Return to the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum

Today I returned to the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum to further investigate the exhibits on Austria’s history from World War I through World War II. Austria’s entry into and participation in World War I was extremely different on all levels than their entry and participation in World War II. Austria essentially started the First World War by igniting the “Powder Keg” of alliances that had built up in the early twentieth century between the Allied and Central Powers. The assassination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand sparked the declaration of war against Serbia, which caused the many alliances between the two countries to join the war that immediately encompassed nearly all of the major European countries. It’s clear by the emphasis on this incident by the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum that this event is still clung to as a major event in Austrian history. This was essentially the last major war of significant military involvement by the Austrian state in a long history of military victories and conquests during the Holy Roman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Since the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Austria had been slowly declining as a European power to the more centralized powers of Great Britain, France, and newly emerging Germany. I feel like the Austrians hold on to the assassination of Ferdinand almost in excess, not for the loss of an Arch Duke, but rather because it was essentially the last time they had a significant impact in European, or rather, world affairs. This remembrance manifests in the huge exhibit dedicated to Ferdinand’s uniform, couch he died on, and car he was riding in on the day of his death. These three artifacts essentially have their own room at the museum and it really drives home the impression that this is a part of Austrian history that today remains one of their pivotal points of the twentieth century. It seems almost ironic being that they would remember this event with such emphasis as Austria did not only lose the war, but most of their territorial possessions and had to transform their government. I guess when you are reduced to a status of virtually a non-actor on the international stage a country must cling to the “good old days”.

The period between the World Wars was one marked by a new government and internal strife within the country as an effect of the Great Depression. There was little loyalty to the new government under Dr. Karl Rener and a large push to restore the Habsburgs to power. The empire was reduced from 52 million people to 6 million under the treaty of St. Germain that ended World War I for Austria. Vienna was essentially a welfare state leading up to the Great Depression until the election of Dollfuss in 1933 whose conservative and authoritarian policies sparked Civil War in 1934. This political and social unrest would last until the end of the decade and fuel much of the controversy I saw in the exhibits at the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum over the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.

Nazi Germany, under the rule of Adolf Hitler, threatened invasion of Austria in the last half of the 1930s if the Austrian government did not agree to annexation. Germany invaded in 1938 to overwhelming support from the Austrian people with a reported 99.7% of the population being in favor of annexation. While Hitler obviously went on to commit horrible atrocities while in control of Austria beginning with initially arresting and deporting 20,000 Viennese and ultimately removing all Jews from the city by 1942. While the evils of the Nazi occupation of Austria are undisputed in the exhibits of the museums, there is little investigation of the initial support for Hitler. The Nazi soldiers depicted with savage animal heads gives the impression of an evil nature of their doctrine and army. This is a constant theme throughout the World War II exhibit that Nazi Germany was a horrible evil power that victimized the Austrians through forced annexation, but it does not seem to be entirely accurate. The Viennese seem to use the fact they were invaded as a veil for their overwhelming support for Hitler’s regime and the annexation. I can understand why the Viennese would want to hide or forget that they were in favor of an alliance with the worst mass murderer in modern history, but it is understandable at the time. Austria was a country hurting from a recent Civil War, political divisions and social unrest, and Hitler came offering a return to a glorious empire that Austria undoubtedly missed the power of from the period leading up to the First World War. The historical denial is both interesting and understandable by the Viennese concerning World War II, but the implications on the memory and history of World War II in Austria are catastrophic if the country’s history is not properly communicated to future generations.

The German world of the day is Gesund and it means ‘healthy’