Named after emperors, fighters and poets: Street names in Innsbruck

28 March 2025

Post originally written in: Deutsch

Have you ever wondered, witty reader of this blog, what stories the cobblestones of Maria-Theresien-Straße could tell? Or what the narrow streets of Innsbruck's old town have witnessed over the centuries? While thousands of locals and tourists stroll through Innsbruck's historic and modern streets every day, the fascinating stories behind the street names and squares are all too often hidden. For me, they are like a calling card of our city, which I want to explain to my witty readers.

Of majesties, clergymen, military officers and citizens

Naturally, street names served as a guide in the Middle Ages. In Innsbruck, for example, the Seiler- and Schlossergasse were places of the craft mentioned in the name. While districts were identified by street names such as Pradlerstraße, Höttingergasse, Dreiheiligen- or Mariahilferstraße , many street names subsequently developed into a kind of 'award' for people who had done a lot for the city. This is the reason why regents, emperors, military leaders and scientists are immortalized in the street directory.

For me, there are essentially six streets in Innsbruck that are an expression of secular power, heroic military figures and famous intellectual greats: the Maria-Theresien-Straße, the Maximilianstraßethe Andreas-Hofer-Straße and Speckbacherstraße as well as the Anichstraße.

Maria Theresa: The wedding and a death

It seems logical that Innsbruck's magnificent and prestigious street is named after the famous empress. It was she who, as Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, massively changed Innsbruck's cityscape. The Hofburg was given a Baroque makeover, the Triumphal Gate was built and the old city gate to the moat and today's Maria-Theresien-Straße was demolished. The street extending from the Triumphal Gate is logically named after the empress's son, Leopold II.

The coincidence of a wedding and a death in the Habsburg ruling family that took place in Innsbruck is tragic. Maria Theresa's son Leopold celebrated his wedding to Maria Ludovica of Bourbon in Innsbruck on August 5, 1765, attended by 2,000 aristocratic guests from all over Europe. A specially erected triumphal gate at the southern end of the 'Neustadt' was originally built for this spectacular celebration as a 'temporary entrance' to the city. Until a tragic incident abruptly interrupted the celebration.

On the evening of August 18, 1765, just 14 days after the start of the long festivities, Emperor Franz I Stephan died unexpectedly, presumably of a heart attack. in 1774, Maria Theresa had the gate permanently erected in stone, modeled on the Roman triumphal arch of Emperor Constantine, to commemorate both the death of her husband and the wedding of her son. The gleaming white triumphal arch thus has a wedding side and a mourning side.

The street of the emperor

Maximilian I had ennobled Innsbruck as a residential city. The emperor shaped Innsbruck's late medieval cityscape and promoted architecture and art like no other ruler. His ‚Goldenes Dachl‘ is world-famous, the Zeughaus on the Sill and the tomb in the Hofkirche still pay tribute to him 500 years after his death. The Maximilianstraße was named after him in 1888 as a link between the Triumphpforte and the clinic.

Maximilian and the Fuggers

Whoever says Maximilian should almost automatically include his financial backers, the Fugger. It is a fine irony that Innsbruck has dedicated a side street not far from Maximilianstraße to this once richest merchant family. Always close to the potentate who brought the Fuggers to power and nobility. The Fuggergasse is located south of the old country house, which was once the city palace of the Fugger-Taxis in Innsbruck.

Cannons, church bells and black men

Another street name comes to mind when talking about Emperor Maximilian. It is the Löfflerwegwhich winds around a residential area behind the castle Büchsenhausen in the district of Hötting. In Maximilian's time, the Löfflers ran what was perhaps Europe's most technologically advanced armory here, and the castle Büchsenhausen was not named after them for nothing. Their cannons established the good reputation of Maximilian's artillery and were the basis of the emperor's successes on the many battlefields of Europe. The Löfflers also cast bells such as the still existing, melodious bell of the Amras parish church and artistic sculptures that virtually guard and mourn Maximilian's grave in the Hofkirche as the 'Schwarze Mander'.

Tyrolean freedom fighters were immortalized in street names

The fact that Andreas Hofer being honored with a street in Innsbruck is somehow a matter of course. Even though his time as Tyrolean commander-in-chief was not always seen in a rosy light by the citizens of Innsbruck, as recently found letters from Hofer prove. After his defeat at the Fourth Battle of Bergisel, he fled to the Passeier Valley, was captured by French soldiers and executed in Mantua in 1810. His mortal remains were secretly brought to Innsbruck in 1823 and solemnly interred in the Hofkirche. Almost in sight of Maximilian's magnificent tomb.

Running parallel to Andreas-Hofer-Straße is the Speckbacherstraße. The geographical location mirrors the similarities in the lives of the two men who stood up to the French on Mount Isel. Josef Speckbacher, a farmer, hunter and good shot, was Hofer's extremely talented military strategist. He was largely responsible for the Tyroleans winning three battles and was buried alongside Andreas Hofer in the Hofkirche. A memorial at Ottoburg also commemorates the hero of the Wars of Independence.

Heroes of the resistance

Innsbruck also paid tribute to true heroes after the war. People who had bravely rebelled against the Nazi dictatorship. The square in front of the main building of the University of Innsbruck was named after Christoph Probst the member of the 'White Rose' student resistance group. And in the Olympic Village, Innsbruck commemorates another hero who was murdered by the Nazis with a street name: the Priest Otto Neururer.

Dürer, Goethe, Schiller and Mozart

During the time of Emperor Maximilian, many artists made a stopover in Innsbruck. Among them was Albrecht Dürer, who produced several watercolors of the city. The ‚Dürerstraße’ in the Innsbruck district of Saggen is virtually the center of a true 'artists' street district'. Side streets are named after the famous Innsbruck Baroque architect Gumpp, the painter Moritz Schwind and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Another striking feature of the cityscape is the concentration of streets named after poet princes and composers in a relatively small area: The Goethe- merges into the Schillerstraße, the Mozart- into the Beethovenstraße.

As is well known, Mozart stopped off in Innsbruck as a young child prodigy on his journey to Italy and founded an 'academy' in the Palais Trapp and gave an 'academy' at the Palais Trapp.