Viennas Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) was the first interdenominational cemetery in Vienna, including Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. Established in 1874 outside the city, for Jews it was a sign of growing acceptance as citizens of Austria and the obtainment of equal status in a more modern society. It did not open without problems. Conservative groups within the Catholic Church protested the interdenominational plan and fought to exclude Jews from burial there. It was finally agreed Jews would be interred in a segregated section for them. Fuel was added to the argument when the city of Vienna announced it did not want an official Catholic consecration at the opening of the cemetery, and at the same time gave a substantial amount of money towards the building of the segregated Jewish section. In the end, the Catholic Church was allowed to have only a small, nearly private ceremony for the inauguration. Today there are two Jewish sections in the Zentralfriedhof, an old and a new section. The new section was opened in 1917 and is still in use by the Jewish community of Vienna today. Much of the old was desecrated during the Pogromnacht of 1938, though many thousands of graves can still be found there. Viennese joke that the Zentralfriedhof is half the size of Zurich and twice as much fun, (German: „Halb so groß wie Zürich – aber doppelt so lustig ist der Wiener Zentralfriedhof!“) as the cemetery is half as large as the city of Zurich. Zentralfriedhof has a dead population of almost twice the present living residents of Vienna.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:36:09 +0000
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