Heerdt cemetery

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The Heerdt Cemetery is a municipal cemetery in the Heerdt district of Düsseldorf and the only cemetery on the left bank of the Rhine in Düsseldorf.

Location and history

Peter Reinartz tomb, around 1841

As early as 1823, the mayor of Heerdt described the relocation of the old Heerdter churchyard at the St. Benedict Church as desirable. However, this project was initially rejected by the local council and the church council in 1826. In 1838, the church council submitted a petition to the mayor with the aim of relocating, which was approved by the local council that same year. The Archbishop's Authority also approved the relocation. In 1839 suitable land on today's Schiess-Strasse was acquired by the community of Heerdt from a farmer . The enclosure of the new cemetery was also financed by the municipality of Heerdt. On August 17, 1841, Peter Joseph Cornelius Reinartz, the late President of the Heerdter Church Council, was buried in the new cemetery for the first time. On his tombstone, which has been preserved to this day, he is referred to as “ the first to be buried in this churchyard ”.

The oldest burial register of the cemetery administration that still exists today begins on April 24, 1867, so that further burials between 1841 and 1867 are not documented in writing.

Originally the cemetery covered an area of ​​5.48  hectares . Two major expansions were made in the 20th century. In the northwest, the cemetery was expanded by an area of ​​6.89 hectares beyond the now-closed Neuss –Heerdt– Oberkassel railway line , with a footbridge being built to cross the railway line. On the east side of Schiess-Straße an area of ​​1.98 hectares bordering the Albertussee was included in the cemetery. The total area of ​​the cemetery is now over 14.3 hectares.

In the original part of the cemetery is the cemetery chapel , completed in 1966, whose inventory includes an organ with ten registers and whose glass windows were designed by Theodor Havertz. From the beginning of the cemetery some mighty German and American oaks and two large cedars that are under nature protection come from .

  • Tomb of the Nikolaus Knopp family

  • Tomb of the van Endert family

  • Mohr tomb, around 1912?

  • Luise Ederer's tomb, around 1920

  • Joseph Hammerschmidt's tomb, around 1926

Graves of famous personalities

At the cemetery, among others, are Kay Lorentz , Lore Lorentz , Josef Kohlschein , Walter Ophey , Hans Müller-Westernhagen , Theo Champion , Heerich and several mayors of the district buried. Well-known artists such as Joseph Enseling , Joseph Beuys , Wilhelm Hanebal and Detlef Dreiner have designed numerous graves here.

  • Joseph Enseling: Forkardt tomb, around 1935

  • Wilhelm Hanebal: Maerz-Balzer tomb, around 1956

  • Ewald Mataré (design), Joseph Beuys (execution): Walter Ophey tomb, 1950,

  • Joseph Beuys: Karl Wiedehage tomb, 1970

  • Erwin Heerich (draft): Erwin Heerich tomb, 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Vossen: Chronicle of the Heerdt Cemetery . Ed .: Bürgererverein Heerdt e. V. Heerdt through the ages, No. II . Düsseldorf 1980, p. 50 .
  2. ↑ Rolf Purpar: art city Dusseldorf. Objects and monuments in the cityscape . Grupello, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-89978-044-4 , pp. 420-422. Walter Ophey grave slab , designed by Joseph Beuys based on a design by Ewald Mataré .

Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 9 "  N , 6 ° 43 ′ 7.6"  E