count among the oldest state collections in the city of Vienna. They can be traced back to the collections that had been gathered in the old armoury of the Imperial Army in the Inner City since the 17th century and had already become a much-admired attraction in the 18th century. The museum illustrates the history of the Habsburg monarchy and the fortunes of Austria from the late 16th century until 1945, and various special exhibitions are dedicated to other (sometimes contemporary) themes. The exhibits on display in the tank collection, such as the Kürassier tank destroyer or the M109 self-propelled howitzer include references reaching to the present day. Yet the exhibition items do not only include weapons and military equipment such as the huge medieval cannon Pumhart von Steyr, but also exhibits that trace the path to the war, such as the car in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie Chotek, Duchess of Hohenberg were murdered on 28 June 1914. Hall I – From the Thirty Years' War to Prince Eugene (16th century–1700) The first hall of the museum is dedicated to the history of Europe in the 16th and 17th century. The Holy Roman Empire, of which Vienna became the capital with Emperor Maximilian I (1508-1519), Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) and Emperor Ferdinand I (1556-1564), was often a theatre of war during this period and was consistently involved in military conflicts over power, confessions, land, and people. The collections of the Museum of Military History begin at a time when military history is undergoing a transformation from the Volksaufgebot (people's volunteer corps) to the standing army. The Imperial armies, which up to the Thirty Years' War were inconsistently equipped and enlisted only for the period of a campaign, were now transformed into a salaried, "standing" army. These armies were primarily financed by field commanders like Albrecht von Wallenstein. One can follow the technical development of firearms from the arquebus of the 16th century to the matchlock, the wheellock, and the flintlock musket. Several suits of armour, batons, and thrusting weapons round off the theme of the Thirty Years' War. A special exhibit is a hand-written letter of Wallenstein to his field Marshal Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim of 15 November 1632, which he wrote on the evening before the battle of Lützen. Pappenheim was to be fatally injured in battle on the