The Artists' Necropolis is located in the Habichtswald forest on the outskirts of Kassel, near Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. It was initiated by the artist Harry Kramer, who taught as a professor at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and was a participant in documenta III.
Around the Blue Lake, a disused quarry, artists of "documenta rank" erect their own gravestones during their lifetime and later have themselves buried there. A total of 40 gravestones are planned. The condition is that the forest of the landscape conservation area is not disturbed and the gravestones are left to themselves. Harry Kramer saw the Necropolis project as a new form of art in public space and not as an elitist cemetery. He himself chose not to have a gravestone in the Necropolis and was buried there anonymously in 1997.
The sponsor of the Necropolis is a foundation that comes from Harry Kramer's private fortune. A foundation board advises on artists who are invited to erect their tomb in the necropolis. An approximately 1.5 km long hiking trail (trail sign 22) leads from the Bergfreiheit car park to the tombs around the Blue Lake.
