berlin bones

“What are your favourite cemeteries in Berlin?” I was asked this question so often that I decided to make reels about each of my top 5… 2 years ago 😂 My hair grew long, I grew older, but my choices stayed the same, soo let’s start with this teaser and stay tuned for locations & reasons to go to each of them 💚 Thank you @holla_sweetie that you let me drag you around Berlin and ask to film all of this at 35+ 🥵

Hi, my name is Katya @kat_romanova , and this week I had the pleasure of taking over the Placemaking Europe. Here’s the recap of what I have shared with you 💕 1. I’m a social designer and co-founder of @reimagineyourcity based in Berlin. My work bridges design, research, and socio-cultural initiatives, with a strong focus on participative and community-based formats. 2. In my practice, I work with topics of urban transformation, participation & access, audio storytelling, and rituals of remembrance. One of the examples is my podcast @berlin_bones , where I look into the transformation of Berlin cemeteries into potential spaces of encounters - with their playgrounds, gardens, cafes and exhibition chapels. 3. Currently, I work at the citizen participation office @pankowbeteiligt in my Berlin district, where we translate bureaucratic, specialized German into digestible language about what’s being planned, built, and developed in the district, and invite for collaboration. 4. My latest topic is city pigeons! 🕊️ I got curious about this non-human perspective on the city and using my design skills to create more empathy and passion for these cuties 🌸 Look forward to connecting with you beyond this week! Thank you 💌 📸 @azizianaita

NEW EPISODE 💫 How to celebrate death? For this episode of berlin bones, I went to visit Felix Ruckert, dancer, choreographer, and one of the initiators of the ⁠Death Festival Berlin @deathfestival.berlin ⁠. Its second edition takes place from 16–18 January 2026 at Holzmarkt 25 @saalchen_holzmarkt I was drawn to the festival for two main reasons: its strong focus on embodied, somatic practices alongside more familiar formats like talks and workshops, and its invitation to bring together “death practitioners,” artists, and complete novices in one shared space — a mix that promises a particularly rich exchange. In our conversation, Felix reflects on how the Festival of Death and Dying came into life, tracing its roots back to an initial festival in Australia. Who is it for and what to expect? We talk about why the team chose a festival format, and how participatory performances and rituals might help us prepare for death — our own, or that of others. We touch on the connections between death and sexuality, death and gardening, death and dance. The talk is closed with a simple embodied exercise you can try for reflecting on impermanence. If this sparks your curiosity, take a look at the full program with 40 participatory workshops, performances, talks, and ceremonies in English and German → ⁠athfest.berlin⁠ 🎧 listen on all available platforms, link in bio Photos: Swen Brandy @carnivore_pictures @mein.ahorn , jessica_zeckert, @tau_stories_by_tobias_zwior , @morphineonbananabread #berlincemetery

Best transition into the November mood 💖 with @monika.jiang at @cspaceberlin

​👻 Spooky season is near—and so is Día de los Muertos. As we enter the darker months, we’re gathering for a Shared Table Dinner on grief, mortality, and impermanence, in collaboration with @kat_romanova , @berlin_bones , and @cspaceberlin . 🍂 The questions and weight around death are ones we often carry alone—and they don’t have to be. 🌙 Loneliness often lives in the silences around loss, in the things we don’t say or don’t know how to share. Yet when we speak of death, we also speak of life—of who we’ve loved, what we’ve lost, and what still connects us. Will you join us? 🍁 Thursday, October 30 | 18:30 🪦 @cspaceberlin 🍲 Potluck-style (veggie + alc-free) 🏵 Donation-based 💛 Sign up via link in bio . . . #TheOnelinessProject #SharedTableDinners #BerlinBones #grief #death #impermanence #loss #communitycare #Berlinevents

Paying visit to my favourite grave in Berlin. Petra’s family left this plastic box with notebooks and pens on the grace, so that they - and any stranger like me - leave a note every time they come by 💙 #berlinbones #cemeterysunday #berlincemetery #berlincemeteries #berlinbestattung #berlinhistory

#cemeterySunday Have you ever been to the Jewish cemetery in Weißensee? I live really close, but it somehow took me years to finally check it out. Meanwhile, my neighbor Roman Ekimov (you probably know him if you’ve ever been to @pandaplatforma 🌝) spent a lot of time capturing it and shared some of his photos with me. Hope it inspires you to swing by Weißensee sometime — and maybe give the latest berlin bones episode with Sasha Lyamina @willoweed a listen! 🎧 Check berlin bones podcast in link in bio #berlinbones #berlincemetery

NEW EPISODE 💫 How to (not) get lost in the Weißensee Jewish Cemetery In this episode of berlin bones, my friend Sasha Lyamina @willoweed takes me on a walk through the Jewish Cemetery in Weißensee — considered the second-largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, with around 115,000 graves spread across an area the size of 100 football fields. (The largest is in Łódź, Poland.) Sasha and I first met at a festival, where we instantly connected over our shared fascination with cemeteries. That meeting eventually led to us co-organizing the @_deadlymatters_ exhibition last summer, during which we spent countless hours at the Georgen Parochial Cemetery II — with walks, talks, and installations. With a background in anthropology and roots in a Jewish family from Russia, Sasha eventually found her way to working at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It was through this work that she became familiar with the Weißensee Cemetery — and drawn to exploring it beyond historical facts. In this episode, Sasha shares some of her favorite graves, stories and personalities she discovered here, along with insights into Jewish mourning and burial traditions — including the practices of Sitting Shiva (seven days of mourning) and Kriah (the ritual tearing of clothing as a sign of grief). We also talk about the ways the cemetery reflects a blending of religious and cultural identities, e.g. when post-Soviet communities bring their cultural practices into the cemetery. 🎧 listen on all available platforms, link in bio #berlinbones #berlincemetery #berlincemeteries #ihavethisthingwithberlin #jewishberlin

#cemeterysunday While Berlin’s cemeteries tend to feel quite uniform, with plenty of rules that both visitors and families are expected to follow, I always find myself searching for a more personal touch. This is my favorite grave I’ve discovered so far: tucked beside the stone was a plastic bag inviting visitors to open it and flip through a stack of notebooks. Inside, it’s an improvised logbook — full of touching messages and an ongoing conversation between grave visitors, from family members to total strangers like me. I even left my phone number inside, hoping someone might reach out for a short interview for my podcast. I definitely need to go back soon and check if anyone has left me a message 💙 #berlinbones

“I met a Buddhist monk from England there, and just seeing him sitting in meditation opened something within me. In that moment, I knew: My life was about to change.” I picked some of my favorite parts from my talk with Katrin Weimann—a Buddhist and consultant at Deutscher Kinderhospizverein (the German Children’s Hospice Association), who transitioned from a career in IT to full-time work in hospice and funeral services. → More in the full episode in English & German on Spotify & other platforms. 🎧 Link in bio! #berlinbones #berlincemetery #berlinbestattung

“Yesterday I walked by a cemetery and thought of you.” I get messages like this every week. And I must say I find them adorable. Chances are, you pass a cemetery almost daily, and maybe — just maybe — you think of me and berlin bones every time 🌝 and if you want to get reminded of me even more often, sign up for my berlin bones newsletter that comes out each time there’s a new episode or exciting project to share — meaning occasionally and unexpectedly 🙂 Let’s stay connected! → link in bio #berlinbones #berlincemetery

#cemeterySunday Yesterday my conversation in a Berlin bar led to a very lively discussion which things we would place on our gravestone shrine. The inspiration was these pictures I took on one town cemetery on Crete. Each grave was an amazing story on its own. 💫 What would you place on your grave?