Bernd Boßmann

Bernd Boßmann, 65, is recognized as the pioneer of the cemetery café movement in Germany, having opened the first such establishment, Finovo, in Berlin's Schöneberg district in 2006. A veteran of the fight for HIV research during the 1980s, Boßmann's vision was to create a welcoming space for the living in a cemetery, transforming an abandoned building near the gates into a café that has inspired similar venues across the city, blending the themes of life and death.