Austria: A visit to Eisenstadt cemetery

The tiny town of Eisenstadt means different things to different people. There can be strange juxtapositions in the study of Jewish cemeteries and genealogy. Here you will find at least four: the composer Joseph Haydn; the Esterházy family, a world-renowned potter and an ancient Jewish community in Eisenstadt in the Burgenland (Austria).

Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau (Lower Austria) on March 31, 1732, and died in Vienna on May 31, 1809. I am such a Haydn fan that I visited his birthplace a few years ago, at the exact day and moment of his birth - I was the only visitor!

Haydn was often a reluctant resident of Eisenstadt as he and his musicians had to spend the summer there; Haydn was employed to compose “to order” and play almost daily to entertain the Esterházy court and its many visitors.

It was the same Count Nikolaus Esterházy who was the Schutzherr of the Jews of Eisenstadt, who lived within the castle estate. After Vienna, Haydn found Eisenstadt very tedious as it was so small and restrictive. When Count Nikolaus died, the composer went to London and was in seventh heaven.

Haydn was awarded the first-ever Honorary Doctor of Music at Oxford and I too have an Oxford degree and have trodden in his footsteps in that historic University town. If you have never listened to Haydn’s Creation - based on the Old Testament account of the seven days of creation - and his secular oratorio, The Seasons, you are in for a treat in 2009, the 200th anniversary of Haydn’s death.

It is not generally known that Sandór Wolf - his Eisenstadt house is now a regional museum and houses one of Haydn's gorgeous organs - was the grandfather of the world-renowned potter Lucie Rie. See photos in my FLICKR site here.

Sándor Wolf (Eisenstadt Nov. 21, 1871 - Haifa Jan. 2, 1946) was a wine wholesaler, art collector and researcher. He was also a scholar/archaeologist and collaborated with Bernhard Wachstein - click here for more information - in a momentous tome on the transcriptions of the Eisenstadt cemetery: “Die Grabinschriften des alten Judenfriedhofes in Eisenstadt mit einer Studie: Die Entwicklung des jüdischen Grabsteines und die Denkmäler des Eisenstädter Friedhofes von S. Wolf (Eisenstädter Forschungen 1).

Wolf was particularly interested in ancient settlements and artefacts of the Burgenland and there is evidence that Jews had arrived in this area with the Roman Legions, well over 1,000 years before the first Jewish community settled in Eisenstadt in the 1370s.

The Esterházys took the Jewish community under their protection in 1622 when they inherited the area estates. The Jewish population increased and the fame of tiny Eisenstadt as a centre of Jewish learning and scholarship spread throughout the world.

In 2008, a gold scroll was discovered in the Burgenland, as the earliest evidence of Jewish inhabitants in the region, now part of Austria; the amulet was inscribed with a Jewish prayer and found in a Roman child’s grave dating back to the 3rd century at a burial ground in Halbturn. Read about these here.

There is a WOLF GOMPERZ RIE family archive here with many pictures.

Lucie Gomperz was the youngest child of three and the only daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Gisela Gomperz. Dr. Gomperz was a successful ear, nose and throat specialist in Vienna. Gisela Gomperz née Wolf was born into the wealthy Wolf family. The Gomperz children, who lived in Vienna, spent a lot of time at the Wolf estate in Eisenstadt.

Here is an excellent German-language article with photographs about this fascinating family, and a family tree here.

Burials in Eisenstadt cemetery illustrated here took place from 1679-1874. There is a later Jewish cemetery I did not visit on this trip.

The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde {IKG - Vienna} cemetery database lists about 1,200 burials in Eisenstadt cemetery and the names - many patronymics- are very evocative. Here are four entries:

Fr. Hindel T. Abraham ha-Levi Spitz (Fr. Elia Lichtenstadt) 5th row 223
Frumet T. Elia Zebi aus Trebitsch, Fr. Pinchas Ahron Halberstadt 07/30/1802 5th row 464
Gumpel Emmerich, Fr. Meir Preßburg (ben Mich. Lazar ben Simon Michl) Golda T. 02/27/1794 5th row 264
Jehuda Löb ben Ascher Anschel Jafe-Margulies (Schlesinger) 5th row 19

Eisenstadt was called *Asch* in Hebrew because the two Hebrew letters A(lef) and S(chin) are derived from E(A)eisenStadt. Thus, Asch may imply the family name Eisenstadt or an origin from Eisenstadt viz: Meir b. Isaac Eisenstadt [MaHaRaM A"Sh].

Read about the Eisenstadt Jewish community in these three short articles:
Jewish Encyclopedia, Beth Hatefutzot and the Jewish Virtual Library


Finally, look at my FLICKR pictures here.

Austria: New Jewish cemetery exhibit to open

The Bezirksmuseum Währing in Vienna will hold an exhibit entitled Orte der Erinnerung. Die jüdischen Friedhöfe in Hamburg-Altona und Wien-Währing (Places of Remembrance: The Jewish cemeteries in Hamburg-Altona and Vienna-Währing), from November 27-December 12 and from January 8-25, 2009.

The opening ceremony is at 6.30pm, November 27, at the Museum, Währinger Strasse 124 - Amtshaus Währing, Martinstrasse 100 (entrance at the corner)

Speakers will include Dr. Ariel Muzicant, President of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde/IKG {Jewish Community} Vienna, and Frau Dr. Prammer, President of the Austrian Parliament. Hamburg will be represented by Frau Dr. von Jagow (Foundation for Historic Monuments Upkeep) and Herr Dr. Halévy (Institute for the History of German Jews of Hamburg), while. Herr Schreuder (Gemeinderat for Green Vienna) - who instituted the link between Hamburg and Vienna - will also speak.

Why is this exhibition taking place?

Both Hamburg Altona (1611-1869) and Vienna (1784-1879) have two historic Jewish cemeteries of similar size and dating roughly from similar periods. Both were neglected in WW2. The Vienna cemetery has barely recovered, but a Hamburg group has managed to restore the Altona cemetery and open it to the public. Währingerfriedhof remains closed. Here is a link in German to the Altona cemetery which offers wonderful data and images when you explore it [I tried exploring *Indizes* first!].

Click here to see the location of the Vienna Währingerfriedhof here {marked with a circle]} - it is hemmed in between high walls and buildings which encroached on the cemetery grounds.

Hamburg-Altona has tombstones of the famous Warburg, Mendelssohn and Heine family members. In Währing, members of the Arnstein, Epstein, Königswarter and Hofmannsthal families are buried.

Both cemeteries have important Sephardic sections {Portuguese Jews in Hamburg} and members of the "Turkish" community of Vienna, who came from the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.

Hopefully, this initiative will kick start the important restoration work in Vienna. Dedicated researchers in Vienna , notably Tina Walzer, have already done a lot of work in the cemetery and it should be available to the public. Click here for a European Jewish Press article on the cemetery.

I am particularly keen that this restoration should take place as the Vienna cemetery should never have reached this stage of neglect. In addition, I have personal reasons for the restoration as many of my relatives are buried there.

Here are some evocative pictures when I visited, with special permission, a few years ago: I can be seen showing people the state of things - they are hardly better now.

Vienna: Spot errors on Herzl's memorial

Born in Vienna, Celia Male arrived in Alexandria, Egypt at three weeks of age, and came to London in 1953. Her British father, a bank manager in Egypt, has family roots in Plock, while her Viennese mother's family roots are in Bohemia and Moravia.
Celia's life in Alexandria influenced her greatly. From her earliest days she was exposed to many cultures, languages and religions (hence her Sephardic Jewish interests).
She was an industrial biotechnology consultant (Oxford, Biochemistry). For the past 10 years, she's been digging around in the Habsburg Empire, has helped many people find their families and solved many genealogical puzzles. Her maxim is that genealogy is a serious matter, but should be fun and accessible to all. Reading about it should be enjoyable too.

We have all heard of errors which have been indelibly carved into stone - and here is a very surprising one. I am starting my contribution to this blog with this because of the importance of Theodor HERZL in Jewish history.

The HERZL family tombstone/memorial is at the Döblinger Friedhof, Vienna, in the section once exclusively used for Jewish burials. I know the cemetery well as one set of my great-great-grandparents are buried here as well as one set of my great-grandparents and countless relatives - they are all very close to the HERZL tombstone.

The original tombstone had the simple family name inscriptions, now reproduced exactly on the new shiny tombstone/memorial. This remains at the same spot as the original grave after the HERZL family was exhumed and reburied on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Click here for the Vienna website for the non-Jewish cemeteries (the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde - IKG - sadly relinquished its control over the Jewish section of the cemetery in the 1950s and it is now controlled by the Vienna Municipality) . You will not now find the name of the Herzl family as they are no longer buried there.

However, in 1904, Döbling did have a section under the jurisdiction of the IKG and it was known as the Israelitische Abteilung. The location of the grave is Isr. Abteilung I/1 - Crypt 30.

Theodor died on July 3rd 1904. The official cause of death was pneumonia. He was buried with his father Jacob Herzl (14 April 1838 - 9 June 1902). His mother Jeanette née DIAMANT (28 July 1836- 20 Feb. 1911) was later buried in the same grave.

Strangely, the Herzl tombstone/memorial at Döbling has the following inscription: In diesen Grabe wurde am 3 Juli 1904 Dr Theodor Herzl zur letzen ruhe bestatet. In dem gleichen Grabe ruhten seine Eltern Jacob und Jeanette Herzl... It continues that their earthly remains were exhumed on 14 August 1949 and taken to Israel for reburial.

HERZL TOMBSTONE MEMORIAL

The translation: that on the 3 July 1904 Dr Theodor Herzl was laid to rest. In the same grave *lay* [past tense] his parents Jacob and Jeanette ... Herzl.

You can read here about the funeral in blazing heat, which was attended by an estimated 6,000, all walking from the Herzl home in the Hainzingergasse to the cemetery. A simple hearse was followed by the women of the family in a carriage. The mourners included leading literary and political figures, Zionist deputations from Vienna, from all the towns and cities of Austria, and from all countries of Europe. ....and behind these the countless masses of the unbidden, who came in no one's name, young and old, pietists and atheists, plain folk and "society". .... Never before had a Jew been accompanied thus to his grave.

No one has ever commented before on the erroneous inscription on the former tombstone / memorial grave which I have visited many times!

Have you spotted the two errors?

The funeral was on the 7th July 1904 and, furthermore, his mother did not predecease him: you can read his obituary notice here and that confirms these two facts:

Neue Freue Presse (NFP), Vienna, 5 July 1904, p. 19

How strange that such an important tombstone/memorial should have two such blatant errors. Readers of the Jewish Graveyard Rabbit are the first to be told officially.

The super bonus for me is that the obituary notice next to Herzl's - for Ludwig Treutch - has a vital link (TREUSCH NEUSTADTL GOLDSTEIN SCHOTTEK) to my family, the WOTTITZ from Pressburg - yes, the very great-grandparents buried next to Herzl's grave. I had been looking high and low for this and miraculously here it is!