2023-11-01 05:58:00
On the first of November, All Saints’ Day (Allerheiligen) is celebrated in Germany. It is an official holiday in the predominantly Catholic states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, where it is one of the so-called quiet holidays. It is followed on November 2 by All Souls’ Day (Allerseelen), on which Catholics remember deceased relatives and visit cemeteries.
German Protestants visit cemeteries on the so-called Sunday of the Dead (Totensonntag), celebrated on the last weekend of the church year – at the end of November before the first pre-Christmas Advent.
One of the most beautiful and famous historical cemeteries in Germany is located in Cologne – Melaten-Friedhof or simply Melaten. It owes its appearance more than two hundred years ago to the French Emperor Napoleon, or rather to innovations during the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1794-1813.
Code civil
Stone angel with a trumpet Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Having occupied Cologne at the end of the 18th century, the progressive French brought with them not only their new civil code – the Napoleonic Code, but also with it new rules of city life… including after death. Concerned about improving sanitary conditions, in 1804 the French authorities banned funerals within the city. For the new central cemetery, a site was purchased on the western outskirts, where the leper colony had once been located.
Secularization after death
Angel with open wings Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
The French were looking for land that did not belong to the local Catholic archbishopric, since the secularization policy of Napoleonic times extended to the funeral business. The consecration of the Melaten cemetery took place in 1810. The name of this place comes from the now obsolete German word malade – sick, which also exists in French. In Cologne, this was the name given to those with leprosy expelled from the city. Moreover, the first mention of the local leper colony dates back to the end of the 12th century.
Raven stone
Bronze sculpture of a mourning angelPhoto: Geisler-Fotopress/picture alliance
The second historical name of this place is Raven Stone (Rabenstein). For centuries, death sentences were carried out here. The last execution took place in 1797. The bodies of those executed were first left for the birds, and later what was left of the corpses was buried in the ground. Executions attracted public attention. There were taverns and drinking establishments in the neighborhood. Witches were also burned. In 1617-1655, 33 witches and one sorcerer lost their lives here.
Two centuries
Monument in Art Nouveau style Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
City residents reacted to the new cemetery, to put it mildly, without much enthusiasm. Centuries-old traditions were crumbling. Cologne residents are accustomed to the fact that eternal peace awaits the townspeople near their native parish church in their area, and not somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Politicians
Monument at the grave of Guido WesterwellePhoto: Christoph Hardt/Geisler-Fotopress/picture alliance
More than two hundred years have passed. Now, based on the inscriptions on the graves, it is possible to compile a directory of “Who Was Who” in this city and beyond… In 2016, former German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was buried here. This cemetery contains the grave of the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, who served as Mayor of Cologne until the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933.
Celebrities
Graves of famous people Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
The Farina dynasty still produces that very first Eau de Cologne cologne. Nikolaus Otto invented the internal combustion engine. The writer Heinz Konzalik was well known not only in Germany, but also published and read in the USSR. Everywhere in Germany you can buy monastic tincture of lemon balm. “Thy will be done,” is written on the grave of Maria Clementina Martin, the creator of the Klosterfrau-Melissengeist recipe.
Otto Wolf von Amerongen
Grave of Otto Wolf von AmerongenPhoto: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Visitors familiar with German-Soviet economic relations are unlikely to pass by this grave. This entrepreneur was called the unofficial minister of Eastern European trade. Otto Wolff von Amerongen headed the Eastern Committee of the German Economy for more than forty years. Everyone was talking about the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline – just one of his projects.
Names
Madonna and ChildPhoto: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Politicians, artists, beer barons… On Melaten are the crypts of bankers von Oppenheim and publishers Du Mont. The artist Ernst Wilhelm Nye, the founders of museums and philanthropists Johann Heinrich Richartz and Joseph Haubrich, and the popular artist Willi Milovich are buried here.
Eras and styles
Sculpture on one of the old graves Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Melaten is not only a celebrity cemetery, but also a kind of open-air museum. Monuments and tombstones themselves are of historical value. They were ordered by leading sculptors and architects. Neo-Gothic, neo-Baroque, neo-Renaissance, neoclassicism, modern…
Neo-Gothic
Graves of Cologne priests Photo: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
Tombstones in the neo-Gothic style… There are many of them. They look like they were copied from Cologne Cathedral. Melaten’s first decades coincided with the completion of this Gothic masterpiece during the era of German Romanticism. Neo-Gothic was in fashion.
Savior
Neo-Gothic tombstone on the Central Alley Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
One of the most luxurious neo-Gothic tombstones of Melaten is decorated with a scene of the resurrection of Christ. The monument was created in 1856 and installed on the grave of manufacturer Wilhelm Flammersheim, the inventor of the mechanical method of printing wallpaper using a roller.
Religions
Mosaic image of the Madonna and ChildPhoto: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Although the new cemetery was not denominational, at first only Catholics were buried at Melaten. The first Protestant grave appeared here in 1829, that is, almost two decades after its discovery. The first Jewish burials date back to 1892. Nowadays you can find Arabic script, hieroglyphs, and Orthodox images on monuments.
Reading the symbols
Snake and other symbolsPhoto: Christoph Hardt/Geisler-Fotopress/picture alliance
Details, elements, ancient quotes… Frequent symbols include wreaths made of “petrified” ivy, and evergreen ivy itself grows everywhere. He talks about faithfulness and eternal life. Lions symbolize resurrection. Snakes are temptation, roses are love. And everywhere there are angels, angels, angels…
Park
Plan of the Melaten cemetery from 1826. During its existence, the territory expanded several times Photo: gemeinfrei
The model for Melaten’s plan was the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Plane trees were planted on the two main alleys. In ancient times, these trees symbolized mourning and sadness. On the sides there are linden trees. Melaten, according to the plan of the French authorities, was supposed to give the impression of a spacious park in order to convince city residents of its advantages over cramped parish cemeteries.
Peace and quiet
Soldiers’ graves Photo: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
The city grew, it went beyond its medieval wall and surrounded the cemetery. Trees also grew, and the alleys became shady. Melaten gradually turned into a green oasis in the middle of the bustle of the city. Residents of neighboring areas go here for walks with their children. There are excursions here every day.
Helmet, helmet…
Monument to fallen soldiers Photo: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
One of the soldier’s monuments on the territory of the cemetery. During the two hundred years of its existence there were many wars. During World War II, an aerial bomb hit a bunker near the old chapel on the territory of Melaten – all the guests of the wedding taking place in this shelter were killed. More than a hundred people. They didn’t dig them up. The bunker in the cemetery became a mass grave.
Bombs for the dead
Images of mourners Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Melaten suffered greatly. It was not bombed on purpose, but it was from the western side that British and American planes approached the city. It happened that they mistakenly began to dump their cargo several kilometers before the center of Cologne – on the dead… On the graves of many celebrities now there are simple post-war monuments – to replace the destroyed ones.
Consequences
Monuments and shadows Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
During the years of the “Third Reich,” most of the cast-iron fences and gratings disappeared from the cemetery. They were sent for melting down: the Wehrmacht needed weapons. After the war, the central cemetery was in such a deplorable state that the authorities even seriously considered closing it and moving the remaining historical graves to another location.
Place in the cemetery
A monument in need of restoration Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
Melaten’s approximately 2,800 tombstones are of particular historical and artistic significance. Some are cared for by relatives or authorities, in the case of honorary citizens of Cologne. Valuable monuments that have become completely orphaned can be taken under guardianship and can be granted patronage. It gives the right to later use this place for one’s own burial.
Millions
“Millionaire’s Alley”Photo: S. Ziese/dpa/picture alliance
Plot lease agreements are concluded for 25, 50 or 100 years. Of course, on the so-called “Millionaires’ Alley” (Millionärsallee), as the city called the main monumental part of the cemetery, the places have long been occupied, although fresh graves sometimes appear here too.
Unusual monuments
Monument to the Prussian Major GeneralPhoto: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
There are many beautiful monuments in the cemetery, but there are also simply amazing and funny ones. On one of the modest graves there is a cast-iron stove from a drinking establishment, near which the regular buried here loved to warm up… And in this photo there is a monument to the Prussian major general, who died in 1832. A plane tree planted nearby grew and tilted its pedestal.
Laugh at the carnival!
Photo: DW/ Maksim Nelioubin
You can take a separate tour of this cemetery dedicated to the Rhineland Carnival. Here is the grave of Hans Horst Engels, the initiator of the creation of the museum of the “fifth season” – Kölner Karnevalsmuseum. By the way, for the main procession of jesters and mummers on “Mad Monday” in Cologne for a long time, the owner of… a funeral home, then elected chairman of the entire carnival organizing committee, Christoph Kukkelkorn, was responsible.
Working hours
Angel covered with moss Photo: Christoph Hardt/Geisler-Fotopress/picture alliance
Cemetery Melaten (melatenfriedhof.de) is open to the public every day. In the summer season (01.04 – 30.09) – from seven in the morning to eight in the evening, in the fall (01.10 – 01.11) – from eight in the morning to seven in the evening, in winter (02.11 – 31.03) – from eight in the morning to five in the evening.
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