'A little oasis' The boom in Berlin's cemetery cafe scene

BERLIN T hey're beautifully tucked away in some of the quietest, leafiest corners of central Berlin, and for their passionate patrons, they are a way of life among the dead.

- Deborah Cole

The German capital has about a dozen cemetery cafes - not necessarily spaces for mourning, although they can be that, too - but mainly serving as islands of peace in busy districts.

Unlike Paris or New York, where burial grounds traditionally occupy vast expanses on the historical outer reaches of the urban landscape, Berlin's cemeteries have long been human-scale and primarily kiezbezogen, or rooted in communities.

There has been a boom over the past decade, with coffee houses opening within cemetery walls and even in a former crematorium. Initial fears that customers would be spooked or mourners offended have proved largely groundless.

One cafe, Lisbeth, is ensconced in a former parish hall surrounded by mature Japanese cherry trees. It is managed by Italian-born Chiara de Martin Topranin, 30, who found it via a vaguely written online advert seeking "someone to run a lovely spot in the Mitte district with a great garden".

Over a cappuccino with a view of the Protestant Sophien cemetery's undulating field of headstones, she says she balked at first when the building's owners revealed she would be working in a graveyard.