August 4th

After class today I headed over to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum where the history of the Austrian military was on display. What I found to be the most interesting piece on display on the upper floor was a tent of a Grand Vizier of the Turkish army. It was quite interesting to find out that Eugene of Savoy actually captured the Turkish tent and had used it as shade for himself and the members of his hunting party. I thought about how in the summer time at the Belvedere Palace, Eugene would have let his friends take shelter under that very tent that he had taken as a trophy during his campaign to save the city upon the Danube. Seeing the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in was really chilling. I sat and reflected on how the lives of those two individuals led to the destruction of millions of lives in the First World War. It is truly sad that Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were murdered in Sarajevo but for me its just hard to wrap my head around the disastrous consequences those murders brought to the world. It was interesting to see Nazi propaganda that tried to show the Austrians that incorporation into Hitler's Third Reich would be necessary to secure a vast German empire. The sign shown here indicates that with the addition of Austria, 75 million German speakers would make for more Lebensraum or living space for the German aryan race. This sign strongly points out the aggressive expansionism of Adolf Hitler leading up to the Second World War. Through appeasement, Hitler was able to just take lands unchecked and with Austria and Germany having a common language, made for an easy acquisition for Hitler in 1938. After touring the Museum, I hoped back on the bus and in a matter of minutes was back at the Sudtiroler Platz U-Bahn station. The public transportation in Vienna is incredible. The Viennese are very lucky because in a matter of minutes, they can literally traverse the entire city. It makes day-to-day travel around the city much easier. It is amazing to me when I think about public transportation in the states that is just so far behind. The infrastructure in Vienna just outshines America’s. Also you can have a yearlong pass that is good for streetcars, buses, and subways. In the states you would need to have a pass for each of those methods of transportation independently. Even though the United States is much younger than Austria, our infrastructure looks ancient when compared to the modern public transportation of Vienna.

Nazi Propaganda emphasizing the importance of Austria entering into the Third Reich

Franz Ferdinand's car from Sarajevo

A tent of a Turkish Grand Vizer captured in 1683 by Prince Eugene of Savoy