Winner wanted a heart to commemorate his late wife a symbol that will remain here for the next 25 or 30 years. German cemeteries are changing visibly the way people are laid to rest is more varied so too is the design of the graves urn graves like this are becoming more common as 2 thirds of burials in germany are now cremations. This is the shelley form and it was all for need. One and they about even the design of this grave is somewhat more elaborate than most and even the author reflects a common trend to make graves so to speak easier to maintain their use is. Tied to. The small space occupied by an urn grave is much simpler to care for than a large family grave. But for a long time the Christian Churches disapproved of cremation. Cause a lot preserved by going out and by coming in from this time for and forevermore amen. Cremation appeared to deny the doctrine of the resurrection in a time honored practice christians were carried to their graves and buried in a coffin but since the 1970 s. The protestant churches in germany have relaxed their attitude towards cremation after all flames cant destroy a persons soul. Gradually german catholics have followed suit and burials have become simpler. I think the significance of cemetery seems to be changing from a solemn resting place for ones ancestors to a site where the dead can be shown respect but with a minimum of maintenance. The fact remains burial is a tradition that makes the passing of our loved ones more bearable. Stormed off when somebody dies they suddenly seem terribly far away we miss them and the feeling of loss is painful visiting their grave is an attempt to be close to the person whos left us in this way a grave can be a very intimate place where i have the feeling that im once again very close to the person whos died because im visiting them. Good for instance when i walk past some graves i recall that i fished at the funeral of the person buried there thats almost like saying hello to them. And then the person always seems very close to me. On the board more on the bereaved have the same experience not knowing where their loved one is buried. Or leaked. But maintaining a grave can be hard work for more american says 85 years old at least once a week he visits the small graveyard belonging to his Parish Church. Parish cemeteries are quite common in germany they augment the large municipal cemeteries. Americans believes its important that the grave of his wife who died 9 years ago is well maintained. The retired mining engineer wanted a particular Norwegian Court site for the headstone. The very. My name will also be written one day so its important to me to know what kind of stone it is and where it comes from. Or through my lovers on polish thats why i chose it for my wifes grave. Chins pays a cemetery gardener to do the heavy work clipping hedges and reading but he takes care of the finer points himself placing flowers and candles on the great. Smoke this classical technique does this is not decoration. Its more like greeting the dad or. In one day everyone remembers that the whole family remembers. Now murphy or not id like to draw your attention to these 3 stones because they have a special significance i know this round of a dollar took the lead in your mind 3 grandchildren placed them there where my wife was buried for mine and. They brought the stones from the baltic coast to the stones very and size because of the grandchildren of various ages of course. And i sterns are still lying here nobody has taken them away. Or they are a sign of remembrance from the next generation x. Im going to show. Ive smelled of fallen off the 3rd floor of the of when my wife was alive we often walked here in the cemetery. You get such a beautiful view from here it was strange of course but when she talked about the lovely view she said she wanted to be buried here and still its a memory from the past and when i stand here and see the beautiful view i remember how it was. Fluke americans doesnt speak in terms of eternity resurrection or paradise he views himself his family and his wife as members of a community that defies death. Hes lived this life has not simply disappeared its not simply extinguished so it hasnt dissolved into nothing its good that people say will be united again will meet again in the presence of god. We remain united by sharing in a living connectedness with what made us what we are to play the vital for one. Traditionally the individual grave has been a symbol of the connection between the living in the dead the cemetery has been a place of remembrance and of reflection. But some 20 years ago anonymous burials became more fashionable here the individual grave remains unmarked those who died didnt want to leave any trace of themselves quite literally at least in the cemetery. Here from people that they dont want to be a burden on their relatives was. The trend towards anonymous burial andro home which was popular for a long time has ended because the cemetery is now off a burial sites where the whole property is kathleen maintained as one unit cop on the board tom this area of the Park Cemetery in essence is one such example the Memorial Garden is intended to be more than just a cemetery. Its just going to be a place of reflection. A boat in which the visitor can rest is a symbol of the journey from this world to the next. A spring and a brook representing the eternal flow of life create a soothing atmosphere. 6 gardening firms that are actually competitors in the market are cooperating here to offer a comprehensive service. I think people want to visit the grave and remember but i dont want to be bothered with anything else at that moment i just want a clean break and now that its being taken care of. The cemetery gardeners design this Memorial Garden together and manage the project jointly. Clients make a single payment and the firms guarantee theyll maintain the site for 25 years. Theyre in is that the bereaved should enjoy coming here in spite of their grief. I dont have to do anything here when i go to a store down the street i have to greet people i have to be communicative but when im here in the cemetery i can be sad i can feel the loss. And thats whats important right now its here i meet other people whove had a similar experience who are in the same situation and thats whats important at this moment i think its good that people know there is a place for this. But for. Every visit to the cemetery is agonizing. He or she stops at her sons grave and relives an unbearable tragedy. He took his own life at the age of 13. So. Its awful to stand at your own childs grave. Columns like on describe the feeling. Quite socially different. Each time she comes here her anguish is intense she still doesnt know why her son took his life but she did manage to keep some connection to life by donating his organs. And thus negative i didnt dwell on the negative aspects thats my try to think about positive ones and toward that something good could be derived from his meaningless death. The people who received his organs were held. In conditions. That offered me some comfort in the midst of all the senselessness tones and. Usually gravestones only hint at the tragedy behind an inscription. Thats also true of the oldest headstones we can decipher here for instance at the church of st peter in dortmund a city in north rhinewestphalia as the name suggests this was originally a Catholic Church since the reformation in the 16th century its been lutheran. Nobody today knows on a 15 story but her grave stone has survived. They did used to be buried around the Parish Church but as land became more valuable in towns and villages cemeteries were moved outside the city limits. In these new cemeteries monumental buildings were sometimes erected or parks laid out. Similar to reason graves had to make an impression. In the past and google it in germany during the 19th century in what has been called the borzois era a tradition of splendid was cultivated in which the middle class individual was honored in the cemetery a list of his achievements and possibly a statue on which incredible sums of money were spent thus is is to launch the socalled monument culture that we had my own older than cemeteries when your facts were admiring i achieved months of the urban borsch was evil and. Not them 5 and a click after the 2nd world war the small end of the memorial culture associated with abortion era disappeared from german cemeteries with the experience of a war and the holocaust hanging over them germans no longer wanted to celebrate death but important. Had seen too much horror joining the 2nd walk and leaped in jewish cemeteries all over germany youll usually find a memorial to the people from that region who were murdered in the nazi concentration camps the number of very old stones is conspicuous here. In the jewish tradition burial plots are never really used. The graves have to be left untouched until the end of days and theres been a Jewish Community in germany for centuries. Jews believe in a resurrection after death just like christians. But unlike christianity judaism imposes a particular obligation towards the body in this process on the. Web in the sky in these imports this jewish cemeteries and jewish graves should remain forever in the graybar or the you would. Think somebody is buried their soul is not under the earth and they sell is with god and waiting for the moment in which the coming of world a messianic era will dawn given. A moment and which all people will come alive again and when i live mentioned on be there live that means that the soul is supposed to return to the body for crop are common so the body must be there for the soul to find its place again how. We defend it. But the millions of jews murdered in the holocaust didnt find a grave in this presents jewish communities with an unresolved theological problem. Besides the venerable old headstones in jewish cemeteries youll find many new graves. Most of the people buried here are jews from the former soviet union who came to germany between 19052004. Of the quarter of a 1000000 jews many are now very elderly. The traditional ritual in jewish cemeteries is to place stones on graves often gravel. As a rule jews dont bring flowers to a cemetery instead they place these stones as a greeting and they dont necessarily make regular visits the dead should be left in peace. That. The rabbis recommend not visiting too often. As its important and this was always the case in judaism that al fayed focuses on life and. On top life is the most important thing at this period of mourning should serve to bring people who have lost loved ones back to their normal day liberate them. And normal daily life as quickly as possible. For common. Stonemasons have been making headstones and monuments in this workshop for 80 years its a Family Business next to the Park Cemetery and as. Its a trade requires real skill and craftsmanship business is good. Theyve never experienced a slump even when anonymous burials became popular. The grave may be silent but headstones speak. You know he thought it was generally people want the stone to Say Something about the person who is buried not just the name date of birth date of death but also how the person lived what hobbies they had all their professional. Grave to express something important about the person to make by this. Very few order a large aston taisha you make anymore a stone like this a bit larger perhaps is the emotional limit. The firm delivers stone rochlitz porfiry cut to size from its own quarry. Sometimes the design is quite elaborate. The trend these days is toward park cemeteries where the graves are not anonymous. Each grave is marked with one or 2 urns per plot instead of the family tomb a square meter for a married couple. But they must be free since the advent of low maintenance grades for instance in part cemeteries each grave is generally marked by a stone slab with a name and with details or even with symbols. That the awakens and. The lawn is mowed regularly by the cemetery gardener this is tim is cheap and the cemetery always looks good. Under this cross the graves are spread out in a particular pattern youll find this phenomenon in all the larger german cemeteries their graves that pay testimony to the horror of war. When i visited weve conducted studies on war graves at the university and established that people believe its very important to know where their soldier or relative is buried who want to have a photo of the burial site a photo of the cross on the grave or of the hysterical and i also believe its important to visit the place isnt ought to be. An example from history the former colony german South West Africa present day no media. Between 1000 no 4 and 1800 the 2nd unleashed a shocking war of annihilation on the indigenous herero people. An estimated 80000 herero died as well as several 100 german troops. The germans were buried with military honors and more than 100 years later the graves are still maintained by the german war graves commission. But these crosses dont mark only soldiers graves the dead include civilian victims of allied bombing raids in the 2nd world war some of them Children Women and old people. These graves are not a glorification of war but a memorial to the suffering it causes a cemetery is intended to give consolation. Abner not usually it consoles me when somebody embraces me and says. Thats when that happens here these 2 of you know lit up and sit on a bench together and ask each other how they are doing that in the list and then you can say i had a bad night i didnt sleep well i miss him so much toast people comfort each other like oh alex you listen when they know when i come here this time of day ill meet hama dozens people who know about each other i said why and that of course. I was your toilets also consoling simply to enter the silence. Perhaps in conversation with the last one in this great storm and least perhaps simply to think about the relationship ive connected and not saying no. Them also gave us vav us i think this place allows full of that and it off is going to that nations audit allow us just close that. Germanys Muslim Population increased significantly in the last century now muslims have their own burial sites oriented towards mecca. The Migrant Workers who came to this country in the 1960 s. And seventys often wanted to be buried in their country of origin. But islam requires that the dead be buried before sunset on the day they die whenever possible. This delimit has largely disappeared now the 2nd and 3rd generation of descendants view germany as their home. With a Muslim Population of some 3 and a half 1000000 the demand for burial sites as also increased. Here a new section for muslim graves is being cleared they will of course face mecca. Only half the plots in german cemeteries are now used for traditional burial gaps are emerging between the old family tombs. Former varial sites are being turned into parking lots crim a sion has become significantly more popular. Than most and also in the crime we want to get out into the country and indulge our love of nature that has been part of our culture since the romantic era and found expression in park and forest cemeteries quite early on the difference now is that on support nature is the criteria and one for a lot of the cemeteries try to imitate natural areas of extensive woodland for example but i think your. A final resting place beneath trees instead of a traditional cemetery a simple internet search throws up more than 60 examples in germany from the black forest to the eiffel region and a group of old forest in berlin. The graves are usually anonymous only a number on the tree indicates that an urn is buried here containing a persons actions. To harm the 2 he often find this is low maintenance burial its no longer common for relatives to be living in the same place as the person who has died sometimes they live hundreds of kilometers away and so under the very grave means low maintenance for decades but it can still be visited like a traditional grave. Only the initiated know where a particular person has been laid to rest to be buried among the roots of an oak or beech tree seems to be a typically german wish whether religious or not people like the idea of participating in the eternal cycle of life. Was. Ready for liftoff. Journey through our solar system. And taking the universes measurements. Can all be done with the space telescope to mosiah. And researchers are working on a map of all the galaxies suddenly the universe doesnt seem so big after all our. World today 30 minutes. Exploring the range and. Jellies most Long Distance hiking trail. Its going to be exhausting it may be my shoes it will look like this. In style a leather 170 kilometer trail and im spoiled. 60 minutes on. In the toughest way to discover the vote. Starts november 14th on. To france and iran tonio dear cecilia just sits opposite us im sitting on the terrace in twilight its peaceful my 3 grandchildren sleep untroubled lets ask dad when i was 8 transitions in germany was split in 2 and remain divided for a decade and it was my give on a month when your mother was mourning 1969 the wall was already 8 years ago and you know my grandchildren who were born after the war felt born in a great unified germany a wonderful time a time of great joy. 3 generations of one family on a journey through recent german history. Darkness has fallen and its still peaceful and they have remained so for your sakes my grandchildren. The birth of our family. Starts deliver 60 on d w. This is the w. s line from berlin german football champions byron munich fire their coach. After the club suffers its worst defeat for more than a decade well look at the reasons behind this surprise decision also on the program opponents and supporters of lebanons present time michel aoun staged mass rallies of thousands of antigovernment protestors can