Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery

Every major city has its own cemetery for its famous daughters and sons. In Berlin, you will find this cemetery at Chausseestraße 126. The gravestones and memorial plaques in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof read like a "Who's Who" of Germany's intellectual elite.

The history of the cemetery

The Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof was founded in 1762. Dorotheenstädtische Kirche and Dorotheenstadt are derived from Dorothea, the second wife of the Great Elector. It is located outside the Akzisemauer, in the neighbourhood of which the nucleus of Berlin's heavy industry developed after 1800 in the so-called Feuerland. The cemetery initially served as the final resting place of more ordinary Berlin citizens. However, as institutions such as the Academy of Arts, the Singakademie, the Academy of Sciences, the Bauakademie and the University of Unter den Linden were located on the grounds of the parish of the Dorotheenstädtische Kirche, the social composition and occupancy of the cemetery gradually changed.
Ever more elaborate and lavishly designed gravestones adorn the cemetery. It becomes the final resting place of important personalities. The city of Berlin maintains a number of graves of honour in the grounds, including one for former Federal President Johannes Rau.

Graves of important Berliners

The philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Johann Gottlieb Fichte are buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof cemetery. The writers Heinrich Mann, Johannes R. Becher, Arnold Zweig and Anna Seghers have also found their final resting place here. At the grave of director Heiner Müller , his fans often leave cigars for the committed smoker. Among the important Berlin sculptors buried here is Johann Gottfried Schadow, who designed his own grave. His rival Christian Daniel Rauch is not far away. Berlin's great architects Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Friedrich August Stüler are also buried here. The artists John Heartfield, Wieland Herzfelde, Hanns Eisler and the book printer Ernst Theodor Litfass are also among the famous Berliners. The tomb of the industrialist Borsig and his family, whose ancestral home is opposite the cemetery, is elaborately designed.
In contrast, two simple field stones adorn the graves of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel. At the entrance to the cemetery stands the Bertolt Brecht House, where the two last lived. Today it houses the Brecht Archive and the Literature Forum.

Among the important Berlin personalities who have recently been given a grave of honour are the actor Otto Sander, the theatre man Georg Tabori, the former president Johannes Rau, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, the civil rights activist Bärbel Bohley and the West Berlin communard Fritz Teufel.

A stone slab and a simple cross commemorate the resistance fighters of 20 July 1944, eight of whom were buried here after being murdered shortly before the end of the Second World War. The names of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, whose graves are not known, are also honoured on the stone.

Chapel: light installation by James Turrell

Since July 2015, the important American light artist James Turrell (*1943) has been showing a permanent light installation centred on the sunset in the funeral chapel at Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof I. Turrell is fascinated by the diverse manifestations of light and pushes the boundaries of perception in his works. The light installation is open to the public on Fridays to Sundays as part of a guided tour.

French cemetery

The French Cemetery is also located on the site. From 1780 to 1835, the French Reformed community used it as a cemetery for the descendants of the Huguenots. The graves are adorned with numerous beautiful neoclassical-style tombs. Friedrich August Stüler created the opulent grave of the industrialist and collector Pierre Louis Ravené. Celebrities such as Jenny Gröllmann lie in the cemetery.