Old cemetery (Erkelenz)
The old cemetery in Erkelenz is the former cemetery on Brückstrasse. Although it has been in municipal ownership since its inception, it is often mistaken for a Catholic cemetery. The background to this idea lies in the fact that until 1900 almost only Catholics lived in Erkelenz. The members of the Catholic parish of St. Lambertus, who in the 19th century belonged to Erkelenz and the surrounding villages of Buscherhof , Oestrich , Bellinghoven , Tenholt , Genehen , Scheidt , Commerden , Matzerath , Mennekrath , Terheeg and Wockerath , were buried here. The few Protestant citizens were buried in the Schwanenberg cemetery until 1902, when a Protestant cemetery was also inaugurated in Erkelenz . Tradition has it that only one Protestant person was buried in the old cemetery, a Major Ferdinand Rothe of the local district command, who died in 1882. The tombstone is still preserved. The cemetery has been a listed building since 2006 . The entire cemetery is surrounded by a high wall, which is only interrupted by two gates on Brückstrasse. With its old graves , tall trees, bushes and wild herbs, the cemetery has a peculiar charm and offers a place of silence in the middle of the city.
history
Until the 1820s, the cemetery in Erkelenz was located around the parish church, i.e. in the middle of the city center. For hygienic reasons and due to the lack of space, it was closed and a new one laid out in the field on Brückstrasse between Erkelenz and Oestrich. The city bought the site in 1820 and enclosed it with a wall in 1824. The inauguration of the cemetery took place in 1825. Twelve Weymouth pines were planted along the paths, later popularly known as "The 12 Apostles " . The cemetery wall was completed in 1832, for which stones from the partially demolished city wall were used and family graves were sold along the inner wall to finance them. In 1864 there was a southern extension, which was also provided with a wall in 1865.
In the 1880s, the cemetery was enlarged again by purchasing a plot in the direction of Oestrich, so that it now comprised almost one hectare. In 1888/1889 the wall of this part of the cemetery was built. He too received a gate from Brückstrasse.
The cemetery regulations of 1880 provided for children's graves on the new and adult graves on the old part of the cemetery. Private graves for family graves were along the inner walls. There was a rest period of sixty years. Later private graves were also allowed on the inner surfaces. The former outer walls, which were now in the cemetery due to the two extensions, were removed.
In 1923 the city laid out a new cemetery on Wassenberger Straße (today Schulring), which was only opened in 1934. In the same year, the old cemetery was closed to row graves, but the family graves could still be used. On December 31, 1969 it was finally closed.
In 2008 the restoration of 47 particularly valuable tombs began. The city of Erkelenz and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia contributed almost a quarter of a million euros in funding. The work was completed in mid-2011 and on October 12 of the same year damage from vandalism was found at around 20 graves, including some of the restored tombstones. According to police investigations, the damage was caused by a group of 12 and 13 year old children. However, they told the police that some of the grave sites had already been destroyed when they entered the cemetery.
High crosses
There are two high crosses in the cemetery, each on the oldest and newest part of the facility.
- The baroque high cross from 1827 bears the Latin year of its erection and the inscription “Ex mortuis primo genitus” (First to rise from the dead).
- The neo-Gothic cross from 1884 bears the inscription " Mein Jesus Barmherzigkeit" on the front and the name of the widowed donor and the year "Donavit Wwe Herm " on the back . Claessen Erkelenz 1884 ” .
Gravesites
In the old cemetery there are many graves of personalities and families who played an important role in the city and the above-mentioned villages in the 19th and 20th centuries. The members of the Spiess family were buried in three family graves. The mayors Bernhard Hahn and Johannes Spitzlei, the notary Hermann Joseph Gormann, from whose estate the hospital was built, the district administrator Gustav Claessen and the weaving mill owner IB Oellers, who laid out the city park, are buried here. The newspaper publisher Joseph Hahn , who died as a result of his imprisonment in a concentration camp , found his final resting place in the cemetery in 1944.
Nothing reminds us of the graves of the nuns who worked as nurses in the hospital. They are on the outer wall on Anton-Heinen-Straße.
The priest's burial place with a statue of the Good Shepherd is located on the southern inner wall . Diagonally opposite is a small cemetery of honor for victims of the First World War . Eighteen fallen soldiers from Erkelenz and three Russian prisoners of war are buried here. The war memorial with the dedication to the fallen warriors of the municipality of Erkelenz 1914 1918 was erected in 1926. The local sculptor Franz-Xaver Haak created a relief with a crucifixion group .
Behind this complex, a memorial with a Russian cross 
and in Cyrillic script commemorates Soviet forced laborers , six men and one woman who died in World War II . In 1942 three Polish slave laborers were also buried. Roger Paul Louis Chalbert (?), A French prisoner of war, found his resting place here in 1944, and in 1949 he was transferred to France. The cemetery is therefore the first stop on the “ Route against Oblivion ”, which in Erkelenz refers to the Nazi tyranny.
literature
- Paul Blaesen, sign on the way. Documentation of small Christian monuments in the city of Erkelenz , writings of the Heimatverein der Erkelenzer Lande e. V., Volume 17, Erkelenz 1998
- Hans Josef Broich, “A fine quiet place” , in: From the history of the Erkelenzer Land pp. 265–273, Writings of the Heimatverein der Erkelenzer Lande eV, Volume 20, Erkelenz 2006
- Frank Körfer, The old cemetery in Erkelenz. Now under monument protection - monument of historical personalities , in: Heimatkalender des Kreis Heinsberg 2007, p. 97 ff.
- Josef Lennartz, Die Erkelenzer Friedhöfe , in: Heimatkalender der Erkelenzer Lande 1969, pp. 108–117
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 4 '55.95 " N , 6 ° 19' 19.15" O