Berlin: What may be Europe’s first lesbian-only burial place opened on Sunday in a forested Christian Lutheran graveyard in the German capital.
The final resting place will give gay women a place to share in the afterlife, said Astrid Osterland of Safia, an association primarily for elderly lesbians. The burial ground is part of the 200-year-old Georgen Parochial cemetery in Prenzlauer Berg, a district in the east of the once-divided city near Alexanderplatz square.
“The idea emerged four years ago in the lesbian group Safia, whose members, advancing in age, asked themselves where they want to be buried,” said Ms Osterland, 69.
“We wanted to stay together, to be close to those with whom we lived, we loved, we worked, we fought,” she told said, adding that she has already reserved a burial plot for herself. The 400-square-metre section of the cemetery, newly landscaped with a winding sand path, has space for 80 bodies.
