The Bavarians

BUT: A BAYER SAVED THE PARISH CHURCH...

True! - But the neighbors of the Tyroleans, actually they were - as descendants of the Bavarians - even tribal brothers - had become federal brothers of Napoleon and had been princely rewarded for it. Austria, England and Russia had suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz against Napoleon's troops in 1805. At the Peace of Pressburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg fell to Bavaria, which had joined Napoleon due to French pressure and at that time became a kingdom. And so the Bavarian flag also flew in Tyrol from 1806 to 1814 (except for the months in 1809 when the enemies were thrown out of the country). The occupiers subsequently began to implement a series of unpopular reforms. Traditional self-government was abolished (even the name "Tyrol" disappeared), the central government banned traditional customs, introduced universal conscription, and Tyrolean recruits were also to be drafted for Napoleon's armies. In short, the fuse was lit for the following wars of liberation. All the more so, as the Tyroleans had not treated the enemies of the time lightly in earlier campaigns of arms and incursions into Bavaria, and mutual hatred was therefore great.

Back to the fateful days of May 1809, when General Wrede and an army of 12,000 to 15,000 men (of which at least 4,000 were cavalry) marched through the Lower Inn Valley towards Schwaz, plundering. There the invaders met fierce resistance. Dr. Hans Seewald ("Der Brand von Schwaz") describes the dramatic hours: "Three times the Bavarians stormed through the main street of the village of Schwaz to the Lahnbach position near the parish church, but just as often they had to turn back. Every house seemed to be turned into a small citadel, the windows were the embrasures from which they fired, and from the roofs rained a hail of stones. Only a fourth onslaught let Wrede become master of the market. (...) While Wrede was having a victory banquet with his officers in the Schnapper inn in the village, his soldiers, embittered by the fierce resistance and the great losses, began a looting of rarely seen proportions. The Bavarians roamed through all the alleys, entered all the houses, searched all the inhabitants from head to foot, tore off the clothes they liked. They raged in the Tannenberg palace as well as in the miserable and scanty miners' huts. Wherever a girl fell into the hands of the Bavarians, she was maltreated. Many who resisted or tried to escape were completely stripped and chased naked like fair game through the alleys of the market. Numerous women and girls were violated in broad daylight in the middle of the alleys and squares, and over a hundred girls were dragged to the Bavarian camp in Vomp and raped there." It should be noted that Wrede had taken a ransom of several thousand guilders from Count Tannenberg and had promised to spare the market in return. Obviously, Wrede never thought about sparing, because Bavarian soldiers later told that they had strict orders to set the place on fire. The consequences of the fire are reflected in the population development. In 1808 the market town of Schwaz had 7500 inhabitants, in 1810 only 3869. In the statistics of 1828 only 3008 inhabitants appear. Gottlob - the times have changed, Bavarians and Tyroleans have long been good friends again...

The fire of 1809 survived according to Seewald in the former business and trade quarter only to the 15 houses undamaged. And - this brings us back to the beginning - the parish church.