Facts about Innsbruck

Online exhibition: https://fatti.stadtarchiv-innsbruck.at

During the night of 3 to 4 November 1904, violent clashes broke out in Innsbruck city centre between Italian-speaking students and the German-speaking population. During the military operation ordered in response, the painter August Pezzey was killed, numerous other people were injured, and there was extensive damage to property. In the days that followed, mobs rampaged throughout the city, targeting Italian-speaking individuals and business owners. In historical accounts, these disturbances are referred to as the ‘Fatti di Innsbruck’ (‘Events of Innsbruck’).

The trigger was the opening of a law faculty where Italian was the language of instruction in the Wilten district of Innsbruck. This faculty was intended to satisfy, at least to some extent, the long-cherished wish of the Italian-speaking population of the Habsburg Monarchy for a university of their own. For students and professors whose mother tongue was Italian, the day was therefore a cause for celebration. The majority of Innsbruck’s population, however, regarded the establishment of the faculty in the ‘German’ city of Innsbruck as a provocation.

The riots received widespread coverage in the national and international press. The Innsbruck City Archives hold a collection of around 4,500 newspaper reports from the Austrian and international press on this subject, offering unique insights into how the ‘Fatti’ were perceived.

As part of a collaborative project between the University of Innsbruck and the Innsbruck City Archives, this collection has now been studied in detail for the first time. To this end, the newspaper clippings were digitised, entered into a database and examined by students during a research workshop led by Gunda Barth-Scalmani and Kurt Scharr. The aim was to investigate in greater detail the role of newspapers as a mass medium and how the conflict was received in different countries.