Over twenty years ago, we had set our minds on traveling to Murmansk to visit the port of the Russian Northern Fleet. A hopeless plan. Of course, the base is located in a restricted military area outside Murmansk. Regardless, a cab driver was willing to get us at least through the first barrier, which was guarded by military posts, for a bundle of US dollars. Instead of the harbor, from where the nuclear submarine Kursk had set out a few months earlier and tragically sunk, we ended up in a museum. My companion’s Russian language skills from her school days in the GDR were not sufficient to understand just how surprised the security staff were at our appearance. But they switched on the lights for us and we were eloquently escorted through the collection rooms. 

The visit to the Museum of Military History in Vienna is a flashback to the buried memories of this and two other military museums we saw during the trip to Russia in 2001. In Vienna too, weapons pile up on top of weapons on top of uniforms and these on top of even more uniforms. Some of the exhibition displays probably date back to the 1960s. Back then, the sophisticated skill of decorating large display cases in the style of tempting shop windows was still common. The museum is eagerly waiting to implement its ambitious pacifist advertising slogan—”Wars belong in museums”—in a contemporary presentation. 

But what is more shocking: the charm of the weapons-rich and completely uncritical state rooms or the well-intentioned attempts to seriously recreate a First World War trench with a bit of scenographic kitsch? Including integrated display cases with mud optics. What will they come up with for the Second World War? The department is currently closed. Too delicate a field.

oe.