Laura Perls Gravesite, Jewish Cemetery Weißensee, Berlin

Monument, 1919, architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Commissionedby: Foundation for Historical Churchyards and Cemeteries in Berlin-Brandenburg

Funding: private sponsor, Landesdenkmalamt Berlin and Förderverein Jüdischer Friedhof Berlin Weißensee

Planning: monument preservation and historical expertise incl. genealogical research. Damage mapping, planning, construction management and documentation. Dismantling and reconstruction of the entire structure, cleaning and restoration of the natural stone surfaces, restoration of the lettering and replanting in accordance with the historic model.

During the work, still living members of the Perls family were found in the USA, who also came to Berlin on the occasion of the completion. The monument documentation examines the family history over 8 generations and places the building in the context of the development of the work of Mies van der Rohe, because the Laura Perls gravesite is at the beginning of a series of designs for graves or memorials that Mies planned until the early 1930s, including the Revolution Monument at the Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde from 1926.

History: Laura Perls (1862-1919) was the mother of Hugo Perls, a lawyer and art dealer, for whom Mies van der Rohe had built the Perls residence at Hermannstrasse 14 in Berlin-Schlachtensee in 1910/11. The Perls family left Germany around 1930, and the complex fell into disrepair.

Project participant: Reinald Eckert, landscape architect

Stonemason: Natural stone conservator Burkhard Bluhm

Team NM: Yasser Almaamoun