Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 command line .inputrc for key binding

On my command line in Ubuntu Server 16.04.1 , I would like to bind Ctrlup/down to the bash history incremental search function. I found some posts how to do it. They involve the ~/.bashrc and ~/.inputrc files.

Strange characters appearing when I use the Ctrl and Arrow keys to navigate says this works via the .inputrc file in the home directory. Why does ctrl + left arrow not skip words? contains comments about not using .inputrc, about using .zshrc and using .bashrc. I am still too new to not be confused.
I did not have any .inputrc in my fresh server install.

I do not understand those things:

• is .inputrc the right place to put in key bindings in 16.04?
• Is that the same for all different flavours als older version of ubunutu?
• it is normal to have no .inputrc file in my home directory?
• What is recommended : copy the /etc/input to home and edit or make a link
  in a new .inputrc and edit the file in etc?

I did not get it to work, too. I tried both copying the file from etc and rename it to .inputrc and also creating a new file in ~/ with:

touch .inputrc
nano .inputrc

The file content:

$include /etc/inputrc

Here is the what I put into the files.

# mappings for Ctrl-left-arrow and Ctrl-right-arrow for word moving
"\e[1;5C": forward-word
"\e[1;5D": backward-word
"\e[5C": forward-word
"\e[5D": backward-word
"\e\e[C": forward-word
"\e\e[D": backward-word
# ctrl up,down
"\e\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e\e[B": history-search-forward

Both do not work, Ctrl key is ignored. CTRLUp/down do not show the search and CTRLleft/right do not skip words. I think it matches the answer of the seconds post.

What could be the problem?