Death, Burial and Grave of Herbert Marcuse in Berlin

Herbert Marcuse's Death, Burial, Grave and Gravestone

Herbert died in July 1979 and was buried in the Berlin Dorotheenstädtischer Cemetery in July 2003.
In August 2004 his family dedicated a symbolic gravestone.

to Herbert's Ashes Story page, Herbert's Ashes Articles page,
Herbert Marcuse official homepage

"Weitermachen!" means 'continue!' or
' keep on going'

Herbert's Death:
In the summer of 1979 80-year-old Herbert was invited to participate in the Römerberggespräche in Frankfurt (an annual gathering of intellectuals to discuss a given theme), and then to spend time at the Starnberg Institute for Research About the Scientific-Technical World.

Shortly after the Frankfurt conference Herbert suffered a stroke and died in the hospital at Starnberg.

Family members and friends gathered in the woods near Helmut Dubiel's WG to take leave of Herbert.
The series of photographs below was probably taken by Helmut.
The handwritten sheet in the center has a draft and a final version of Ricky's notes for the program.

Peter Marcuse and Herbert's
stepson Michael Neumann

The spot in the woods at Starnberg

Erica Sherover-Marcuse

Rudi Dutschke (1940-1979)
Rudi died very unexpectedly less than 6 months later

Barbara Brick, Moishe Postone, Harold M.

Moishe, Habermas, Barbara, Peter, Rudi around a table

sitting around a table afterwards:
clockwise: Moishe, Habermas, Barbara, Peter, Dutschke

         [above] Ricky=Intro:
Peter -
Permanenz der Künst - Helmut
Rudi - Kurz
Habermas
Harold - Sonnenschiff [Ingeborg Bachmann]
Whoever wants to say
    Osha
    Michael
    whoever
Über Allen Gipfeln - Helmut/Borden/Utah
Alle Lust [will Ewigkeit]- Ricky
Moishe/Ricky - On Kaddish
Kaddish
end
Pacobelle

Jürgen Habermas and Peter Marcuse

What happened from 1979 to 2003???
Ricky didn't want Herbert, a Jew who had fled from the Nazis, to be buried or even cremated in Germany.
So he was cremated in Austria [not very logical] and his ashes sent to the United States.
They still hadn't been buried at the time of Ricky's untimely death in 1988.
A question from a visitor to this site in 2001 reminded Peter that he had to find the urn and decide what to do with it. The rest of the story is recounted in our Herbert's Ashes Story Page.

	The burial: A cemetery official carried Herbert's urn from the chapel to the grave. The Marcuse family fell into line behind him. The official used a black fishnet stocking to lower the urn into the grave--Irene thought Herbert would have found this funeral attire "a gas."

	The mayor of Berlin's wreath. The grave in its setting near the wall. A last drink of Herbert's favorite Scotch. Peter doing an epitaph statement at the Brecht/Weigel grave for the film crew. View of the grave from the rear with Bob & Rudi Strahl's grave and two great-granddaughters in the background.

Iinterested in other celebreties' graves?
See Klaus Nerger's Herbert Marcuse gravestone page [2008-9 site; not archvied at Internet Archive]
It has links to photos of the graves of people Herbert knew, such as Heidegger and Adorno, too.

Three pictures from before and after the burial:

Peter and Angela Davis in the Brechthaus after the burial

The day before the burial, at Rosa Luxemburg murder site memorial

Reception in the Brechthaus garden after the burial

This is what Herbert's grave looked like in late July 2004, before the stone was installed. Photos courtesy of Bernd Schilfert and Hans-Christian Förster (front view, and view from rear with the Strahl grave in background)
These two designs were prepared in June 2004 by stonemason Carlo Wloch, in consultation with Bruno Flierl, based on guidelines from Peter Marcuse (the second, protruding "1" profile was chosen)

Various views of Herbert's gravestone.
The profile makes the shape of a "1", a reference to Herbert's seminal critique of capitalist society, One Dimensional Man.
It is a Jewish memorial custom to place stones on a grave
(flowers are for the living).

East German poet and playwright Rudi Strahl's epitaph (opposite Herbert's grave):

'Let us start the next revolution in an August.'

page created by Harold Marcuse, Sept. 8, 2004,
additional images added 9/30/04, Starnberg 10/4/04, link to K. Nerger page 10/8/08->broken 2011
back to top, to Herbert's Ashes page, Herbert homepage