Prenzlauer Berg

Ein kulturhistorischer Spaziergang durch den Prenzlauer Berg

The Jewish Cemetery

The reason for the aforementioned purchase of five hectares of land in front of Schönhauser Tor was not only due to the small size of the old Jewish cemetery on Hamburger Straße. With the expansion of the city, it was located within the city walls and that was no longer permitted under a Prussian hygiene ordinance issued in 1794. Ten times larger than the old one, this burial ground was opened in 1827 and until 1880 it accommodated all deceased Berlin Jews. Here lie almost forgotten Jews like Bismarck's banker Gerson von Bleichröder and still revered ones such as composer Meyerbeer and painter Liebermann. The walls enclose around 25,000 graves and a special feature that strollers often pass by unaware. Between the rear cemetery wall and the backyards of Kollwitzstraße goes a path, the so-called Judengang or Jewish Passage, accessible today only with a guided tour. Once a simple field path, it later had to be used by Jewish mourners because the king was bothered by funeral processions on his way to Niederschönhausen Palace. And so there is a second entrance there, through which those interested can at best catch a limited glimpse.