- Pain fragments
- Edited by Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Maria Heidegger
Mourning the anonymous dead. Pain and compassion in Vienna’s Cemetery of the Nameless
- Katharina Fürholzer
- © 2026 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0.08
The Vienna’s Cemetery of the Nameless (1840-1940) offered a counter-narrative to the historical condemnation of the Catholic Church of suicide. For centuries, suicide was deemed a grave sin, denying victims Christian burial. The Cemetery, however, provided a resting place for these societal outcasts. The study explores how the Cemetery challenged the Church’s stance through symbolic and textual sources, including the site itself and sepulchral/poetic inscriptions. It aims to understand pain relief practices for the “nameless” who chose suicide as an end to suffering. The chapter also examines posthumous efforts to identify and commemorate the anonymous dead, reflecting on anonymity as a source of pain and a surrogate form of relief, and highlighting the cemetery’s expressions of solidarity and compassion.
- Keywords:
- anonymity,
- cemetery,
- poetry,
- suicide,
- death,
University of Koblenz, Germany - ORCID: 0000-0002-6586-5377
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Chapter Information
Chapter Title
Mourning the anonymous dead. Pain and compassion in Vienna’s Cemetery of the Nameless
Authors
Katharina Fürholzer
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0.08
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Pain fragments
Book Subtitle
Practising Catholicism in the 19th and 20th centuries
Editors
Tine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Maria Heidegger
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
184
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1072-0
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1071-3
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1072-0
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-1073-7
Series Title
Fragmentaria. Studi di storia culturale e antropologia religiosa
Series ISSN
2975-1217
Series E-ISSN
2975-1225