**5. Early twentieth Century**

Over time, spatial segregators can take on, and produce, new meanings: With the building of a Roman Catholic chapel at the center of the cemetery's main part (Figure 1, C), the hedge separated the Protestants from the visual and ritual center of the cemetery. Also, the hedgerow was continued with every successive eastward extension of the cemetery (Figure 4), only to be cut down partly in the 1960s. The shifting south-easternmost corner of the cemetery became a burial place for socially and/or religiously excluded minorities, such as convicts or Socialists. As soon as Socialists became a decisive political force in Maastricht in the early twentieth century, they pressed for a dedicated cemetery section. In 1932, a specific section was opened for "dissenters" (*andersdenkenden*, not to be confused with Protestant Dissenters) in the cemetery's north-western corner. This new field was situated behind the walled Jewish part of the cemetery (see Figure 4).

Whilst the dedicated grave field provided a ritual space for dedicated Socialist rites, such as 1st of May celebrations (and is in fact used in this way to this day), users have emphasized communities beyond the Socialist one. A case in point is the grave of Johannes Hubertus Paris (1873–1939), an important figure in Maastricht's Unionist and Socialist movement, and his wife Anna Catharina Debats (1876–1954). Paris was one of the founding members of the first union of workers in the ceramics industry (1892) and a leader of the local Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). He seems to have been a relatively moderate figure, who tried to curb anticlerical tendencies in his movement (Cillekens [1988] 2018). The headstone features prominently a bronze relief of the deceased's portrait surrounded by a wreath. The headstone cut out of limestone summarizes in bronze lettering Paris' public service and evokes the Socialist community: "He worked for his city and for the people" (*Hij werkte voor zijn stad en voor het volk*). As with other Socialist graves, symbolic immortality in respect of the (Socialist) community is underscored by a further inscription noting that the monument was erected with voluntary gifts. At the bottom of the headstone, a bronze relief depicting a sun rising behind a hilltop, illuminating the path of two workers in front of the skyline of Maastricht above the city's five-armed star inscribes Paris' life in the context of local politics and workers' emancipation. However, in unison with the deceased's irenic character, the Socialist identity is not played out against religion; the headstone's form is clearly inspired by a Christian cross; the Maastricht skyline in the bronze relief concentrates on its iconic churches, and on the slab bronze lettering quotes a verse from the New Testament: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40 NIV, Dutch original: *Wat gy den minste der mijnen hebt gedaan*/*hebt gy my gedaan*). The passage is taken out of the eschatological parables towards the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, connecting righteousness to support of the most vulnerable. In the context of Cemetery Tongerseweg, the inscription renegotiates community: it mollifies the rigidity of ideological boundaries and gestures at a more practice-centered as well as ecumenic understanding of Christianity (see Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Grave of Socialist leader J.H. Paris (photograph: C.J.).
