Cemetery II (Gotha)

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Extract from the official Gotha city map from 1905. Cemetery II can be seen on the right-hand side of the picture in the middle.

The cemetery II , also Middle graveyard called, was one of the old cemeteries in the city of Gotha in Thuringia .

history

The former morgue of the cemetery from 1813 (status 2016)

After more than 200 years since the age graveyard called cemetery I offered little room for new graves, was in 1757 just north of it furnished Cemetery II. This was bounded by Eisenacher Strasse, Sonneborner Strasse and Friedhofsstrasse (since 1893 Karl-Schwarz-Strasse).

The first corpse to be buried here was a Prussian Rittmeister who was shot by an Austrian Pandur on September 19, 1757 in a battle on the Schlichte plain in Gotha . The new cemetery was not accepted by the citizens for a long time. Above all, the long-established Gotha families buried their deceased members in the old family graves and in the existing vaults of Cemetery I, which was not closed until 1874. In 1831 a morgue with an apartment for a castellan was built on the site . By resolution of the city council on April 28, 1883, Cemetery II was closed for burials out of consideration for the health police.

In 1933 there were still 109 graves in the cemetery, and in many cases several family members were resting in one grave. 80 of the tombs still preserved at that time stood along the cemetery walls.

In November 1968 the clearing of the cemetery by the VEB Grünanlagen und Friedhofwesen began. Only 16 culturally and historically important grave monuments, including those of Arnoldi and Ekhof, were recovered and moved to the main cemetery . In the course of 1969 all grave monuments were completely cleared away. Only the stone wall and the morgue from the 18th century remained. This was rebuilt and housed the municipal kindergarten "March 8th" from 1970 to 1990, then the Protestant kindergarten (1990 to 1993), the first Protestant elementary school (September 1993 to August 1995) and the youth club “New E-Haus” run by the Diakoniewerk "(1996 to 2012). The building has been empty since then.

On May 21, 1993, on the occasion of Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi's 215th birthday, his tombstone was the only grave monument in the eastern part of the park-like former cemetery grounds, but not at the original location, but about ten meters away. Since then, the students at the nearby Arnoldischule have honored the namesake of their facility on his birthday by laying flowers on his tombstone.

In 2014, the western half of the cemetery wall, including the gate pillars, was dismantled and rebuilt after the stones had been renovated; in 2016, the eastern half including the plague gate followed .

Graves of important personalities

Arnoldi tombstone, in the background the former funeral chapel

Among other things, their final resting place was found here:

The plague gate

The "plague gate" before the renovation in 2016

Interesting is the popularly Pestpförtchen called small, walled gate left of the cemetery entrance at the Eisenacher Strasse. It is said to originate from the Alt Gottesacker and bears the now heavily weathered year 1554 on the top of the arch. According to the legend of the plague gate , it carried the dead of a raging plague epidemic to cemetery I through it . After the passage was walled up on the advice of a wandering monk, the raging of the plague ended abruptly. According to legend, the gate must not be opened so that the plague never returns to Gotha. Believing this, the gate is said to have been moved into the surrounding wall of Cemetery II when the walls of the Old Gottesackers were torn down.

When the cemetery wall was completely dismantled for stone renovation, the plague gate was also removed in autumn 2016. After the renovation of the two goal posts and the four-part arch, the individual parts were rebuilt in the same place and sealed again with stones.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Louis Schmidt: A walk through our oldest cemetery , Gotha no year, page 5
  2. ↑ Gothaer Bürgerbuch. Official collection of local statutes, contracts, police regulations and other official regulations , Gotha 1899
  3. ↑ Around the Friedenstein , No. 15, Gotha 1933
  4. ↑ Old stones are moving , in: Gothaer Heimatzeitung, November 28, 1968
  5. ^ Matthias Wenzel : Documentation on the history of the cemetery II , Gotha 2014, p. 3f.
  6. ↑ http://www.gotha.de/service/aktuell/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung-detailansicht/article/fortetzung_der_mauersanierung_am_ehemaligen_friedhof_ii_in_der_eisenacher_strasse.html press release of the Gotha city administration from August 25, 2016
  7. ^ Andreas M. Cramer: The Gotha legends. Gotha 2005, p. 33f.
  8. ↑ The plague gate

Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 5.2 "  N , 10 ° 41 ′ 42.2"  E