Envision a tranquil park. Here lies Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof III. It is not just a cemetery. It is a green oasis in Berlin-Mariendorf.
Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof III opened in 1900. The Holy Trinity Church in Berlin-Mitte established it. Their first two cemeteries reached capacity. This site offered a new space for remembrance.
August Orth designed the original chapel. Sadly, it was destroyed in World War II. A simpler building replaced it. Orth also designed the caretaker’s house. The cemetery fence, the mourning hall, and the entrance gate are still protected as historical monuments.
After the war, the Holy Cross Church managed the cemetery. The Holy Trinity Church was destroyed. Today, the Evangelical Cemetery Association Berlin Stadtmitte oversees it. It belongs to the southern administrative region.
Notice the park-like atmosphere. This is because many graves are gone. Usage rights expired and were not renewed. This created open spaces.
Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof III is gradually closing. Parts of it will be used for housing. Only a small area will remain for urn burials. This covers just 0.1 hectares of the original 4.57 hectares.
In 2017, plans emerged for a campus. The Anne Ramm Foundation wants to build a learning workshop. It will include a boarding school for young people. Nine buildings are planned. These include college buildings, apartments, a daycare center, and a cafeteria.
The Tempelhof-Schöneberg district decided in 2018 to preserve the southern parts as green space. This will happen even after the cemetery closes. Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof III is an important green area in Berlin.
Look around at the graves. Hellmuth Neumann rests here. He was a poet. Ulrike Meinhof, a member of the Red Army Faction, is also buried here. Cemal Kemal Altun, a Turkish asylum seeker, found his final resting place here too.
There is also a memorial. It honors eleven young female BVG workers. They died in an air raid in 1945. The cemetery also contains graves for forced laborers and other war victims. In total, 285 war dead are buried here. 118 of them are unknown.
In 1943, 57 female forced laborers from the Soviet Union were buried here. They were interned at Askania-Werke and Daimler-Benz AG. They died in an Allied air raid.
Pause to remember those who rest here. Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof III is a place of history, remembrance, and nature. Its future is evolving. Yet its past remains etched in the stones and the soil. This ground holds stories of Berlin. It holds stories of individuals. It holds stories of war and peace.