British cemetery on Heerstrasse
The British Cemetery on Heerstraße is a cemetery of honor in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf , on the south side of Heerstraße near the Grunewald forest . Around 3,600 British soldiers who died in and around Berlin during World War II are buried here. First and foremost, they are crew members of downed Royal Air Force bombers .
General
The British military cemetery on Heerstraße was built between 1955 and 1957 as a replacement for the British military cemetery on Trakehner Allee that had been established a few years earlier, which had to be closed in 1959. The site was intended for the construction of a television tower - which ultimately did not take place. The dead were from there to the new burial site on the highway reburied . The new military cemetery was designed by the architect Philip Dalton Hepworth on an area of around 3.8 hectares. Its design essentially corresponds to the pattern of other British military cemeteries, such as the British cemetery on the grounds of the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf or the Commonwealth cemetery of honor in Cologne's south cemetery ; Characteristic here are uniform, simple tombstones made of English Portland sandstone , the high cross with bronze sword, the centrally placed memorial stone with memorial inscription (here: Their name liveth for evermore ) and well-tended, short-cut lawn. The entrance area is formed by a three- arcade gate made of shell limestone with wrought iron gates.
Like the other British honorary cemeteries in Germany, this cemetery is administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission . Most of those buried here are British Air Force personnel who died in attacks on Berlin; In addition, soldiers who died in prison camps are buried here, as well as some civilian members of the British occupation forces after 1945. In addition to the British, soldiers from other Commonwealth countries such as B. mostly Canada buried, also soldiers of unknown nationalities and five Polish war dead. The cemetery of honor houses a total of 3,576 individual graves. The war cemetery is under special protection from the British Crown.
See also
- List of allied institutions in the western sectors of Berlin
- Berlin funeral services
- List of war cemeteries
Web links
literature
- Klaus Hammer: Historic cemeteries & tombs in Berlin. Stattbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-922778-32-1 , p. 178.
- Paul Ortwin Rave (ed.): The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. Charlottenburg. Part 2: Irmgard Wirth: City and District of Charlottenburg. Text tape. Mann, Berlin 1961, pp. 483-484.
Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 25.8 ″ N , 13 ° 13 ′ 16.2 ″ E