Berlin funeral services
The Berlin funeral system extends to a total of 221 open and closed cemeteries and churchyards with a total area of about 1147 hectares distributed throughout Berlin's urban area . 79 cemeteries are registered as garden monuments in Berlin's list of monuments.
After the centralization around Berlin began with the cabinet order of 1908, the settlement centers of Berlin merged to form Greater Berlin , but really only from 1920. There are still a large number of local burial sites. The approach for four central cemeteries on the outskirts of the big city from the beginning of the 20th century remained unfinished by political events such as world war and inflation.
Unlike in many other large cities in the world, the Berlin funeral system does not concentrate on individual large cemeteries, as in Vienna , Hamburg, Paris , London or New York.
Development of the Christian and urban burial culture in Berlin
Early development of church cemeteries
The oldest tombs were in or in the immediate vicinity of the respective churches. The parishes and their members were responsible for the burial in the enclosed area around the church building - the churchyard. An example that still exists is the cemetery at the Parochialkirche in Klosterstrasse , which was laid out around 1705 . Due to the increasing population, the church yards were increasingly occupied. The General Prussian Land Law also stipulated in Section 184 that no corpses may be buried within the built-up areas. This regulation was increasingly implemented in the course of the 18th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the parishes relocated their cemeteries to areas outside the city walls at that time, so that new burial areas were created where the cemeteries (cemeteries of the individual parishes) were close to one another. Examples of this are the cemeteries in front of Hallesches Tor , which have been buried here since 1735, and the Dorotheenstädtische Friedhof in today's Mitte district , which has existed since 1763. This was followed by cemeteries on Bergmannstrasse and the cemeteries on Hermannstrasse in today's Neukölln . Until the 19th century, burial remained the responsibility of the parish. There was no municipal funeral service and thus no municipal cemeteries.
The burial site for corpses from the Anatomical Theater Berlin , operated from 1716 to 1753, was not a church cemetery.
Establishment of municipal cemeteries from 1800
Around 1800 the first municipal cemetery was laid out in Friedenstraße in today's Friedrichshain . This cemetery was initially intended exclusively for the reception of the deceased from the nearby poor houses, who mainly died of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or cholera . In 1828 the second communal burial place followed with the Wedding-Acker in today's Wedding . The oldest urn grove in Berlin is located on this cemetery, which was closed in 1878 . This was opened in 1910 and received its own crematorium in 1912 .
In 1881 the Friedrichsfelde cemetery was established , which initially served primarily as a poor cemetery in order to relieve the denominational cemeteries and at the same time save money. Only eleven years after the opening of this cemetery, three quarters of it was occupied. Especially for this cemetery in Friedrichsfelde, body collection points were set up in the city, from which the dead were usually transported by train at night. Such collection points were located on Friedensstrasse and later at Ostbahnhof .
By 1894 there were already 79 cemeteries with a total area of almost 400 hectares in the area that would later become Greater Berlin. These included cemeteries in the suburbs that were initiated from the Prussian capital, such as the Neu-Weißensee community cemetery , just under five kilometers from the city center. Opposite on the other side of Roelckestrasse, areas were reserved for Protestant parishes, which were ultimately only half used.
Due to the rapid population growth and the rapid increase in the built-up area of Berlin in the second half of the 19th century, the cemeteries that were previously outside the city became built-up areas. Large cemeteries were set up outside Berlin to accommodate the dead. In 1908 and 1909 the Berlin City Synodal Association laid out the Ostkirchhof in Ahrensfelde and the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf . Representative and spacious facilities were built in the affluent villa suburbs such as the Lichterfelde Park Cemetery in the Lichterfelde-West villa colony , which quickly developed into a celebrity cemetery .
A municipal central cemetery was planned in the north of Berlin around 1913 . These plans for the Buch or Karow area came to a standstill due to the First World War (1914-1918), the subsequent inflation until 1923 and probably mainly due to the incorporation of Pankow (XIX. District) in Greater Berlin in 1920, the execution was abandoned . At the same time, a central cemetery was planned in Spandau to the west of Berlin . The cemetery In den Kisseln was intended for this purpose, but as in Pankow, this plan was not completed.
85 cemeteries with 54% of the area are administered by the state, 118 with 37% of the area by Protestant parishes, nine cemeteries with four percent by Catholic parishes. There are also a total of ten Jewish, Muslim, Russian Orthodox cemetery administrations and the British military cemetery, seven are still open. Of these 221 burial sites, 23 state-owned with 77 hectares and 14 Protestant ones with 15 hectares are closed for further burials. The British military cemetery, the Soviet honor groves, the old Muslim cemetery and, except for the Weissensee, the Jewish burial grounds are closed. A total of 38 cemeteries are already completely closed and people are no longer buried there. However, they have retained the character of a cemetery and are still dedicated (piously) as a cemetery. Four Berlin cemeteries that do not belong to any district are assigned to the “surrounding area”. In detail, these are two state-owned cemeteries under administration by Berlin with a total of 37.89 hectares. Two Protestant cemeteries with a total area of 314 hectares are administered by the Berlin City Synodal Association. The Protestant Waldkirchhof Mahlsdorf is located on the Brandenburg floor, but directly on the Berlin city limits and thus belongs to the district.
Cremation
In 1911 cremation was allowed in Prussia . As early as the 19th century, several high-ranking physicians had spoken out in favor of cremation, including the chief medical officer Johann Peter Trusen in 1855 with his book Die Leichenverbremse, the most suitable type of burial, and Rudolf Virchow around 1875, who gave several speeches and speeches in front of the House of Representatives in Berlin highlighted the hygienic aspect of cremation:
“From the point of view of public health care nothing would be more desirable than if our custom as a whole wanted to be directed towards the fact that incineration became the rule, than that the increasing accumulation of places of decay, which surround the big cities like a wreath, which the soil with unclean Fulfill substances that pollute the earth far and wide and the storms, that this is not a condition that is compatible with public health, is obvious. "
In Italy in particular, the technical possibilities were created that led to the construction of the world's oldest crematorium on January 22, 1876 . This was based on Friedrich Siemens ' regenerative gas combustion , with which he carried out his first successful experiments in Dresden-Tolkewitz in 1874. Further work in Prussia was banned because the law only allowed burial in the ground. In February 1876 the first corpse cremation in the modern sense took place in Milan. The idea and the results of the first cremations spread mainly through international congresses in Florence (1869), Rome (1871), Dresden (1876), Berlin (1890), Budapest (1894) and finally in Brussels for the 1910 World's Fair and again in Dresden for the World Exhibition for Health Care (1911). Opponents of the idea mainly used religious reservations and referred to social tradition, but economic interests were also brought forward.
In Germany, the first crematorium was built in Gotha and the first cremation took place in 1878, thirteen more were built on German soil by 1907 and in that year the first Prussian crematorium was built in Hagen , but it was not allowed to be used for the first time until 1912. Since 1891 it was allowed in Prussia to bury the urns with the ashes of the dead that were burned outside the borders. In contrast, cremation was still prohibited on Prussian territory. It was not until May 20, 1911, that the “Cremation Bill” was passed with a narrow majority of two votes in the House of Representatives and only one vote in the Manor House and published on September 14, 1911. This made Prussia the last German state to introduce cremation, and the first cremation took place in Hagen on September 16, 1912.
In Berlin, on November 24, 1912, based on designs by William Müller , the Berlin-Wedding crematorium was opened in the urn cemetery, the first crematorium that was planned when the urn hall was built in 1910. This third Prussian crematorium was considered the largest incinerator in Europe. On June 20, 1913, the Berlin-Baumschulenweg crematorium was opened in Baumschulenweg on Kiefholzstrasse as the second Berlin crematorium and after seven years of construction, delayed by the First World War and the subsequent inflation, the third crematorium in Wilmersdorf opened on May 11, 1922 With the completion of this crematorium, work on a fourth planned one in Distelmeyerstrasse was stopped. In 1975 the Ruhleben crematorium was put into operation.
In 2008 the proportion of cremations in Berlin was 78%, 39% of the urns are buried in the anonymous urn community facilities. However, the desire for semi-anonymous burials is increasing. In the case of semi-anonymous burials, the burial takes place in communal graves of limited numbers, but the grave site is marked by individual plates or communal stones.
Developments since 1900
Cremation became more widely accepted in the 20th century. Burial habits have changed due to developments in society and coexistence. Because of the growing tendency to change residence and other relocations of the bereaved for various reasons, coping with grief has shifted from the place of burial to other areas of personal life. Family traditions are partly replaced by groups of friends. Especially with increasing age, grave maintenance is less intensive. Again, the change of location brings the desire for reburial, that is, “taking the grave site with you”. Declining religiosity means that the Christian tradition of resting the dead is less strictly adhered to. The increasing cremation and urn burial with decreasing coffin burial as well as a longer lifespan in Berlin reduce the space requirements of Berlin cemeteries. The Senate decided on a cemetery development plan, according to which areas of state-owned cemeteries are closed and the set-aside of church cemeteries is recommended, church cemetery owners are considering ways of converting traditional areas.
Changed burial habits and cemetery areas that have become free bring new forms of burial for the State of Berlin. The trend towards natural burials is gaining a foothold in urban and church cemeteries. This new form is partly driven by the funeral industry. The Berlin fee schedule for the state's own cemeteries offers the possibility of natural burials in suitable cemeteries. In Berlin cemeteries with forest character and suitable trees, forest fields and, for example, tree fields in the Pankow XII cemetery are set up. Cemeteries with grave fields and without individual graves follow the trend towards the descendants being less likely to care for the grave sites. As in the community facility, the urn is buried together in some small grave fields. The care and equipment of the grave complex is carried out centrally by contracted gardeners or the employees of the cemetery. In contrast to the anonymous burial, some grave sites have steles or other memorials with which the anonymity of the deceased's grave in the UGA is canceled.
“There has been stagnation in anonymous burials for years. However, there is an upward trend in individually designed tombs on a community grave field or community graves that are maintained by the cemetery administration. "
In the tomb culture there are changes in the wishes of the bereaved. Attractive family graves with bars in which people have been buried for generations and which were used for representation are being replaced by simpler tombstones and a simpler design. This in turn turns the old cultural and historical grave fields into cultural sites worth preserving, and cemetery parks into successors to the active burial areas. On the other hand, there is also a turn to elaborate, stylized tombstones in a modern design with changing and combined use of materials. However, the old tombs are no longer used and the cemetery administration incurs costs for maintaining the facilities, some of which are listed. The use of suitable structures is being rededicated.
In Berlin, the death rate fell from 1.28% to 0.91% between 1990 and 2007. For urn burials, only 3% of the area is required per burial compared to burials in the ground, so the area required for burials has halved since 1980. There are empty, fallow areas between the grave fields. As a result, the increasing costs of the church and district cemetery administrations contrast with falling income. Since 2004, eleven Berlin cemeteries with a total area of 33 hectares have been closed and 75 cemeteries have partially closed 257 hectares. Areas that have never been affected by piety are reused, other areas can be rededicated at the earliest 30 years after the last burial because of the peace of the dead. The law in Berlin stipulates a period of 20 years, followed by ten years of cemetery rest.
The share of anonymous funerals in all burials was almost 41 percent in 2004, which is a high. There are 13,434 burials in tombs without an individual tomb (anonymous burial). 216 burials at sea were reported, 159 for the Baltic Sea, 56 for the North Sea and one urn was sunk in another sea. The "sea burial" is a form of cremation and in Berlin still requires the approval of an exception to the current cemetery requirement.
"The trend is towards maintenance-free graves on the one hand and towards a very individual grave design on the other."
Graves of victims of war and tyranny
There are 120,000 graves in Berlin, with a total of 150,000 victims of war and tyranny. These are distributed over 220 burial sites (thus in almost all cemeteries). In Berlin, only uniform pillow stones are used for individual graves, with the exception of war cemeteries that were created before the Second World War. The respective cemeteries are responsible for the preservation and maintenance. Graves that fall under the War Graves Act have a permanent right of existence and should be retained as warning places. In addition to German war graves, there are also cemeteries for soldiers and other groups of victims from the Soviet Union , Italy and the Commonwealth .
Set of rules
Cemetery regulations for the state's own cemeteries
The administration of the municipal cemeteries and the operation of the funeral services were regulated in the current cemetery regulations from 1997. In particular, the competences of the municipal cemetery system are incumbent on the districts (Section 1, Paragraph 2), those of the burials, as a sovereign task, the respective cemetery administrations. (Section 9 Paragraph 1).
Cemetery statutes of church cemeteries
The parishes perceive their independence in their respective statutes. So there are some changes compared to the state-owned cemeteries. The basis is still the Berlin Funeral Act. “Acquiring a grave site is usually a bit more expensive here [compared to the state's own cemeteries]. If a family grave is subsequently allocated, it will be cheaper. "( Fabian Lenzen (spokesman for the Berlin Undertaker Guild) )
In the church cemeteries in Berlin , the cemetery administration has to be entrusted with all cemetery gardening work, whereby the activities of commercial cemetery gardeners are limited to state-owned cemeteries. This practice was confirmed by the Berlin Administrative Court in 1990 and by the Berlin Higher Administrative Court in 1995 . in a corresponding sample process.
Jewish burial culture in Berlin
The cemeteries of the Jewish community in Berlin developed as the city grew. Unlike the Christian burial sites, however, they were found outside the city as early as the Middle Ages.
Early burial places
The oldest burial site on which Berlin Jews were buried was the Judenkiewer Spandau , which was used as early as 1244 after a tombstone was found. The Kiev resident did not belong to the local Jews, but to the city of Spandau , which took money for the use and funerals. In 1510 the Jews were expelled from the Mark Brandenburg and thus from Berlin and Spandau and the Kievan people were cleared away. The tombstones were later used in the construction of the Spandau Citadel (1520–1533). As a result, some specimens can be viewed, such as those at the Jewish cemetery in Heerstrasse .
Whether there was a Jewish burial site as early as the 15th or 16th century on the former Judengasse in front of Georgentor , northeast of today's Alexanderplatz , is very controversial due to a lack of sources, but according to recent research it must be considered unlikely, since Berlin and Spandau probably one common cemetery district, in which there was probably only one cemetery. A memorial stone for the victims of the burning of the Jews in Berlin in 1510 reminds:
"The holy bones of the members of our first congregation in Berlin rest here ..."
The tablet was originally donated in 1935 by Rabbi Martin Salomonski for a synagogue on Landwehrstrasse, the former Judengasse, which was closed in 1972. In the Middle Ages, the Berlin Rabenstein with the Schindanger was located nearby, where those executed and others who were “not worthy of a Christian burial” were buried. So the plaque can be an indication of this but not evidence of an early Jewish burial site.
Jewish cemeteries in Berlin
After Jewish families expelled from Vienna had settled here, the Jewish cemetery in front of the Spandauer Tor was established in 1672 . After burials were no longer allowed in the area that was now inhabited, the cemetery was closed in 1827. It was desecrated during the Nazi era, but restored as a memorial site in 2008.
From 1827 the burials took place in the Jewish cemetery Schönhauser Allee . One of the last burials there was that of Max Liebermann in 1935. Because the cemetery on Schönhauser Allee soon reached its capacity limits, the Jewish community built a new cemetery in 1880 on the grounds of the Weissensee community , which is still the largest in Europe. Since Weißensee was located in the eastern part of the city , the Heerstrasse cemetery was inaugurated for the Jewish community of West Berlin in 1955 .
The Adass-Jisroel cemetery is also located in the Weißensee district . Jewish cemeteries were located in Spandau and the Köpenicker Dammvorstadt until the 20th century .
literature
- Alfred Etzold u. a .: The Jewish cemeteries in Berlin. 4th improved and enlarged edition. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-362-00557-8 .
- Klaus Hammer: Berlin cemetery guide. Historic cemeteries and tombs in church rooms. Jaron Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89773-081-2 ( Berlin plus ).
- Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin tombs. Haude & Spenersche Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-7759-0476-X .
- Clemens-G. Szamatolski, Wolfgang Gottschalk, Gretel Daub-Hofmann: Cemeteries in Berlin, taking into account the preservation of garden monuments. Published by the Senate Department for Urban Development and Environmental Protection, Public Relations Department. Kulturbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1992 ( Senator for Urban Development and Environmental Protection. Garden Monument Care 7, ZDB -ID 848810-1 ).
- Cornelius Steckner: Museum cemetery. Important tombs in Berlin. Stapp Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-87776-420-7 .
- Klaus Konrad Weber, Peter Güttler, Ditta Ahmadi (eds.): Berlin and its buildings. Part 10, A: Systems and structures for supply. Volume 3: Funeral Services. Published by Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-433-00890-6 .
Web links
- List of cemeteries in Berlin (Senate list) (PDF; 71 kB)
- Map of all Berlin cemeteries (selection of the district required)
- Cemetery development plan (PDF; 73 kB)
- Where-they-rest, famous graves in Berlin's historic cemeteries and in the federal states
- Cemeteries in Berlin: where the celebrities rest
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mdl. Message from Mr. Vigass
- ↑ a b c Publication of the Undertaker Guild, Berliner Zeitung November 14, 2008
- ↑ above: Information on cemetery development planning in Berlin. Senate Department for Urban Development, Berlin 2008
- ↑ Overview of the cemeteries in Berlin
- ^ Cemeteries and burial places: data and facts
- ^ The first crematorium in Berlin . In: Berlinische monthly 11/97
- ↑ a b c Berlin Week - January 18, 2012, page 6
- ^ Journal for Official Statistics Berlin Brandenburg 5 + 6 2007, p. 4
- ↑ Graves of the victims of war and tyranny / State of Berlin. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
- ↑ stadtgruen / gesetze / download / friedhofsordnung.pdf Ordinance on the administration and use of Berlin's state-owned cemeteries (cemetery regulations) . From November 19, 1997. GVBl. P. 614 (as amended on January 11, 2011, GVBl. P. 10)
- ↑ “Burials are a sovereign task and are the responsibility of the cemetery administration. (1) The sovereign tasks include all activities in the cemetery that are necessary for the dignified treatment of the deceased and that ensure compliance with the hygienic requirements. This includes all activities from the acceptance of the deceased in the cemetery to the closing of the crypt. ”Third part burials § 9 General cemetery regulations
- ↑ VG Berlin, Az. 22 A 126.90 and OVG Berlin, Az. 5 B 4.93
- ^ Siegfried Moses: Page no longer available , search in web archives: On the history of the Jewish cemetery and burial system in the Jewish community in Berlin ; Community Gazette of the Jewish Community of Berlin, 11/1913
- ^ Jörn Roland Christophersen: Jewish cemeteries and cemetery districts in the late medieval Mark Brandenburg . In: Sigrid Hirbodian, Christian Jörg, Sabine Klapp and Jörg R. Müller (eds.): Pro multis beneficiis. Festschrift for Friedhelm Burgard. Research on the history of the Jews and the Trier area . Trier 2012, pp. 129–146, here in particular: pp. 144 f.