Tristan's Grave
Tristan was buried on Monday, 6 April 1998, 11 days after his murder, in the cemetery of Frankfurt-Höchst.
The funeral took place on a very small scale as Tristan’s father Bernd Brübach and Tristan’s grandmother had requested. The priest who conducted the service had met Tristan before at an Easter holiday retreat. At the funeral service he was quoted as saying: “Nothing could be more brutal.”
A large white cross with a photo of Tristan can be found at the top of Tristan’s grave with a large stone heart in front of it. On this the engraving does not read “deceased”, as is customary, but “murdered 1998”, at the request of Tristan’s grandmother. The rest of the grave area is initially overgrown with green plants, later covered with white pebbles.
In the night of 7 to 8 October 1999 one or more unidentified persons tried to open up Tristan’s grave. But they do not manage to get to the coffin.
The funeral took place on a very small scale as Tristan’s father Bernd Brübach and Tristan’s grandmother had requested. The priest who conducted the service had met Tristan before at an Easter holiday retreat. At the funeral service he was quoted as saying: “Nothing could be more brutal.”
A large white cross with a photo of Tristan can be found at the top of Tristan’s grave with a large stone heart in front of it. On this the engraving does not read “deceased”, as is customary, but “murdered 1998”, at the request of Tristan’s grandmother. The rest of the grave area is initially overgrown with green plants, later covered with white pebbles.
In the night of 7 to 8 October 1999 one or more unidentified persons tried to open up Tristan’s grave. But they do not manage to get to the coffin.
Tristan's grave was paved
In April 2018, after 20 years, the so-called rest period of Tristan’s grave expired. This is a completely normal procedure and applies to all graves of the city of Frankfurt. From November 2018 onwards, the entire area where Tristan’s grave was located along with other graves was levelled. This means that the mortal remains stay buried where they are, there is no exhumation. Instead, only the upper few inches of earth are removed and later replanted with grass.
As the rest period drew to a close and there was no one left to look after the grave since Tristan’s parents and grandmother had long since passed away, fears arose that Tristan’s memory might disappear completely and he might be forgotten. We, the creators of this website and other people who knew Tristan personally – but also complete strangers who were touched by his fate – could not live with this prospect.
For this reason, a group of volunteers from all over Germany came together in 2017 to discuss how to keep Tristan’s memory alive. Intensive consultations with the Parks Department and the cemetery administration revealed that there was no way to extend the rest period of Tristan’s grave. All graves in the area where Tristan’s grave was located had reached the end of their resting period, so the whole area was to be levelled as described above. We learned that even Tristan’s parents or other close relatives could not have prevented this. The possibility of an exhumation was briefly considered, but for reasons of reverence we immediately rejected it.
As the rest period drew to a close and there was no one left to look after the grave since Tristan’s parents and grandmother had long since passed away, fears arose that Tristan’s memory might disappear completely and he might be forgotten. We, the creators of this website and other people who knew Tristan personally – but also complete strangers who were touched by his fate – could not live with this prospect.
For this reason, a group of volunteers from all over Germany came together in 2017 to discuss how to keep Tristan’s memory alive. Intensive consultations with the Parks Department and the cemetery administration revealed that there was no way to extend the rest period of Tristan’s grave. All graves in the area where Tristan’s grave was located had reached the end of their resting period, so the whole area was to be levelled as described above. We learned that even Tristan’s parents or other close relatives could not have prevented this. The possibility of an exhumation was briefly considered, but for reasons of reverence we immediately rejected it.
A memorial for Tristan has been emerged
Since it was not possible to preserve Tristan’s grave, it was finally decided to build a new memorial for Tristan in the immediate vicinity of the grave. It was inaugurated on 26 March 2018, the 20th anniversary of Tristan’s death, with a memorial service.
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Picture credits for all pictures of the grave: © Mordfall-Tristan.de
26 march 2018, the 20th anniversary of Tristan’s death.
together with the whole grave area.
grave had been. We left a little souvenir.