For the press release on this promotion research see: Roermond cemetery reflects living city (EN)

The international literature characterises late nineteenth and early twentieth-century cemeteries as being a ‘mirror’ of society. They were supposed to reflect social relationships in a living city. For the first time, this dissertation examines this assertion by using a concrete example, namely cemetery ‘Nabij Kapel in ’t Zand’ located in the Dutch city of Roermond. The study shows that the cemetery in Roermond can indeed be considered a ‘mirror’ of social relationships in the city of Roermond between 1870 and 1940. The cemetery was a ‘small copy’, a ‘microcosm’ as it were, of the city of Roermond in this period.