Item From the Past: Waldfriedhof

Notes from half a lifetime ago: 22 vs. 44. I’m glad I’ve had the habit of writing things down for many years now. It’s a pillar of history, personal or otherwise.

11 June 1983, Lüneburg, West Germany

Woke late (10), idled for a while, then walked to the far side of the river, to the Waldfriedhof, the Wooded Cemetery. Singularly the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever visited.

It isn’t an old burial ground. Most of the stones I saw dated from the late 1960s to the present, including stones with names but no date of death, and patches of land for expansion. The Waldfriedhof is set in a pine forest with light underbrush, little of which seemed to be disturbed to create the cemetery -- the Lüneburgers merely built between the trees and among the bushes and grass. An upright stone marked each plot, and usually had a cluster of flowers growing at its base. A flower-garden-forest: bright yellow, red and blue to garnish the hard stones.