Relocation of the Grave

Berlin – Tongyeong, February – March 2018: The grave of Isang Yun has been moved from Berlin-Gatow to South Korea. In March 2018 the urn was buried in Tongyeong, the hometown of his young years. The new grave is located close to the 2014 completed Tongyeong Concert Hall, overlooking the sea.

Unconciled with South Korea, Isang Yun died in Berlin in 1995. By moving the grave, Yun’s heirs, the city of Tongyeong and the Tongyeong International Music Festival are responding to a wish of the composer, who wanted to find his final resting place in his homeland. The South Korean government’s changed attitude towards Isang Yun, who longed for peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, was expressed by the visit of the wife of the President of the Republic of Korea to Yun’s grave in Berlin in July 2017, where she erected a memorial stone and planted a camellia tree.

The grave of honour at the Landschaftsfriedhof in Berlin-Gatow had to be closed after 22 years.

On July 5, 2017 Mrs. Kim Jung-Sook, the wife of the President of the Republic of Korea, laid a wreath at Isang Yun’s grave, had a camellia tree from Yun’s hometown Tongyeong planted and erected a memorial stone.