Brendan Nash explores the many fascinating stories of Schöneberg’s Alter St. Matthäus Kirkhof…

As cemeteries go, Alter St. Matthäus Kirkhof, which straddles the border of Schöneberg and Kreuzberg near Yorkstrasse, has more than its fair share of tales to tell: legendary story-tellers of a long-gone era rub shoulders with those whose own story may have changed the course of history in 1944.

Established in 1854 by the protestant parish of St Matthäus, the cemetery proved so popular it was expanded eastwards in 1863, and again westwards in 1886 and 1884. So affluent was the parish that by 1909, the original wooden chapel on the site had been replaced by the Baroque and Italian Renaissance-style building that exists today.

In 1938, part of the northern section of the cemetery was demolished to make way for the large scale north-south axis planned by Albert Speer and the major re-development of the city. Graves were levelled or removed, with some stones re-erected in other cemeteries. Many more graves were to be destroyed in the war that was soon to follow, and the cemetery fell into disrepair over the following decades.

It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that a new awareness began to emerge as to the cultural significance of the graveyard, and extensive restoration and conservation work began. The parish of St Matthäus was dissolved in 2001 and the site taken under the administration of the parish of the Zwölf-Apostel. Many of the abandoned or disused graves were placed under new ownership and the cemetery continues to be a favoured final resting place.

At the top of the hill and to the right, are some of Alter St-Matthäus’ most famous residents, the fairytale publishing brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, along with their two sons. The simple row of four black granite columns is not so easy to find amongst the other more grandiose memorials to bankers and leaders of industry that surround it, but the simplicity contrasts elegantly with the complexity of some of the stories they loved to share, as well as the full lives they led,

Directly behind these lies a plot now owned by the Denkmal PositHIV Association. It was originally built by sculptor Rudolf Pohle in 1875 for the Streichenberg family and acquired by the AIDS charity in 2000. The plot serves as a memorial for those who died of the disease and had no-one to take care of their wishes, or those with a desire to not impose themselves on others. Restored mainly with lottery funding, the plot is maintained and cared for by volunteers and is open to all religious denominations.

It is by no means an anonymous memorial: on World AIDS Day each year, the names of those interred that year are added to the marble plaques. The first burial took place in 2003 and as of 2021 there are now over a hundred names on the memorial. The inscription reads “This gravesite is a memorial to all those who have died of the consequences of AIDS. It is a place of reflection and of coming together”<…