Schubert Monument & the Composers of the Stadtpark
Why is it significant?
Near the Parkring edge of the Stadtpark, in white marble on a tall pedestal, sits Franz Schubert, a book in his hand, his head slightly raised as if he were listening to a melody nobody else can hear yet. Students eat their lunch on the benches around him, and the ducks from the pond wander past.
Key Facts
| Place | Schubert Monument & the Composers of the Stadtpark |
|---|---|
| Address | Stadtpark, Parkring, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20570, 16.37970 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna in Three-Quarter Time: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and the City of Music |
| Generated | Generated |
Near the Parkring edge of the Stadtpark, in white marble on a tall pedestal, sits Franz Schubert, a book in his hand, his head slightly raised as if he were listening to a melody nobody else can hear yet. Students eat their lunch on the benches around him, and the ducks from the pond wander past.
The monument was unveiled in 1872, paid for by the Vienna Men's Choral Society and carved by Carl Kundmann, the same sculptor who made the Athena in front of the parliament. Unlike Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven or Brahms, who came here from elsewhere, Schubert was a born Viennese, from a schoolmaster's family in the suburb of Himmelpfortgrund, today part of Alsergrund, in 1797.
His life was short and mostly poor. He wrote more than six hundred songs, symphonies including the famous Unfinished, chamber music and piano works, much of it performed only among friends at evenings that became known as Schubertiades. He never held a permanent post, and only a fraction of his music was published while he lived. Yet at about eighteen he had already written his setting of Goethe's Erlking, a song that still makes singers and listeners hold their breath.
He worshipped Beethoven, lived in the same city for three decades and, by most accounts, hardly dared to speak to him. He carried a torch at Beethoven's funeral in March 1827. Twenty months later, in November 1828, Schubert died at 31, and at his own wish he was buried near Beethoven in the Währing cemetery. In 1888 both were moved to graves of honour, side by side, in the Central Cemetery.
Wander the paths and you will meet more of the city's musical family: Anton Bruckner, the organist from Upper Austria who became a great symphonist in Vienna, and Franz Lehár, the king of operetta, among others. Vienna does not only remember its composers; it keeps them in its parks like old friends. Here, among them, your musical walk comes to its final chord.