Austria-Hungary

It certainly would be no exaggeration to say that the best-known part of Austria, to other nations at all events, is the Tyrol. That strange, mountainous, beautiful corner of the empire is now as much a playground for the nations of Europe as Switzerland is. One of the first men to make a map of the Tyrol was Burghlechner in 1603, and, with the licence of the time, which allowed strange vagaries in the way of imagination, he drew it to resemble an eagle clutching with one of its claws the lion of Venice and with the other the native ibex. The resemblance, however, is not one that the practical Briton can trace, any more than he can see bears and human figures in the scattered constellations; to him the Tyrol, the Austrian part of it, is just a peninsula stretching out westward from the rest of the country and expanding at the two outermost corners.

There are several ways of reaching this delightful land by rail, one is by way of Vorarlberg from Lake Constance to Innsbruck, its capital; another from the north by way of Munich and Kufstein; another from the south by the railway over the remarkable pass known as the Brenner, the most famous of all the Alpine passes in the Tyrol.

One enterprising plan of the Austrian state railways certainly deserves encouragement from all lovers of beautiful scenery. In 1912 the Railways made arrangements with the Canadian Pacific Company to put upon their lines some of the famous observation cars with which all western travellers are familiar. These cars are constructed so as to give the traveller the fullest opportunity for seeing the panorama passed without obstacles, and besides the large plate-glass windows there is a platform where the view is as free as from a motor car. They are being built in Austria, and differ a little from the Canadian ones, having observation platforms at both ends, and these platforms are covered-in on account of the very numerous tunnels to be traversed in this hilly country. In connection with the cars a typist, an up-to-date library, and a free medicine-chest are carried! They have been made at Prague and in Moravia. Services have been put on from Buchs to Innsbruck, from Innsbruck to Vienna, and, as already explained, from Salzburg to Trieste, and places are available to first or second-class passengers on payment of five kronen in addition to the usual fares, a krone being equal to tenpence. These two routes have been chosen to cross the country from west to east and from north to south. Approaching from the west we get the first view of the Tyrol after passing through the Arlberg tunnel,—the fourth largest in Europe. All the valleys are crowned by gleaming peaks, the pastures look vividly green, and the little huts and farms absurdly neat. Through towering mountains 6000 feet or more, over the mighty single arch of the Tresanna bridge we pass to Landeck and the upper valley of the Inn. To the south glisten the glaciers of Wildspitze and Weisskugel, rising above the Oetztal valley before we sweep downward to Innsbruck.

Innsbruck is generally the first objective of the man who visits the Tyrol, and only when he has arrived there does he begin to think how he is going to jump off. Innsbruck is in itself a fascinating town, with picturesque streets ending in mountain heights crowned with glittering snow and appearing near enough to be reached with a well-directed stone. The town stands in a cross-stream of continental traffic, for it is on the Berlin-Rome and the Paris-Vienna-Constantinople lines, and most people who have penetrated Europe at all have come across it on one or the other. Though the capital of such a mountainous land, and itself surrounded with mountains, it stands on a plain, with the river Inn winding along through it close to its junction with the Sill. Like so many other places, Innsbruck is the daughter of one of its own suburbs, a little place called Wilten, which is far older as a burgh, but has now sunk to comparative insignificance in the growth of its mighty offspring. Innsbruck is now well supplied with trams and funiculars, and hotels on the heights as well as in the streets; and when one wanders up the mountain-sides one comes on the little kiosks and beer-houses so dear to the Germans, but in spite of all this Innsbruck remains unspoilt.

Italian influence is very noticeable in the architecture, especially in the old quarter, where many houses have arcades, and are covered with frescoes. The name of the town means “Bridge of Inn,” but the old wooden bridge, which saw desperate fighting between the Tyrolese and Bavarians, has been swept away, and there is now only an iron “structure,” identical with many a hundred others. A curious item pointed out to visitors is the bow-window of a palace, covered with copperplates, heavily gilt, and known as the “Golden Roof.” The monarch called “Frederick of the Empty Purse” built this freak in order to demonstrate the injustice of his popular nick-name!

A more important monument, from a material point of view at all events, is that of Maximilian I. This is one of the best known of its kind on the continent, and is visited by hundreds every year. It shows the emperor kneeling in prayer, and around him are twenty-eight colossal figures in bronze, like warriors guarding his repose. Among these are Clovis of France, Theodoric the Goth, the British King Arthur, many of the Austrian rulers and their wives. There are no less than twenty-four bas-reliefs in fine Carrara marble on the sides of the sarcophagus, depicting scenes in the emperor’s life. His marriage, his battles, his sieges, his marches, his councils are all given with especial care; the dress and arms of the figures introduced are true to life, and the cities which come in as backgrounds have evidently been represented as truly as possible. This was done by Alexander Colin of Malines, who finished it in 1565, excepting the four last plaques, which show quite another hand. Notwithstanding the magnificence of this monument, Maximilian is not buried here but at Neustadt, near Vienna. He passed a fortnight every winter in a cell in the monastery of the Capuchins at Innsbruck, cooking what food he wanted and attending to his own needs. The story accounting for this strange custom tells of a day when the Archduke was hunting chamois in the neighbourhood of Innsbruck and lost his footing on a giddy precipice. He caught on some projecting forked branch, and there he swung. His followers, who seem to have made no attempt to rescue him, gave him up for lost, and having by some means brought a priest to the foot of the precipice persuaded him to extend the holy Sacrament in the direction of the king, as a softening of the terrible end before him. But a chamois hunter passing along the top of the rock risked his life on the face of the cliff and succeeded in saving the monarch. The precipice where this is said to have occurred is Martinwand (the wall of St. Martin), and is nearly 800 feet high. In memory of his deliverance Maximilian became a hermit every winter thereafter.

From the very earliest times there must have been some sort of a fort to guard the entrance to the Brenner Pass, one of the best known ways through the Alps in this region. The Romans, of course, seized upon this strategic position, and fortified it.

It was in the twelfth century that the Counts of the Tyrol first began to be noticed, and Meinhard, who ruled at the end of the thirteenth century, consolidated the country, and held all the land within the limits as at present known. He held at the same time Carinthia and Styria. His grand-daughter Margaret, known through the ages as “Pocket-mouth,” the equivalent of the “Muckle-moued” Meg of Scottish history, inherited the country on the death of her father, Henry of Carinthia, in 1335. But on the death of her only son, ten years later, she ceased to take any interest in public affairs, and made over all her possessions to the House of Hapsburg, and the land has been since held as the personal property of that house; and the people have displayed astonishing loyalty to their rulers, so much so, that, on account of this and its position and impregnable hills the Tyrol has been called “The Shield of Austria.” But there was an interregnum in the rule of the Hapsburgs in the time of Buonaparte. The name of Andreas Hofer stands out in the Tyrol as that of the supreme patriot which national history seldom lacks. He was one of the few men who dared to defy the Colossus who bestrode Europe and terrified men into submission by his invincibility even before they had met him. Andreas was the son of an innkeeper in the Passeir valley, and innkeepers in those days, especially in country places, played an important part. It was the innkeeper who collected and disseminated all the news from the surrounding district; his house was a focus for any common cause, and he himself, by reason of his position and authority, was looked up to and respected. In these circumstances an innkeeper must be a strong man, mentally and physically, to succeed, for if he cannot rule his own passions, and is too weak to enforce his authority, he will soon go under. The Passeir or Pusterthal valley, in which young Hofer was brought up, is one of the most important in the country, extending from Lienz to Mulbach, a distance of nearly ten miles. It is best known in these days under the name of Pusterthal. Margaret Maultasch, or Pocket-mouth, peculiarly favoured this valley, and only a very short time before the country became subject to Austria, gave to the inhabitants the privilege of pasture on both sides of the river Etsch as far as Eisach, and also the right to carry salt, venison, and wine over the Gaufen. A large trade in horses was the consequence, and Hofer senior took part in it, bringing up his son to it. Andreas was born in 1767, and thus was twenty-nine when the war broke out with the French in 1796, but it was many years later before he came prominently to the front. He is described as having been of Herculean make, with black eyes and brown hair; he stooped considerably from having been accustomed to carry heavy burdens over the hills before he had come to his full strength. His voice was soft and pleasing and his smile good-natured. His long black beard was a very noticeable feature of his appearance reaching to his waist. He had been one of the representatives of Pusterthal to the Diet of 1790, which shows that he had travelled a little and was educated. The traffic he had carried on in wine and horses had led to his meeting people of many races, and he spoke Italian fluently though in the Venetian dialect. He wore the dress of his country, a large black hat with a broad brim, adorned with black ribbons and a black curling feather, a short green coat, red waistcoat, over which were green braces, a broad black girdle with a border, short black breeches with red or black stockings, and occasionally boots. Such are the details which have come down to us from his contemporaries.

In 1797 Buonaparte, having frightened Italy into submission, crossed the Alps and advanced on Vienna. The Austrian monarch thereupon sued for peace, and for the moment gained it, but as is invariably the case, weakness defeats its own end, and he was made to yield more and more as he gave way. The whole map of Europe was disorganised and remade to suit the conqueror’s will without regard to justice or right, and in the beginning of the new century worse followed, for Buonaparte, having meantime been over into Egypt, returned to Europe and marched upon Vienna, entering it as a victor. This time he snatched away again the Venetian territory he had previously granted to Austria as payment for her compliance, and handed over the whole of the Tyrol to Bavaria.

This infamous transaction was endorsed by the Treaty of Pressburg. The Tyrolese, however, had not been idle during the quiet years, but had organised and trained their forces and were not in the least disposed to acquiesce. Austria had treated them shamefully, but they, for their part, were willing to fight for the rights so iniquitously reft away. Terrible fighting ensued between the Bavarians and their allies the French, who entered the Tyrol, and the natives under the leadership of Hofer and his comrade Speckbacher, with the support of Haspinger the Capuchin, who did not fight but inspired others to do so. The Tyrolese began by inflicting an overwhelming defeat on the invaders at Sterzing, where they made every use of narrow passes and their knowledge of the country. When the battle raged in the passes, the peasants, who had stationed themselves on the heights, hurled down masses of rock, tree-trunks, and stones upon their enemies beneath, and speedily disorganised them.

Innsbruck was next the scene of a wild fight, where, with tremendous bravery, the natives repulsed the foe, though many of them had no better weapons than axes and pitchforks and other implements of agriculture. But without arms, money, or support, it was impossible to keep up such an unequal contest, the Tyrolese were inevitably beaten at Worgl, and afterwards the Bavarians occupied Innsbruck. The persistence and tenacity of the mountaineers were never shown to better advantage, for even while the enemy occupied their capital with a force it would have been foolhardy to attack, they posted themselves all round on the heights, and with eye and finger skilled by the chase of the native chamois, picked off every enemy who ventured within range of their unerring rifles. Fortune once more favoured the weaker side, and at Berg-Isel in May, and again in the autumn, the mountaineers defeated the Bavarians with great loss. After this Hofer became the head of the government of his native land. He took up his quarters at the imperial castle in Innsbruck, and on October 4 a great festival was held in his honour, when he was formally invested with a medal at the foot of the tomb of the Emperor Maximilian. The Austrians, who by this time were once more at war with France, supported the Tyrol. The Bavarians only waited to gather up fresh forces before again hurling themselves on their foe, insignificant in numbers but formidable in courage. The Tyrolese were driven in from the frontiers, and had the worst of it whenever they met the tide of advancing soldiers. In the midst of these calamities they heard that peace had been finally concluded between France and Austria, and that their own monarch had handed them over definitely to the Bavarians. After this hundreds of the peasants threw down their arms and submitted, and Eugène Beauharnais, Buonaparte’s stepson, was sent to take command. Hofer did not give in but made a despairing attempt to renew his defence, though he was forced to evacuate Innsbruck. He retired to the mountains and a price was set on his head. It was now the end of November, and snow lay thick in the passes; in his solitary hut far up on the mountain-side he was dependent for supplies on his friends, and one of them, a treacherous priest named Douay, gave away his whereabouts to the enemy, who marched upon him with a large force, and with every precaution. They took him and his wife, as well as his son—who was only twelve—and his daughter, prisoners to Botzen, and carried them afterwards on to Mantua, where Hofer was accorded the farce of a trial by court-martial, and was by Buonaparte’s orders executed twenty-four hours after.

His wife and children were allowed to return to Austria, and Buonaparte gave them a pension and afterwards permitted the widow, at her earnest wish, to go back to the valley where she had lived. The conqueror behaved generously enough, now that the man who had given him so much trouble was out of the way.

In 1823 Hofer’s body was brought back to the Tyrol, and now a marble monument in Innsbruck commemorates this brave and upright man. It was after the fall of Buonaparte that the Tyrol reverted to its ancient rulers, the House of Hapsburg.