Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The controversy over how and where Mozart was buried

So, where and how was Mozart buried? Several different viewpoints on how and where he was buried have surfaced. It is assumed that he was buried in the St. Marx cemetery, but was it an a pauper or a third class grave? A coffin or a sack with lime? A vault or a pit?

According to the movie Amadeus by Peter Shaffer and the biography by Maynard Solomon, Mozart was buried in a mass grave. He was put into a linen sack, thrown into a pit, and then covered with quicklime.

This sack theory has fewer credentials than the other theories. On August 23, 1784 Emperor Joseph II decreed that all people should be buried in the manner described above, and not in crypts. Only a year later, Joseph rescinded his decree due to violent riots. This happened six years before Mozart's death, so by the time Mozart died, they had mostly moved away from using sacks to bury people. (Carr, 1983, 138)

The biographer W. J. Turner believed that Mozart was thrown into a "common pauper's vault containing 15 to 20 coffins" (Carr, 1983, 137). If nobody attended Mozart's burial then how does he know how many coffins were in the vault?

According to Otto Erich Deutsch's Documentary biography, Francis Carr's Biography, Mozart was buried in a common grave. Though Carr calls it an "a pauper communal grave." In Michael Levey's biography of Mozart, he theorizes that Mozart was "buried virtually as a pauper" and was "placed in a common grave." (Levey, 1971, 235)

Of all these biographers, most of them believe that Mozart had a coffin. When the biographers mention that a coffin was used, they do not specify whether it was an open-bottom coffin (for sack-type burials) or a regular one (to be buried in a coffin). Maybe it can be assumed that if it is not specified as a sack burial, then it is a regular coffin and vice versa.

Either way Mozart that was buried, he did not receive a headstone or a memorial tablet. Constanze never marked the place where her husband's body was kept. Because she felt it was the churches responsibility to mark graves, (and it wasn't) nothing was ever done about marking Mozart's grave.

	The controversy over how and where Mozart was buried
	So, where and how was Mozart buried? Several different viewpoints on how and where he was buried have surfaced. It is assumed that he was buried in the St. Marx cemetery, but was it an a pauper or a third class grave? A coffin or a sack with lime? A vault or a pit? According to the movie Amadeus by Peter Shaffer and the biography by Maynard Solomon, Mozart was buried in a mass grave. He was put into a linen sack, thrown into a pit, and then covered with quicklime. This sack theory has fewer credentials than the other theories. On August 23, 1784 Emperor Joseph II decreed that all people should be buried in the manner described above, and not in crypts. Only a year later, Joseph rescinded his decree due to violent riots. This happened six years before Mozart's death, so by the time Mozart died, they had mostly moved away from using sacks to bury people. (Carr, 1983, 138) The biographer W. J. Turner believed that Mozart was thrown into a "common pauper's vault containing 15 to 20 coffins" (Carr, 1983, 137). If nobody attended Mozart's burial then how does he know how many coffins were in the vault? According to Otto Erich Deutsch's Documentary biography, Francis Carr's Biography, Mozart was buried in a common grave. Though Carr calls it an "a pauper communal grave." In Michael Levey's biography of Mozart, he theorizes that Mozart was "buried virtually as a pauper" and was "placed in a common grave." (Levey, 1971, 235) Of all these biographers, most of them believe that Mozart had a coffin. When the biographers mention that a coffin was used, they do not specify whether it was an open-bottom coffin (for sack-type burials) or a regular one (to be buried in a coffin). Maybe it can be assumed that if it is not specified as a sack burial, then it is a regular coffin and vice versa. Either way Mozart that was buried, he did not receive a headstone or a memorial tablet. Constanze never marked the place where her husband's body was kept. Because she felt it was the churches responsibility to mark graves, (and it wasn't) nothing was ever done about marking Mozart's grave.