Berlin-Charlottenburg, Friedhof Ruhleben

More than 4,000 dead from the final battles for Berlin and the bombing of the capital were buried in the Eichkamp emergency cemetery on the exhibition grounds in the area of today's Hall A; the Allies demanded the closure of this emergency cemetery in the post-war period. However, the Southwest Cemetery in Stahnsdorf, Brandenburg, was no longer freely accessible from the West Berlin side due to the Cold War. A suitable site for a new cemetery was therefore sought in West Berlin and was found near the Ruhleben housing estate on the site of a World War II anti-aircraft battery. In 1950, work began on laying out the cemetery in the style of a park cemetery; the first municipal cemetery in Charlottenburg was dedicated on August 17, 1952. In the months prior to this, 3,977 war victims buried in Eichkamp cemetery had been transferred to Ruhleben cemetery. Since 2003, Berlin's first Buddhist burial ground has also been located on the 13.9-hectare Ruhleben cemetery. In the post-war period, the Wedding and Wilmersdorf crematoria, which are now closed, reached their capacity limits, while access to the Baumschulenweg crematorium was no longer possible for West Berlin. in 1962, a competition was held for the construction of a new crematorium, which was won by Jan and Rolf Rave. After a lengthy financing phase, construction began in 1972 and was inaugurated in March 1975. There are murals by Markus Lüpertz in the ceremonial halls and almost 4,000 graves of victims of the Second World War in the cemetery. (Martin Bayer, 06.04.2020)