Johannes Brahms

Birth Name:

Johannes Brahms

Birth Date:

May 7, 1833

Birth Place:

Hamburg, Germany

Death Date:

April 3, 1897

Place of Death:

Karlsgasse 2-10, Vienna, Austria

Age:

Cause of Death:

Neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer with liver metastases and liver failure

Cemetery Name:

Der Wiener Zentralfriedhof

Claim to Fame:

Music

Johannes Brahms was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire including Symphony No. 3 (1883), Piano Quintet (1865), Academic Festival Overture (1880) and Hungarian Dances (1869–1880). He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Fun Facts

Although Brahms began composing his first symphony in 1854, it wasn’t premiered until November 1876, 22 years later. The whole piece underwent severe edits until he was completely happy with it.

When his mother died in 1865, Brahms was overcome with grief. It is speculated that this led him to compose his German Requiem, one of the most celebrated works from his career. However, the premiere of the piece was a disaster – the timpanist misread the dynamics as ‘ff’ (very loud) instead of ‘pf’ (quiet) and drowned the other musicians out.

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

Grave Location:

Gruppe 32 A, Grab Nr. 2

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 various members of the Strauss family. Across the paved path is a memorial to some guy named Mozart.