My hometown's cemeteries

The plantings are wonderful. Are there groundskeepers?

I haven't been to a lot of graveyards here but I think this kind of layout is unusual, I like it a lot:

Interesting how the stone on the top right is listing, presumably because of tree roots (must be an old one).

The plantings around the tombs are quite elaborate!

I think, 49.5 % of people take care of their family's/relatives tombs themselves - the 49.5 % is done by gardeners, 1% doesn't bother at all.

Nowadays, you find all various kinds of tombs and headstone (but all according to the cemetery statutes - German bureaucracy!).

The former Franciscan monastery became in 1815 a "Provincila Institute for the poor" and later a psychiatric hopsital. (Nowadays, it hosts assisted living groups for mentally disabled persons [our county, btw, has the greatest density of psychiatric institutions Europe-wide: seven hospitals/institutions with nearly 4,000 persons re a population of 320,000 inhabitants county-wide].)

Those who died and die there are still buried this way - after less than one year, you hardly can see the stones.

A bit unusual for us - but the son is a local (amateur) artist

If people don't buy the ground again after 30 years, the tomb is 'demolished' and kept for a certain period just with lawn.

Then, a new tomb can erected on that ground again - both seen here

Interesting tomb and especially headstone of a former coal and scrap metal merchant

I like this one - and I knew evrybody there personally quite well (next door neighbours)

Since this is posted in "history", I'd like if you click now on the following link and read about

Artur Aronymus. The story of my father

(NB: The town is not called like written there but Geseke. :wink: )

A few of these dates are confusing me. I mean, no way the scrap metal merchant you're talking about was 7 when he died. So what's the March 10th 1958 and the March 26th 1965? The cross means when he died? If so, what does the first one mean? Does it have something to do with it being a family plot -- one of those was the day he died, the other was the day his wife died?

Similar questions with the large dark grey rounded cross headstone in the picture of yours I posted (left foreground). What exactly is 1967- 1990? He wasn't just 23 when he died, was he? (I don't know what "der stadtkirche" means but I'm thinking some sort of duty/ office? "The state____"?) Are the dates at the bottom his actual birth and death dates? Do the symbols in front of them explain that?

With that 'Corr' - that was a mistake by me - it was one of his children (The father had the same name)

Those first date on the "Stadtlirche" = literally "town chucrh" as opposed to "Stiftskirche" = "abbey church" are the dates, that person was acting there as vicar.

Otherwise * means birthdate, + death date.

Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining.

(Sad about the son, though. :-( )

When you've read that link, we can go on.

And if you've read it, you might gues to what cemetery we are turning now: our Jewish cemetery "Beth Olam".

There has been a Jewish cmetery in Geseke since at least the 17th century.
In the 1830's, a legal quarrel started about that ground, which was just outside the town, close to the 'Steintor' ('stone gate'), more or less in the ditch of the town wall.
So, not only legal, ownership related reasons were given by the town against the Jewish synagogue community but also hygienic reasons by the town's surgeon and pharmacist.

Frome the 'book on cd' about the Jews in Geseke (I'd posted from that book already earlier) a plan of the older cemetary ...

... and how the place looks like today (that is in the 80's)

It lasted from 1834 until 1880 until finally the highest Prussian court defeated the town.

Meanwhile, however, the Jewish community had planned to open a new cemetery themsleves, which was finally officially opened in 1880, too.

Their statutes, btw, didn't differ a lot from those of the town's cemetery: for instance, they couldn't bury on the same place/tomb within a period of 25 years = tombs were occupied at least this time

Quite a lot of old headstones had been destroyed (by whatever/whý ever) between 1840 and 1880 or weren't taken to the new place by unknown reasons.

But some were assembled there

The old stobes had the writings in Hebrew on the front, in German on the back.

The new ones, either had only German on it (and looked very similar to the German headstones now), or German on the front and Hebrew on the back

The headstone of a Jewish teacher