This first week back is a little crazy – starting up new classes at the University of Vienna is a big hunk of time, but we’ve also got midterms.1 We still have a bit of time for fun, though – on Wednesday, we went and saw a concert at the Musikverein, a beautiful building where I didn’t take any pictures because High Society has some powerful judgement they’ll throw your way if you do that.
But that’s not the subject of this post;2 I’m here to talk about the War Museum that we went to as a class trip on Tuesday.
First off, the lobby of this place is full of Art, because that’s just how Europe rolls.
To the left of the entrance is a lot of war materials – there’s like six different artillery guns, and quite a few smaller weapons. And this cool tank-motorcycle thing.
But there’s also quite a few reminders of the horrors of the war, like these weird propaganda posters…
And a stark reminder of some of the lead-up to the worst parts of the Holocaust.
If you head to the right of the lobby, they’ve got an exhibit called “the graves are nice this time of year,” and beyond that is a permanent installation, centered around this car.
In case you couldn’t tell from the full view, that’s a bullet hole in the side of the vehicle. Why, you ask?
Well, across the room from the car is the uniform of the man who was in it when the bullet hit it. And another one hit him. His name, in case you’re wondering, was Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Kind of an important figure.
Anyways, that was enough being serious, so onto the silliness: I call this one “WWII-era Hoverboard.”
And we’ll end with Karl Renner, as the war did, in a way – he was an influential figure in both the First and Second Republics, and worked incredibly hard to put the country back together after both wars.