MK – A Generation’s Living Room

A heated discussion broke out among the youth house visitors: should the house be spruced up for the planned parents’ evening, or should parents be given a realistic impression of everyday life? The realists prevailed and fell flat on their faces in the evening. The discussion was not about the set topic “summer recreation” (…), but about dirt, mess, neglect….

Innsbruck’s MK, the Marian Congregation at the Jesuit College, saw its rise to become the largest youth center in Europe after 400 years in the 1970s. At its peak, it had around 1,500 members, children and young people from the Tyrolean capital and the surrounding area. It was built by the Jesuit Father Sigmund Kripp, who took over the MK in 1959 at the age of 29, and with the John F. Kennedy House gave young people a second home, a second family. And who, with his unconventional, even heretical methods for the time, came into conflict with the official church and was at the center of one of the biggest church scandals in the history of Tyrol.

But what made this youth center so different? Why did it become the living room of a whole generation of Innsbruck youth? And what influence did this time and these experiences have on the later lives of the adults?

A generation of high school and college students who grew up free of indoctrinated, political ideologies and went on to hold key positions in city government, state government, and the arts and culture scene. The story of the “68-generation”, which accompanied and significantly contributed to the dawn of a new social era in Tyrol.

Contributors:
Sigmund Kripp
Andrea and Werner Schwab
Thomas Posch
Enrico Riccabona
Adi Liener
SJ Richard Plaikner
Lilo Pleyer
Klaus Rohrmoser
Peter Lindenthal
Christoph Frischhut
Marcus Riccabona
Rudolf Kerschbaumer
SJ Werner Haupt
and many more.

Written & Directed by Marc Brugger
Producer: Bernhard Holzhammer
Cinematographers: Victor Kössl, Franco Marco Avi
Editing: Franco Marco Avi, Bernhard Holzhammer
Visual Design: Judith Holzer
Music Arrangement: Kenneth Winkler, Philipp Ossanna
Sound Mixing: Peter Rösner