© dpa
Main entrance area of the Jewish Cemetery Berlin-Weißensee.
© www.enrico-verworner.de
© dpa
© dpa
© dpa
© www.enrico-verworner.de
© dpa
© dpa
Gravesite of Moses Mendelssohn at the Jewish Cemetery Weißensee
The Jewish Cemetery Weißensee is one of the largest and most beautiful Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Numerous celebrities and personalities from Berlin were buried here.
The Jewish Cemetery in Weißensee is the largest of its kind in Europe. It is a fascinating place full of history and stories as well as a quiet place for reflection and remembrance.
The Jewish Cemetery in Berlin's Weißensee district was established in 1880. By 1875, the Jewish community in Berlin had grown to count around 65,000 members and it became apparent that the Jewish cemetery on Schönhauser Allee would no longer suffice. The Jewish community thus acquired a 100-acre site in Weißensee on which a new burial ground was to be constructied. The competition for its design was won by the architect Hugo Licht.
Numerous Berlin celebrities personalities are buried at the Jewish Cemetery Weißensee, including the social politician Max Hirsch (1832-1905), the Hebrew writer Micha Josef Bin Gorion (1865-1921), the painter Lesser Ury (1861-1931), and the publishers Samuel Fischer (1859-1934) and Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920). By 1998, more than 115,200 Jewish Berliners of Berlin were buried in the cemetery.
Just behind the main entrance lies a roundel, in the center of which a stone stands as a memorial for the millions of Jews who were victims of Nazi persecution. The names of all the major concentration camps are carved on stone blocks arranged in a circle around the memorial. Behind the roundel is the old mourning hall, built in 1880 by Hugo Licht, whose acoustics were praised at the time of its inauguration.
South of the site of the new mourning hall is a field of honor for the Jewish soldiers who died in the First World War. In its center stands a three-meter high monument made of shell limestone, representing a monumental altar. To the right of the main entrance, in a burial ground at the northern corner of the cemetery, is an interment site for some 90 Torah scrolls desecrated during the 1938 pogrom night.
© dpa
In Berlin the long tradition of Jewish religion, Jewish culture and Jewish lifestyle was once visible in many places - and is celebrating a revival. Where to find old and new traces of Jewish life in Berlin. more
© dpa
Berlin has countless churches and other places of faith. These religious sights are worth a visit. more