Tour Berlin's fascinating cemeteries

According to art historian Boris von Brauchitsch, the author of a recently published guide to Berlin's graveyards, no big city has more cemeteries than Berlin. And where there are dead people, you'll find angels. These two reside in a cemetery in the Mitte district - along with VIPs like philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, playwright Bertolt Brecht and artist John Heartfield.

Berlin' cemeteries not only reflect the city's history. They also bear scars from historical events. This mausoleum in the Dorotheenstädtischer-Friedrichswerderscher Cemetery in Mitte was hit by artillery fire. The damage is still amply visible.

Family plots are a common sight in Berlin graveyards. This unusual example of the genre can be admired in Georgen-Parochial Cemetery I in Prenzlauer Berg. But for how long? Parts of the cemetery have already closed, and the graveyard occupies prime real estate in this affluent and child-happy district.

Berlin's most famous Jewish cemetery is located in the Weißensee district, but the oldest surviving (1827) and most romantic one sits on Schönhauser Allee in Prenzlauer Berg. Hard to be believe a place like this exists in a downtown big city. Among those buried here are artist Max Liebermann, composer Giacomo Meyerbeer and Moritz Manheimer, supplier of uniforms to the prussian Army.

Graveyards have a lot of natural enemies. Falling mortality rates, for instance, or the dwindling importance of religion in society. As a result, some of Berlin's historic cemeteries could be facing closure. That would in effect destroy parts of Berlin's history - real estate developers are rubbing their hands nonetheless.

In the latter stages of World War II, the intricate wrought-iron fences in many Berlin graveyards were melted down for badly needed ore. The ironwork that is still there, however, includes many lovely examples of traditional craftsmanship. It's also symbolic. Poppies, from which numerous opiates are derived, symbolize eternal sleep.

The Grunewald-Forst graveyard is nicknamed the "Suicides' Cemetery." Normally people who died by their own hand were excluded from hallowed ground, but in this case the guardians of the faith turned a blind eye. The crosses mark the graves of horrified tsarists after the Russian revolution. Velvet Underground collaborator Nico is also buried here.

Berlin's graveyards are diverse places in a number of respects. One colorful example of that is if the Russian-Orthodox Cemetary in the district of Reinickendorf. A similar exotic flair permeates Germany's oldest Turkish cemetary on Columbiadamm in the Neukölln neighborhood. Both recall Berlin's long multi-cultural tradition.

Charlottenburg's Catholic Cemetery is located on the outskirts of town - so far on the outskirts that it proved the graveyard's undoing. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, it was cut off from the rest of West Berlin. East German officials let the cemetery, which was located in a security zone and had an unsavory Nazi past, simply go to ruin.