The First Berliners Find Their Final Resting Place

The first Berliners are returning to Petriplatz, the city’s oldest sacred site—the place where Berlin gains a future with the House of One. “We are pleased that the Archaeological House Petri is treating the deceased members of the former Petri congregation with such dignity,” says Pastor Gregor Hohberg from the House of One. The multi-faith house of worship is being built on the foundations of the former Petri Church, whose congregation once included the deceased now being laid to rest.

In total, the remains of nearly 4,000 people have been discovered. On Saturday morning, a hundred of them—including the bones of twenty children in small white coffins—were solemnly carried back to Petriplatz in a joint procession organized by the House of One, the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO), and the Archdiocese of Berlin. The remains were returned to the site from which they had once been excavated.

A historic funeral carriage led the procession. Behind the two-horse carriage walked Pastor Gregor Hohberg, Monsignor Hansjörg Günther, Pastor Michael Kösling, Pastor Alexander Heck, and archaeologist Claudia M. Melisch, who had led the excavations at Petriplatz for many years and carefully recovered the skeletal remains. "As a Berliner, I find it deeply moving that today, in an ecumenical gathering, we are bringing the first Berliners to their final resting place," said Monsignor Günther. "We remember those who lived here before us, who loved, who built this city, and from whose legacy we still benefit today."

Following the clergy, the white children's coffins—carried by children themselves—were placed in the procession, followed by ten white bone caskets containing the remains of adolescents, twenty gray, and fifty black caskets containing the remains of deceased adults. Each deceased individual was accompanied by a flower and a letter. Inside each envelope was a brief life story written by archaeologist Melisch, based on biological and archaeological data. "Each container holds an individual, and we want everyone to know whom they are carrying," said Melisch. She herself carried the remains of a child, approximately three years old, who was buried in the 14th century. Following the coffins and their bearers, many mourners walked the short distance to the final resting place, passing by the construction site of the House of One.

It is rare for a city to bury its dead for a second time. "We, the living, bear a responsibility for our dead—to remember them and, in doing so, to keep them alive in our collective memory," said Pastor Alexander Arno Heck from the Protestant congregation of St. Marien-Friedrichswerder, the successor to the St. Petri congregation.

"This is a significant moment for forgetful Berlin!" With these words, Matthias Wemhoff, state archaeologist and director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History, welcomed the procession at the Archaeological Center Petri. Today, burials are often as anonymous as possible, preferably far outside the city. Wemhoff noted, "In 1160, things were different. The dead remained close to the living, with cemeteries at the heart of the city."

The bone caskets were carried into the lower level of the Archaeological House and placed in the ossuary. There, staff from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History carefully placed the remains of these early Berliners into designated compartments within the ossuary. Eventually, the compartments will be sealed with clay slabs.

“We conduct this procession in remembrance of all those excavated at Petriplatz and out of respect for the efforts of all Berliners who have built, beautified, and, despite all challenges, continually revived this city since the Middle Ages.”
— Claudia M. Melisch, Excavation Director, Petriplatz

Archaeologists uncovered the remains between 2007 and 2020. The oldest date back to the 12th century—before Berlin was even mentioned in historical records. In total, nearly 4,000 skeletons were excavated. Most were reburied years ago, but 475 individuals, including the oldest remains, were preserved in the crypt beneath Parochial Church with the intention of eventually transferring them to the newly completed ossuary at Petriplatz, where they will now find their final resting place.