Johann Strauss ll

AKA:
The Waltz King
Birth Name:
Johann Baptist Strauss II
Birth Date:
October 25, 1825
Birth Place:
Vienna, Austria
Death Date:
June 3, 1899
Place of Death:
Johann Strauss Gasse 4, Wieden, Vienna, Austria
Age:
73
Cause of Death:
Pleuropneumonia
Cemetery Name:
Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof
Claim to Fame:
Music
Johann Strauss II (also referred to as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger) was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a renown violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, Strauss ll was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer" (Emperor Waltz), "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known. Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife Maria Anna Streim. Two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brother.

Fun Facts

Most of the Strauss ll works that are performed today may once have existed in a slightly different form, as Eduard Strauss destroyed much of the original Strauss orchestral archives in a furnace factory in Vienna’s Mariahilf district in 1907. Eduard, then the only surviving brother of the three, took this drastic precaution after agreeing to a pact between himself and brother Josef that whoever outlived the other was to destroy their works. The measure was intended to prevent the Strauss family’s works from being claimed by another composer. This may also have been fueled by Strauss’s rivalry with another of Vienna’s popular waltz and march composers, Karl Michael Ziehrer.

Also lost to the ages, Eduard Strauss surprisingly wound up the Strauss Orchestra in February 1901 after concerts in 840 cities around the globe, and pawned the instruments. The orchestra’s last violins were destroyed in the firestorm of the Second World War.

Two museums in Vienna are dedicated to Johann Strauss II. His residence in the Praterstrasse, where he lived in the 1860s, is now part of the Vienna Museum. The Strauss Museum is about the whole family, with a focus on Johann Strauss II.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof

1110 Wien

Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, Vienna,

Austria

Europe

Map:

Map of der Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria
Map of der Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria

Grave Location:

Gruppe 32 A, Grab Nr. 27

Grave Location Description

You can find the grave very easily if you enter the cemetery through that main entrance, which is called Tor (Gate) 2. Once inside, go straight on, through the middle of the stone arcade ahead of you, towards the large Jugendstil church in the distance. Just keep your eyes on the left hand side to eventually spot the grave of the legendary composer about 100 feet off the road. Nearby neighbors include Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. Across the paved path is a memorial to some guy named Mozart.

Grave Location GPS

48.1519419, 16.4398676

Visiting The Grave:

Photos:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

Read More About Johann Strauss ll:

Videos Featuring Johann Strauss ll:

See More:

Falco

popular name: Falco

date_of_death: February 6, 1998

age: 40

cause_of_death: Automobile accident

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: His name was Falco, and the image of sharp suit and slick-back hair already set him apart from the glam rockers and post-punks of the late 80s. He was a musician; a singer; a rapper. A gentleman, a womanizer; he hated garden gnomes and loved chaos. He was honest, plain, but one in a million. With the hit song (and matching music video) "Rock Me Amadeus" etched into our very brains, the infectious chorus of 1986 hit went on to become the only number one on the Billboard Hot 100 spoken in German. It became an international hit, climbing the charts of countless nations. Proving that he was no one-hit wonder, Falco had several international hits including "Der Kommissar" (1981), "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)", and posthumously "Out of the Dark". But it was "Rock Me Amadeus" that reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986, making Falco the only artist in history whose principal language was German, to score a vocal number-one hit in the United States. According to his estate, he has sold 20 million albums and 40 million singles, which makes him the best-selling Austrian singer of all time. Sadly his life was cut short when his rental car collided with a bus outside of the resort town of Villa Montellano.

Hank Williams

popular name: Hank Williams

date_of_death: January 1, 1953

age: 29

cause_of_death: Heart failure caused by drug and alcohol abuse

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: American Country singer, songwriter, and musician. Hank Williams was one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Some of his best hits include "Move It on Over", "Lovesick Blues", "Your Cheatin' Heart", and "Hey, Good Lookin'". Artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, and the Rolling Stones have been influenced by his work. Often described as being fiercely driven, drug-addicted and stubbornly drunk, Hank Williams was none-the-less the finest songwriter and song stylist of the twentieth century.

The Greatest Unknown Guitar Player

popular name: The Greatest Unknown Guitar Player

date_of_death: August 14, 1988

age: 48

cause_of_death: Suicide - hanging (disputed)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Roy Buchanan was an blues guitarist and a pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan worked as a sideman and as a solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career and two later solo albums that made it to the Billboard chart. Guitar Player praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." Sweet Dreams, released in 1972, remains the finest moment in the career of the man who was damned with the accolade ‘the guitarist’s guitarist’. Lauded by the likes of Jeff Beck, Gary Moore (who covered the blues-rock thriller The Messiah Will Come Again) and, more recently, Joe Bonamassa, Buchanan never attained any real fame or fortune during his lifetime. These days he’s as infamous for apparently turning down an offer to join the Rolling Stones and his mysterious death in a Virginia jail cell in 1988 as he is for his music. Yet Buchanan’s legacy as a guitarist punches way above that of many of the rock stars who held him in such high regard.

Back to Top