St. Sophia’s Cemetery

Angel and Girl statue, B&W in the rain, St. Sophia’s Cemetery, Berlin

* This is part of a series on the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and my attempt to document the events of the weekend, where 20 years before, a peaceful revolution brought about a big change which helped to end the cold war, and bring about a new Europe. Many more of the events are in the full flickr set here. *

After visiting the commemoration service at the church of the reunification , wandering down Bernauer Strasse and back again, and photographing the roses at the wall (see previous posts) I had a little bit of time. Upon peeking over the fence behind me, I decided to take a few minutes (ok an hour and a half) and wander through theSt. Elisabeth’s cemetery and then into St. Sophia’s Cemetery – across the street. (Links to Flickr Sets behind each of the names.)

For me, photographing a cemetery isn’t that unusual – and somehow, I always seem to wind up in them in in the fall and winter. My feeling is that, there’s nothing quite like visiting a cemetery in the rain in autumn. The colors of the leaves and trees pop out, the lichen turn green, the moss and mushrooms are in full glory, and the statues somehow come to life just a bit more. Add to it the typical German gloomy gray skies, a few brilliant colored flowers, an awesome story, and you have a great photo opportunity that those less hearty don’t take advantage of.

St.Sophia’s Cemetery Center Path, to the Berlin Wall (Bernauer Str.) at end

St Sophia’s Cemetery was established in 1827 and sits between Berg str, Bernauer str and Acker str. It’s now under a historical preservation order, and has some kind of protected status related to the graves and monuments there in. There’s graves of the deaconesses in the back, and Lazarus hospital is located on the west side (bernauer str) of the cemetery – where most of the ladies worked. In 1961, the Berlin wall was built along Bernauer str. (see previous post). Of course, initially, the Berlin wall was just the old brick cemetery wall. As time went on, however, and people jumped the wall to escape, the East German leadership ordered that the graves in the to be “no man’s land” be leveled down, the bodies moved (though it’s not clear if they really were – eg. St Hedwig’s cemetery they didn’t move the bodies just buried them under more dirt and concrete), and the death strip built on the former resting places. Visitors to the cemetery had to show a special “grave permit” if they wanted to visit a grave on the border side of the cemetery or forgo seeing the graves of their loved ones.

St. Sophia’s Cemetery Chapel

I’m not sure how many people actually come here to visit the former graves, while I was there in the rain, there were a few landscapers, a couple workmen doing some construction on a new grave (and the wall behind it) and several people on foot and even one on bike – cutting through the middle “street” rather than going around. I didn’t spend very long here (it started pouring) and want to go back in a bit better weather. As always a few photographs – here in small size – click to go to larger ones on the flickr site.

1) Veiled Statue -Grabs family monument
2) Veiled Copper Statue – Herfort Mausoleum
3) Seated Lady (w/red eyes) -Bechstein Graves
4) Crying woman – Zierau Family memorial
5) Mushrooms & Marble stones

And a few close-ups of the ornate workmanship

1) Berries and Flower Ironwork – Bechstein Graves
2) Sacred Cross / Rose Heart (large size you can see the spiderwebs) – Bechstein Graves
3) Female Hand and Rose – Zierau Family Memorial
4) Carnation in the Hand of Herfort Statue

Roses at the Wall

After the end of the 10 am Commemoration ceremony on Bernauer strasse, I walked over to where a 60 meter strip of the Berlin wall has been preserved. It is located – on one end – behind a huge steel wall that was taller than the Berlin wall itself – with a bit of sand in front to allow you to light a candle and reflect.

Candles at the Bernauer Str. Berlin wall memorial

From there, when you walked around the corner, the back side (west side) of the 60 meter strip of Berlin wall that had once been a part of the Sophien Friedhof (St. Sophia’s Cemetery) was revealed. Filled between the concrete blocks with roses, it was shocking to see the contrast between the grim grayness of the wall and the brilliance of fresh roses in the rain. Nearly everyone paused, shook their head and seemed to be thinking “what a waste”. A few of the older people – who had been here – could be caught wiping tears away from their eyes as they walked up, touched the wall, the roses, and took a peek through the preserved no-man’s land. Of course, my favorite were the young – the people who were by far – too young to remember – and who, I hope never have to see this happen again.

So, do you want to know what they were all peeking at? In a space, no wider than the width of your thumb, you could look across the “no man’s land” to the opposite side of the wall, and barely see the tops of the buildings on the other side.

I suppose that the view was better from the Berlin Wall Documentation Center’s view stand – but it was too full of people for me to want to climb up:

Tower at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center

So, I contented myself with photographing those discovering the wall, and then heading into St. Sophia’s Cemetery – which was partly plowed under to make way for the death strip, and which was directly at my back – over my shoulder. (more on that tomorrow).

Fall of Berlin Wall – Commemoration Ceremony

Red Ballons, released at the end of the memorial ceremony

20th anniversary balloon

November 9th was cold and cloudy. When I woke up, it was foggy near my house, and drizzling heavily. The entire day would wind up this way, and let’s just say by the end, I was miserable. The thing is that being who I am, I decided that it was worth it to get out anyhow – despite the miserable weather – and try to document the events on this, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

After showering, dressing in 3 layers and my gortex ski jacket, I headed up to Nordbahnhof. The station Nordbahnhof, is a part of what was formerly known as a “ghost station”. What’s a ghost station? Well, in 1961, the grounds around the train station were cleared and transformed into part of the border strip. The station building itself was torn down with only the entrance hall of the original suburban train station left behind – bricks blocking the windows and doors at both the top and bottom of the stairs. The stop “existed” and trans would run through it – but trains from West Berlin rattled past the underground platforms without stopping. Empty for years, after the fall of the Wall, the S-Bahn station Nordbahnhof was re-opened; and now operates as a stop along the S 1, S 2, and S 25 lines. The railway property around it, however, lay unused and inaccessible until around 2006 – when a contest was held by the city of Berlin for what to do with the land along Bernauer Strasse- which is now being developed as a memorial.

I admit that I’d never really been to this section of Berlin before, despite it’s history. When you first get out of the train station, you head to the east, and you see very quickly the effect that the wall had on Bernauer Str. One section has lovely old turn of the section buildings, and the other side is modern architecture apartments. In the middle, is a huge un-developed section, where the former no-man’s land laid, and where many buildings were removed. You can also see many sections of the wall in their former “glory”.

The Remains of the Wall at St. Sophia’s Cemetery – which was partly plowed under to make way for the wall

The first thing you pass is a 60 meter section of the old Berlin Wall (above), with a monument set up in front to one of the people – Ernst Mundt – who at 40 years old decided to try and jump through the section of wall to get to his elderly mother who lived in the west. Bound to end badly, two guards near the Nordbahnhof ghost station promptly shot him several times – once in the head.

As you continue to walk along, you realize that there used to be buildings here – including the church of the Reunification. Sometime in the 1980s, the church was blown up – with very little pieces of it (the bells from the tower and some of the internal art were saved by parishioners) remaining. After the fall of the wall, the congregation managed to get part of their land back – and built a very simple, smaller church – where the day’s commemoration ceremony was started at 10 am.

Modern Church of Reunification on Bernauer Str.

As the crowds mulled about, I found it rather interesting to notice the people around me – were mostly ex-patriots. Then, I realized that the church was broadcasting services outside in german at one end, and english at the other. The German area was filled with locals listening and reflecting to the service. Meanwhile, The English area was surrounded by tourist busses and people milling about the documentation put up about the history of the Berlin wall in the area. Getting frustrated, I decided to head up the street – and check out more of Bernauer strasse – where most of the people who actually tried to escape the Berlin Wall died.

I found many memorials with names listed:

Memorial stone for Victims of the Berlin Wall

memorial to Olga Segler, one who died trying to cross

And surprisingly, stories that I had seen the photographs for – which had been burned into my memory – made into statues – stickers, and history blocks along the street (GDR border guard Conrad Schumann Jumping the wall under construction):

Statue of GDR border guard Conrad Schumann jumping the wall

Art of GDR border guard Conrad Schumann jumping the wall

GDR border guard Conrad Schumann Jumping the wall

It was then that it really hit home – that yes, the Berlin Wall Really ran here.

More tomorrow – on the Roses at the wall.

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20th anniversary

St. Sophia’s Cemetery

Roses at the Wall

Fall of Berlin Wall – Commemoration Ceremony