French churchyard

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French churchyard in the Milchborntal

The French cemetery , also known as the French cemetery or war memorial, is a resting place in mass graves for the hospital residents of the Napoleonic troops in the Milchborntal in Bensberg on the southwestern edge of the Hardt , who mainly died of typhus and who were housed in Bensberg Castle from 1812 .

history

backgrounds

Similar to the story of the Imperial Cemetery , the French also set up a hospital in Bensberg Castle in 1813. Typhus broke out in them too, which in turn led to many deaths, which were also buried in the Milchborntal near the imperial graves. Numbers are not known, nor is the exact location known. It should be mentioned in particular that at the burial of the Austrian warriors, a great many French people who were there as prisoners were also buried.

The grave complex

After the festivities for the inauguration of the Imperial Cemetery in 1854, it was initially decided to leave it at that. At the beginning of April 1855, however, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Sylvius Ferdinand von Malachowski (1810-1893) came to the Bensberg Cadet Institute, who also called for a special honor for the French who were resting in Bensberg . Not far from the Imperial Cemetery, a place was chosen where a corresponding memorial was erected. In 1862 the engineer A. Müller from Liège made the large iron grave cross with the inscription:

"Aux soldiers français, enterrées ici 1813 un compatriote"

- (A compatriot dedicates this cross to the French soldiers who were buried here in 1813)

monument

The cenotaph of the French churchyard is registered as an architectural monument under No. 31 in the list of architectural monuments in Bergisch Gladbach .

literature

  • Guide for Bensberg and the surrounding area , published by the Bensberger Verschönerungsverein n.d. (around 1900)
  • Kurt Kluxen : History of Bensberg , Paderborn 1976

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Anton Jux: The KK Hauptarmeespital in Bensberg and the Imperial Cemetery , Wuppertal-Elberfeld 1955
  2. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, 1956, p. 233; Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 5, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1938], DNB 367632802 , pp. 254-256, no. 1537.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 20 ″  N , 7 ° 9 ′ 19 ″  E