In this episode of berlin bones, my friend Sasha Lyamina takes me on a walk through the Jewish Cemetery in Weißensee — considered the second-largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, with around 115,000 graves spread across an area the size of 100 football fields. (The largest is in Łódź, Poland.)

Sasha and I first met at a festival, where we instantly connected over our shared fascination with cemeteries. That meeting eventually led to us co-organizing the Deadly Matters exhibition last summer, during which we spent countless hours at the Georgen Parochial Cemetery II — with walks, talks, and installations.

With a background in anthropology and roots in a Jewish family from Russia, Sasha eventually found her way to working at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It was through this work that she became familiar with the Weißensee Cemetery — and drawn to exploring it beyond historical facts.

In this episode, Sasha shares some of her favorite graves, stories and personalities she discovered here, along with insights into Jewish mourning and burial traditions — including the practices of Sitting Shiva (seven days of mourning) and Kriah (the ritual tearing of clothing as a sign of grief). We also talk about the ways the cemetery reflects a blending of religious and cultural identities, e.g. when post-Soviet communities bring their cultural practices into the cemetery.

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Last year, I attended a Dharma talk at a Buddhist center—fittingly, the topic was about letting go. Afterwards, I approached the reception and said that I had quite an unusual request: I was looking for someone who could speak to me about Buddhist burial traditions. The person I spoke to smiled and said she might be able to help.

That’s how I met today’s guest, Katrin Weimann—a Buddhist and consultant at Deutscher Kinderhospizverein (the German Children’s Hospice Association), who transitioned from a career in IT to full-time work in hospice and funeral services. 

We met at Friedhof Ruhleben, a cemetery in Berlin with a dedicated area for Buddhist graves, primarily serving the Vietnamese community. Here, a large Bodhisattva statue stands watch, embodying love and compassion as it guides the deceased on their journey. Buddha statues rest peacefully alongside angel figurines and crosses, with food gifts and tea sets. 

Katrin's English-speaking voice is AI-generated in elevenlabs.io. This episode was recorded in German, you can hear the original version here.

Letztes Jahr besuchte ich einen Dharma-Vortrag in einem buddhistischen Zentrum – passenderweise ging es ums Loslassen. Nach der Veranstaltung sprach ich an der Rezeption jemanden an und meinte: „Ich habe eine eher ungewöhnliche Frage – kennen Sie jemanden, der mir etwas über buddhistische Bestattungsrituale erzählen kann?“ Die Person, mit der ich sprach, lächelte und meinte, dass sie vielleicht helfen könne.

So lernte ich Katrin Weimann kennen, meine heutige Gesprächspartnerin. Sie ist Buddhistin und Referentin beim Deutschen Kinderhospizverein. Früher arbeitete sie in der IT-Branche, doch dann veränderte sich ihr Weg hin zur Hospiz- und Bestattungsarbeit.

Unser Gespräch fand auf dem Friedhof Ruhleben statt, wo es einen eigenen Bereich für buddhistische Gräber gibt – vor allem für die vietnamesische Gemeinschaft. Eine große Bodhisattva-Statue wacht dort über die Verstorbenen, ein Symbol für Liebe und Mitgefühl. Zwischen den Buddha-Statuen stehen Engelsfiguren und Kreuze – ein friedliches Miteinander verschiedener Traditionen.

Im Hintergrund ist Berlin stets präsent: Vogelgezwitscher mischt sich mit dem Dröhnen von Hubschraubern und den Sirenen der Polizei – ein Hertha-Fußballspiel findet ganz in der Nähe statt. Eine besondere Geräuschkulisse für eine besondere Episode über die Frage: Wie geht buddhistisches Sterben in Berlin?

Diese Folge gibt es auf Deutsch und Englisch.

How do you arrange a Muslim funeral in Berlin within 48 hours? What are the key rituals, cultural practices, and challenges faced by Muslim families during the grieving process? How many people choose to be sent to their home countries after death, and how is this organized? And why does the topic of cemetery spaces for Muslim burials in Berlin remain a point of discussion?

In this episode of berlin bones, I sit down with Isikali Karayel, the founder of Markaz, a funeral home specializing in Muslim and international funerals. I first met Isikali during the Deadly Matters exhibition in the summer of 2024, where we explored life, death, and mourning rituals from various faith perspectives in Berlin.

This is a calming and insightful conversation in which Isikali shares his extensive experience in the funeral industry, explains rituals such as ritual washing, and recounts his personal journey into this field as a business graduate.

The episode is available in both German and English.

Innerhalb von nur 48 Stunden Abschied nehmen – wie funktioniert das bei einer muslimischen Bestattung in Berlin? Welche Rituale und Traditionen prägen den Trauerprozess? Warum entscheiden sich viele Familien für eine Überführung in die Heimatländer, und wie läuft das ab? Und weshalb bleibt die Frage nach Friedhofsflächen für muslimische Gräber in Berlin so aktuell?

In dieser Episode von berlin bones treffe ich Isikali Karayel, den Gründer des Bestattungsunternehmens Markaz, das sich auf muslimische und internationale Beisetzungen spezialisiert hat. Wir sprechen über zentrale Rituale wie die rituelle Waschung, den Blick nach Mekka und den Umgang mit Trauer. Zudem erzählt Isikali von seinem persönlichen Weg in die Bestattungsbranche und seiner langjährigen Erfahrung in diesem Bereich.

Episode verfügbar auf Deutsch und Englisch.

In Berlin, you can sign up for a course “Dying for Beginners” — over a weekend you can learn how to die properly in Germany when it comes to legal and practical aspects. How can you be buried here? Which rituals and practices are popular at the moment? Can you choose music for your funeral and how do you prepare yourself and your friends for this last celebration? 

I recorded this episode directly from the funeral house with Susanne Jung, the head of Funeral Ladies. Susanne came to the funeral industry 20 years ago and witnessed major changes in burial and commemoration practices in the Berlin context: “What I witnessed back then ranged from dusty plastic flowers and unsuitable chapels to drunk cemetery workers and shabby, worn-out suits of the undertakers.”

The Funeral Ladies originated in the USA as a community formed as a counter-movement to expensive, impersonal standard funerals. In 2014, Susanne Jung founded a branch in Berlin named Funeral Ladies in order to provoke and open a window to a different approach to the entire subject — critical, compassionate and empowering.

Talk with Usah Zachau, co-initiator of the first Berlin cemetery for lesbian women

Last year I joined the annual celebration at the Berlin lesbian cemetery. Standing there under the heavy April rain, I talked to Usah Zachau and other community members about the whole idea of why women* might need their own burial site and what makes this Berlin cemetery so special. 

The LesFriedA areal was opened 10 years ago within the Georgen-Parochial-Friedhof I in Prenzlauer Berg close to Alexanderplatz. The initiative was brought to life by Safia, a volunteer group for lesbian women (primarily aged over 60), and eventually, the SAPPhO Women's Housing Foundation overtook its sponsorship. 

It was my first cemetery celebration — with coffee, sandwiches, live music, singing, and even networking amidst the graves. I had the pleasure of meeting wonderful Ukranian queer activists from KwitneQueer, Loki von Dorn, and Berlin-based producer and artist Mahide Lein. And it was the first time in my life when somebody showed me their future grave!

LesFriedA Website

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Talk on the role and future of urban cemeteries with Pavel Grabalov, full-time cemetery researcher

In this episode, I engage in a talk with Pavel Grabalov, who has invested numerous hours in researching city cemeteries. Pavel recently defended his PhD thesis on urban cemeteries as public spaces at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, comparing cases from Oslo, Copenhagen, and Moscow.

Our recording takes place in the Mehringdamm cemetery amidst minus temperatures and darkness. We go into a deep academic analysis of cemeteries and their multi-dimensional role. How does one pursue a career as a full-time cemetery researcher? Why do contemporary Scandinavian cemeteries adopt a minimalist appearance? (Spoiler: It's for efficiency and cost-effectiveness rather than purely aesthetic reasons.) Where is the line drawn for the ethical use of the cemetery grounds, described by the unique Norwegian term sømmelig? And is there a chance that urban cemeteries will endure over the next 50 years?

How does one come up with the idea of growing veggies at a cemetery? What challenges does it bring along, let aside ethical and religious aspects? Can cemetery gardening become a new mourning ritual?

In the first episode, I talk to Robert Shaw, a co-founder of the community garden Prinzessinnengarten at the New St. Jacobi Cemetery in Neukölln. The collective became worldwide famous thanks to its first location on Moritzplatz; in 2019 they got a chance to establish a garden on the premises of the evangelical cemetery. 

Imagine: you go to a cemetery and there you see a cosy coffee place, a bee hive, a children's playground, an urban garden, a concert hall, and how about an ideal spot for a Sunday picnic? This is what you find at Berlin cemeteries. How crazy is that?