German military cemetery in Menen
The German military cemetery in Menen , with around 48,000 graves, is the largest cemetery of its kind in Belgium . It is the resting place of German soldiers of the First World War , who fell there mainly in the battles around Ypres ( First , Second and Third Battles of Flanders , Battle of Messines ). The cemetery was laid out in 1917 by the German troops after the fighting for Menen . After the end of the war, only 6,340 dead were buried here.
history
During the First World War, Menen was occupied by German troops from October 1914 to mid-1918. Due to its geographic location, the city was only a “stone's throw away” from the Western Front. Fields and hospitals were operated there. Until 1917 the dead were buried in the city cemetery (behind the train station). But in the course of 1917, mainly because of the Third Battle of Flanders , work began on the Groenestraat on the Menen – Wevelgem border with the establishment of a new cemetery, the "Ehrenfriedhof Meenen Wald Nr. 62". The term "forest" indicates an adjacent forest. At the end of the First World War there were 6,360 German soldiers' graves here.
After and during the war, the care of the cemetery was assigned to a German authority, the “Central Office for Warrior Losses and Warrior Graves” in Berlin. As a result of an agreement between the Belgian and German governments, the German cemeteries were assigned to the “Official Graves Service for Germans in Belgium”, which from 1925 entrusted the Belgian Red Cross with the care. The architect of the facility was Robert Tischler .
In 1954 it was agreed to amalgamate the numerous small German military cemeteries that had been scattered as a result of the war. Accordingly, between 1956 and 1958, the German dead from the 128 cemeteries that were still in existence were merged into four German military cemeteries in Flanders: Langemark , Vladslo , Hooglede and Menen. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge gives the number of abandoned and therefore abandoned cemeteries for the Menen military cemetery as 49. The fallen dead of these 49 - or 53 according to another count - cemeteries in the south of Flanders were brought to Menen and made the cemetery of honor, with 47,864 dead, the largest German military cemetery of the First World War. All fallen German soldiers of the First World War found their final resting place on the "Ehrenfriedhof Meenen Wald Nr 62" and were grouped under the group 'M'. The remains of the German war dead from the city cemetery were placed in the area of the letter 'H'.
Jan Vancoillie puts the total number of cemeteries and tombs from which the dead were reburied after the Menen military cemetery at 232. He gives 48,049 German soldiers as the number of dead; the number of 47,864 deaths given on the wall of the entrance building was incorrect. In comparison with other similar cemeteries, there are almost no unknown soldiers in this place, which means that almost every soldier buried in Menen-Wevelgem has been identified beforehand.
In 1991 all tombstones were renewed. The facility is maintained by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has taken on the sponsorship of the Menen cemetery of honor .
description
The park-like facility is located about three kilometers northeast of the city center of Menen, near the road to Wevelgem . You enter the resting place through a small entrance building, in which the list of all those who died and a visitor's book are on display, in which one can write down impressions or even just the name. The path then continues to a centrally located, small chapel with an octagonal floor plan. The interior is decorated with elaborate mosaics depicting biblical motifs. In each of two shrines there is a parchment book in which the names of those who rest here are recorded. The names of the abandoned German military cemeteries whose dead were transferred to Menen are recorded around the chapel. The grave field itself is overgrown with lawn and, with its tall trees, looks like an extensive park. The strict geometry of the row of Belgian granite tombstones is broken up by a group of sandstone crosses that is sometimes scattered across the surface.
Names of the cemeteries
There are eight stone slabs around the chapel for the most important cemeteries. Jan Vancoillie has listed and treated the following former and still existing cemeteries in a scientific paper.
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gallery
Gate entrance
Inscription at the entrance
Memorial cemetery with reclining tombstones
Mausoleum in the shape of an octagon
Memorial to the abandoned German military cemeteries
See also
literature
- Werner Bernhard Sendker: Fallen in Flanders fields. Germans and their relationship to the First World War. 2nd, completely revised and greatly expanded edition. Der Andere Verlag, Tönningen et al. 2005, ISBN 3-89959-366-9 .
- Jan Vancoillie: De Duitse militaire begraafplaats Menen forest. Geschiedenis van de Duitse militaire graven van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in Zuid-West-Vlaanderen. J. Vancoillie, Wevelgem 2013 ISBN 978-90-8210-390-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volksbund
- ↑ Jan Vancoillie: Foreword. In: Jan Vancoillie: De Duitse militaire begraafplaats Menen forest. Geschiedenis van de Duitse militaire graven van de Eerste Wereldoorlog in Zuid-West-Vlaanderen. J. Vancoillie, Wevelgem 2013, ISBN 978-90-8210-390-8 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 34 ″ N , 3 ° 9 ′ 2 ″ E