Memory of the world: Exposition of the First World War opened in Vienna

Jun 28 the Vienna Military–Historical Museum presented at the exhibition, on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Fran Ferdinand and his wife, the car in which he went to Sarajevo, the military uniform and the bloody shirt of the heir.  

Nearby there is the showcase with wheelchair and prosthetic grave crosses, symbolizing the memory of more than 9 million victims of the war, which in Austria today is called “initial catastrophe” of the XX century.  

The car and crosses – is the beginning and the end of the new exposition. It includes about 2 thousand objects. Specialists of one of the largest military-historical museums of the world and the oldest museum of Vienna have composed the exposition for a few years, and then built it within 11 months.

The wing of the museum of the area of 1000 square meters has been extended up to 1400 square meters by an additional level of half a meter deep into the basement of the historical building. In 35 showcases of the museum with the most modern storage conditions are placed about 2000 objects, of which – 917 are three-dimensional.

Here are presented not only diverse military uniforms, weapons, awards, maps and leaflets. You can see the armored hatch shell pierced with one of the Austrian fortresses, Italian costume of chemical suit, reminiscent of that in the First World War was first used the chemical weapon, the Serbian flag of St. Andrew, a toy soldier and the board game “Who wins”.

The separate window contains Russian uniforms and awards of that time. Not far from them is the leaflet in Russian with the message about the revolution in Petrograd and the armistice.

“The museum cannot tell the full story. It can maintain the knowledge with the help of the objects. These authentic objects tell the certain aura, which gives opportunity to better understand the history”, - said in his opening remark the director of the museum.