Close your eyes on a balmy night in Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof cemetery and perhaps you can hear a few notes of The Blue Danube drifting on the night air. For here is where you find the grave of one Johann Strauss (the son).
- Buried together with Adele Strauss in grave 27, group 32A of the cemetery
- A little outside the city center but reachable by tram
- Strauss lies close to a number of famous composers, including other members of the Strauss dynasty, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert
- See also:
Death and burial
(A plaque marks the location of Strauss’s death)
Johann Strauss died of pneumonia at the age of 73 on June 3rd, 1899, in his townhouse in Vienna’s 4th district (Wieden).
The house fell victim to the bombs of World War II, but a plaque on the replacement building at what is now Johann Strauss Gasse 4 marks the spot. It says (my rough translation):
The King of the Waltz, Johann Strauss (the son) lived and worked in a house at this location from 1878 and died here on June 3rd, 1899
A ceremony was held on June 6th in the very centre of Vienna at the Evangelical Church (also known as the Lutheran Stadtkirche, still going today and parts of which date back to the late 16th century). Various luminaries attended, including Gustav Mahler.
(The grave itself)
Strauss was then taken to Vienna’s main cemetery (the Zentralfriedhof) and placed in an open grave, with the formal burial taking place later on June 8th. His last wife, Adele Strauss, died in 1930 and shares the grave with her husband.
According to a newspaper report of the time, thousands lined the streets as Johann Strauss’s coffin passed through the city.
The reporter described the procession as the largest since the funeral of the famous court painter, Hans Makart, who died in 1884.
(Who knows what other musical joys might have sprung from Strauss’s pen if he hadn’t passed away, since he continued working right up until his final illness and death.)
(The gravestone inscription)
The sculptor, Johannes Benk, designed the gravestone; you can see his signature just below the simple inscription (my translation):
Johann Strauss 1825-1899 and his wife Adele 1856-1930
Benk produced numerous statues and reliefs for many of the famous buildings that went up around Vienna’s Ringstrassen in the second half of the 19th century, including the Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches museums.
Benk also designed the Deutschmeister army monument notable for its personification of Vindobona (the name for Roman Vienna).
(Gravestone for other members of the Strauss family in Hietzing)
Johann Strauss’s first wife, Henriette, and his sisters, Anna and Therese, are buried elsewhere in Vienna (Group 13, grave 73 in Hietzing cemetery, home to both Gustav Klimt and Otto Wagner).
How to find Strauss’s grave
Follow the instructions for reaching the Zentralfriedhof, which is freely accessible to the public.
Go straight on once you pass through the main entrance (Tor 2) and head toward the church you can see in the distance.
Keep going until you come across the honorary composer graves on your left (Group 32a on the cemetery maps).
Once you reach the group, a more detailed map displayed at the roadside helps you find the right grave.
Strauss lies in plot 27 on the right-hand side of the group, next to Johannes Brahms and not far from Schubert and Beethoven, for example.
It’s hard to imagine a more resonant location, with the composer graves and memorials kept in beautiful condition and all surrounded by flowers, trees, and shrubs.
Other famous musicians within the Strauss family rest nearby in the same 32a group of graves:
- Johann Strauss (father): grave 15
- Eduard Strauss (brother): grave 42
- Josef Strauss (brother): grave 44
Address: Zentralfriedhof, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, 1110 Vienna