National Library Night, Vienna Stock Photography

Named The Neue Burg, this massive curved building situated on Heldenplatz, was added to the Hofburg Complex in 1881 - 1913. It embodies the last gasp of the Habsburg Empire as it strained under aspirations of independence from its domains, when the personal prestige of Emperor Franz Joseph was all that seemed able to keep it intact. The Neue Burg was build to designs by the Ringstasse architects Karl von Hasenauer and Gottfried Semper. Five years after its completion, the Habsburg Empire ended. In 1938, Adolf Hitler stood on the terraced central bay to proclaim the union of Austria and Germany to tens of thousands of Viennese. Today houses the reading room of the National Library and a number of museums.