The horrors of War

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I began a busy day at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum which houses the history of the Austrian military tracing its roots from the 16th century onward starting with the Thirty Years’ War- the clash between the Catholics and Protestants- with heavy silver armor on display. A turning point in Austrian history was when the Turkish advanced into Vienna in 1683, but they were repelled by imperial and Polish troops commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy. This eventually led to the Peace Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, which called for Austria to regain large portions of Hungary and all of Transylvania. The Museum has Turkish flags flying on display that were captured by the Austrians from the wars including a banner that quotes from the Koran, “There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” There are also hundreds of rifles, machetes, and muskets on display. There are also portraits of the victorious Prince Eugene.

The Museum tracks the fall of the Austrians in their war against Prussia, which led to a division within the Hapsburg Empire as Austria and Hungary were split up; it also paved the way for the modern state of Germany under Otto Van Bismarck in 1871. Many of the exhibits of this era are devoted to Franz Joseph who was the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy for 68 years.

The highlight of the museum is the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were riding in when they were assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914 by a teenage Serbian nationalist Gavirlio Princip – an event which eventually led to the outbreak of World War I. The audio guide interestingly mentioned that Ferdinand narrowly escaped a grenade attack at the train station and the damage can still be seen on the car. With the death of Ferdinand and Austria’s crushing defeat in the war, the Hapsburg Monarchy was finished.

I enjoyed the exhibits from World War I and World War II. The most engaging were the fighter planes and tanks that were used, although it was difficult to follow the display descriptions at times. It was disappointing that the Tank Park outside had no descriptions in English.

I moved on the Jewish Museum. The permanent collections of the museum are lackluster as they display hologram images giving brief thumbnail descriptions of Jewish history in Vienna. The museum did have an impressive collection of ceremonial objects, but having seen many over the years, it didn’t appeal to me.

There were two special exhibits. The first was “Best of All Women”: The Female Dimension in Judaism, examining the role of women in Judaism in political, social, religious, and economic milieu. Two things stood out in this exhibit. There was a picture of women in the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York proudly wearing tefilin around their arms and head in 1994. One would perceive that this is part of the modern feminist movement that women seek equal rights to men in the more liberal aspects of Judaism. In the case of the photo, that is correct, but there was a precedent as Brune of Mainz wrapped tefilin around her limbs in the 14th century. The exhibit also told the story of Regina Jonas who was brought up in a traditional Orthodox family in Germany, but became the first female Rabbi in 1936 before tragically dying in the Holocaust.

The other exhibit, “The Archive of the Jewish Community Vienna” reveals one of the more significant discoveries when Jewish Community Vienna (IKG) employees found in wooden cabinets, piles of books, index cards in a vacant apartment that contained the records and files kept by the IKG prior to the war.

Some 500,000 pages of data were recovered and seven years later, a small sample of it is displayed in this special exhibit. Unfortunately, the exhibit is disorganized as the items such as letters displayed are not organized by years, but rather scattered all over the place, which makes it difficult to follow. Some of the items displayed show the internal rift that went on in a Jewish community. An example being a letter to a cantor telling him that he was relieved of his duties. There was a notebook listing the names of people to be deported to Lotz. Some of the archives were merely simple sketches of leaders such as Dr. Adolph Jellinek- the chief Rabbi of Vienna in 1872.

The Judenplatz hosts the archeological remains of a medieval synagogue underground that originated in 1240. The synagogue was severely damaged in a fire in 1406 and was razed 15 years later at the decree of Duke Albrecht V who also ordered that the Jews be expelled. Many Jews committed suicide. Nearby is a rather simple, but controversial Holocaust memorial that was pushed by Simon Wiesenthal. The Jewish community opposed the memorial being built over what was the synagogue while right-wingers complained about excessive money being spent on the project. Eventually a compromise was reached as the monument was placed near the synagogue instead of directly on top of where it stood.

The stunning baroque masterpiece church Karlkirsche was designed by Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach, although he died before it was completed. The green domes along with the two columns influenced by Trajan’s Column in Rome dominate the exterior. Inside, one can take a lift to the top and view the magnificent fresco in the cupola by Johann Michael Rottmayr, which was completed in 1730.
At the Albertinaplatz, there is the Monument Against War and Fascism which consists of four thought-provoking statues.

The split white monument, The Gates of Violence, remembers victims of all wars and violence, including the 1938–1945 Nazi rule of Austria. Standing directly in front of it, you're at the gates of a concentration camp. Step into a montage of wartime images: clubs and WWI gas masks, a dying woman birthing a future soldier, and chained slave laborers sitting on a pedestal of granite cut from the infamous quarry at Mauthausen concentration camp.

The hunched-over figure on the ground behind is a Jew forced to wash anti-Nazi graffiti off a street with a toothbrush. The statue with its head buried in the stone (Orpheus entering the underworld) reminds Austrians of the consequences of not keeping their government on track. Behind that, the 1945 declaration of Austria's second republic — with human rights built into it — is cut into the stone. The experience gains emotional impact when you realize this monument stands on the spot where several hundred people were buried alive when the cellar they were hiding in was demolished in a WWII bombing attack.

I finished the day by viewing the Wagner apartments designed by the famed architect Otto Wagner, which were completed in 1899. Apartment number 38 is yellow with a luminous gild adornment by Kolo Moser. Number 40 is known for its pink floral patterns.