11. Bezirk | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts tagged ‘11. Bezirk’

25T80 Vienna: her name was Evelyn

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It’s one thing to mourn the loss of family, and to know where they are laid to rest, all in the city where I was born. Echoes of the extended double-stage grief have lessened in frequency and intensity over the years. It’s another thing to mourn the loss of a friend, one whom I had just begun to know and one whose final resting place is on the other side of the world. This grief is renewed when I return again to Vienna’s Central Cemetery.

Section 26 of the cemetery is a not only a place to pay respects to all who rest here, but also to recognize their sacrifice as all in this section made their wish to donate their bodies to science after their last breath.

Evelyn Brezina (1977-2024) was a disability rights advocate, saw the world from a unique perspective, and lived her life with purpose and with joy. Having seen her online presence, I met her in person briefly in the summer of 2023. She died unexpectedly in January 2024.

Fast forward to the present on a breezy cloudy day, I walked across the length of the cemetery towards its eastern wall. Rows of graves and trees clear with an open field and the appearance of an octagonal structure. I look for wall board number 110, and locate the name plate. As the only one person present on this afternoon, I’m sat on a bench for some time, with only the wind and rustling of trees for company.

“See you next time.”

*Section number 26, Vienna central cemetery.*

Dem Andenken jener Menschen, die ihren Körper nach dem Tode in den Dienst der Wissenschaft und medizinischen Aus- und Weiterbildung gestellt haben. // In memory of those people who, after death, placed their bodies at the service of science and medical education and training.

*There are several boards and walls, each with several hundreds of names.*

*At centre here is the nameplate for Evelyn Brezina.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 14 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T68 Strauss family at Vienna’s central cemetery

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For the entire 2025 year, various events and exhibitions around Vienna celebrate the 200th birthday for “The Waltz King” Johann Strauss II (JS2). Born in Vienna, he is best known for composing the waltz “An der schönen blauen Donau” (On The Blue Danube).

At one corner of group 32A in the city’s central cemetery is this “portrait” view of 5 members of the Strauss family. The two daughters Anna and Theresia aren’t here, but along with JS2’s 1st wife Jetty Treffz, these three women are located at a single grave in Hietzing cemetery.

Number 1: Johann Strauss II, oldest brother.

Number 2. Johann Strauss I, father.

Number 3: Eduard Strauss, youngest brother.

Number 4: Josef Strauss, middle brother; Anna Strauss (née Streim), mother.

*The Strauss family: 5 of 7 members. Two daughters are buried at Hietzing cemetery. Numbers 1 to 4 correspond to the graves shown below.*

*Number 1: Johann Strauss II, oldest brother (32A – 27).*

*Number 2: Johann Strauss I, father (32A – 15).*

*Number 3: Eduard Strauss, youngest brother (32A – 42).*

*Number 4: Josef Strauss, middle brother; Anna Strauss (née Streim), mother (32A – 44).*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 14 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T38 Return to Vienna’s city of the dead

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I keep coming back to Vienna. That also means I go back to the vast but peaceful confines of the city’s largest green-space: the Zentralfriedhof, Europe’s 2nd largest cemetery with over 300-thousand graves and more than 3 million buried.

Since 2018, I’ve visited Vienna four times, and the central cemetery at least six times, including today. That explains how I’ve sought, found, and photographed 60-plus graves of some (very) notable people. Does a new visit add a few more to the list, or discovering new names to find in the cemetery come first?

*Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky: Austria’s 1st woman architect; inventor of the fitted “Frankfurt kitchen”.*

Lamarr co-invented and patented technology which is ubiquitous today within the mobile phone. About half of her ashes are buried here at this spot; the other half was scattered in the woods north of Vienna.

*Physicist Ludwig Boltzmann: his name is all over the fields/study of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics*.

*Anatomiegedenkstätte (group 26), dedicated to those who donated their bodies to science after death; memorial established here since 2009.*

*Plaque (Tafel) number 110, in the Anatomiegedenkstätte. I’m looking for one nameplate: 4th column from right, 7th name from top.*

An accessibility advocate whose insights and perspectives were on display as at vienna_wheelchair_view (IG), Evelyn passed away suddenly at the beginning of the year. I met her briefly last year, and I had hoped to say ‘hi’ to her again this year.

*2. Tor: cemetery’s gate number 2. I walked from the west side (gate 1) to the east side (gate 3) of the cemetery, and back around to gate 2.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 14 Jun 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

Vienna Central Cemetery: a city of the dead

Above/featured: The cemetery’s gate 2. Photo, 20 May 2018.

Where: Vienna Central Cemetery (Wiener Zentralfriedhof).
Who: Beethoven, Boltzmann, Falco, Lamarr, Schütte-Lihotzky, Strauss I and II.
Why: Cross-section of cultural and economic history for capital city and nation.

In Vienna, tram 71 begins in the Old Town; goes around the western half of the inner ring past City Hall, national Parliament, and the Opera House; and heads southeast to the city’s main cemetery or the Zentralfriedhof. Because coffins to the cemetery were once transported on the tram, there’s a saying particular to the city’s residents, a phrase which means they’ve died by “going to the end of the line.”

“Sie haben den 71er genommen.”
(They took/rode the 71.)

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