[4] Weißensee Cemetery was designed by renowned German architect Hugo Licht in the Italian Neorenaissance style.

The lavish way in which the more well-to-do individuals and families interred here chose to fashion their mausoleums using the latest Art Nouveau designs is immediately noticeable.

The periphery of the cemetery is predominantly reserved for the upper and middle classes, while the center is occupied by the less well off, in areas which are harder to reach and often overgrown by foliage.

During the four decades of the German Democratic Republic, the cemetery was relatively neglected because most of Berlin's Jewish community had been murdered during, or had fled from, the Holocaust.

In the 1970s, plans to build an expressway over part of the cemetery were considered, linking Michelangelostraße to the newly constructed Hansastraße.

It has been estimated by cemetery officials that the cost of fully repairing the damage caused by years of neglect would amount to 40 million euros.