Dahlem Cemetery

The state-owned Friedhof Dahlem – often called Friedhof Dahlem-Dorf to distinguish it from the larger Waldfriedhof – sits in the Dahlem district and has been in use since 1908. In just 1.1 hectares it gathers a surprising density of famous Berlin graves: Chancellor and Nobel laureate Willy Brandt and his wife Rut; publishers Wolf Jobst Siedler and Ernst Rowohlt; several scientists from the nearby Dahlem research campus. Listed as a garden monument, the paths, hedges and mature trees form a deliberately understated park-like layout. Step through the wrought-iron gate on Koenigin-Luise-Strasse and you enter a very Berlin, very bourgeois place: no pomp, no crowds, just a quiet stop where you can walk discreetly through German post-war history.