Feuerhalle_Simmering Knowpia

Feuerhalle Simmering is a crematorium with attached urn burial ground in the Simmering district of Vienna, Austria. It lies at the end of an alley, directly opposite Vienna Central Cemetery's main gate.

Description edit

Opened on 17 December 1922 by Vienna's mayor Jakob Reumann, Feuerhalle Simmering was the first crematorium in Austria. It also constituted an element of the social and health services policy of Red Vienna. Advocates of cremation, especially from the labour movement – such as the Workers' Cremation Association "The Flame" –, had been campaigning for decades for crematoria in Austria, but applications were always rejected by the authorities. In 1921, Vienna's City Council, now under Social Democrat rule, approved the construction of a crematorium in Vienna. Reumann had to defend this decision at the Austrian Constitutional Court as he had granted building permission for the crematorium against the order of a federal minister from the Christian Social Party. The lawsuit was finally decided in 1924 in favour of the crematorium.

Feuerhalle Simmering's main building and its immediate surroundings were planned by Clemens Holzmeister, who designed the crematorium to resemble an oriental fortress.^[1] Holzmeister's design carefully placed the crematorium into the walled gardens of the derelict Schloss Neugebäude, and thus also put the former palace gardens with its many ancient trees (designated natural monuments) to new use as urn burial ground.

Robert Danneberg (1882–1942) and Käthe Leichter (1895–1942), two prominent Social Democrat politicians associated with Red Vienna, were killed in Nazi concentration camps and have symbolic graves of honour at Feuerhalle Simmering.

Notable cremations edit

Ashes on site edit

Grave of H.C. Artmann

Grave of Jakob Reumann

Graves of Guido Holzknecht, Rudolf Kraus and Friedrich Knauer

Grave of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer

Grave of Hans Kloss

Grave of Rudolf Eisler

Friedrich Achleitner (1930–2019), poet and architecture critic
Manfred Ackermann (1898–1991), politician
Hellmut Andics (1922–1998), journalist
H.C. Artmann (1921–2000), writer
Hugo Bettauer (1872–1925), writer
Turhan Bey (1922–2012), actor
William Blankenship (1928–2017), opera singer
Elfriede Blauensteiner (1931–2003), serial killer
Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925), painted as Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt
Annie Dirkens (1869–1942), actress
Rudolf Eisler (1873–1926), philosopher
Roman Felleis (1903–1944), political activist
Alfred Hermann Fried (1864–1921), publicist, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911
Joseph Gregor (1888–1960), writer
Ferdinand Hanusch (1866–1923), politician
Irene Harand (1900–1975), human rights activist
Guido Holzknecht (1872–1931), radiologist
Hans Kloss (1905–1986), bank manager
Friedrich Knauer (1850–1926), zoologist
Johann Koplenig (1891–1968), politician
Rudolf Kraus (1868–1932), pathologist
Minna Lachs (1907–1993), educator
Hans Maršálek (1914–2011), political activist
Jacob Levy Moreno (1889–1974), psychiatrist
Franz von Nopcsa (1877–1933), paleontologist
Max Pallenberg (1877–1934), actor
Alfred Piccaver (1884–1958), opera singer
Rudolf Prikryl (1896–1965), mayor of Vienna
Jakob Reumann (1853–1925), mayor of Vienna
Hilde Rössel-Majdan (1921–2010), opera singer
Alexander Roda Roda (1872–1945), writer
Elisabeth Ruttkay (1926–2009), archaeologist
Miklós Sárkány (1908–1998), Olympic gold medalist
Vera Schwarz (1888–1964), opera singer
Amalie Seidel (1876–1952), politician
Carl Sternberg (1872–1935), pathologist
Teresa Stich-Randall (1927–2007), opera singer
Julius Tandler (1869–1936), physician and politician
Oswald Thomas (1882–1963), astronomer
Stefan Weber (1946–2018), musician
Alfred Maria Willner (1859–1929), writer

Ashes elsewhere edit

Lale Andersen (1905–1972), singer and actress – ashes buried at Langeoog, Germany
Arik Brauer (1929–2021), painter and singer-songwriter – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Alfred Ebenbauer (1945–2007), medievalist – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Nika Brettschneider (1951–2018), Charter 77 signatory – ashes given to family
Erich Feigl (1931–2007), journalist and filmmaker – ashes buried in Simmeringer Friedhof, Vienna
Marlen Haushofer (1920–1970), writer – ashes buried at Steyr City Cemetery
Ernst Hinterberger (1931–2012), writer – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Franz Holzweber (1904–1934), July Putsch assassin – ashes buried in Friedhof Mauer, Vienna
Ernst Kirchweger (1898–1965), victim of political violence – ashes now buried in Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna
György Ligeti (1923–2006), composer – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Jörg Mauthe (1924–1986), writer – ashes kept at his family's Burgruine Mollenburg
Freda Meissner-Blau (1927–2015), politician – ashes given to family
Alexander Moissi (1879–1935), actor – ashes buried at Morcote, Switzerland
Sabine Oberhauser (1963–2017), politician – ashes buried in Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna
Otto Planetta (1899–1934), July Putsch assassin – ashes buried in Dornbacher Friedhof, Vienna
Hugo Portisch (1927–2021), journalist – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Barbara Prammer (1954–2014), politician – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Werner Schneyder (1937–2019), cabaret performer – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Otto Tausig (1922–2011), actor – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery
Helene Thimig (1889–1974), actress – ashes now buried in Neustifter Friedhof, Vienna
Lotte Tobisch (1926–2019), actress – ashes buried in Grinzinger Friedhof, Vienna
Joe Zawinul (1932–2007), musician – ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery

References edit

^ "Undertakers' Museum". Vienna Direct. Retrieved 2014-11-03. And less than 20% of the predominantly Catholic Viennese choose cremation, the rest hoping for a schöne Leiche (beautiful corpse).