Turkish Cemetery Berlin

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  Menschen besuchen die Sehitlik Moschee am Tag der offenen Moschee

The Turkish Cemetery Berlin on Columbiadamm is also known as Islamic Cemetery. What began as an improvised burial ground is now the oldest Islamic cemetery in Germany.

The foundation of the Turkish Cemetery on Columbiadamm dates back to 1866, when Wilhelm I transferred the grounds at Tempelhofer Feld to the Turkish community in Berlin as a permanent burial site. The cemetery was dedicated on December 29, 1866. The cemetery has also been known as the Turkish War Cemetery in Berlin since the Turkish soldiers who died during the First World War were buried there.

Obelisk becomes focal point of Turkish Cemetery

An octagonal pillar rises on a high pedestal, on the shaft of which sandy yellow ceramic slabs alternate with richly ornamented brown-red slabs in a spiral arrangement. The obelisk was designed by the royal architect Gustav Voigtel and still forms the focal point of the Turkish Cemetery today. The names of the five deceased are inscribed on green clay tablets at the base of the tomb monument in golden Arabic lettering.

The cemetery became a monument to Prussian-Turkish friendship; Wilhelm I adorned it with a magnificent Moorish-style gate, which lies on an axis with a memorial to the fallen of the Wars of Liberation of 1812/15.

Burials for Muslims of different nationalities

In the cemetery there is a grave monument for the ambassadors who died in Berlin, the Ottoman envoy Ali Aziz Efendi (died 1798) and Mehmed Esad Efendi (died 1804) as well as for the Ottoman secretary of legation Rahmi Efendi (died 1839), a cadet (died 1853) and a student (died 1853).

Muslims of various nationalities are buried in the cemetery, with rows of gravestones facing Mecca. After 1918, Turkish soldiers who died during the First World War were buried here, and since then the cemetery has been known as the Turkish War Gravesite in Berlin.

Between 1921 and 1924, the cemetery was extended and repaired thanks to the efforts of the preacher of the Ottoman Embassy, Hafiz Sükrü. When the expansion of Tempelhof Airport began in 1938, this led to the removal of the entrance gate to the cemetery.

Extension of the Turkish Cemetery

After 1945, the cemetery's capacity was exhausted with 220 graves, of which only 150 remain today. As Islam does not allow a grave to be revived after a certain period of time, the Berlin authorities made another burial ground available to Muslims at the Gatow cemetery.

The old Islamic cemetery subsequently developed into a modern community center. The small guardhouse in the cemetery was extended in 1983 and converted into a mosque with a dome and minaret. A two-storey Ottoman-style mosque with two high minarets, the Şehitlik Mosque, was completed on the site in 2005.

Information

• Address:
  Columbiadamm 118
  10965 Berlin
  City map
• Opening Hours: Open throughout