förderung des Radfahr-Sports wie auch des Fremdenverkehrs in Innsbruck sicher in bedeutendem Maße nützlich sein wird.“

The footballers had left the umbrella organisation ITV because of the Aryan Law, which forbade matches with teams with Jewish players. In 1903, the Verein Fußball Innsbruckwhich would later become the SVI. At this time, there were already national football matches, for example a 1:1 draw between the ITV team and Bayern Munich. The matches were played on a football pitch in front of the Sieberer orphanage. In Wilten, now part of Innsbruck, in 1910 the SK Wilten. 1913 gründete sich mit Wacker Innsbruck der bis heute erfolgreichste Tiroler Fußballverein, der insgesamt unter verschiedenen Namen zehn Mal österreichischer Meister wurde und auch international kleine Erfolge feierte.

The first bathing establishment welcomed swimmers from 1833 in the Höttinger in the outdoor pool on the Gießen. Further baths at Büchsenhausen Castle or the separate women's and men's baths next to today's Sillpark area soon followed. The outdoor swimming pool was in a particularly beautiful location Beautiful rest above Ambras Castle, which opened in 1929 shortly after the indoor swimming pool in Pradl was built. The population had grown just as much as the desire for swimming as a leisure activity. In 1961, the sports programme at Tivoli was expanded to include the Freischwimmbad Tivoli erweitert.

In addition to the various summer sports, winter sports also became increasingly popular. Tobogganing was already a popular leisure activity on the hills around Innsbruck in the middle of the 19th century. The first ice rink opened in 1870 as a winter alternative to swimming on the grounds of the open-air swimming pool in the Höttinger Au. Unlike water sports, ice skating was a pleasure that could be enjoyed by men and women together. Instead of meeting up for a Sunday stroll, young couples could meet at the ice rink without their parents present. The ice skating club was founded in 1884 and used the exhibition grounds as an ice rink. With the ice rink in front of the k.u.k. shooting range in Mariahilf, the Lansersee, the Amraser See, the Höttinger Au swimming facility and the Sillkanal in Kohlstatt provided the people of Innsbruck with many opportunities for ice skating. The first ice hockey club, the IEV, was founded as early as 1908.

Skiing, initially a Nordic pastime in the valley, soon spread as a downhill discipline. The Innsbruck Academic Alpine Club was founded in 1893 and two years later organised the first ski race on Tyrolean soil from Sistrans to Ambras Castle. Founded in 1867, the Sports shop Witting in Maria-Theresien-Straße proved its business acumen and was still selling equipment for the well-heeled skiing public before 1900. After St. Anton and Kitzbühel, the first ski centre was founded in 1906. Innsbruck Ski Club. The equipment was simple and for a long time only allowed skiing on relatively flat slopes with a mixture of alpine and Nordic style similar to cross-country skiing. Nevertheless, people dared to whizz down the slopes in Mutters or on the Ferrariwiese. In 1928, two cable cars were installed on the Nordkette and the Patscherkofel, which made skiing significantly more attractive. Skiing achieved its breakthrough as a national sport with the World Ski Championships in Innsbruck in February 1933. On an unmarked course, 10 kilometres and 1500 metres of altitude had to be covered between the Glungezer and Tulfes. The two local heroes Gustav Lantschner and Inge Wersin-Lantschner won several medals in the races, fuelling the hype surrounding alpine winter sports in Innsbruck.

Innsbruck identifiziert sich bis heute sehr stark mit dem Sport. Mit der Fußball-EM 2008, der Radsport-WM 2018 und der Kletter-WM 2018 konnte man an die glorreichen 1930er Jahre mit zwei Skiweltmeisterschaften und die beiden Olympiaden von 1964 und 1976 auch im Spitzensportbereich wieder an die Goldenen Zeiten anknüpfen. Trotzdem ist es weniger der Spitzen- als vielmehr der Breitensport, der dazu beiträgt, aus Innsbruck die selbsternannte Sporthauptstadt Österreichs zu machen. Es gibt kaum einen Innsbrucker, der nicht zumindest den Alpinski anschnallt. Mountainbiken auf den zahlreichen Almen rund um Innsbruck, Skibergsteigen, Sportklettern und Wandern sind überdurchschnittlich populär in der Bevölkerung und fest im Alltag verankert.

There are events that remain in the collective memory of a community for generations. You don't have to have been there, or even be in the world, to know that Franz Klammer raced to the gold medal in the Olympic downhill on the Patscherkofel on 5 February 1976 in his yellow one-piece suit. Franz Josef I may have climbed the Patscherkofel in 1848, but he became a legend on this mountain. Kaiser Franz Bracket. "Jawoll! 1;45,73 für unseren Franzi Klammer," could be heard from countless TV sets in Austria at the time. In order to be able to follow the national hero Klammer on his devil's ride, the schoolchildren were allowed to stay at home on the day of the men's downhill, just like in 1964. The streets were also empty during this hellish ride. Klammer achieved what many emperors, kings and politicians had failed to do. He united the nation of Austria. "Mi hats obageibtlt von oben bis unten, I hatt nie gedacht, dass i Bestzeit foaKlammer said in Carinthian dialect during the winner's interview. No Tyrolean, nobody is perfect, but the Olympic Games were already saved for the host nation Austria on the second day.

In 1976, the Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck for the second time. It would actually have been Denver's turn, but due to a referendum on financial and environmental concerns, Colorado withdrew as host. Innsbruck prevailed as host in the second attempt against Lake Placid, Chamoix and Tampere.

It had hosted the Olympics for the first time 12 years earlier. From 29 January to 9 February 1964, Innsbruck was the hub after beating Calgary and Lahti in the bid. A severe lack of snow caused problems for the realisation of several events. It was only with the help of the Austrian army, which brought snow and ice from the high mountains to the competition venues, that the 34 competitions could be organised.

The opening ceremony in the packed Berg Isel Stadium can be clearly seen in archive photos. Unlike the elaborate ceremonies of today's Olympic Games, the procedure in the 1960s was still unspectacular. The Wilten town music under the direction of Sepp Tanzer, delighted the international guests with Tyrolean brass music. As the flags marched in, visitors were able to see the North Korean flag for the first time during the Olympic Games. The Tyrolean marksmen kept a watchful eye on the Olympic flame. Only the Olympic rings were placed over the city's coat of arms as a logo; there was no mascot yet.

The sports competitions were also less professionally organised than today's Olympic Games. The bobsleigh race took place on an artificial ice track for the first time, although not yet in today's Igl ice channel. Some of the ice hockey games were still held in the exhibition hall in a very moderate setting. Skiing competitions, such as the women's slalom and giant slalom, in which the French sisters Christine and Marielle Goitschel won gold and silver in different combinations, took place in the Axamer Lizum. According to official figures, 80,000 spectators watched the spectacle on Mount Isel as the Finn Veikko Kankonnen secured gold in the ski jumping event. In the ice hockey final, the Soviet Union triumphed ahead of Sweden. With 11 gold medals, the USSR also secured first place in the medals table, while Austria sensationally came second with four golds.

The opening of the 1976 Games also took place on Berg Isel. In memory of 1964, two flames were lit on Mount Isel during the opening ceremony. Most of the 37 competitions this time took place at the same venues in Innsbruck, Axams, Igls and Seefeld as in 1964. The ice stadium and ski jumping arena were still suitable for the Olympics. A new artificial ice rink was built in Igls. The Axamer Lizum was given a new standing track to allow the athletes to start on the Hoadl to bring.

In 1976, snow was once again in short supply in the run-up to the event and there were fears once again, but the weather changed at the last moment and Innsbruck was given the white gold. The Schneemanndla round snowman with a carrot nose and Tyrolean hat, the mascot of the 1976 Games was probably a good omen.

The biggest change between the two Olympic Games within twelve years was the status of the athletes. While only amateurs, i.e. athletes who were pursuing a profession, were officially allowed to compete at the first Games, professional athletes were able to compete in 1976.

The transmission and photo quality was also much better than in the first Innsbruck edition. Television had now overtaken radio. The German ski racer Rosi Mittermaier was perfectly staged on her runs to double gold and silver in the women's ski races. The ice hockey tournament was again won by the Soviet Union ahead of Sweden, for the fourth time in a row. The medals table also saw the USSR at the top again, this time ahead of the GDR. Austria only managed to win two gold medals. With Klammer's gold in the downhill, however, this was only a minor matter. The Patscherkofel and Austria's Franzi sind seither untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Und auch wenn die Innsbrucker nicht ganz so sportlich sind, wie sie gerne wären, den Titel der Olympiastadt kann nach zwei Ausgaben plus einer Universiade und den Youth Olympic Games niemand wegdiskutieren.

The city, supported by federal funds, was also very generous with the non-sporting infrastructure for both games. Following the rapid reconstruction of the city after the war, the city was modernised in the run-up to the Games. Innsbruck's first Olympic edition took place during the period of the economic miracle. In 1963, the Olympic Bridge, which connected the west of the city with the competition venues, was built. Until then, Innsbruck's east-west traffic had travelled through the city centre in a complicated manner. The individual streets between Amraser-See-Straße in the east and Bachlechnerstraße in the west, which make up the Südring arterial road today, were only subsequently developed and were previously quiet parts of the suburbs. Meadows and fields characterised the scenery. The comparison of aerial photographs from 1960 and 2020 is fascinating. In Amras, where today the daily Rush Hour abspielt, bis in die 1970er Jahre Bauernhöfe und einzelne Wohnhäuser. In der heutigen Egger-Lienz-Straße beim Westbahnhof verlief das Bahnviadukt der Westbahn. Alte Fotos zeigen die Gleise, daneben Bäume und spielende Kinder. Rund um die heutige Graßmayr junction a new neighbourhood was created almost in passing. The Department stores' forumwhich today houses a cinema, was a sensation and a sign of Innsbruck's modernisation.

An Olympic village was built twice and living space was created that is still in use today. Part of the former village of Arzl, which had belonged to Innsbruck since 1940, was chosen for this purpose. Today's district O-Village in the east of the city functioned as an Olympic village for the athletes during the Games, which was connected to the city centre and the competition venues by the Reichenau Bridge over the Inn. Construction of the first blocks of flats began in the sparsely populated Arzler Au in 1961. The Arzler shooting range, which can still be seen on a map from 1960, was relocated one step further up the valley. Further blocks were added in the 1970s. Today, despite the less tranquil 1960s and 1970s-style tower blocks, O-Dorf is a neighbourhood worth living in thanks to its location on the Inn, the green spaces and the good public transport connections.

Many other buildings in Innsbruck, which were used as infrastructure for the press and media during the Olympics, also date back to the Olympic Games. The Pädagogische Akademie PÄDAK in Wilten, the IVB-Halle and the Landessportheim can be regarded as Olympic heritage. The less magnificent building that houses the former Holiday Inn hotel next to the Triumphal Gate, which has undergone a number of changes of operator in recent decades, was also built as part of the Olympic Renaissance. Another legacy of the Olympic Games is something that people are desperately trying to change today: The Olympic-induced growth coincided with the early heyday of the automobile in the 1960s and 1970s.

For Innsbruck, the Olympic Games were not only a starting point for modernity in terms of winter sports and infrastructure. The events also mentally put an end to the stale atmosphere of the grey post-war period and spread a feeling of departure from the status of a provincial nest. It may no longer have been a royal seat as in Maximilian's time, but at least it was back on the international map. Thanks be to Emperor Franz!

"Light air and sun" was the motto of the Lebensreform, a collective movement of alternative lifestyles that began in Germany in the late 19th century in step with the development of social democracy and the rise of the bourgeoisie. People wanted to distance themselves from what Max Weber described as the Protestant ethic, industry, time clocks and, in general, rapid technological progress with all its effects on people and the social fabric. The culture of the old society, in which the nobility and clergy stood above the rest of society, was to be overcome.

The Lebensreform influenced art and architecture in particular. Urbanisation and the associated living conditions were increasingly perceived as a burden. Art Nouveau in its playfulness was the artistic response of the bourgeois elites and creative minds to this Back to the origin of the turn of the century, was hardly able to assert itself in Innsbruck. People as individuals, not their economic performance, should once again take centre stage. This attitude gave rise to vegetarianism, nudism, garden cities, various esoteric movements and other alternative lifestyles, which have survived in one form or another to this day.

What was possible for wealthy citizens in their villas in Saggen, Wilten and Pradl was denied to most workers. Many tenement blocks were dreary and overcrowded biotopes without infrastructure such as sports facilities or parks. Modern housing estates should be functional, comfortable, affordable and connected with green spaces. These views also prevailed in public authorities. Albert Gruber, professor at the Innsbruck Trade School, wrote in 1907:

"I've often heard people say that we don't need plants in Innsbruck, that nature provides us with everything, but that's not true. What could be nicer than when professionals can walk from their place of work to their home through a series of plants. It turns the journey to and from work into a relaxing walk. Incidentally, there are many reasons why planting trees and gardens in urban areas is beneficial. I do not want to emphasise the interaction between people and plants, which is probably well known. In another way, plants improve the air we breathe by reducing dust."

In many cases, however, the fulfilment of this demand had to wait until after the First World War. The major infrastructure and housing projects in Innsbruck, such as the Tivoli, the municipal indoor swimming pool, the Pembaur, Mandelsberger and Schlachthof blocks, were not realised until the First Republic. Although social democracy had officially existed as a political movement since 1889, it only had very limited creative possibilities under the Habsburg monarchy. This was doubly true for the conservative Catholic Tyrol.

Josef Prachensky (1861 - 1931), the father of architect and town planner Theodor Prachensky, was a well-known Innsbruck representative of the Lebensreform and social democracy. He grew up in German-speaking Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a trained book printer, he discovered the labour movement during his wanderings in Vienna during the book printers' strike. After marrying a Tyrolean woman, he settled in Innsbruck, where he worked as an editor for the Social Democratic People's newspaper for Tyrol and Vorarlberg worked. Josef Prachensky supported the Arbeiter-Consum-Vereinwhich Tyrolean labourers' bakery and founded the catering business "Non-alcoholic", which aimed to improve general health in the spirit of the life reform movement and socialism. Friedrich Engels (1820 - 1895), the co-author of the Communist Manifestohad recognised schnapps and brandy as an evil of the working class in the first half of the 19th century. Socialism shared the goal of getting people away from alcohol with church organisations, like so many other things. The communist revolution was no more feasible with addicts than a virtuous, God-pleasing life.

Prachensky was involved in the founding of the Tyrolean Social Democratic Party in 1890 and, after the First World War, in the founding of the Tyrolean Republican Defence League the left-wing counterpart to the right-wing Heimwehr organisations. One of his particular concerns was the restriction of the church on school education, which was still very high in the 19th and early 20th century, even in the actually liberal Innsbruck, which had to adhere to the national school regulations.

Few eras are more difficult to grasp than the interwar period. The Roaring TwentiesJazz and automobiles come to mind, as do inflation and the economic crisis. In big cities like Berlin, young ladies behaved as Flappers with a bobbed head, cigarette and short skirts, lascivious to the new sounds, Innsbruck's population, as part of the young Republic of Austria, belonged for the most part to the faction of poverty, economic crisis and political polarisation.

Although the Republic of German-Austria had been proclaimed, it was unclear how things would continue in Austria. The monarchy and nobility were banned. The bureaucratic state of the k.u.k. Empire was seamlessly established under a new flag and name. As the successors to the old crown lands, the federal states were given a great deal of room for manoeuvre in legislation and administration within the framework of federalism. However, enthusiasm for the new state was limited. Not only was the supply situation miserable after the loss of the vast majority of the former Habsburg empire, but people also mistrusted the basic idea of the republic. The monarchy had not been perfect, but only very few people could relate to the idea of democracy. Instead of being subjects of the emperor, they were now citizens, but only citizens of a dwarf state with an oversized capital that was little loved in the provinces instead of a large empire. In the former crown lands, most of which were governed by Christian socialists, people liked to speak of the Viennese water headwho was fed by the yields of the industrious rural population.

Austria was deeply divided. Capital and provinces, city and countryside, citizens, workers and farmers - in the vacuum of the first post-war years, each group wanted to shape the future according to their own ideas. 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. Who should rule? How should wealth, rights and duties be distributed? What should be done with public buildings such as barracks, castles and palaces?

The revolution in Russia and the ensuing civil war with millions of deaths, expropriation and a complete reversal of the system cast a long shadow over Europe. The prospect of Soviet conditions made people afraid. A communist coup was not a real danger, especially in Tyrol, but could be easily instrumentalised in the media as a threat to discredit social democracy.

Italian troops occupied Innsbruck for almost two years after the end of the war. At the peace negotiations in Paris, the Brenner Pass was declared the new border. The historic Tyrol was divided in two. The military was stationed at the Brenner Pass to secure a border that had never existed before and was perceived as unnatural and unjust. 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, even if the occupying troops were emphatically lenient. A passage from the short story collection "The front above the peaks" by the National Socialist author Karl Springenschmid from the 1930s 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 newly founded Tyrolean People's Party was at least as hostile to Vienna and the Social Democrats as it was to the Italians. The new Austria seemed too small and not viable. Other federal states were also toying with the idea of seceding from the Republic after the plan to join Germany, which was supported by all parties, was forbidden by the victorious powers of the First World War. The Tyrolean plans, however, were particularly spectacular. From a neutral Alpine state with other federal states, a free state consisting of Tyrol and Bavaria or from Kufstein to Salurn, an annexation to Switzerland to a Catholic church state under papal leadership, there were many ideas. The annexation to Germany was approved by 98% in a vote in Tyrol, but never materialised.

However, high politics was only the framework for the real problems. The epidemic that went down in history as the Spanish flu also took its toll in Innsbruck in the years after the war. Exact figures were not recorded, but the number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 27 - 50 million. Many Innsbruck residents had not returned home from the battlefields and were missing as fathers, husbands and labourers. Many of those who had made it back were wounded and scarred by the horrors of war. As late as February 1920, the "Tyrolean Committee of the Siberians" at the Gasthof Breinößl "...in favour of the fund for the repatriation of our prisoners of war..." a charity evening.

Many people, especially civil servants and public sector employees, had lost their jobs after the League of Nations tied its loan to harsh austerity measures. Tourism as an economic factor was non-existent due to the problems in the neighbouring countries, which were also shaken by the war. It was only with the currency reorganisation and the introduction of the schilling as the new currency in 1925 under Chancellor Ignaz Seipel that Innsbruck slowly began to recover.

The first republic was a difficult birth and it was not to last long. To this day, much of the Austrian state and Innsbruck's cityscape and infrastructure are based on what emerged after the collapse of the monarchy. In Innsbruck there are no conscious memorials to the birth of the First Republic in Austria. The listed housing projects such as the Schlachthofblock, the Pembaurblock or the Mandelsbergerblock in Saggen as well as in Pradl and Wilten are contemporary witnesses in stone.

In the 1950s, Innsbruck began to recover from the crisis and war years of the first half of the 20th century. On 15 May 1955, Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl declared with the famous words "Austria is free" and the signing of the State Treaty officially marked the political turning point. In many households, the "political turnaround" became established in the years known as Economic miracle moderate prosperity in the years that went down in history. This period not only brought material change, but also social change. People's desires became more outlandish as prosperity increased and the lifestyle conveyed in advertising and the media became more sophisticated. The phenomenon of a new youth culture began to spread gently amidst the grey society of post-war Austria. The terms Teenager and latchkey child entered the Austrian language in the 1950s.

Films brought the big world to Innsbruck. Cinema screenings and cinemas already existed in Innsbruck at the turn of the century, but in the post-war period the programme was adapted to a young audience for the first time. Hardly anyone had a television set in their living room and the programme was meagre. The Chamber light theatre in Wilhelm-Greilstraße, the Laurin cinema in the Gumppstraße, the Central cinema in Maria-Theresienstraße, which Löwen-Lichtspiele in the Höttingergasse and the Leocinema of the Catholic Workers' Association in Anichstraße courted the public's favour with scandalous films.

1956 saw the publication of the magazine BRAVO. For the first time, there was a medium that was orientated towards the interests of young people. The first issue featured Marylin Monroe, including the question: Did Marylin's curves get married too? The big stars of the early years were James Dean and Peter Kraus, before the Beatles took over in the 1960s. After the Summer of Love Dr Sommer explained about love and sex. The first photo love story with bare breasts did not follow until 1982.

Bars, discos, nightclubs, pubs and event venues gradually opened in Innsbruck. Events such as the 5 o'clock tea dance at the Sporthotel Igls attracted young people looking for a mate. Establishments such as the Falconry cellar in the Gilmstraße, the Uptown Jazzsalon in Hötting, the Clima Club in Saggen, the Scotch Club in the Angerzellgasse and the Tangent in Bruneckerstraße had nothing in common with the traditional Tyrolean beer and wine bar. The performances by the Rolling Stones and Deep Purple in the Olympic Hall in 1973 were the high point of Innsbruck's spring awakening for the time being. Innsbruck may not have become London or San Francisco, but it had at least breathed a breath of rock'n'roll.

However, the vast majority of the social life of the city's young people did not take place in disreputable dives, but in the orderly channels of Catholic youth organisations. What is still anchored in cultural memory today as the '68 movement took place in the Holy Land did not take place. Neither workers nor students took to the barricades. Beethoven's wisdom that "As long as the Austrians still have brown beer and sausages, they won't revolt," was true.

Nevertheless, society was quietly and secretly changing. A look at the annual charts gives an indication of this. In 1964, it was still Chaplain Alfred Flury and Freddy with "Leave the little things“ and „Give me your word" and the Beatles with their German version of "Come, give me your hand", which dominated the Top 10, musical tastes changed in the years leading up to the 1970s. Peter Alexander and Mireille Mathieu were still to be found in the charts. From 1967, however, it was international bands with foreign-language lyrics such as The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, The Monkees, Scott McKenzie, Adriano Celentano and Simon and Garfunkel, some of whom had socially critical lyrics, that occupied the top positions in large numbers.

The spearhead of the conservative counter-revolution was the Innsbruck bishop Paulus Rusch. Cigarettes, alcohol, overly permissive fashion, holidays abroad, working women, nightclubs, premarital sex, the 40-hour week, Sunday sporting events, dance evenings, mixed sex in school and leisure - all of these were strictly forbidden to the strict churchman and follower of the Sacred Heart cult.

Peter Paul Rusch was born in Munich in 1903 and grew up in Vorarlberg as the youngest of three children in a middle-class household. Both parents and his older sister died of tuberculosis before he reached adulthood. At the young age of 17, Rusch had to fend for himself in the meagre post-war period. Inflation had eaten up his father's inheritance, which could have financed his studies, in no time at all. Rusch worked for six years at the Bank for Tyrol and Vorarlbergin order to finance his theological studies. He entered the Collegium Canisianum in 1927 and was ordained a priest of the Jesuit order six years later. His stellar career took the intelligent young man first to Lech and Hohenems as chaplain and then back to Innsbruck as head of the seminary. Here he became titular bishop of Lykopolis in 1938, Innsbruck only becoming its own diocese in 1964, and Apostolic Administrator for Tyrol and Vorarlberg. As the youngest bishop in Europe, he had to survive the harassment of the church by the National Socialist rulers. Although his critical attitude towards National Socialism was well known, Rusch himself was never imprisoned. Those in power were too afraid of turning the popular young bishop into a martyr.

After the war, the socially and politically committed bishop was at the forefront of reconstruction efforts. He wanted the church to have more influence on people's everyday lives again. His father had worked his way up from carpenter to architect and probably gave him a soft spot for the building industry. He also had his own experience at BTV. Thanks to his training as a banker, Rusch recognised the opportunities for the church to get involved and make a name for itself as a helper in times of need. It was not only the churches that had been damaged in the war that were rebuilt. The Catholic Youth under Rusch's leadership, was involved free of charge in the construction of the Heiligjahrsiedlung in the Höttinger Au. The diocese bought a building plot from the Ursuline order for this purpose. The loans for the settlers were advanced interest-free by the church. Decades later, his rustic approach to the housing issue would earn him the title of "Red Bishop" to the new home. In the modest little houses with self-catering gardens, in line with the ideas of the dogmatic and frugal "working-class bishop", 41 families, preferably with many children, found a new home.

By alleviating the housing shortage, the greatest threats in the Cold WarCommunism and socialism, from his community. The atheism prescribed by communism and the consumer-orientated capitalism that had swept into Western Europe from the USA after the war were anathema to him. In 1953, Rusch's book "Young worker, where to?". What sounds like revolutionary, left-wing reading from the Kremlin showed the principles of Christian social teaching, which castigated both capitalism and socialism. Families should live modestly in order to live in Christian harmony with the moderate financial means of a single father. Entrepreneurs, employees and workers were to form a peaceful unity. Co-operation instead of class warfare, the basis of today's social partnership. To each his own place in a Christian sense, a kind of modern feudal system that was already planned for use in Dollfuß's corporative state. He shared his political views with Governor Eduard Wallnöfer and Mayor Alois Lugger, who, together with the bishop, organised the Holy Trinity of conservative Tyrol at the time of the economic miracle. Rusch combined this with a latent Catholic anti-Semitism that was still widespread in Tyrol after 1945 and which, thanks to aberrations such as the veneration of the Anderle von Rinn has long been a tradition.

Education and training were of particular concern to the pugnacious Jesuit. Despite a speech impediment, Rusch was a charismatic character who was extremely popular with his young colleagues and young people. In 1936, he was elected regional field master of the scouts in Vorarlberg. In his opinion, only a sound education under the wing of the church according to the Christian model could save the salvation of young people. In order to give young people a perspective and steer them in an orderly direction with a home and family, the Youth building society savings strengthened. In the parishes, kindergartens, youth centres and educational institutions such as the House of encounter am Rennweg in order to have education in the hands of the church from the very beginning.

In the 1960s and 70s there were two church youth movements in Innsbruck. The education of the elites in the spirit of the Jesuit order was provided in Innsbruck since 1578 by the Marian Congregation. This youth organisation, still known today as the MK, took care of secondary school pupils. The MK had a strict hierarchical structure in order to give the young Soldaten Christi obedience from the very beginning. Father Sigmund Kripp took over the MK in 1959. Under his leadership, the young people built projects such as the Mittergrathütte including its own material cable car in Kühtai and the MK youth centre Kennedyhaus in Sillgasse with financial support from the church, state and parents and with a great deal of personal effort. Chancellor Klaus and members of the American embassy were present at the laying of the foundation stone for this youth centre, which was to become the largest of its kind in Europe with almost 1,500 members, as the building was dedicated to the first Catholic president of the USA, who had only recently been assassinated.

The other church youth organisation in Innsbruck was Z6. The city's youth chaplain, Chaplain Meinrad Schumacher, took care of the youth organisation as part of the Action 4-5-6 to all young people who are in the MK or the Catholic Student Union had no place. Working-class children and apprentices met in various youth centres such as Pradl or Reichenau before the new centre, also built by the members themselves, was opened at Zollerstraße 6 in 1971. Josef Windischer took over the management of the centre. The Z6 already had more to do with what Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda were doing on the big screen on their motorbikes in Easy Rider was shown. Things were rougher here than in the MK. Rocker gangs like the Santanas, petty criminals and drug addicts also spent their free time in Z6. While Schumacher reeled off his programme upstairs with the "good" youngsters, Windischer populated the basement with the Outsiders to help the lost sheep as much as possible.

At the end of the 1960s, both the MK and the Z6 decided to open up to non-members. Girls' and boys' groups were partially merged and non-members were also admitted. Although the two youth centres had different target groups, the concept was the same. Theological knowledge and Christian morals were taught in a playful, age-appropriate environment. Sections such as chess, football, hockey, basketball, music, cinema films and a party room catered to the young people's needs for games, sport and their first sexual experiences. The youth centres offered a space in which young people of both sexes could meet. However, the MK in particular remained an institution that had nothing to do with the wild life of the '68ers, as it is often portrayed in films. For example, dance courses did not take place during Advent, carnival or on Saturdays, and were forbidden for under-17s.

Nevertheless, the youth centres went too far for Bishop Rusch. The critical articles in the MK newspaper We discuss found less and less favour. After years of disputes between the bishop and the youth centre, it came to a showdown in 1973. When Father Kripp published his book Farewell to tomorrow in which he reported on his pedagogical concept and the work in the MK, there were non-public proceedings within the diocese and the Jesuit order against the director of the youth centre. Despite massive protests from parents and members, Kripp was removed. Neither the intervention within the church by the eminent theologian Karl Rahner, nor a petition launched by the artist Paul Flora, nor regional and national outrage in the press could save the overly liberal priest from the wrath of Rusch, who even secured the papal blessing from Rome for his removal from office. In July 1974, the Z6 was also temporarily closed. Rusch had the keys to the youth centre exchanged without further ado, a method he had also used with the Catholic Student Union when it got too close to a left-wing action group.

It was his adherence to conservative values and his stubbornness that damaged Rusch's reputation in the last 20 years of his life. When he was consecrated as the first bishop of the newly founded diocese of Innsbruck in 1964, times were changing. The progressive with practical life experience of the past was overtaken by the modern life of a new generation and its needs. The bishop's constant criticism of the lifestyle of his flock and his stubborn adherence to his overly conservative values, coupled with sometimes bizarre statements, turned the co-founder of development aid into a bishop. Brother in needthe young, hands-on bishop of the reconstruction, from the late 1960s onwards as a reason for leaving the church. His concept of repentance and penance took on bizarre forms. He demanded guilt and atonement from the Tyroleans for their misdemeanours during the Nazi era, but at the same time described the denazification laws as too far-reaching and strict. In response to the new sexual practices and abortion laws under Chancellor Kreisky, he said that girls and young women who have premature sexual intercourse are up to twelve times more likely to develop cancer of the mother's organs. Rusch described Hamburg as a cesspool of sin and he suspected that the simple minds of the Tyrolean population were not up to phenomena such as tourism and nightclubs and were tempted to immoral behaviour. He feared that technology and progress were making people too independent of God. He was strictly against the new custom of double income. People should be satisfied with a spiritual family home with a vegetable garden and not strive for more; women should concentrate on their traditional role as housewife and mother.

In 1973, after 35 years at the head of the church community in Tyrol and Innsbruck, Bishop Rusch was made an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck. He resigned from his office in 1981. In 1986, Innsbruck's first bishop was laid to rest in St Jakob's Cathedral. The Bishop Paul's Student Residence The church of St Peter Canisius in the Höttinger Au, which was built under him, commemorates him.

After its closure in 1974, the Z6 youth centre moved to Andreas-Hofer-Straße 11 before finding its current home in Dreiheiligenstraße, in the middle of the working-class district of the early modern period opposite the Pest Church. Jussuf Windischer remained in Innsbruck after working on social projects in Brazil. The father of four children continued to work with socially marginalised groups, was a lecturer at the Social Academy, prison chaplain and director of the Caritas Integration House in Innsbruck.

The MK also still exists today, even though the Kennedy House, which was converted into a Sigmund Kripp House was renamed, no longer exists. In 2005, Kripp was made an honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck by his former sodalist and later deputy mayor, like Bishop Rusch before him.

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.