Gardening at the Jewish cemetery in Währing
Working as a team to put an end to the growing weeds
Erste Group Services - Accounting Subsidiaries Leasing
A team event was once again on the agenda in 2024, but it was to be a little different from previous years: We put our hands in the service of a good cause. At Erste Time Bank, we looked at a list of possibilities and quickly decided in favour of gardening in the Jewish cemetery in Vienna-Währing - a place steeped in history.
This Jewish cemetery was opened in 1784 and closed again after 100 years, as it was no longer allowed to be located within the city due to Vienna's constant growth and current hygiene regulations. Like other religious communities, the Jews were provided with a new burial site at the newly opened Central Cemetery. Many well-known builders and patrons of some Ringstrasse palaces rested or still rest in the old cemetery. During the Nazi era, the cemetery in Währing was expropriated and transferred to the City of Vienna.
At the request of the Jewish Council of Elders, some of the bodies of important members of the community were moved to the Central Cemetery in 1941. Many graves had to make way for an air raid shelter that was never completed. Gravestones were knocked over, crypts were opened and metal was removed from the gravestones and melted down. After the Second World War, the city of Vienna returned the cemetery to the Jewish Community, except for the part where the Arthur Schnitzler-Hof stands today. Due to the many Jews who died in the Holocaust or left the country, there were hardly any relatives left to look after the graves. As a result, the cemetery fell into disrepair over the decades.
In the 2000s, restoration work slowly began again.The "Save the Jewish Cemetery Währing" association is currently in charge of the restoration. It is dependent on help from the public sector and private donations.In May, our group made a small contribution:
Equipped with gloves and various gardening tools, we tackled the wildly growing greenery on some of the graves.The training was simple - evergreens stay in the ground or are replanted, everything else has to go. It turned out that the following question was asked again and again: Is that an evergreen or a weed growing there?Well, not everyone is a gardener!So we did manage to give some of the graves a new lease of life. Smaller fallen branches ended up in the wheelbarrow, the larger ones were dragged to the collection point as they were. Some of us not only tended to graves on this day, but also refreshed our botanical knowledge. After finishing our work, we also had a very interesting guided tour of the cemetery. (Note: public tours take place every second Sunday of the month) In the end, it was not only a time full of greenery and gravestones, but also an experience that did not leave us cold.
Author: Erika Sikk
Working as a team to put an end to the growing weeds
Erste Group Services - Accounting Subsidiaries Leasing
A team event was once again on the agenda in 2024, but it was to be a little different from previous years: We put our hands in the service of a good cause. At Erste Time Bank, we looked at a list of possibilities and quickly decided in favour of gardening in the Jewish cemetery in Vienna-Währing - a place steeped in history.
This Jewish cemetery was opened in 1784 and closed again after 100 years, as it was no longer allowed to be located within the city due to Vienna's constant growth and current hygiene regulations. Like other religious communities, the Jews were provided with a new burial site at the newly opened Central Cemetery. Many well-known builders and patrons of some Ringstrasse palaces rested or still rest in the old cemetery. During the Nazi era, the cemetery in Währing was expropriated and transferred to the City of Vienna.
At the request of the Jewish Council of Elders, some of the bodies of important members of the community were moved to the Central Cemetery in 1941. Many graves had to make way for an air raid shelter that was never completed. Gravestones were knocked over, crypts were opened and metal was removed from the gravestones and melted down. After the Second World War, the city of Vienna returned the cemetery to the Jewish Community, except for the part where the Arthur Schnitzler-Hof stands today. Due to the many Jews who died in the Holocaust or left the country, there were hardly any relatives left to look after the graves. As a result, the cemetery fell into disrepair over the decades.
In the 2000s, restoration work slowly began again.The "Save the Jewish Cemetery Währing" association is currently in charge of the restoration. It is dependent on help from the public sector and private donations.In May, our group made a small contribution:
Equipped with gloves and various gardening tools, we tackled the wildly growing greenery on some of the graves.The training was simple - evergreens stay in the ground or are replanted, everything else has to go. It turned out that the following question was asked again and again: Is that an evergreen or a weed growing there?Well, not everyone is a gardener!So we did manage to give some of the graves a new lease of life. Smaller fallen branches ended up in the wheelbarrow, the larger ones were dragged to the collection point as they were. Some of us not only tended to graves on this day, but also refreshed our botanical knowledge. After finishing our work, we also had a very interesting guided tour of the cemetery. (Note: public tours take place every second Sunday of the month) In the end, it was not only a time full of greenery and gravestones, but also an experience that did not leave us cold.
Author: Erika Sikk