A walk through the largest Jewish Cemetery in Europe
I’ve been exploring different areas of Berlin lately, and one of the most fascinating discoveries I’ve made is its incredible cemeteries. Among them, the Jewish Cemetery in Weißensee truly stands out — it’s the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, and walking through it feels like stepping into another world.
An enchanted maze of history, it’s filled with overgrown paths, leaning gravestones, and grand mausoleums shaded by ancient trees. The only sounds are the soft rustle of leaves and the occasional birdsong — a peaceful, almost dreamlike atmosphere. With more than 100,000 graves, it’s a place overflowing with stories, both told and untold.
Many notable Berliners found their final resting place here, including painter Lesser Ury, composer Louis Lewandowski, department store founder Oscar Tietz, and publishers Samuel Fischer and Rudolf Mosse.
The cemetery was established in 1880, when the Jewish community needed more space after their original cemetery on Schönhauser Allee filled up. Alongside simple graves, elegant mausoleums reflected the growing confidence of Berlin’s Jewish population at the time. During the Nazi era, some Jews even hid from persecution within these mausoleums, and others who lived in secrecy in Berlin were quietly buried there.
After the war, the Jewish community in Berlin became divided between East and West. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the East Berlin parliament finally recognized Weißensee Cemetery as a cultural and historical monument. Incredibly, plans once existed to build an elevated highway right over it — an idea stopped only after Heinz Galinski, head of the West Berlin Jewish congregation, convinced Erich Honecker to protect this sacred site.
Today, walking through Weißensee feels like exploring a living history book — a place where nature and memory intertwine in the most poetic way. To top off an already amazing experience we even spotted a red fox, who was very interested in Trixie.🌿✨
