Währing

Währing is the 18th district (Bezirk) of Vienna, Austria. It is in the northwest part of the city. In addition to currently hosting a number of Vienna's foreign embassies, Währing was the site of the original burial places of composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

Location

Währing lies in the north-west of Vienna, and extends to 6.28 square kilometres on the slopes of the Wienerwald (Vienna woods) between the "Gürtel" ring road and the Höhenstraße. It borders the 19th district (Döbling) to the north, the 9th district (Alsergrund) to the east, and the 17th district (Hernals to the south and west. The district is situated on both sides of the Währinger Bach.

Cemeteries

Währing has two cemeteries of note. The cemetery, Währing Cemetery; now known as Schubert Park; is the site of the original burial places of composers Ludwig van Beethoven ^[1] and Franz Schubert. The graves of both composers were moved to the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna in 1888, but there remains a bust of Schubert in memory of his original resting place. This bust was made by sculptor Josef A. Dialer. The epitaph written by Franz Grillparzer reads in German: Die Tonkunst begrub hier einen reichen Besitz aber noch viel schönere Hoffnungen. (The art of music buried here a rich possession and yet much finer hopes.) ^[2]

The Jewish Cemetery, Währing, opened in 1784, was the main burial site for members of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, and formerly lay within the border of Währing (Today, however, due to boundary changes, the cemetery, despite its name, is no longer part of the 18th Vienna district of Währing, but belongs to Döbling, the 19th district.) Besides the St. Marx Cemetery it is the last remaining cemetery of Vienna in the Biedermeier style. After its closure in the 1880s, it was partially destroyed during the time of the Third Reich, and is now only partly accessible due to its increasing decay. A long-running debate over the restoration of the cemetery has been taking place since 2006 between politicians of the federal and local levels as well as experts. ^{[3] [4]}

Population

The population of Währing has fluctuated over the last century and a half, rapidly expanding in the early decades of the 20th century before decreasing steadily from the time of World War II to the present day. At its lowest, the population was 17,879 in 1869, and its highest recorded population rate was 87,658 in 1910. In 2006 the district was recorded as having 47,391 inhabitants. ^[5]

Astronomy

The asteroid 226 Weringia was discovered in 1882 from Währing and named in honor of it. ^[6]

Notes