“Was ich den Juden war, wird eine kommendeZeitbesserbeurteilen...”

Myth and Memory at Theodor Herzl’s Original Gravesite in Vienna

Abstract

Theodor Herzl is mostly remembered as the founder of the Zionist movement and a significant forebear of the State of Israel, where his memory thrives today. This article posits Herzl’s original gravesite in Döbling, Vienna, as instrumental to the construction of Herzl’s legacy through the first part of the twentieth century, when it was used by Jewish community functionaries and Zionist organisations to mobilise a variety of political agendas. By contrast to Herzl’s new burial site in Jerusalem, the now empty grave in Döbling constitutes a powerful alternative lieu de mémoire, a counterbalance to the manner in which Herzl’s life and mem- ory are conceived in Israel.