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 next day, carrying the letter on him, to which the large blood stains on the paper bear witness. The collection also includes a ribauldequin from the year 1678, the so-called "death organ", which was constructed by the Imperial gun founder Daniel Kollmann, and represents an attempt to manufacture a quick-firing gun for the Imperial Army.