North Cemetery (Dresden)

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Oldest part of the north cemetery with cemetery chapel

The Dresden North Cemetery is the former military cemetery of the Saxon state capital and is now used as a public cemetery . The oldest of the four communal cemeteries in the Dresden city area has been in municipal ownership since 1961. The Nordfriedhof is a listed building as a whole, cf. List of monument conservation issues in Dresden #Churches and cemeteries .

location

The north cemetery is located in the Albertstadt district and thus belongs to the Neustadt district . It is located northeast of the city center near the southwest edge of the Dresdner Heide . The army officers' school and the Soviet garrison cemetery are located in the vicinity of the approximately 4 hectare cemetery area that can be reached via Marienallee or the Kannenhenkel .

history

Grave site Paul von der Planitz
In the grove of honor for those who died in the Dresden garrison in the First World War
450 bomb victims: fire brigade, police, soldiers in rescue operations

Following the Franco-German War , the Saxon Army was modernized. As part of the reorganization, large barracks were built in Albertstadt in the 1870s according to plans by the Saxon Minister of War Fabrice . This also included a large military hospital, which was located north of the cadet quarters of the officer school and is now on the grounds of the Graf Stauffenberg barracks . Around 1900 Paul von der Planitz , Fabrice's successor in the office of Minister of War , suggested the construction of a military cemetery in order to be able to bury deceased soldiers and their relatives and servants in the immediate vicinity of the place of death.

On October 1, 1901, the North Cemetery was inaugurated under the name Garrison Cemetery . The first burial took place in December of the same year and the cemetery chapel was consecrated in 1902. Initially, the cemetery walls covered a rectangular area of ​​about 1 hectare. Burial sites of well-known personalities from military history were laid on these walls, which exist on all sides. A first expansion was necessary in the First World War , for whose casualties a grove of honor was built from 1917 outside the old walls, a little further to the east. Honor plaques donated by regimental associations and created by Emil Hartmann were put up here. In addition to more than 2000 members of the German Army , Serbian , Russian , French and Czech prisoners of war also found their final resting place in this area . Between 1922 and 1947 there was also an artistically sophisticated bronze monument based on a model by Max Lange . It showed two soldiers, one of whom was in agony, and was melted down on the orders of the SMAD . Every year, around St. John's Day, a heroes' commemoration is celebrated in memory of the fallen . In 1930 the name of the garrison cemetery was changed to the local cemetery .

In the course of the Second World War , the cemetery had to be expanded a second time, which was again possible without any problems, as it is completely surrounded by forest. This third part of the cemetery was built around 1940 and enclosed by a wall that also includes the first extension. 978 German Wehrmacht soldiers and foreign forced laborers rest here in eleven collective graves and over 100 conscientious objectors who were executed or who took their own lives. In 1951 450 Dresden bomb victims were buried here from February to April 1945, mainly fire fighters , police officers and soldiers, in a collective grave and a memorial stone was erected for them. They were initially buried outside the cemetery. The overwhelming majority of the dead on February 13th, however, lies in the Heidefriedhof .

Shortly after the end of the war, the cemetery was renamed again. Since then it has been called the Nordfriedhof . In the immediate vicinity, on the other side of the street, the Soviet garrison cemetery for deceased members of the Soviet army was laid out on the orders of the Soviet occupiers . In the north cemetery there is also an urn community facility for 5500 burials from the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1987 under monument protection , he is now a civilian and urban cemetery. Every year, on the anniversary of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, the victims of National Socialism are commemorated in the North Cemetery . Members of the Army Officer School and representatives of the City of Dresden, the Working Group of Saxon Military History , the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge and the military chaplaincy often take part in these events .

Important graves

Memorial plaque for the resistance fighter Hans Oster on the inner wall of the north cemetery

There are also memorials to people from July 20, 1944 in the cemetery :

Memorials

Ascent to the grove of honor
  • Grove of honor for the soldiers of the Dresden garrison who fell in World War I , the complex is considered to be artistically valuable
  • Memorial stone over collective grave for 450 air war victims (in February, March and April 1945) from the ranks of the fire brigade , police and armed forces
  • Memorial stone for the fallen of World War II
  • Memorial for the members of Infantry Regiment No. 10, Artillery Regiment No. 4 and Cavalry Regiment No. 12 who died in World War II
  • Memorial cross for Wehrmacht soldiers convicted of desertion or degradation of military strength
  • Memorial stone for Hungarian soldiers in World War II
  • Memorial stone for Polish , Czech and Romanian foreign workers
  • Memorial stone for Soviet forced laborers

See also

Literature and Sources

  • Marion Stein: Cemeteries in Dresden. Kulturamt der Stadt Dresden (Ed.), Verlag der Kunst Dresden, 2000, ISBN 90-5705-130-3 .
  • Holger Hase and Wolfgang Scheder: Dresden war cemeteries. Places of remembrance for the victims of war and tyranny . Edited by Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge . Dresden 2010. pp. 56–59
  • Working Group of Saxon Military History V.

Web links

Commons : Nordfriedhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The North Cemetery. Dresden Municipal Cemetery and Funeral Services, accessed on September 3, 2017 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 4 ′ 48.9 "  N , 13 ° 46 ′ 37.8"  E