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more than 32,000 students were enrolled during these 172 years, largest university after Leipzig and Vienna, intellectual center of Catholic southern Germany. 1628: Consecration of Santino Solari’ s new cathedral. Archbishop Count Thun( 1654 – 1668) acts as the emperor’ s representative during the permanent Reichstag in Regensburg and receives the title Primas of Germany – a title still held to this day. 1668: First newspaper appears. 1669: Powerful rockslide from the Mönchsberg onto the Gstättengasse( 220 dead); Memorial plate in St. Sebastian’ s Cemetery. 1731 / 32: Expulsion of the protestants: Emigration of 20,000 protestant citizens of the Pongau to East Prussia, North America and the Netherlands. 1756: W. A. Mozart is born. 1781: Mozart leaves Salzburg after having quarreled with the prince bishop and goes to Vienna. 1803: Archbishop Colloredo – last ruling archbishop – must flee and give up his rights to secular governance: Decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the seminaries under the rule of Napoleon. Elector Ferdinand III of Tuscany reigns until 1805, then Salzburg belongs to Austria for the first time. 1809- Napoleonic occupation; bestowed upon the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810( university is closed). 1816: Salzburg finally becomes part of Austria, except for the Rupertiwinkel, the Bavarian part( from Berchtesgaden to Laufen) and becomes the fifth district in Upper Austria. Its position as a small city on the edge of a big empire leads to its decline. 1818: » Silent Night! Holy Night!« is first sung in Oberndorf( music: Franz Gruber, text: Joseph Mohr). 1823: Archbishopric reinstalled. The Cathedral Chapter is again granted the right to elect the archbishop( still valid within limits); title » Prince Archbishop « continues until 1951. 1840: The painter Hans Makart is born in Salzburg. 1842: Unveiling of the Mozart memorial and the city’ s first music festival marks the occasion. 1850: Salzburg becomes an independent royal
Arcaded crypt at St. Sebastian’ s Cemetery; also the builder of the cemetery, Elia Castello, lies here.
demesne of the Habsburgs. 1860: The city is no longer a fortress( town walls demolished); The » Elisabeth Westbahn « Vienna – Salzburg – Munich railway line is opened. This brings new commercial and social prosperity. Spacious quays and new parts of the city are built. Independent government in Salzburg and political administration in the dukedom( 1861). 1880: Establishment of the Int’ l Mozarteum Foundation and the Music School. 1887: Birth of the poet Georg Trakl( died in 1914). The painter Anton Faistauer is born in St. Martin / Lofer. 1920: First performance of » Jedermann « on Cathedral Square. 1938: Salzburg becomes a » Reichsgau «. 1944: US air-raids on the city: 530 dead, 900 wounded, 7,040 buildings completely destroyed, 618 seriously damaged, amongst these the cathedral. 1945: Entry of the American troops( headquarters until 1955). 1959: Consecration of the restored cathedral. 1960: The Grosses Festspielhaus is opens with » Rosenkavalier « under Herbert von Karajan. 1964: Reconstruction of Salzburg University. 1967: First Easter Festival, Herbert von Karajan is the artistic director. 1975: Old City becomes a pedestrian zone; the car parks in the Mönchsberg are opened. 1986: Opening of Salzburg University’ s School of Science in the south of the city. 1996: The reconstructed Mozart Residence is opened to the public. 1997: Salzburg’ s historic quarter is added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. 2003: Hangar 7 from Red Bull is opened, study programs begin at Paracelsus Private Medical University. 2006: The building which succeeded the Kleines Festspielhauses, the Haus für Mozart, is opened. 2010: 90-year anniversary of the Salzburg Festival, 50 years of the Grosses Festspielhaus.
CEMETERIES
On old gravestones, such as one or other in the cemetery of St. Peter’ s in Salzburg, you can read in yellowed lettering:“ Wanderer, should you pass this grave, briefly stand still and consider: he who lies here, was once as you are today. And you will one day be, how he is today.” Is it possible to“ like” cemeteries? I like cemeteries. The Salzburg cemeteries especially. Not only those in the city. I like to ride or walk, for example, to Anif( just a few minutes on the No. 25 bus, or barely an hour on foot from the festival district)… to this cemetery in which Herbert von Karajan is buried, without any to-do, in the middle of the night. I like Anif cemetery, because it smells of candles there, and the scent of the stables from next door. Anif has remained both suburb and village at the same time. Probably the greatest conductor of all time, Karajan, rests here in peace alongside innkeepers and businessmen, police officers and farmers. The great musical figure – next to master stonemasons, cobblers, gunsmiths.
St. Sebastian’ s Cemetery, in the middle of the city, as you walk from the Staatsbrücke bridge up the Linzergasse, is an enchanted park. Many think it is too overgrown, you have to clamber over too much grass, too many stones, before you come to the earthen grave of Mozart’ s father Leopold, Mozart’ s wife Constanze or the epitaph of miraculous healer Paracelsus. Firstly, we should note we don’ t know whether Mozart’ s bones actually lie here, and secondly: Cemeteries don’ t have to be opulent. Death is not opulent after all.
The communal cemetery in the south of the city is the cemetery of Salzburg’ s everyday people. But the likes of a Hermann Bahr, Nico Dostal, Margot Werner are also buried here. A forest cemetery, a place of peace. The cemetery of St. Peter’ s is the oldest of them all.“ O beautiful place, chosen for the dead / as a resting place for their tired limbs!”, lyrical poet Nikolaus Lenau once wrote. The cemetery for Michael Haydn, Nannerl Mozart, provincial governors, artists, a diligent abbey cook, an honored US general of post-war occupying forces, and many others. Great names, people like you and I. At St. Peter’ s cemetery there are still plots available – but you’ d better hurry.
Walter Müller is an author and eulogist. Most recent books:“ Over. Amen!”( detective story) and“ If there is a heaven”( 23 eulogies)