Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery

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The Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in the Westend district of Berlin is an avenue district cemetery with a size of 3.7  hectares that has existed since 1896 . The entire cemetery is a listed building .

The cemetery is located on Fürstenbrunner Weg in the direct vicinity of Luisenfriedhof III and is connected to it by two paths.

history

Cemetery chapel

The Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Congregation was established in 1896 due to the growing population in the west of Berlin. A part of the Luisengemeinde merged into the new community. The Luisengemeinde donated 4.7 hectares to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery to set up its own cemetery, which was directly connected to Luisenfriedhof III to the north.

Like the neighboring Luisenfriedhof, the cemetery was laid out as an avenue district cemetery. For Allen were Linden and maple trees planted. The inauguration of the cemetery took place with the first burial on July 25, 1896. On this date, it took over the function of burial place for the educated middle class, which had settled around Kurfürstendamm in the so-called New West at the end of the 19th century . The need for representation beyond death was particularly pronounced at this time and led to considerable investments in grave sites and their design during his lifetime.

In 1903 the community had a cemetery chapel built. Until then, she will use the facilities on Luisenfriedhof III. A design by the Hetzel City Planning Council was implemented (an authorship by Schwechten , which can be found in part in the literature, is not applicable). Hetzel designed the chapel in Romanesque styles, with decorative writing elements showing traits of Art Nouveau . The inauguration of the chapel took place on September 27, 1903.

Unique among the chapels in Berlin cemeteries is the installation of a crypt system . 16 tombs, accessible from the basement and measuring between ten and 25 square meters, were created, the sale of which was intended to finance the chapel.

The chapel was badly damaged during World War II . At some hereditary burial sites there are still clear traces of gunfire from this time. The chapel was rebuilt in 1952/1953 and extensively renovated in 1978.

Significant graves of art history

Interior of the Lemm Mausoleum
Warburg hereditary funeral
Grave of August Bredtschneider
Grave of Henny Porten
Grave of Amalie and Joseph Joachim
Schmoller grave
Spielhagen grave

Mausoleum Lemm

In the 1910s, the shoe polish manufacturer Otto Lemm had an extremely magnificent mausoleum built in the northeast corner of the cemetery . The architect Max Werner designed a Romanesque building on the basic shape of a Greek cross to match the chapel . Most of the walls and ceilings in the 42 square meter interior are lined with mosaics made by Puhl & Wagner . A large mosaic above the entrance to the crypt shows the Lemm couple sitting on a bench, another shows their villa in Gatow. Opposite the entrance there is an altar in an apse , which is decorated with an angel sculpture.

Warburg grave

In 1914, the company owner Ferdinand Warburg had a monumental hereditary burial built in the corner of a west and south wall near the chapel. The cost of acquiring the burial place alone was more than ten times the annual earnings of a worker at that time.

The style of the complex also takes up the Romanesque forms of the chapel. In the corner of the walls there is an aedicle-like richly decorated false portal . A small flight of stairs leads up to this. The sky, which is supposed to await the deceased behind the portal, is represented by blue glass mosaic with a golden frame. In the portal is a marble sculpture by Hans Dammann of a mourners dressed in antique style with a lyre . The first version of this sculpture even had to be completely replaced, as Warburg disliked a marble vein in the face of the sculpture.

Well-known personalities buried

Honor graves

according to the list of honorary graves of the state of Berlin (as of November 2018)

Other preserved graves

Not preserved graves

literature

  • Birgit Jochens, Herbert May: The cemeteries in Berlin-Charlottenburg / History of the cemetery facilities and their tomb culture . Stapp Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-87776-056-2 .
  • Cemetery of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Congregation (Protestant) . In: Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , pp. 470-481.
  • Hans-Jürgen Mende , Debora Paffen: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirchhof. A cemetery guide . Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048533-6 .

Web links

Commons : Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Friedhof  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of Berlin cemeteries (PDF; 84 kB) of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development
  2. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  3. ↑ Jochens, May, p. 57
  4. ↑ Jochens / May, p. 58
  5. ↑ Jochens / May, p. 205
  6. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (as of November 2018) . (PDF, 413 kB) Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, p. 78; accessed on March 23, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 33.1 ″  N , 13 ° 16 ′ 40.3 ″  E