Eller cemetery
The cemetery Eller , colloquially often Eller Cemetery is a cemetery in the Düsseldorf district of Eller . It is located in the south of Eller on both sides of the Werstener Feld road. With an area of around 19.4 hectares and 18,000 grave sites, it is one of the medium-sized cemeteries in Düsseldorf. The older, 8.78 hectare part east of Werstener Feld was opened in 1907 and is characterized by old trees, the newer western part has existed since 1956.
History of the first cemeteries in Eller
Up until the 18th century, the people of Eller had to bury their dead in the cemetery in Gerresheim , while the lords of the castle had a cemetery within Eller Castle . Finally, in 1775, the establishment of a separate cemetery immediately west of the moat was permitted by the state authorities. The first person to be buried was Anna Catharina Spieker on March 28, 1775, who died after the birth of her son. This cemetery was located on the site of the chauffeur's house built in 1909, which is now used as a district museum. During earthworks in the museum's garden in 2011, the bones of around ten buried children were recovered, which enabled the exact location of this cemetery to be located again. In 1809, the Kirchacker was moved a little further away to the neighborhood of gardens, where the sports fields of the Dieter Forte comprehensive school are today, while the funeral procession continued from the old castle chapel. After a separate village church was built in Eller on the corner of Gumbertstrasse and Ellerkirchstrasse in 1829 and the castle chapel was demolished, the cemetery was also relocated to the new church on Ellerkirchstrasse in 1831, which continued until the current cemetery was built on Werstener Feld in 1907 was occupied. Today there is a small park with a playground in its place.
Werstener Feld cemetery
After the parish church of St. Gertrud was rebuilt at the new location Gertrudisplatz in 1901 and the old village church on Ellerkirchstrasse was demolished, it was decided in 1907 to relocate the community cemetery outside the core of the settlement to Werstener Feld. On All Souls' Day , November 2, 1907, Arnold Breuer, the first deceased, was buried in the new cemetery. From his grave 100 years later only the gravestone base and the border of the grave site remained. At the original north entrance next to the Werstener Feld 203 house, a roundabout made of six red beeches was planted for the opening, five of which are still impressive and behind which the oldest part of the cemetery with fields A – J is located. The stone high cross built in 1909 at the end of a path leading from the roundabout has been a listed building since 2010. The graves of the Catholic parishes of St. Michael in Lierenfeld and St. Maria Rosenkranz in Wersten are located on the roundabout . The graves of the Catholic parish of St. Gertrud in Eller are a little further behind. Since the incorporation of Ellers in 1909, the cemetery has been administered by the city of Düsseldorf. The cemetery chapel with burial and administration rooms was built in 1925/26 and the cemetery was expanded to include fields 1–15 up to the Düssel . Field 3 is occupied by the graves of honor of 264 German bomb victims and soldiers of the Second World War . On space 6 there are graves of honor of 728 Russian, 69 Polish, 3 Estonian and one Croatian war victims.
In 1956, the cemetery was expanded to include the new part west of Werstener Feld with a size of 9.79 hectares up to the property on Harffstrasse and the Bruchhausenstrasse, which was later developed. While the paths and fields of the old part were laid out geometrically, in the new part they predominantly follow curved landscape forms. The southern motorway feeder to the A 46 along the Düssel, which was built in 1963/64 and which has existed since 1936, forms the southern boundary of the cemetery. The two almost equally large parts of the cemetery have opposite main entrances on the street separating them and are connected by a path below the feeder and Düssel bridge from 1963. In 1978 the new part of the cemetery was expanded again by 0.78 hectares in the direction of Harffstrasse (fields 33 A – D, 35 A, 36 D).
More than 30,000 burials have taken place since 1907, around 400 annually. Their final resting place was, among others, Josef Stick, the first and only mayor of Eller from 1896 to 1909, the painter Franz Witte (1925–1971), the Düsseldorf FDP mayor Hans-Günter Deimel (1927–1976) and the football player Kurt Borkenhagen (1919–2012).
After the decision to reduce the size of the cemetery again in 2011 due to the changing burial culture, selected grave fields have been closed for further burials since 2013 and the occupancy is concentrated on other areas. From 2035 onwards, the cemetery will be able to expand the existing, neighboring recreational areas.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 100 Years Eller Cemetery www.unser-duesseldorf.de from October 31, 2007, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ 600 years of St. Gertrud
- ^ The Dead Children by Eller RP online June 11, 2015, accessed August 31, 2015
- ↑ 100 Years Eller Cemetery www.unser-duesseldorf.de from October 31, 2007, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ From old trees and grave fields of honor at the Eller NRZ cemetery online from April 9, 2013, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ^ Eller cemetery is reduced in size RP online from December 13, 2014, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ Michael Brockerhoff: Düsseldorf: Politics wants to reduce the size of the cemeteries. In: RP online. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 32.6 " N , 6 ° 49 ′ 51.2" E