Bavarian Crosses

I intend to set aside time during my March visit to walk through at least one of the cemeteries of Munich. I discovered today that there is a German word for a visit to a cemetery -- der Friedhofbesuch. The word appears in an online review of Fremd in Cambridge, a novel by Ruth Rehmann that I had discovered by chance in my local library and borrowed last month. I had been lured by the epigraph, a famous sentence from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations comparing German or any language to an old city with its maze of ancient passageways and modern neighborhoods.

Maybe it is the suggestion of ancient passageways that lures me to cemeteries, even in cities that I don't know well. Some crosses in the Waldfriedhof southwest of City Center have a look that appeals. The sentiment inscribed in Latin in one Flickr photograph of the Munich cemetery is too absolute for my tastes (Extra Bavariam non est vita: "There is no life outside Bavaria"), but the wooden crosses visible in the background recall Alpine shrines.

Picture snow on those wooden gables, and one of the oldest Christmas cards that my parents kept over the years comes to mind.



Photo of Waldfriedhof (Munich) uploaded on Flickr by Artep ^_^