Fotoeins Fotografie

Above/featured: Grinzing cemetery, facing southeast. Photo, 26 May 2022.

Opening for its first burial in 1830, the Grinzing Cemetery in Vienna’s 19th district is modest in size, spread over an area of about 4.1 hectares (10 acres) and home to over 5000 graves. I highlight a number of notable people in arts and architecture, including connections with composer Gustav Mahler.

Inside Grinzing cemetery

• Thomas BERNHARD
• Heimito von DODERER
• Heinrich von FERSTEL
• Gustav MAHLER
• Alma MAHLER-WERFEL, Manon Gropius
• Carl MOLL
• Arnold ROSÉ, Alma ROSÉ
• August Sicard von SICARDSBURG
• Leopold STEINER
• Johann STRAUSS III

Thomas Bernhard

•   b/✵ 9 Feb 1931 – d/✟ 12 Feb 1989.
•   Viennese author, playwright; considered one of Austria’s finest and, perhaps, most incendiary writers in the post-war period.
•   His 1988 stage-play “Heldenplatz” highly critical of Austria’s post-war attitude, behaviour, and worsening anti-Semitism.
•   Nicolaus Thomas Bernhard: group 21, row 6, number 1.

Es ist alles lächerlich, wenn man an den Tod denkt.
(Everything is ridiculous when you think about death.)

Österreich, 6,5 Millionen Debile …
(Austria, six and a half million feeble-minded idiots …)

Bernhard grave. Photo, 26 May 2022.

Photo, 26 May 2022 (X70).

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Heimito von Doderer

•   b/✵ 05 Sep 1896 – d/✟ 23 Dec 1966.
•   Austrian writer; his novel “Die Strudlhofstiege” named after the outdoor staircase in the 9th district.
•   Dr. phil. Franz Karl Heimito Doderer: group 10, row 2, number 1.

Grave of Heimito Doderer and his wife Maria Doderer (née Thoma). Photo, 26 May 2022.

“Hic et nunc semper paratus” (Always ready, here and now.) Photo, 26 May 2022.

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Heinrich von Ferstel

•   b/✵ 7 Jul 1828 – d/✟ 14 Jul 1883.
•   One of the “Ringstrasse” architects; e.g., Votivkirche, Universität.
•   Heinrich Freiherr von Ferstel (Ferstl) family mausoleum: group MA, number 46.
• Click • Ferstel’s architectural legacy in Vienna here.

“Treu & Recht” (faithful and fair). Photo, 30 May 2023.

Heinrich Ferstel, 1828–1883. Photo, 30 May 2023.

Ferstel family mausoleum. Photo, 30 May 2023.

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Gustav Mahler

•   b/✵ 7 Jul 1860 – d/✟ 18 May 1911.
•   Composer, conductor; e.g., “why listen to Mahler?”
•   His sister, Justine, married Arnold Rosé; see below.
•   Grave: group 6, row 7, number 1/2.

Photo, 26 May 2022.

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Alma Mahler-Werfel, Manon Gropius

•   Alma Mahler-Werfel: b/✵ 31 Aug 1879 – d/✟ 11 Dec 1964.
•   Alma’s daughter Manon Gropius: b/✵ 5 Oct 1916 – d/✟ 22 Apr 1935.
•   Composer & author; born Alma Schindler, daughter of painter Emil Schindler.
•   Alma’s 1st husband Gustav Mahler; see above.
•   Manon’s birth father Walter Gropius, architect & founder of the Bauhaus School.
•   Manon’s stepfather novelist & poet Frank Werfel.
•   Mother & daughter grave: group 6, row 6, number 7.

Alma Mahler-Werfel, Manon Gropius. Photo, 30 May 2023.

Mother and daughter. Photo, 30 May 2023 (X70).

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Carl Moll

•   b/✵ 23 Apr 1861 – d/✟ 13 Apr 1945.
•   Austrian painter, one of the founding members of Secession artist group.
•   Stepfather to Alma Schindler (see above), after Moll married his teacher Emil Schindler’s widow, Anna, in 1892.
•   Tainted legacy: as the Red Army approached Vienna in 1945, Moll committed suicide by poison along with daughter Maria and son-in-law Richard Eberstaller; all three had been early supporters of Nazism. (Maclean’s 2020 article by John Geddes).
•   Karl Moll: group MR, number 1.

Moll family grave. Photo, 26 May 2022.

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Arnold Rosé

•   b/✵ 24 Oct 1863 – d/✟ 25 Aug 1946.
•   Arnold Rosé: violinist; concert master of Vienna Philharmonic 1881–1938.
•   1902 Arnold married Justine Mahler, sister of composer Gustav Mahler; see above. Arnold and Justine had two children: son Alfred, born 1902; and daughter Alma, born 1906.
•   1938 Arnold departed for London four weeks after the death of his wife.
•   Violinist and conductor, Alma, caught in France and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where she became the conductor of the Auschwitz Girls Orchestra in 1943 and where she died in 1944. Her name is on the Holocaust Wall of Names memorial in Vienna.
•   Alfred and his wife Maria departed for the United States in 1938 before settling in Canada’s southern Ontario in 1948; with their passing, both Alfred (1975) and Maria (1999) are buried in London, Ontario.
•   Rosé family grave: group 20, row 5, number 6.

Mother Justine Rosé, father Arnold Rosé, daughter Alma Rosé. Photo, 30 May 2023.

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August Sicard von Sicardsburg

•   b/✵ 6 Dec 1813 – d/✟ 11 Jun 1868.
•   Architectural partnership with Eduard van der Nüll, in particular the Arsenal and the Staatsoper.
•   August Sicardsburg family mausoleum, dated 1853: group MA, number 62.

Sicardsburg family mausoleum. Photo, 30 May 2023.

Sicardsburg family crest. Photo, 30 May 2023.

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Leopold Steiner

•   b/✵ 18 Oct 1857 – d/✟ 16 Jan 1927.
•   Organized the planning and construction for the overall medical complex in Penzing (1907), which included the modernist church at Steinhof by Otto Wagner.
•   Leopold Steiner and family: group 4, number 7.

Steiner family grave. Photo, 30 May 2023 (X70).

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Johann Strauss III (JS3)

•   b/✵ 16 Feb 1866 – d/✟ 9 Jan 1939.
•   Composer and conductor; his father Eduard (Pepi) Strauss, uncle Johann Strauss II, grandfather Johann Strauss I. JS3’s father, uncles, and paternal grandparents are all buried in Vienna Zentralfriedhof.
•   JS3 and family: group 12, row 2, number 7.

Johann Strauss III family grave including his mother Maria Strauss (née Klenkhart); his wife Marie Strauss (née Hofer); and 2 of 4 children, daughters Angelika and Maria (Mimi). Photo, 30 May 2023.

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Directions

•   Public transport with Wiener Linien: tram 38 to stop “An den langen Lüssen”, or bus 38A to stop “Grinzing”.
•   Check Friedhöfe Wien website for hours; no charge for admission into cemetery.

( View map location at OpenStreetMap )

I made all photos above on 26 May 2022, 30 May 2023, and 6 July 2025 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ppI. Last edit: 1 Jan 2026.