The enigma surrounding the mysterious QR codes in Germany has now been clarified. City officials and the media in Germany were perplexed when white rectangular stickers, featuring QR codes and names, appeared on over 1,000 graves across various cemeteries in Munich.
Bernd Hoerauf, the individual responsible for managing the city’s cemeteries, expressed in an interview this week that the situation was “quite unusual.”
“We wondered, ‘What could be the purpose of such stickers?’”
It is important to highlight that QR codes are not a new phenomenon in Munich cemeteries. For more than ten years, individuals have been incorporating QR codes into memorials on headstones, providing information about their deceased loved ones. However, these codes are typically engraved directly into the gravestone or affixed as metal plates.
The recent stickers, which began to appear in December of the previous year, were simply adhered using glue.
Was it a form of Nazi propaganda?
Initially, there were speculations that the QR code mystery might be linked to Nazi propaganda, partly due to a previous incident in 2004 when similar stickers were discovered in a Jewish cemetery in Bochum, located in western Germany.
These stickers were later identified as tributes to Rudolf Hess, a prominent Nazi official and deputy to Hitler.
The World Jewish Congress indicated that the stickers were likely associated with a far-right demonstration that took place in Wunsiedel, a town in southeastern Germany.
The recent QR codes, however, bore no connection to the religious or ethnic backgrounds of the graves.
Upon scanning, these QR codes provided trivial information, such as the name inscribed on the grave and its location, both of which were already known.
Involvement of Law Enforcement
After months of speculation, the city municipality opted to contact the police earlier this week. It was soon uncovered that a local business, contracted to maintain and clean certain graves, was responsible for affixing these stickers.
The police did not disclose the methods used to identify the offenders or the name of the company involved.
Nevertheless, a senior manager from the business later informed a local entrepreneur that the implementation of QR codes was intended to assist employees in tracking graves and headstones.
“We are a large company,” he stated to the newspaper. “Everything must be conducted in an orderly fashion.”
