the stone mason and his assistants are delivering a gravestone to a cemetery in the western german city of essen. the stone was designed in their workshop and cut and inscribed there that took nearly 3 months in all. for the stone masons their work at the cemetery is routine but always a solemn moment. the would have or wanted a heart to commemorate his late wife a symbol that will remain here for the next 25 or 30 years.

german cemeteries are changing visibly the way people are laid to rest is more varied so too is the design of the graves urn graves like this are becoming more common as 2 thirds of burials in germany are now cremations. this is the silly form and it's all for an ego. one and they about even the design of this grave is somewhat more elaborate than most and even the author reflects a common trend to make grave so to speak easier to maintain this is the. thread.

the small space occupied by an early grave is much simpler to care for than a large family grave. but for a long time the christian churches disapproved of cremation. caught a lot preserved by going out and by coming in from this time for and forevermore amen. cremation appeared to deny the doctrine of the resurrection in a time honored practice christians were carried to their graves and buried in a coffin but since the 1970 s. the protestant churches in germany have relaxed their attitude towards cremation after all flames can't destroy a person's soul. gradually german catholics have followed suit and burials have become simpler.

i think the significance of cemeteries seems to be changing from a solemn resting place for one's ancestors to a site where the dead can be shown respect but with a minimum of maintenance. the fact remains burial is a tradition that makes the passing of our loved ones more bearable. i'll talk a storm off when somebody dies they suddenly seem terribly far away we miss them and the feeling of loss is painful visiting their grave is an attempt to be close to the person who's nafta. in this way a grave can be a very intimate place where i have the feeling that i'm once again very close to the person who's died because i'm visiting them with a. good eye for instance when i walk past some graves i recall that i fished at the funeral of the person buried that that's almost like saying hello to them. and then

the person always seems very close to me. on the board more widely believed to have the same experience knowing where their loved one is buried in. the legacy. but maintaining a grave can be hard work full time americans is 85 years old at least once a week he visits the small graveyard belonging to his parish church. his parish cemeteries are quite common in germany they augment the large municipal cemeteries . merton's believes it's important that the grave of his wife who died 9 years ago is well maintained. the retired mining engineer wanted a particular norwegian court site for the headstone.

the very. my name will also be written one day so it's important to me to know what kind of stone it is and where it comes from. or my love for someone polish and that's why i chose it for my wife's grabbed. me. actions pays a cemetery gardener to do the heavy work clipping hedges and reading but he takes care of the finer points himself placing flowers and candles on the graves. nicht does this is not decoration. it's more like greeting the dad or.

not everyone remembers the whole family remembers oh now murphy or not i'd like to draw your attention to these 3 stones because they have a special significance i know this round of a door took me reading your mind 3 grandchildren placed them there where my wife was buried for mine and. they brought the stones from the baltic coast to the stones varian size because of the grandchildren of various ages of course. and i stones are still lying here nobody has taken them away. or they are a sign of remembrance from the next generation x. i'm going to show. at smyrna fallen off. when my wife was alive we often walked here in the cemetery. you get such a beautiful view from here it was strange of course but when she talked about the lovely view she said she wanted to be buried here and still it's

a memory from the past and when i stand here and see the beautiful view i remember how it was. like americans doesn't speak in terms of eternity resurrection or paradise. he views himself his family and his wife as members of a community that defies death. is live for this life has not simply disappeared off it's not simply extinguished so it hasn't dissolved into nothing it's good that people say will be united again will meet again in the presence of god. we remain united by sharing in a living connectedness with what made us what we are to play the vidame from one. traditionally the individual grave has been a symbol of the connection between the living and the dead the cemetery has been a place of remembrance and of reflection.

but some 20 years ago anonymous burials became more fashionable here the individual grave remains unmarked those who died didn't want to leave any trace of themselves quite literally at least in the cemetery. here from people that they don't want to be a burden on their relatives was all about. the trend towards anonymous burial on drug war which was popular for a long time has ended because the cemetery is now off a burial sites where the whole property is kathleen maintained as one unit cop on logging in. this area of the park cemetery in essen is one such example the memorial garden is attended to be more than just a cemetery. it's designed to be

a place of reflection. a boat in which the visitor can rest is a symbol of the journey from this world to the next spring and a broke representing the eternal flow of life create a soothing atmosphere. 6 gardening firms that are actually competitors in the market are cooperating here to offer a come for hints of service. and i think people want to visit the grave and remember what they want to be bothered with anything else at that moment i just want to clean that it's being taken care of. the cemetery gardeners design this memorial garden together and manage the project jointly. clients make a single payment and the firms guarantee they'll maintain the site for 25 years. there is that the bereaved should enjoy coming here in spite of their grief. he was

a force in the and i don't have to do anything he has when i go to a store or a walk down the street i have to greet people i have to be communicative but when i'm here in the cemetery i can be sad i can feel the loss on. a woman and that's what's important right now so for here and here i meet other people who've had a similar experience who are in the same situation and that's what's important at this moment i think it's good that people know there is a place for this. but for. every visit to the cemetery is agonizing. he or she stops at her son's grave and relives an unbearable tragedy. he took his own life at the age of 13.

called it's awful to stand at your own child's grave. you can describe the feeling. different. each time she comes here her anguish is intense she still doesn't know why her son took his life but she did manage to keep some connection to life by donating his organs . and thus negative i didn't dwell on the negative aspects. that's like trying to

think about positive ones and taught that something good could be derived from his meaningless death. the people who received his organs were held. in conditions. that offered me some comfort in the midst of all the senselessness talk of violence and get up a set of. usually gravestones only hint at the tragedy behind an inscription. that's also true of the oldest headstones we can decipher here for instance at the church of st peter indorsement a city in north rhine-westphalia as the name suggests this was originally a catholic church since the reformation in the 16th century it's been lutheran. nobody today knows on a 15 story but her grave stone has survived. they did

used to be buried around the parish church but as land became more valuable in towns and villages cemeteries were moved outside the city limits. in these new cemeteries monumental buildings were sometimes erected or parks laid out. similar to reason graves had to make an impression. in the austin google in germany during the 19th century and what has been called the borzois era a tradition of splendid was cultivated in which the middle class individual was honored in the cemetery a list of his achievements and possibly a statue on which incredible sums of money were spent thus is this the land of the so called monument culture that we had my own older than cemeteries when your facts

were admiring i achievements of the urban boys was evil and. not them fight and they click after the 2nd world war the splendor of the memorial culture associated with abortion era disappeared from german cemeteries to consult with the experience of the war and the holocaust hanging over them germans no longer wanted to celebrate death but import quantity naked at that scene too much horror joining the 2nd walk take a leap in jewish cemeteries all over germany you'll usually find a memorial to the people from that region who were murdered in the nazi concentration camps the number of very old stones is conspicuous here

in the jewish tradition burial plots are never really used. the graves have to be left untouched until the end of day news and there's been a jewish community in germany for centuries. you wouldn't. believe in a resurrection after death just like christians. but unlike christianity judaism imposes a particular obligation towards the body in this process on the. sky in these imports if need be jewish cemeteries and jewish graves should remain forever. the. only thing you know when somebody is buried their soul is not under the thumb and this cell is with god and waiting for the moment in which the coming world the

messianic era will dawn given. a moment and which all people will come alive again and when i live mention the there that means that the soul is supposed to return to the body for crop a calm so the body must be there for the soul to find its place again how you haven't. been there. but the millions of jews murdered in the holocaust didn't find a grave and this presents jewish communities with an unresolved theological problem . besides the venerable old headstones in jewish cemeteries you'll find many new graves. most of the people buried here are jews from the former soviet union who came to germany between 19052004. of the quarter of a 1000000 jews many are now very elderly.

the traditional ritual in jewish cemeteries is to place stones on graves often gravel. as a rule jews don't bring flowers to a cemetery instead they place these stones as a greeting and they don't necessarily make regular visits the dead should be left in peace. that. the rabbis recommend not visiting the cemetery too often. as it's important and this was always the case in judaism that al faith focuses on life. or thought life is the most important thing this period of mourning should serve to bring people who have lost loved ones back to their normal daily rhythm. and normal daily life as quickly as possible.

for common. stone masons have been making headstones and monuments in this workshop for 80 years it's a family business next to the park cemetery and as. it's a trade requires real skill in craftsmanship business is good. they've never experienced a slump even when anonymous burials became popular. the grave may be silent but headstones speak. you know he thought us generally people want the stone to say something about the person who is buried. the name date of birth date of death but also how the person lived what hobbies they had all their professional. grave to express something

important about the person to make by this. very few order a large austin tissues monument anymore a stone like this a bit larger perhaps is the emotional limit. the firm delivers stone rochlitz porfiry cut to size from its own quarry sometimes the design is quite elaborate. the trend these days is toward park cemeteries where the graves are not anonymous. each grave is marked with one or 2 urns per plot instead of the family tomb square meter for a married couple. but they must be free since the advent of low maintenance graves for instance impact cemeteries each grave is generally marked by a stone slap with a name and with details or even with symbols on. the lawn is mowed regularly by the cemetery gardener the system is cheap and the

cemetery always looks good. under this cross the graves are spread out in a particular pattern you'll find this phenomenon in all the larger german cemeteries their graves that pay testimony to the horror of war. when i visited we've conducted studies on war graves that anniversary and establish that people believe it's very important to know where their soldier relative is buried who want to have a photo of the burial site a photo of the cross on the grave or of the hysterical but i also believe it's important to visit the place just isn't ought to brazil can. an example from history the former colony german south west africa present a name india. between 1000 no 4 and 1800 the 2nd

unleashed a shocking war of annihilation on the indigenous herero people. an estimated 80000 herero died as well as several 100 german troops. the germans were buried with military honors and more than 100 years later the graves are still maintained by the german war graves commission. but these crosses don't mark only soldiers graves the dead include civilian victims of allied bombing raids in the 2nd world war some of them children women and old people. these graves are not a glorification of war but a memorial to the suffering it causes a cemetery is intended to give consolation. abdon

obviously it consoles me when somebody embraces me and says the grind it does when that happens here the 2 of. meet up and sit on a bench together and ask each other how they are doing that in the fullest and then you can say i had a bad night i didn't sleep well from this i miss him so much cost people comfort each other like alex you listen when they know when i come here this time of day i'll meet hama dozens people know about each other i said what and that. caused. one point i was here 12 it's also consoling simply to enter the silence. perhaps in conversation with the last one in the grain of a storm and out in goblins perhaps simply to think about the relationship i thought it was or was connected and not saying no. them also gave us vava i think this place allows full of that and it off is going to play sions audit allow us just

close to. germany's muslim population increased significantly in the last century now muslims have their own burial sites oriented towards mecca . the migrant workers who came to this country in the 1960 s. and seventy's often wanted to be buried in their country of origin. but islam requires that the dead be buried before sunset on the day they die whenever possible. this dilemma has largely disappeared now the 2nd and 3rd generation of descendants view germany as their home. with a muslim population of some 3 and a half 1000000 the demand for burial sites as also increased. here a new section for muslim graves is being cleared they will of course face mecca.

throw only half the plots in german cemeteries are now used for traditional burial gaps are emerging between the old family tombs. former burial sites are being turned into parking lots crim ation has become significantly more popular. than most in here also in the 2 are we want to get out into the country and indulge our love of nature that's like a home and it has been part of our culture since the romantic era and found expression in park and forest cemeteries quite early on the difference now is that on sport nature is the criterion one for a lot of the cemeteries try to imitate natural areas of extensive woodland for example but i think it. a final resting place beneath trees instead of a traditional cemetery a simple internet search throws up more than 60 examples in germany from the black forest to the eiffel region and

a group of old forest in berlin. the graves are usually anonymous only a number on the tree indicates that an urn is buried here containing a person's actions. the harm not to he often fly this is low maintenance burial it's no longer common for relatives to be living in the same place as the person who has died sometimes they live hundreds of kilometers away and so i did 3 grave means low maintenance for decades but it can still be visited like a traditional grave. only the initiated know where a particular person has been laid to rest to be buried among the roots of an oak or beech tree seems to be a typically german wish whether religious or not people like the idea of participating in the eternal cycle of life. was.

get. ready for liftoff last journey through our solar system lab and taking the forces measurements. they can all be done with the space telescope emo's into. and researchers are working on a map of all the galaxies suddenly the universe doesn't seem so big after all.

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treasures of a computer museum a day to salvage experts.