The Passing of the Transient (Couple)

History of the work

At the northern end of the covered urn wall beside the crematorium of the Bremgarten cemetery, Albert Lindegger created a sgraffito in 1959. Its title is 'Das vorüberziehende Vergängliche' (The passing transient); the addition 'Paar' (couple) distinguishes it from the second part at the southern end of the same wall, which shows an angel. Both the Swiss art lexicon SIKART and the list of works on Wikipedia include the entry 'Crematorium, Bremgarten cemetery, 1959' among Lindegger's commissions for buildings.

Lindegger was born in Bern on 14 September 1904 and died in Bellinzona on 14 October 1991. As a schoolboy he was given the nickname Lindi; according to SIKART it became first his artist's name and later his official surname. After the trade school in Bern he went to Paris in 1926 and studied further with André Lhote and Roger Bissière. In 1931 he founded the group 'Der Schritt weiter' with fellow Bernese artists. He became known above all for political cartoons; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland calls him a sharp critic of National Socialism and fascism. From 1955 to 1990 he drew for the front page of the newspaper 'Der Bund'. From 1965 he lived with his family in Agarone in Ticino.

The crematorium itself was built in 1907/08 in Art Nouveau style; the first official cremation in Bern took place in October 1908. Since 1916 an urn hall has surrounded the building like a cloister, and a south wing followed in 1931. For 1959, the year of the sgraffito, the city's heritage inventory records an extension to the urn hall. It singles out the stained glass and sgraffiti of the complex as valuable.

Urn niches are hardly in demand today. Two of the listed urn halls were therefore converted, and in early March 2026 'La Vie', the first restaurant in a Swiss cemetery, opened there. On site you can compare the two ends of the urn wall: the couple here, the angel to the south.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · SIKART: Lindi (Albert Lindegger) · HLS: Lindi · Wikipedia (de): Albert Lindegger · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Weyermannsstrasse 1 (Krematorium) · Stadtgrün Bern: Der Bremgartenfriedhof – Ein Spaziergang mit Geschichten (2023) · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof · Keystone-SDA/swissinfo: Bern betritt mit Friedhofsrestaurant „La Vie“ Neuland · Südostschweiz: Restaurant in umgebauter Berner Urnenhalle nimmt Betrieb auf · Wikimedia Commons: Foto