so much history...so little time

On the first day in Vienna we had a tour with Dr. S (really just dr. Wasser in a plague Doctor outfit) ((as seen here))

We got an overview of the city and learned A LOT about Viennese medical history. It's amazing to me how much history that affected the entire world could all have happened over the span of hundreds of years in one city. 

One thing that I have been thinking about since we started all of this history learning is the lack of knowledge we, as people, have. So many things are caused simply because we cannot be in two places at once, communication methods were painfully archaic until very recently (and even then, it's not accessible for everyone in the world now so that's still an issue), and the motivating factor for many people is power and money. The fact that the Viennese were anti Semitic, even before the reign of hitler, effected the history of the entire world. 

The fact that hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered during WWII simply because they weren't born to some "higher race" that doesn't even exist just blows my mind. Learning more about Nazis and their supporters makes me really think about what would I do in that kind of situation? Dr. Wasser brought up a really good point while we were walking around Vienna: to house a Jewish family away from the Nazis basically meant certain death for not only yourself but everyone you loved. I'd like to think that if my Jewish friends came knocking on my door that I would have accepted them without hesitation. But would I do that if it me

ant my sister would be killed before she had a chance to start college? If my meant my brother, mom, and dad would be killed because of the person I took into my home? 

I'm relived I don't have to make that decision but it still hits close to home. The anti Islamic feelings back in the states reminds me of the anti Semitic movement of the nazis and people of the previous century. Will I witness the world moving towards a hatred and violence that is comparable to that of the Hitler regime? I really hope not. 

That was a bit of a tangent but it seems that Vienna was a lot of education about the oppression of women and races other than whites and how it affected history of medicine and of the world. There's so much more I could say about women - such as the lack of women physicians until the recent decades, the lack of women in the Vienna philharmonic, and the "hysterical" women that Freud and his contemporaries studied. But that's for another time. 

While in Vienna we also went to the natural history museum, the Austrian academy of science, a music museum, the crypt where the Hapsburg dynasty family is buried, saw a string quartet performance (attached the picture of us all!), the area within the Vienna general hospital for the psychiatric patients, the Freud museum, AND maybe most importantly, I tried my first schnitzel (pictured above!). Every place we went was so full of history and it was such an informative and interesting week! It's just crazy to think that some of the buildings I have been in and tombs I've seen are hundreds of years older than the US. Seeing more of the world really puts everything into perspective and forces you into cultural relativism and out of ethnocentrism. 

I learned SO much in Vienna and it was really so cool to be walking around places that are so rich in history from hundreds of years ago! I definitely enjoyed Vienna a lot and i looked forward to returning at some point!