| Matzleinsdorf Evangelical Protestant cemetery | |
|---|---|
 The Cemetery chapel Christuskirche | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1858 |
| Location | |
| Country | Austria |
| Type | Protestant cemetery |
| No. of interments | 21,000+ |
| Website | Official website |
| Find a Grave | Matzleinsdorf Evangelical Protestant cemetery |
Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery (German : Evangelischer Friedhof Matzleinsdorf) is a historic church-owned and operated Protestant cemetery located in the Favoriten district of Vienna, the capital city of Austria.
Throughout the centuries, the Vienna Protestants did not have their own graveyard but were buried among Catholics in Catholic cemeteries. In May 1856 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria agreed to reformations which allowed for the creation of cemeteries of other denominations.
The Protestant church acquired a plot of land at the outlying village of Matzleinsdorf that same year and began the construction of their first cemetery in Vienna. The original plans included a chapel, a home for undertakers, a mortuary and various storage facilities. The famous Austrian architect Theophil Hansen was contracted for the project. However the construction of the cemetery would take two years as the Protestant church ran out of money and needed to finance construction through donations. Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery was finally inaugurated by the leaders of two Protestant denominations on May 7, 1858. Theophil Hansen, the designer of the cemetery, presented the keys of cemetery gates to the leaders of the two respective ecclesiastical officials. Superintendent of the Calvinist H.B (Evangelische Kirche Helvetisches Bekenntnis) Gottfried Franz gave the blessing speech, while the Lutheran A.B (Evangelische Kirche Augsburger Bekenntnis) Superintendent Ernst Pauer performed the consecration of the burial ground, and on September 27, 1860 the chapel Christuskirche (Chapel of the Holy Christ) was completed and consecrated. [1]
The Chapel has a distinct architectural style which is reminiscent of an Eastern Orthodox Church. The architect, Theophil Hansen, was influenced heavily by historical features prominent during the 19th century and constructed the church in a Byzantium style with a large dome and crowned corner pillars. The entrance has a golden mosaic that shows Jesus Christ holding a holy scroll. The interior of the chapel is characterized by 35 statues of angels made in a style similar to figureheads of Spanish galleons. They symbolize worship, dogma and annunciation. The ornate stained glass windows are ornamented with Christian symbols, depicting the nativity, crucifixion and resurrection of the Christ.
During its long history, the Matzleinsdorf cemetery became so popular among the Viennese Protestants that it needed to be enlarged twice due to a lack of space. However, when the Zentralfriedhof got its own Protestant section, the Matzleinsdorf fell into disuse and discussion about its retention embarked and lasts ever since. Finally, in 1943 the cemetery suffered heavy destruction during Allied bombings due to its proximity to the Vienna Railway Station South, a primary target of the Allied forces. Today, it has been largely restored but still suffers from competition of the more popular Protestant Section at Zentralfriedhof.
A few of the notables buried here are:
The Evangelical Church in Germany, also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of the country's Protestants. In 2022, the EKD had a membership of 19,153,000 members, or 22.7% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen, Hanover, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.
Simmering is the 11th district of Vienna, Austria. It borders the Danube and was established as a district in 1892. Simmering has several churches, some museums, schools, old castles, and four cemeteries, one of them being the Wiener Zentralfriedhof, one of the largest cemeteries of Europe.
The Vienna Central Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's biggest cemetery, not of its geographic location, as it is not in the city center of the Austrian capital, but on the southern outskirts, in the outer city district of Simmering.
German Christians were a pressure group and a movement within the German Evangelical Church that existed between 1932 and 1945, aligned towards the antisemitic, racist, and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles. Their advocacy of these principles led to a schism within 23 of the initially 28 regional church bodies (Landeskirchen) in Germany and the attendant foundation of the opposing Confessing Church in 1934. Siegfried Leffler was a co-founder of the German Christians.
The German Evangelical Church was a successor to the German Protestant Church Confederation from 1933 until 1945. It is also known in English as the Protestant Reich Church and colloquially as the Reich Church.
Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was a Danish architect who later became an Austrian citizen. He became particularly well known for his buildings and structures in Athens and Vienna, and is considered an outstanding representative of Neoclassicism and Historicism.
The Prussian Union of Churches was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Prussia. Although not the first of its kind, the Prussian Union was the first to occur in a major German state.
Ludwig Christian Friedrich (von) Förster was a German-born Austrian architect. While he was not Jewish, he is known for building Jewish synagogues and churches.
Reinhart Hummel was a German theologian and long-term leader of the Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW). The EZW is a subdivision of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Located in Berlin, it professes to function as a centralized research, documentation and information center on new religious movements. Hummel is also the author of many books about new religious movements.
Friedrich Karl Otto Dibelius was a German bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, a self-described anti-Semite and up to 1934 a conservative, who became a staunch opponent of Nazism and communism.
Jerusalem Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt, a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in the quarter of Friedrichstadt. Jerusalem Church is fourth in rank of the oldest oratories in the town proper.
The Döbling Cemetery is a cemetery in the 19th district of Döbling in Vienna, Austria.
Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche) was a Baroque Protestant church in Berlin, eastern Germany, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It was opened in August 1739 and destroyed in November 1943, with its rubble removed in 1947.
The Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery is a burial ground in the Westend district of Berlin with a size of 3.7 hectares. The cemetery is under monument and cultural heritage protection.
The German Protestant Church Confederation was a formal federation of 28 regional Protestant churches (Landeskirchen) of Lutheran, Reformed or United Protestant administration or confession. It existed during the Weimar Republic from 1922 until replaced by the German Evangelical Church in 1933. It was a predecessor body to the Protestant Church in Germany.
The Reformed Church in Austria is a Christian denomination in Austria. The origin of the church can traced to the Edict of Tolerance in 1781 and in 1861. The Counter-Reformation changed this, and Protestant worship was not permitted until the toleration act. Some Protestants were able to survive these decades in the valleys of the mountains of Carinthia and Upper Austria. In 1861 full freedom of Protestant worship and public practice were granted.
The Deutsche Evangelische Christuskirche is a church on Montpelier Place in Knightsbridge, London. German Christian theologian Julius Rieger has described it as the most significant German church in London.
Lars Müller-Marienburg is a German-Austrian prelate who is the current Superintendent of the Diocese of Lower Austria in the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria.
The Christuskirche in Walsdorf, now part of Idstein, Hesse, Germany, is a Protestant church built in 1652 to 1663. It restored the structure of an older church which burnt down in 1644 during the Thirty Years' War. It features mainly Gothic architecture with some Romanesque elements, and its interior was fashioned in Baroque style, with a balcony and a ceiling painting. Stained glass windows were added in the 19th century. The church received its name in 1993, 600 years after the mentioning of a chapel. It is a listed building.
The Evangelical Protestant Central Cemetery in Regensburg is a historic, church-owned and operated Lutheran cemetery located in the city of Regensburg, in Germany. The cemetery is located on a hillside, on the northern slope of Galgenberg, between Friedensstrasse 12 in the north and Bischof-Konrad-Strasse in the south.
