I’m Rene from Vienna. The famous Viennese cabaret artist Georg Kreißler, a Jew, wrote a song about Vienna and death, called “Der Tod, das muß ein Wiener sein” (Death must be a Viennese).

Yes, Viennese (it’s not really an Austrian thing) are very much into death. They say that there are more people in Zentralfriedhof than in the rest of Vienna.

Now, in 2006 we celebrated 50 years of acceptance by the state as a church in Austria. For this, Brother Max Nemec, then in the High Council, suggested to use our legal rights and get our one grave yard in the Zentralfriedhof. The High Council and the stake presidency took up the idea.

I don’t know, if the Church actually bought the ground, it could also be that the Church just got it assigned to us because of the law (I’d rather think that this is the way it happened, since we still have to rent each single grave from the city of Vienna).

Hein Lersch was assigned to design a monument in the center of the yard, and we were asked to donate for it. Our SP would never do this without having permission from Frankfurt (European center of the Church).

OTOH, in our ward, we have continental Europe’s only pipe organ. Back in the days they built our ward house, brother Heinz Teply said we need a pipe organ. Frankfurt said, that we not even had one to play it. Heinz said, “Well, then I will take lessons. But we will have that organ.” And Frankfurt agreed.

Rene

The rows and rows of mausoleums are impressive… but what astounded me the most was the “Jewish quarter”, which was virtually uncared-for ever since the Nazis took power.

There’s many things to see in Vienna (du Stadt meiner Traeume) but nothing beats the Zentralfriedhof… which is the same size as the inner-city of Zurich, and twice as lively.

From Snopes - Hidden Message Headstone

Many countries do not have separation between church and state. Among these are Austria and neighboring Germany.

In order to preach and publish and otherwise exist legally, a church has to gain legal status from the government.

Evidently (according to Ronan) the church has this right in Austria. It also has this right in Germany. There it is called “Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts.” It means that the church is a recognized corporation and, among other things, that the missionaries have to carry a legal certificate kind of like a drivers license.

A Kirchenvorstand (said approximately kir-shen-for-shtond) would be a church committee that has government status. It would have to exist separately from the normal church structure of stake or district presidencies. Someone correct me if this is not the case, but that is what a couple of minutes on the internet came up with.

If you go to Logan, you’ll see my birthmarker. It reads:

Kevin Barney Born on this spot 1958. A man of much courage and a really big package.