A cemetery for a growing industrial neighbourhood
Cable manufacturing, power generation and lamp production brought rapid growth to Oberschöneweide. Work on the cemetery donated by the Rathenau family began in 1902. It opened with the burial of forester Witte in 1903.
Architecture and family tombs
Max Stutterheim designed the chapel and administration building. The neo-Gothic brick chapel was built in 1903–04. Alfred Messel designed the Rathenau family tomb. Along the historic row of family plots, monuments dating from 1903 to 1930 show the cemetery’s connection with local industrialists and builders.
Expansion and the cemetery today
The monument database records extensions in 1908 and 1920. The cemetery complex entered Berlin’s monument list in 1995. Its historic tombs are joined by memorial areas for the world wars and a more recently created nature area.
Related information: Notable graves · Cemetery tour.