Over the weekend I took a trip to the Alps which began in the town of Eisenstadt and ended with a great hike throughout the Alpine mountains of an area that I believe is called Reichenau. Now, there wasn’t much historical significance to be found while hiking through the Alps but many of the excursions we took before and after the trip had some very interesting sites, ranging from the Baroque all the way up to WWII. After getting on the bus we made our way to Eisenstadt, a town in the region known as the Burgenland, which was Hungarian territory until 1921, when it was transferred back into the domain of the new Austrian republic. The city is very quaint and I don’t think was expecting a bus of Americans to drop by their front door. After spending an hour getting lunch, we made our way to the Esterhazy estate, which had been turned into a museum. What made the museum worth visiting was the musical composer, Haydn, and his connection to the Esterhazy family. Back in the time of Haydn musical patronage was only beginning to grow in popularity. Up to that time it had been mostly artists, sculptors, and even writers, who were commissioned by the nobility to create works of art. The Esterhazy family was one of the most prestigious families in Hungary at this time and though there had been initial antagonisms with the Habsburg dynasty, they soon married into this circle of royalty.
When you enter the museum, you see a series of portraits depicting different Esterhazy figures and Habsburg leaders (usually dressed in the red green regalia of the Hungarian army). Though these paintings have some historical significance and later parts of the museum have interesting manuscripts with signatures from the likes of Haydn and Mozart, the museum itself is quite imposing, largely experimental, and for lack of a better term, boring. First of all, the museum had arguably the ugliest interior design of any museum I had ever been in, with ugly disjointed colors and the continuous portrayal of three head on the wallpaper; the rooms reminded me more of a second rate casino in Reno than the historical remnants of an Esterhazy palace. The museum took too much time promoting experimental art in a manner that alienated visitors more than inspire them. Why the roof continued to explode was never explained, I assume it had something to do with a Haydn score, but nonetheless this form of historical introspection was irritating. The gardens outside held another small vestige of interest for me because it showed the popularity of British culture on the wider whole of Europe during this time. Unlike the manicured French gardens with their geometrical shapes, the British gardens focused much more on the natural, virgin beauty of nature and intended visitors to feel as if they were walking through nature, untouched by man, and beautiful for that exact reason. The intensity of British culture was so great that Haydn himself even traveled to England later in his life to perform and write music. So that was the Esterhazy museum, not the greatest find but the rest of the trip definitely made up for it.
After leaving the museum we made our way up to a fascinating church unlike any I had ever seen, which also held Haydn’s grave since he specifically wished to be buried in Eisenstadt. He actually wanted an epic funeral with thousands of guests and all sorts of pomp and circumstances but because of Napoleon’s invasion, his funeral was sadly empty except for his closest relatives and family. The church itself is so interesting because of its architectural design. Unlike other churches, which value conformity and relative equality among the different points and walls of its exterior, this church has a type of fluidity to itself with no laws holding it down. The roof is circular and moves up and down like waves. The entire building is more like the Disney concert hall in Los Angeles than it is the Notre Dame in Paris. Inside the church there is also a series of statues depicting stories from the Bible. One of the more interesting aspects of these statues is the depiction of the Jews, who are seen ordering Jesus’s crucifixion, not in Biblical clothing, but in outfits common during the time these statues were made. It is easy to simply point this out as a form of anti-Semitism because parishioners would view these images with anger and then see the Jews of the town walking along in the same type of clothing but let us remember that it was common for all people in Biblical stories to be depicted in the clothing of the time in which the stories are presented. The statues are inherently anti-Semitic but I put into question the definitive nature of such intolerance since it was so common for all historical figures to be fitted in clothes common for the time. Nonetheless, the trip was an exciting look at one history’s greatest musicians as well as an architectural wonder that I believe doesn’t get enough credit for its revolutionary look.
So now Eisenstadt was far behind us and we made our way to the Alps. We got on a gondola, which took us to the top were our Alpine cabins were waiting for us and our bags. During dinner one of the other students mentioned he was going to try and hike early in the morning and I decided that I too was interested in partaking in this endeavor. We got up at around 4:20 in the morning and then made our way out of the lodge to go hiking. It took us about four hours to reach the summit whereupon we laughed that the rest of class probably hadn’t even got up yet. The fog of the early hours put a damper on our hopes of seeing the sunrise but our early expedition did allow us to see things I believe most regular travelers wouldn’t see sometime in the middle of the afternoon. At around eight in the morning we actually saw a family of mountain goats walking along a hill above us and as we watched them they sized us up to see if we were friend or foe (at least that’s my interpretation of their long stares). We hiked for a total of twelve hours and though I’ve faced much harder hikes in California through Boy Scouts, the mountain above Reichenau definitely has some beautiful scenery and wonderful little stops along the way where you can get food and recharge. This is totally different from some hikes I’ve had in the US where rather stopping to get food and supplies three hours, you have to hike for three days to get to the next lodge with food. So the next few days were difficult with all the sore muscles from hiking so long but it was all part of the experience. The following day we made our way down the gondola and started our trip back home.
About halfway to Vienna we decided to stop at an amazing cave structure, which hold the largest underground lake in Europe, and though this itself makes it definitely a site to see, I was more fascinated with the historical episodes that had happened within the confines of this cave system. It turns out during the Second World War, these caves were used as a secret production facility of the Nazi jet fighter program. The German air force, or Luftwaffe, was at least ten years ahead technologically than any of the other Allied powers and it must have felt like something out of a science fiction film when American pilots saw these fighters descend out of the sky at speeds unimaginable at the time. The caves actually didn’t build the most famous of the German jet fighters, the vaunted ME-262, but another prototype which luckily never went into service because of the Third Reich’s collapse. Another more malevolent part of these caves was the use of concentration camp prisoners and POW’s in making the needed materials for the planes. A small memorial can be found in the caves, recognizing the hardships these people faced under the Nazis. The fact that the jets were built in caves can easily determined by the images of German and Austrian cities following the American and British bombing campaigns against the Axis. The Germans found it easier to continue production of these so called Wonder Weapons and used other caves and concentration camp victims throughout the Third Reich to make these weapons. Jews and other prisoners were forced make the V1 and V2 rockets as well in places such as Dora and Peenemunde.
Overall, the three days we took traveling throughout South Eastern Austria and the Alps was well worth our time. We visited a lot of sites and saw some beautiful views from mountains we would have probably never climbed had we not been on the trip. I think it was a great experience and hopefully the last few trips we have ahead will be just as memorable.
