Witikon cemetery

Cemetery Witikon with sculptural group Stationenweg of Charlotte Germann-Jahn

The Witikon cemetery is a cemetery in the Witikon district in the east of Zurich . It is located on Witikonerstrasse on the city limits in the direction of Pfaffhausen and Binz .

history

Since the historic churchyard of Witikon around the old church had already become too small for the Witiker population in the early 20th century, the majority of their burials took place in the Rehalp and Enzenbühl cemeteries . Since these also reached their capacity limits at the beginning of the building boom after the Second World War , a possibility for a district cemetery was sought in the area of ​​Witikon. Due to topographical and monument protection reasons around the old church and the historic churchyard, no cemetery expansion was possible, the choice fell on the first location on Loorenstrasse . However, this possibility was rejected by the neighborhood association in 1951. In 1957, the Witikon cemetery was opened on Witikonerstrasse, which was built according to plans by architect Philipp Bridel and garden inspector Pierre Zbinden. In 1978, 1985 and 1997 the Witikon cemetery was expanded in three stages.

Area and buildings

Cemetery chapel

Chapel, interior view

The Witikon Cemetery is located on the outskirts of Zurich on Witikonerstrasse in the Buchwiesen valley between Adlisberg and Oetlisberg . Its location between residential buildings, the agricultural zone and the edge of the forest gives different views of the surroundings. The oldest part of the cemetery is entered through the entrance on the street Im Hau . The radial grave fields are characteristic of this part of the cemetery. Along the straight main path one arrives at the younger parts of the cemetery, the middle of which are the buildings by Philipp Bridel. The abdication chapel, the administration building and the funeral hall, which has a comfort garden in front, are grouped around an inner courtyard closed on three sides. The most noticeable feature of the chapel is that it has sloping walls and ceilings. Inside is a wooden sculpture by Carlo Vivarelli from the years 1975–1976. The Mittelweg continues from these high-rise buildings to the edge of Witikonerstrasse, to which a ramp that is diagonally laid to the floor plan of the cemetery leads up. Along this ramp, Charlotte Germann-Jahn has set up a station path with five sculptures, which has become the landmark of the Witikon cemetery. Visitors who enter the cemetery from Witikonerstrasse will see the first station outside the cemetery in the form of a stylized seedling. Stepping down the ramp into the cemetery, the visitor perceives how the bud breaks through its base and grows up into the sky as a germ.

particularities

Biotope

• The Witikon cemetery has been maintained from an ecological perspective since 1984. Biotope , flower meadows and wild shrubs give the Witikon cemetery an atypical appearance for graves. A biological sewage treatment plant from 1996 with different types of plants marks the transition from the oldest to the younger cemetery areas.
• In 2004, the city of Zurich's first Muslim burial ground was opened at the Witikon cemetery . In Mecca oriented grave fields as well as a space for ritual ablutions should meet the city's needs of the growing Muslim population.

Graves of important personalities

The Witikon Cemetery is the final resting place of:

• Eberhard Ackerknecht , 1883–1968, veterinary anatomist
• Ueli Beck , 1930–2010, actor and radio host
• Mario Comensoli , 1922–1993, painter
• Eugen Dieth , 1893–1956, English specialist, dialectologist, "Dieth-Schrift"
• Stephanie Glaser , 1920–2011, actress
• Marianne Hold , 1933–1994, actress
• Erwin Parker , 1903–1987, actor, co-director of the Schauspielhaus
• Armin Schibler , 1920–1986, composer
• Karl Schweri , 1917–2001, retail entrepreneur
• Frederick Stafford , 1928–1979, actor
• Emil Staiger , 1908–1987, Germanist
• Flora Steiger-Crawford , 1899–1991, architect, furniture designer, sculptor
• Rudolf Steiger , 1900–1982, architect
• Eduard Stiefel , 1909–1978, mathematician
• Fred Tanner 1920–1982 actor
• Anthony van Hoboken , 1887–1983, musicologist
• Eva van Hoboken , 1905–1987, dancer, writer
• Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel , 1896–1984, composer
• Selvarajan Yesudian , 1916-1998, yoga teacher
• Hans Witzig , 1889–1973, art historian, sculptor, illustrator, graphic artist and author.

• 

  Sculpture rays by Roland Hotz

• 

  Sculpture 3 × 9 by Carlo Vivarelli

• 

  Family graves

See also

• List of burial places of famous people
• List of cemeteries in Zurich

literature

• Norbert Loacker , Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. The cemeteries of the city of Zurich. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-280-02809-4 .
• Daniel Foppa: Famous and forgotten dead in Zurich's cemeteries. 2nd, supplemented and updated edition. Limmat, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-85791-446-7 .

Web links

Commons : Friedhof Witikon  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Witikon Cemetery on the website of the City of Zurich
• Prominent deceased at the Witikon cemetery ( PDF )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norbert Loacker, Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. 1998, p. 165.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Friedhof Witikon on the website of the City of Zurich , accessed on July 19, 2015.
3. ↑ Norbert Loacker, Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. 1998, pp. 165-168.

Coordinates: 47 ° 21 ′ 47 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 13"  E ; CH1903:  688002  /  two hundred and forty-six thousand four hundred and fifty-four