Life on a heap of tombstones: Ecologies of survival and the (de)hydrated geographies of Berlin

Abstract

When I walked towards the end of the the Neuen St. Jacobi cemetery, I bumped into this heap of tombstones, and it transfixed me. I had to pause. Whilst being fully aware that the cemetery had invited the community gardeners ‘Prinzessingarten Kollektiv’ on site, I was still struck by the sight of these stones, once markers of lives lived, randomly piled up. It seemed to condense the contradictions of the place, it is oddly populated for a cemetery and strangely vast for a community garden, it is both wild and cultivated, abandoned and taken care off. This unsettling fieldwork encounter forms the departure point to think through the ecologies of survival and the overlapping crisis of the 2022 summer. By engaging with a diverse set of practices of watering plants in the city of Berlin, I juxtapose the notion of ‘surviving’ with the everyday care for plant life. What trees, bushes, and grasses may survive? Who can afford the time and money to water? Who has access to a hosepipe? I aim to tease out the social and economic inequalities that shape (de)hydrated geographies of the city. Following on, I introduce the writings by Hildegard von Bingen as interpreted by Michael Marder (2021), which might provide guidance towards seeing ‘freshness’ amongst the ruins of capitalism, to not only despair, not only survive, but also reimagine a green city, to foster a capacity to listen to the cracking surface of a seedling unfolding and rejoice in the labour of watering plants.