From graves to gardens: Berlin’s changing cemeteries

Abstract

Declining burial rates and limited grave tenure mean that many cemeteries in Germany’s capital are largely empty, in contrast to the increasingly crowded city around them. Some have been left to go wild: sprouting trees and underbrush that are home to birds and foxes. Their unsanctioned use—by guerilla gardeners, beekeepers, and dog walkers—is common. In an effort to normalise these activities, the Protestant Cemetery Association invited community groups to ‘activate’ several of their sites, showing a willingness to recast cemeteries as ‘green infrastructure.’ These activations follow a long history of repurposing ‘fallow’ lands in Berlin, which has increased as skyrocketing land values have intensified competition for space. The spatial politics of ‘sunsetting’ burial grounds are complex and highly contingent. Through interviews, photographs, and participant observation, this piece asks how emotionally charged sites for memorialisation transition to neighbourhood amenities, with a particular focus on the power of greening as something bordering on a civic religion in Germany. It also looks at the future of ageing cemeteries that, in the next decade, will close completely. These desanctified lands have been promised twice—as sites for housing and community facilities, and as climate-mitigating parklands—putting densification and urban greening at loggerheads.