Georg Matthäus Vischer

Map of Styria as the Head of Mars, God of War (1681)

Photo: N. Lackner / UMJ

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The Austrian clergyman Georg Matthäus Vischer (1628, Wenns, Holy Roman Empire–1696, Linz, HRE) grew up during the Thirty Years’ War and became the leading expert on the country’s fortifications and a sought-after cartographer with a military touch. In his map of Styria from 1681, the region’s coloring and borders form the head of Mars, the god of war.

This representation of Styria as a bulwark against the East—preventing the enemy from advancing into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation—follows a narrative that would be taken up by the Nazis. It has haunted the region throughout history, up to the present day. On the sides of the map are pictures from Vischer’s series Military Deeds of the Styrians, which commemorate historical battles with the Ottoman Empire.

Digital print (original: etching, copperplate engraving, colored, on canvas), 125.6 × 139.3 cm

Alte Galerie / Universalmuseum Joanneum