TOUR 02 · FOREST CEMETERY
Forest Cemetery
A forest cemetery the size of a small town, planted with the graves of a Berlin that no longer exists. We walk its avenues to read a century of the city through its dead.
A city of the dead
Opened in 1909 to relieve Berlin's overcrowded cemeteries, this forest cemetery was once reached by its own funeral train. Today it holds artists, industrialists, refugees, war dead, and a section of graves displaced from the city to make room for Nazi-era urban planning.
What we read in the stones
We stop at the graves of Lovis Corinth, Engelbert Humperdinck, the Siemens family, the Italian war cemetery, and the area resettled from St. Matthäus when Albert Speer ordered the Schöneberg cemetery cleared. The tour treats the cemetery as a document, not a curiosity.
Quiet, please
This is an active burial ground. We speak softly, stay on paths, and never photograph mourners. Pets are welcome, but they must stay on a leash. The walk is contemplative; expect long silences between stops.