Today our group went to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, or the History of War museum for you Americans. Earlier that day in class we had learned about how the Habsburgs consolidated their power through marriages, and this museum showcased the Habsburg weapons used to keep the peace. The first sights in the museum were statues of the Habsburg emperors. Most of them bore symbols of membership to the Order of the Golden Fleece, a knightly order started by the Court of Burgundy, into which the Habsburgs married into with the marriage of Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy. This order denotes a high social status and was reserved for kings and emperors and those few who had greatly aided their rulers. Maximilian is noted by several of the readings as the “Last Knight” of the Medieval period and a “Renaissance man,” bridging the gap between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. In this museum we traced the development of their weaponry, starting with swords and pikes, and later muskets and artillery. This museum seems to glorify the Habsburg ideal of AEIOU (alles Erdreich ist Österreich Untertan). I think it is interesting how Rudolf of Habsburg was elected emperor because he was seen as a weak king who wouldn't upset the current balance of power. His dynasty ended up ruling an empire for hundreds of years over which "the sun never sets" under Charles V. After Charles' reign, however, the empire was split between his son Philip, who ruled the Spanish lands, and his brother Ferdinand, who took over in Austria.
I decided today to revisit the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum today to look specifically at the 30 Years’ War and Turkish Invasion exhibitions. The 30 Years’ War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of the Habsburgs. The advent of Protestantism allowed the nobles of certain countries, for example Bohemia, to resist the complete centralization of power. In Bohemia, the rich magnates became Calvinist, a deliberate gesture against the Habsburgs. In 1618 the electors elected Frederick of the Palatinate as King of Bohemia, who became known as the “winter king” because of his short stint as ruler. Traditionally, the kings of Bohemia had all been Habsburgs, and Frederick was seen as a usurper. In response to his coronation, two Habsburg messengers were sent to Prague, where the infamous Defenestration of Prague took place, sparking the war. At this time, professional armies were not yet in use; soldiers on both sides were mercenaries, raised at personal expenses. They also lacked any sense of uniformity, with every soldier wearing his own uniform. A painting in this museum depicts the 1632 battle of Luetzen, in which Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish king on the side of the Protestants and a military genius, was killed. What is particularly interesting is that in this picture women and children are depicted helping with the war effort, driving cattle and following the soldiers. This close proximity to the dead and livestock probably caused disease outbreaks and may be one reason why the war killed so many people.
The most important Catholic general of this war was Albrecht von Wallenstein. As a military entrepreneur and genius he drove the Protestants back. He raised his armies at his own expense, and over time he was considered too powerful and dismissed by Ferdinand II in 1630. Later, however, he was recalled to duty because of Protestant victories, when he once again rose to fame. Because of his services, he was made a member of the Golden Fleece, the highest honor the Habsburgs could give him. However, as is the case with every celebrity, rumors began to fly around him. He was suspected of committing treason, and was assassinated by officers loyal to the emperor.
Our other purpose in visiting this museum was to examine the Ottoman Empire and how the Turks are portrayed in this museum. To do this, however, one must first understand the Ottoman Empire. The empire itself lasted almost as long as the Habsburgs did, from 1299 to 1923. It reached its height in the 16th and 17th centuries, as evidenced by their sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683. During this time, the Ottomans were the only Eastern power to pose a challenge to the Holy Roman Empire, and were supported by France for this reason. As the empire expanded, they would frequently employ native people in the lands they conquered as administrators. The Turks believed that Muslims, Christians, and Jews were all “People of the Book,” and therefore treated them leniently. In this way, the Turks were even more tolerant of non-Catholics than the Habsburgs were, whose official policy towards Jews, according to Joseph II, was “to make the totality of Jewry harmless, but the individual useful.” When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, the same year Columbus made his fateful voyage, they settled in the Ottoman Empire. They followed Ottoman conquests into the Balkans, and settled in areas like Bulgaria and Thessaloniki. Expelled Jews also found refuge in Italy, taking advantage of Italy's divided states to settle there.
One part of the museum deals with the 1683 siege of Vienna. During this siege, Leopold I left Count Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg in charge of the defense of Vienna as he himself fled the city. With only around 12,000 troops, he held the city against the Turkish Kara Mustafa’s army of 40,000 strong until a Polish relief force freed the city. Prince Eugene of Savoy was a twenty-year old at this time, riding amidst the relief forces. There is a painting hanging in the Heeresgeschichtliches museum of the relief of Vienna. I would consider the work a complete work of Habsburg propaganda. In it, the victorious and noble Christians are driving back the bumbling Turks, many of who are falling over themselves in an attempt to escape. The Turks in this picture are portrayed as deformed and even pig-like, with expressions of shock and fear on their faces.
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