By Johannes Malinowski
The entrance sign is hardly recognizable, a construction fence protects the more than 120-year-old celebration hall from even more vandalism. This is where the nearest Berlin cemetery dies.
Burials have not taken place in the Pankow II Cemetery on Gaillardstrasse since 2004.
The district assembly (BVV) had decided to close it a year earlier. The reason was cemetery development plan of the country.
The condition of the more than one hectare complex is pitiful. According to City Councilor Manuela Anders-Granitzki (44, CDU), the cemetery is increasingly being used as a dog exercise area.
“Unfortunately, regulatory measures against dog owners are currently not enforceable,” she writes in response to a small query. “The public order office does not have the personnel capacity for regular checks and can therefore only carry them out on a selective basis.”
The entrance sign is broken, barely legible Photo: Ralf Lutter
The celebration hall is below monument protection. In order to delete them from the list of monuments or to decide on a renovation, a comprehensive expert opinion is necessary. Cost: between 10,000 and 20,000 euros.
The SPD deputy Maximilian Meisgeier (31) has no understanding of this. “It borders on a refusal to work,” he says. “It gives the impression that it’s a second-class cemetery just because no new graves are being dug.” Blaming everything on the dog owners is cheeky.
Bodo Krause (80) from Pankow visits his parents’ grave. The pensioner from Pankow. “I really think it’s a pity that the cemetery isn’t maintained, everything degenerates here. I have the feeling that if you let the cemetery really overgrow, it can be flattened faster to build apartments.” Photo: Ralf Lutter
Due to the peace of the dead, the cemetery must be continued until 2034. Meisgeier: “The forecast at the time that Berlin was shrinking turned out to be wrong.”
It is quite possible that one day the city will need new cemeteries and then build new ones instead of preserving old ones.
