Graveyard workers in Munich, Germany, were baffled recently as QR codes began appearing on gravestones and wooden crosses.More than 1,000 coded stickers were affixed to grave markers in three different graveyards in the city: Waldfriedhof, Sendlinger Friedhof, and Friedhof Solln. When scanned, the codes simply revealed the name of the person buried there.Cemeteries in Munich do allow QR codes to be affixed to graves, as a way to link to memorial pages or biographies of the deceased. They can be etched into a metal plate or on the stone itself. These, on the other hand, were simply white stickers affixed to the graves.The mysterious codes—measuring around 2 inches across—began appearing in December. However, Bernd Hoerauf, who oversees the management of Munich’s cemeteries, said they asked police to investigate just this week.In addition to the mystery of the stickers’ origins, authorities were contacted due to the expense of removing them without damaging the grave markers. The $104 to $523 cost made the stickers a matter of criminal concern due to the potential property damage.the qr codes began appearing on graves in december 2024“It’s really strange. We thought, ‘What could be the sense of this kind of sticker?’” Hoerauf told the New York Times.Ultimately, it was uncovered that the QR codes had been placed by a local gardening business in charge of cleaning the cemeteries’ graves.Alfred Zanker, a senior manager at the unnamed company, told Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that employees used the stickers to keep track of which grave markers had undergone maintenance and which still needed attention.“We are a large company,” he stated “Everything has to happen in an orderly manner.”While strange and perhaps a bit disrespectful, the mystery of the QR codes has finally been solved. And thankfully, the motivation was far less sinister than a similar incident in Germany’s past.In 2004, stickers commemorating prominent Nazi leader and Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess were placed on graves at a Jewish cemetery in Bochum, a city in western Germany. The culprit was never identified, but the incident was thought to be related to a far-right demonstration in a nearby town.The post Who Put QR Codes on 1,000 German Gravestones? appeared first on VICE.