Grünau forest cemetery

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Grünau forest cemetery
Coat of arms of Berlin.svg
Park in Berlin
Grünau forest cemetery
Entrance area to the cemetery with celebration hall
Basic data
place Berlin
District Grünau
Created 1920
Surrounding streets
Rabindranath-Tagore-Strasse 18-20
Buildings Chapel / celebration hall
Technical specifications
Parking area 2.75 ha

The Grünau forest cemetery is located at Rabindranath-Tagore-Straße 18-20 as an extension of Horst-Kunze-Weg in the Grünau district of the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick . Another access is possible via the extended Kablower Weg on the forest side from the direction of Bohnsdorf . The cemetery was created in 1920/21 at the Berlin urban forest Grünau and covers an area of ​​27,800 m².

history

In 1749, four colonist families from the Palatinate founded the settlement on the Grünen Aue , which, at the behest of the Prussian King Frederick the Great, settled not far from the Steinbinde forester's house on the Langen See . Grünau did not have its own church until 1906, but was ecclesiastically assigned to the parish and village church of Bohnsdorf. In the early days, the few deceased from Grünau were therefore buried in the Bohnsdorf village cemetery.

Shortly before the middle of the 18th century, the first cemetery was set up in the colonist village of Grünau , which was set back on what was then Friedrichstrasse (since 1936 part of Regattastrasse ), opposite the present-day community center Grünau . In 1874 this was lifted after the surrounding areas had been built on and the cemetery proved to be too small. After the graves were inactive for 30 years, a coal farm was established there. Several city villas have been built on the site since the 1990s.

With the abolition of the Friedrichstrasse cemetery, a new cemetery was built north of today's water sports avenue in 1874 in a completely wooded area - near the Friedenskirche, which was later built here . It was exactly at today's intersection, Walchensee- / Kochelseestrasse . From January 1922, the cemetery, which was now under municipal ownership, was closed for new burials. Hereditary funerals could still be used.

The cemetery was still there until the 1960s, but was leveled in a brief action with a number of historically valuable hereditary burials and facilities without prior information to the public. Today there is a public green area with a children's playground, which is hardly reminiscent of the old Grünau cemetery at the site.

In 1920, the community of Grünau decided to create a new cemetery with the incorporation in Greater Berlin and cleared an area in the middle of the forest on Alten Postweg (later Rabindranath-Tagore-Straße). When the forest was cleared, some of the tree species typical of this forest disappeared, which means that the tree population in the cemetery differs significantly from the surrounding mixed forest.

description

War memorial

The Grünau forest cemetery has a central avenue lined with linden trees as a central axis . This is accompanied in the first third by an elongated wall on which those who died in the First World War were buried. Finally, on the western side, a war memorial made of boulders commemorates the Grünau people who fell in the First World War 1914–1918. On the outside of the entire cemetery complex there are small memorial stones for the victims of the Second World War , including some unnamed or with unknown names.

In 1921 the celebration hall and two gatehouses that were then used for residential purposes were completed on both sides of the entrance portal. According to the Book of the Dead of the Evangelical Church in Grünau, the first burial took place in the new cemetery on October 18, 1921 . A bomb hit at the end of the Second World War destroyed the celebration hall in 1945. The eastern gatehouse was then converted into a small celebration hall, which was originally only intended as a temporary solution. A new building could not be realized during the GDR times.

In 1961, on the initiative of the Indian scientist Professor Walter Ruben, who lived on the street until 1982 and has been resting in the forest cemetery since then, the adjacent street was renamed after the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore .

The Protestant forest cemetery Bohnsdorf was closed for the construction of another runway at Schönefeld Airport . To this end, the city district administration expanded the Grünau cemetery in a southerly direction by 3,000 m². Most of the Bohnsdorf dead were reburied here.

In 2005, the two gatehouses from the early days had to be demolished because they were dilapidated. A new multi-purpose building with a party hall was built in the middle of the area.

Tombs and personalities

Berlin grave of honor Fritz Kühn

In addition to numerous local greats from Grünau, the following personalities rest at the Grünau Forest Cemetery:

See also

Web links

Commons : Waldfriedhof Grünau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of cemeteries in Berlin
  2. ↑ Heinz Quermann A / V, 107/108 grave complex on www.knerger.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 26.2 "  N , 13 ° 35 ′ 25.9"  E