German war cemetery Fricourt

View of the German war cemetery in Fricourt

The German War Cemetery Fricourt is a German military cemetery for fallen soldiers of the First World War , which is located in the French commune of Fricourt in the Somme department . It is located 600 m north of the village center on the D 147.

layout

The names of the fallen are on the front and back of the metal crosses. Individual stones lying in the grass indicate that soldiers are buried here too. Gravestones made of natural stone with the image of the Star of David were erected for 14 Jewish victims . Behind the individual graves are the names of those who are here in a communal grave on metal pillow stones . The cemetery is maintained by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge .

Gravestone for Jewish Fallen
Individual and community graves
Community graves
Plaques with the names of the known fallen in the communal graves (in front of the stone crosses)

Emergence

The cemetery was laid out in 1920 by the French military authorities. The fallen German soldiers who were temporarily buried in 79 communities and the combat areas in the wide area were transferred to the collective cemetery. These are mainly the northern areas of the Somme , the area around Albert (Somme) , Bapaume , Combles , Villers-Bretonneux and the Ancre valley .

After the Franco-German war graves agreement of July 19, 1966, the final construction and maintenance of the war cemetery could begin. From 1977 the wooden crosses were replaced by today's durable metal crosses.

The dead

17,027 fallen soldiers are buried in the cemetery. There are four mass graves in which 11,970 dead are buried, of which only 5,331 have been identified. In the 5,057 individual graves, 114 people buried could not be identified. Most of the dead (around 10,000) fell in 1916 during the Battle of the Somme . More than 6,000 fell during the German spring offensive of 1918 and the subsequent Allied final offensive of the First World War in 1918.

The fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen (also known as the Red Baron ) was shot down on April 21, 1918 and buried in Bertangles . He was later transferred to Fricourt and buried in Berlin in November 1925 . In 1975 he was finally buried in the family grave in Wiesbaden .