Cemetery Visit II (Central Cemetery)

This is one huge cemetery.

The Zentralfriedhof is grand, vain, glorious, unbearably sad in places, and often beautiful.

As I wrote before, Vienna has always had to deal with what to do with their deceased loved ones. Famine, plagues, wars, and overpopulation caused Vienna to have to close, move, and/or consolidate its burial grounds. This one opened in the late 1800s.

The Central Cemetery is way out of town, and is huge. Almost 3 and 1/2 million people are buried there, which far surpasses the living population of the city. There are many religious sections, Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and many Jewish sections and also non-denominational sections. It is still in use (for example, Weather Report alum. and jazz great Joe Zawinul, who died in 2007, is also buried here).

The saddest aspect of the cemetery are "Old Jewish Sections". They are overgrown and untended, and in some cases abused. One major moment of vandalisn came in 1938 during the Kristallnacht. The eventual and almost total destruction of the jewish population of Vienna by the Holocaust is illustrated by all these lonely graves. There are few left to tend the graves (Families are in some part responsible for the upkeep of graves. I don't fully understand the process).

As the cemetery developed and expanded, Vienna wanted to make it a place that honored its famous citizens. So, "Ehrenhains" (fields of honor) were developed. Portions of the cemetery were set up to honor politicians, WWI dead, WWII dead, victims of the Allied bombing raids, vicitims of Nazi terror, artists, etc.. Often famous people were dug up from what ever other cemetery in Vienna they were originally laid to rest and reburied in a grouping.... That is why we find Beethoven, Brahms, Wolf, many Strausses, Schubert, Von Suppe and others all buried together in one very impressive grouping. Schoenberg is also not far, even though he is of a more recent "vintage"....

It's kind of cool to walk from one to the next. Many of them still have fresh flowers brought to them.

Pics:

1. A view of the overgrown Old Jewish Section.

2. Schoenberg

3. Beethoven

4. Wolf

5. Brahms