A peculiar mystery involving the appearance of over 1,000 QR codes on gravestones in Munich, Germany has finally been solved. The QR codes first caught the public’s attention in December last year when cemetery-goers noticed the discreet stickers pasted on the headstones of their loved ones. When scanned, the codes revealed the names of the departed buried in the grave and their location.
The 5×3.5-centimeter (1.95×1.2-inch) stickers were placed on both old and new graves at the Waldfriedhof, Sendlinger Friedhof, and Friedhof Solln cemeteries.
“It’s really strange. We thought, ‘What could be the sense of this kind of sticker?'” Bernd Hoerauf, who oversees the management of Munich’s cemeteries, told the New York Times.
As the mystery deepened, a section of social media users claimed that it was a viral marketing stunt while others suspected vandals or even a tech-savvy artist making a statement.
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The mystery unravels
Since removing the code and the adhesive was costing a fortune to the cemeteries, police were involved earlier this week to probe the case. As it turns out, a local gardening business, whose name has not been made public, was behind the QR codes.
The company had been tasked with cleaning the cemetery’s graves with Alfred Zanker, a senior manager, explaining that stickers helped his employees keep track of which headstones had already undergone maintenance.
“We are a large company. Everything has to happen in an orderly manner,” he told Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
As per the German newspaper, the repair process is relatively complex as the headstone has to be dismantled and transported away. Afterwards, the the stain is sanded down and the stone is put back in place.
“Due to the high number of cases, the police estimate the total damage to be in the mid-six-figure range, i.e. around Rs 4.5 crore or 500,000 euros.”
Notably, the cemeteries in Munich permit the use of QR codes so that relatives of the dead can have access to online memorials filled with photographs and other digital keepsakes. However, those codes are applied to the gravestones via an etching or metal plate.