My Berlin: Minkowski space in Heerstrasse cemetery
Waldfriedhof Heerstrasse (Heerstrasse forest cemetery)
Is this a small park with plenty of trees, hilly terrain, and a small lake? Or is this simply a forest cemetery, a final resting spot for many prominent Berliners?
As part of an ongoing search for gravesites for physicists and mathematicians in Germany, I visited Berlin’s Friedhof Heerstrasse, near the city’s Olympic Stadium. Within the cemetery is Sausuhlensee lake, which settled into a former glacial gully, around which much of the cemetery came into being in 1924. Named after the early 20th-century Heerstrasse estate district whose residents were to be buried here, the cemetery stretches out over an area of almost 15 hectares (37 acres).
I found the grave for physicist Hermann Minkowski, but among the buried there are other “Promis” (prominent).
Forested park, forest cemetery.
The calm waters of Sausuhlensee lake on an autumn afternoon.
A small forest cemetery
George Grosz
• b/✵ (Georg Gross) 26 Jul 1893 – d/✟ 6 Jul 1959.
• Artist, painter, caricaturist.
• Grave location: 16-B-19.
George Grosz, 1893–1959; Eva Grosz, 1895–1960.
Thea von Harbou
• b/✵ 27 Dec 1888 – d/✟ 1 Jul 1954.
• Actor, author, director, screenwriter; married to Fritz Lang 1922–1933.
• Wrote 1925 science-fiction novel “Metropolis”; she and Lang adapted the book into a screenplay for which Lang directed the 1927 film.
• Grave location: 6-H-10.
Thea von Harbou, 1888–1954.
Loriot
• Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow.
• b/✵ 1923 – d/✟ 2011.
• Humorist, cartoonist, satirist.
• Grave location: Erb. 2-D-3a/b/c.
Loriot was laid to rest at the cemetery on 30 August 2011. The top of his gravestone is lined with yellow rubber ducks brought by fans, in reference to one of his well-known sketches (“The duck stays out”). But my question is: where is one of his beloved pugs?
Placed in front of the potted plant at centre is a white heart inscribed with “Unvergessen” (unforgettable).
Loriot, a.k.a. Bernhard-Viktor von Bulöw.
Personal tributes.
“Die Enten bleiben draußen!” (The ducks stay out!)
Minkowski brothers
• Hermann Minkowski, 1864–1909: Ph.D., theoretical physics, mathematician; developed mathematical “spacetime” framework for special relativity.
• “Hermann Minkowski’s Spacetime: The Theory that Einstein Overlooked“, Galileo Unbound, 2018/2021.
• Oskar Minkowski, 1858–1931: M.D., physician, physiologist, diabetes researcher.
• Grave location: 3-A-30.
Brothers Minkowski: Hermann and Oskar.
Directions & hours
Public transport:
• BVG U-Bahn U2 train, to station “U Olympia-Stadion”.
• S-Bahn Berlin S3 or S9 train, to station “Olympiastadion”.
April to September: 7am to 8pm, daily; October to March: 8am to 6pm, daily.
( View this location in OpenStreetMaps )
I made all photos above on 10 Oct 2017 with a Canon EOS6D mark1. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-kpb.
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