German war cemetery Sologubowka
The German war cemetery Sologubowka is located in the Lesje district of Sologubowka in Russia, about 70 kilometers from St. Petersburg . It is a collective cemetery for (as of 2015) 54,245 German soldiers who died in the Second World War .
Acts of war
The Leningrad blockade of the Wehrmacht claimed around 1.1 million starvation deaths in Leningrad and the lives of German and Soviet soldiers. It is one of the war crimes. From December 1941, the siege and trench warfare resulted in high losses of life on the German and Soviet sides. The dead were transferred to the collective cemetery from a large number of burial sites in Leningrad.
location
The war cemetery is 50 km southeast of St. Petersburg in the direction of Mga , between Kirovsk (Leningrad) and Tosno . The German military cemetery is located in the Lesje ( Лезье ) district of the Sologubowka ( Сологубовка ) settlement (location: 59.699 ° N, 31.111 ° E on Google Maps). At the exit of Sologubowka towards Tosno, after crossing the Mag river, the road on the right leads to the church and the cemetery.
Three memorial areas
The Volksbund received five hectares of church-owned land for the memorial. The area is divided into three memorial and peace sites: war cemetery, peace park and the Church of the Assumption of Mary.
graveyard
The cemetery was laid out by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge since 1996 . Fallen people from various Russian grave sites were and are being reburied there. The names of (as of 2015) 35,348 dead were recorded on granite steles. In the final stage, over 80,000 graves are to be created there, creating the world's largest German war cemetery. It was inaugurated on September 9, 2000.
Peace park
The Peace Park was created by planting two Russian birches and one German oak. It is a symbol of the growing peace between Germans and Russians. Tree sponsorships are arranged by the Volksbund. The 400 trees of peace are marked by granite stones with the tree number.
Church of the Assumption
The Russian Orthodox Church was consecrated in 1851. During the Second World War the cellar of the church was used as a hospital for German soldiers. The destroyed church was renovated with the help of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge and handed over to the Russian community of Sologubowka in 2003. The church interior is available to the congregation and visitors. In the vault under the church there is a memorial and exhibition room on the fate of the Second World War. The names of the fallen, missing and captive German soldiers of the Second World War in Russia are also documented there. In 2003 a wall sculpture by the German blacksmith Manfred Bergmeister was erected in the church .
See also
- Russian military cemetery on the neighboring Sinyavino Heights .
- Piskaryovskoye memorial cemetery with hundreds of thousands of victims of the Leningrad blockade.
- List of war cemeteries
Web links
- Website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the war cemetery in Sologubowka)
- Axel Vogel: Right to a decent grave. In: taz.de of February 7, 2004.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Internet site of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (work of the Volksbund and description of the war cemetery in Sologubowka)
- ↑ Information board on the acts of war and the war cemetery.
- ↑ Letter from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. to its members and donors from March 24, 2010
- ^ Project war cemetery St. Petersburg - Sologubowka
- ↑ Peace Park St. Petersburg - Sologubowka
- ↑ Axel Vogel: Right to a decent grave. In: taz.de of February 7, 2004.
Coordinates: 59 ° 41 ′ 39.5 ″ N , 31 ° 6 ′ 47.6 ″ E