Hans Grässel (August 8, 1860 – March 10 or 11, 1939) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Grässel studied and performed almost his entire career in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, and as the council architect of the city he created a series of

cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many dead people are buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ) implies th ...

of which

Munich Waldfriedhof The Munich Waldfriedhof is one of 29 cemeteries of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is one of the largest and most famous burial sites of the city, known for its park-like design and tombs of notable personalities. The Waldfriedhof is considered th ...

(Munich woodlands cemetery), opened in 1907, is well known for being the first

woodland cemetery A woodland cemetery is a cemetery where the original landscape, with existing trees, is given much influence on the landscape architecture of the cemetery. A woodland cemetery is designed so that the landscape is given a more prominent position, ...

. Grässel also wrote a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

on cemetery design, ''Über Friedhofanlagen und Grabdenkmale'' (1913). In 1914, he was given the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Pour le Mérite The (; , ), also informally known as the ''Blue Max'' () after German WWI flying ace Max Immelmann, is an order of merit established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. Separated into two classes, each with their own designs, the was ...

''.

Notes

References

* Constant, Caroline: The Woodland Cemetery, chapter 1. Byggförlaget 1994, * 20th-century German architects 1860 births 1939 deaths Architects from Munich Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) {{Germany-architect-stub