Students visiting Vienna get to grips with the City’s history

Fifteen, third-year, University of Northampton students have recently returned from a trip to Vienna. The students, all members of the Students’ Union History Society, were accompanied by Dr Jim Beach, Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century History.

The students visited historical sites of importance in the City ranging from the fifteenth to twentieth century, which were connected to modules they had studied during their History degree programme.

Student, Hannah Platt commented: “The trip to Vienna was extremely valuable. It was ram packed full of intellectually stimulating visits to museums and other key sites but what was clever was how there was something that we could link to pretty much all of the modules that we have studied over the past three years.

“We visited the Museum of Military History, the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, which was packed full of exhibitions from the Habsburg Empire through to the Second World War. The knowledge I acquired from the Blood and Iron Module in my first year and a module on fascism in third year could all be drawn on and be deepened by this trip.”

Having studied modules on the origins of the First World War, the students found themselves inspecting the bullet holes in Franz Ferdinand’s car and blood stained tunic. While examining sites of historical importance, the students stumbled upon modern day history in the making, as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Chancellor.

Dr Jim Beach, Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century History, said: “Accompanying the History Society to Vienna was a pleasure.  Visiting places with such deep historical resonance was a great way for them to end their undergraduate studies with us.  I am also very proud of the students for organising the whole trip themselves.   They have thereby engaged deeply with their academic subject as well as learning some important life skills.”