Cemetery in Vienna, Austria
The
Vienna Central Cemetery
(
German
:
Wiener Zentralfriedhof
) is one of the largest
cemeteries
in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among
Vienna
's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's biggest cemetery, not of its geographic location, as it is not in the city center of the
Austrian
capital, but on the southern outskirts, in the outer city district of
Simmering
.
History and description
[
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]
Unlike many others, the Vienna Central Cemetery is not one that has evolved slowly. The decision to establish a new, big cemetery for Vienna came in 1863 when it became clear that ? due to industrialization ? the city's population would eventually increase to such an extent that the existing communal cemeteries would prove to be insufficient. City leaders expected that Vienna, then capital of the large
Austro-Hungarian Empire
, would grow to four million inhabitants by the end of the 20th century, as no-one foresaw the Empire's collapse in 1918. The city council therefore assigned an area significantly outside of the city's borders and of such large dimension, that it would suffice for a long time to come. They decided in 1869 that a flat area in Simmering should be the site of the future Central Cemetery. The cemetery was designed in 1870; according to the plans of the Frankfurt landscape architects Karl Jonas Mylius and
Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli
who were awarded for their project
per angusta ad augusta
(from dire to sublime).
[1]
The cemetery was opened on
All Saints' Day
in 1874. However the
consecration
of the cemetery was not without controversy: the
interdenominational
character of the new cemetery ? the different faith groups being interred on the same ground ? met with fierce resistance, especially in
conservative
circles of the
Roman Catholic Church
.
[2]
This argument became even more aggressive when the city announced that it did not want an official
Catholic opening
of the new cemetery ? but gave a substantial amount of money toward the construction of a segregated
Jewish
section. In the end, the groups reached an agreement resulting in the Catholic representatives opening the Central Cemetery with a small ceremony. Due to refraining from having a large public showing, the new cemetery was inaugurated almost unnoticed in the early morning of 31 October 1874 by Vienna Mayor
Baron Cajetan von Felder
and Cardinal
Joseph Othmar Rauscher
to avoid an escalation of the public controversy. The official opening of the Central Cemetery occurred the following day. The first burial was that of Jacob Zelzer, followed by 15 others that day. The grave of Jacob Zelzer still exists near the administration building at the cemetery wall.
[3]
The cemetery spans 2.5 km
2
(620 acres) with 330,000 gravesites containing around 3 million deceased, and up to 25 burials daily. It is also the second largest cemetery, after the 4 km
2
(990 acres) of
Hamburg
's
Ohlsdorf Cemetery
, which is the largest in Europe by land area.
[4]
A
Viennese
joke has it that the Central Cemetery is "half the size of
Zurich
, but twice as much fun", (
German
:
Halb so groß wie Zurich ? aber doppelt so lustig ist der Wiener Zentralfriedhof!
).
[5]
Opposite the cemetery's main gate, across Simmeringer Hauptstrasse, is the
Feuerhalle Simmering
, Vienna's first
crematorium
, which was built by
Clemens Holzmeister
in 1922 in the style of an oriental fortress.
[6]
St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery Church
is the central church of the cemetery. It used to be called
Dr.
Karl-Lueger
-Gedachtniskirche
(Karl Lueger Memorial Church) because of the crypt of the former mayor of Vienna below the high altar. This church in
Art Nouveau
style was built in 1908?1910 by Max Hegele. The crypt of
Austrian presidents
is situated in front of the church. The burial
vault
is located beneath the
sarcophagus
, with stairs leading down to a circular room whose walls are lined with
niches
where urns or coffins can be interred.
On 1 November 2023, unidentified vandals set a fire and sprayed
swastikas
on external walls overnight in the cemetery's Jewish section. The entrance lobby to a ceremonial hall was burned for the first time since the 1938
Kristallnacht pogrom
by the
Nazis
, but there were no injuries. The attack was condemned by Austrian Chancellor
Karl Nehammer
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
Ehrengraber
[
edit
]
In its early incarnations, the cemetery was unpopular because of its distance from the city centre. This forced authorities to think of ways to make it more attractive: Hence honorary graves (
German
:
Ehrengrab
) as a way of attracting tourists were established.
Interred in the Central Cemetery are notables such as
Ludwig van Beethoven
and
Franz Schubert
, who were moved to the Central Cemetery from "Wahringer Ostfriedhof" in 1888;
Johannes Brahms
;
Antonio Salieri
;
Johann Strauss II
and
Arnold Schoenberg
. A
cenotaph
honours
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, who is buried in nearby
St. Marx Cemetery
.
Interdenominational character
[
edit
]
In addition to the
Catholic
section, the cemetery houses a
Protestant
cemetery (opened 1904) and two
Jewish
cemeteries.
Although the older of the two, established in 1863, was destroyed by the
Nazis
during the
Kristallnacht
, around 60,000 graves remain intact. Cemetery records indicate 79,833 Jewish burials as of 10 July 2011. Prominent burials here include those of the
Rothschild family
and that of the author
Arthur Schnitzler
. The second
Jewish cemetery
was built in 1917 and is still in use today. There were 58,804 Jewish burials in the new section as of 21 November 2007.
[10]
Officials discovered the desecration of 43 Jewish graves in the two Jewish sections on 29 June 2012, allegedly as an anti-Semitic act ? the stones and slabs were toppled or damaged.
[11]
Since 1876,
Muslims
have been buried at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof. The dead are buried according to Austrian law, in a
coffin
, in contrast to the Islamic ritual practice: burial in a
shroud
. The opening of the new Islamic cemetery of the Islamic Faith Community took place on 3 October 2008 in
Liesing
.
The cemetery also contains
Russian Orthodox
burial grounds (Saint Lazarus chapel, 1894) and plots dedicated for the use of various
Eastern Orthodox
churches. Since 1869, members of the
Greek Orthodox
community have been buried in Section 30 A, just west of Gate 2, near the arcades. The
Romanian Orthodox
community is near Gate 3 in Section 38 as are members of the
Bulgarian Orthodox
churches. The
Serbian Orthodox
community received portions of Sections 68 B and 69 C, near Gate 3. Section 27 A contains the tombs of the
Coptic Orthodox Church
.
[12]
The
Protestant
section on the east side is dedicated for the use of both confessions-parts of the Evangelical Protestant church in Austria, the
Lutheran
A.B
(Evangelische Kirche Augsburger Bekenntnis) and
Calvinist
H.B
(Evangelische Kirche Helvetisches Bekenntnis). The cemetery was inaugurated in the presence of the President of the Evangelical Protestant Church, Dr. Rudolf Franz on 14 November 1904. The cemetery was expanded in 1926, 1972 and 1998. The Protestant section consists of 6,000 graves and 300 family vaults. There is a 300-seat church named
Heilandskirche
on the cemetery ground which serves the purpose of a cemetery chapel. The church was consecrated by Pastor Rudolf Morally. The
reredos
and the altar on the apse of the church is ornamented with a
crucifix
by sculptor Josef Grunhut.
[13]
[14]
In 2000, a
Baby burial ground
opened in Section 35 B near Gate 3 where
stillborn
infants, dead babies, and young children up to 110 centimetres (43 in) of height are interred.
[15]
Europe's first
Buddhist
cemetery was established in the Vienna Central Cemetery in May 2005. An area of the Central Cemetery has been set aside for this purpose centered around a
stupa
, and was
consecrated
by a
Tibetan
monk.
[16]
The new
Anatomy Memorial
opened in Section 26, on 5 March 2009, for interments of the Institute of
Anatomy
of the
Medical University of Vienna
and for the people who donated their bodies to science.
[17]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
in Austria celebrated the dedication of a hectare-sized plot set apart for the
Mormon
deceased in the Vienna Central Cemetery, on 19 September 2009.
[18]
Access
[
edit
]
Private car traffic is allowed on the cemetery grounds every day of the year except 1 November (
All Saint's Day
), although vehicles must pay a
toll
. Because of the large number of visitors on 1 November, private vehicles are not permitted. A public "cemetery bus" line (Route 106) operates on the grounds with several stops. The old Simmering horse tram was replaced by an electric tram, running from
Schwarzenbergplatz
to the Central Cemetery, in 1901 and it was renumbered as "71"
(der 71er)
in 1907; it remains the most popular route to the cemetery by public transport. The "Zentralfriedhof" stop on the
Vienna S-Bahn
(metro suburban railway) is close to the old Jewish part of the cemetery. The closest underground stop is "Simmering" (
Vienna U-Bahn
, line U3), about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the cemetery.
Gallery
[
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]
Cultural references
[
edit
]
The cemetery is the scene of Harry Lime's fake and real funeral at the beginning and end of
The Third Man
.
[19]
The musician
Wolfgang Ambros
credited the cemetery in his 1975 song "Es lebe der Zentralfriedhof" ("Long live the Central Cemetery"), marking with it the 100th anniversary of its opening.
Notable interments
[
edit
]
- Alfred Adler
(1870?1937), psychiatrist and psychologist, founder of
individual psychology
- Wolf Albach-Retty
(1906?1967), Austrian actor
- Rudolf von Alt
(1812?1905), painter
- Alois Ander
(1821?1864), Bohemian-born operatic tenor
- Franz Antel
(1913?2007), film director, writer and producer
- Leon Askin
(1907?2005), actor
- Franz von Bayros
(1866?1924), artist
- Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770?1827), composer
- Erna Berger
(1900?1990), opera singer
- Ulrich Bettac
(1897?1959), actor
- Hedy Bienenfeld
(1907?1976), Austrian-American Olympic swimmer
- Theodor Billroth
(1829?1894), surgeon
- Ludwig Boltzmann
(1844?1906), physicist/mathematician
- Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
(1851?1914), Austrian economist
- Sergei Bortkiewicz
(1877?1952), composer, with his wife Elisabeth
- Johannes Brahms
(1833?1897), composer
- Adolf von Brudermann
(1854?1945), Austro-Hungarian general
- Rudolf von Brudermann
(1851?1941), Austro-Hungarian general
- Ignaz Brull
(1846?1907), composer
- Carl Czerny
(1791?1857), piano teacher and composer
- Elfi von Dassanowsky
(1924?2007), singer and film producer
- Georg Decker
(1818?1894), portrait artist
- Karl Decker
(1921?2005), Austrian football player and manager
- Otto Erich Deutsch
(1883?1967), musicologist
- Heinrich Elbogen
(1872?1927), Austrian sports shooter who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Falco
civil name Johann (Hans) Holzel (1957?1998), rock singer
- Anton Dominik Fernkorn
(1813?1878), sculptor
- Leopold Figl
(1902?1965), statesman
- Viktor Frankl
(1905?1997), neurologist, psychiatrist, and
Holocaust
survivor
- Egon Friedell
(1878?1938), Austrian philosopher, historian, journalist, actor, cabaret performer, and theatre critic
- Edgar Froese
(1944?2015), musician, artist, composer
- Dorothea Gerard
(1855?1915), novelist
- Carl von Ghega
(1802?1860), engineer
- Alexander Girardi
(1850?1918), actor
- Christoph Willibald Gluck
(1714?1787), composer
- Karl Goldmark
(1830?1915), composer
- Alfred Grunfeld
(1852?1924), pianist
- Cecil van Haanen
(1844?1914), artist
- Baron Theophil von Hansen
(1813?1891), architect
- Anton Heiller
(1923?1979), organist and composer
- Johann von Herbeck
(1831?1877), composer
- Hysni Curri
(??1925), Albanian revolutionary
[20]
[21]
- Gert Jonke
(1946?2009), poet, playwright and novelist
- Curd Jurgens
(1912?1982), actor
- Emmerich Kalman
(1882?1953), composer
- Vera Karalli
(1889?1972), ballerina and actress
- Siavash Kasrai
(1927?1996), Persian Marxist poet
[22]
- Wilhelm Kienzl
(1857?1941), composer
- Thomas Klestil
(1932?2004), Austrian president (1992?2004)
- Bruno Kreisky
(1911?1990), statesman
- Karl Kraus
(1874?1936), writer
- Werner Johannes Krauss
(1884?1959), stage and film actor
- Hedy Lamarr
(1914?2000), actress and inventor
- Joseph Lanner
(1801?1843), composer
- Lotte Lehmann
(1888?1976), opera singer
- Gyorgy Ligeti
(1923?2006), composer
- Theo Lingen
(1903?1978), actor/director
- Emanuel List
(1888?1967), opera singer
- Guido von List
(1848?1919) 19th-century mystic Germanic and Runic revivalist
- Adolf Loos
(1870?1933), architect
- Max Lorenz
(1901?1975), German tenor
- Luigi Lucheni
(1873?1910), Italian assassin
- Karl Lueger
(1844?1910), politician
- Julius Madritsch
(1906?1984), Austrian
Righteous Among the Nations
- Hans Moser
(1880?1964), actor
- Siegfried Marcus
(1831?1898), automobile pioneer
- Karl Millocker
(1842?1899), composer
- Karl Eugen Neumann
(1865?1915), European pioneer of
Buddhism
- Walter Nowotny
(1920?1944),
World War II
Luftwaffe
pilot
- Georg Wilhelm Pabst
(1885?1967), film director
- Ida Laura Pfeiffer
(1797?1858), explorer
- Hans Pfitzner
(1869?1949), composer
- Clemens von Pirquet
(1874?1929), scientist and pediatrician
- Paula von Preradovi?
(1887?1951), writer
- Helmut Qualtinger
(1928?1986), actor
- Julius Raab
(1891?1964), statesman
- Geli Raubal
(1908?1931),
Adolf Hitler
's half-niece
- Karl Renner
(1870?1950), statesman
- Richard Reti
(1889?1929), chess grandmaster
- Josef Karl Richter
(1880?1933), composer
- Hans Riemer
, politician
- Albert Salomon von Rothschild
(1844?1911), financier
- Nathaniel Mayer Anselm von Rothschild
(1836?1905), financier
- Leonie Rysanek
(1926?1998), opera singer
- Antonio Salieri
(1750?1825), composer
- Friedrich Schilcher
(1811?1881), painter
- Franz Schmidt
(1874?1939), composer
- Arthur Schnitzler
(1862?1931), writer
- Arnold Schoenberg
(1874?1951), composer
- Franz Schubert
(1797?1828), composer
- Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky
(1897?2000), architect
- David Schwarz
(1852?1897) aviation pioneer
- Alma Seidler
(1899?1977), actress
- Ignaz Seipel
(1876?1932), statesman, Austrian chancellor
- Matthias Sindelar
(1903?1939), footballer
- Robert Stolz
(1880?1975), composer
- Eduard Strauss
(1835?1916), composer
- Johann Strauss I
(1804?1849), composer
- Johann Strauss II
(1825?1899), composer
- Josef Strauss
(1827?1870), composer
- Franz von Suppe
(1819?1895), composer
- Heinrich Schenker
(1868?1935), music theorist
- Friedrich Torberg
(1908?1979), writer
- Kurt Waldheim
(1918?2007), U.N secretary-general, Austrian president
- Franz Werfel
(1890?1945), poet
- Franz West
(1947?2012), artist
- Anton Wildgans
(1881?1932), poet
- Hugo Wolf
(1860?1903), composer
- Fritz Wotruba
(1907?1975), sculptor
- Joe Zawinul
(1932?2007), jazz keyboardist and composer
- Alexander von Zemlinsky
(1871?1942), composer
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Zentralfriedhof ? Central Cemetery (Vienna, Austria)"
. Association of Significant Cemeteries of Europe
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Info Service: Wiener Zentralfriedhof"
[Info Service: Vienna Central Cemetery] (in German). Friedhoefe wien. Archived from
the original
on 2015-08-22
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Rund um das Friedhofsareal: Daten und Fakten"
[Around the Cemetery Area: Facts and Figures] (in German). Friedhoefe wien. Archived from
the original
on 2014-11-04
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
2023-02-16 not retrievable
- ^
"Central Cemetery: In Vienna there are more dead than living (In German language)"
.
- ^
"Wien und der Tod ? eine Geschichte des Wiener Zentralfriedhofs"
[Vienna and death ? a history of the Viennese central cemetery] (in German). Wiensehen.at
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Undertakers' Museum"
. Vienna Direct
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
And less than 20% of the predominantly Catholic Viennese choose cremation, the rest hoping for a schone Leiche (dialect: a schene Leich', a beautiful corpse).
- ^
Walsh, Eli (2023-11-02).
"Jewish Section of Austria Cemetery Marked with Swastikas, Set Ablaze for First Time Since Kristallnacht"
.
The Messenger
. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2023
. Retrieved
30 January
2024
.
- ^
"A fire in the Jewish section of a cemetery in Austria's capital causes damage but no injuries"
.
AP
. 2023-11-01
. Retrieved
30 January
2024
.
- ^
"Vienna's Jewish community in shock after arson attack on cemetery hall"
.
CNN
. 2023-11-03
. Retrieved
30 January
2024
.
- ^
"JOWBR Cemetery Inventory"
. Jewishgen.org. 18 July 2014
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Austria: 43 Jewish graves desecrated in Vienna"
.
The Boston Globe
.
Associated Press
. 29 June 2012
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Fuhrungen Zentralfriedhof Wien ? Die christlich-orthodoxen Begrabnisstatten"
[A place for everyone at the Vienna Central Cemetery ? the Christian ? Orthodox burial sites] (in German). Wiensehen.at
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"Geschichte des Wiener Zentralfriedhofs"
[History of Vienna's Central Cemetery] (in German). Friedhoefewien.at. Archived from
the original
on 2015-05-11
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"
'History of the Protestant section of Zentralfriedhof in Simmering and the cemetery church'
"
. Retrieved
2023-09-24
.
- ^
"The Baby Lot at Vienna Central Cemetery"
. Friedhofe Wien. Archived from
the original
on December 1, 2017
. Retrieved
January 16,
2016
.
- ^
"Osterreichische Buddhistische Religionsgesellschaft"
[Austria Buddhist Religion Society] (in German). Buddhismus-austria.at. Archived from
the original
on 2014-11-04
. Retrieved
2013-09-07
.
- ^
"Anatomie Gruppe 26"
[Anatomy group 26] (in German). Friedhoefewien.at. Archived from
the original
on 2015-05-11
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
"The story of the Mormon burial ground of the Zentralfriedhof (In German language)"
.
- ^
"Location shots in Vienna of
The Third Man
(1949)"
.
University of British Columbia
Physics Department. 13 July 2014
. Retrieved
2014-11-03
.
- ^
Heral Saraci (2012-09-29),
Kush ishin drejtuesit e Partise Nacionaliste
[
Who were the leaders of the Nationalist Party
] (in Albanian), Gazeta Republika
, retrieved
9 February
2014
- ^
Hazir Mehmeti (7 May 2013),
Hysni Curri, zeri qe therret prehjen ne Atdhe
[
Hysni Curri, the voice that calls to repose in the homeland
] (in Albanian), AlbanianPress, archived from
the original
on 1 December 2017
, retrieved
9 February
2014
- ^
"KASRA'I, Siavash"
.
iranicaonline.org
. Encyclopædia Iranica
. Retrieved
2021-04-06
.
External links
[
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]