Geestemünde cemetery

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Geestemünde cemetery

The Geestemünder Friedhof is a cemetery in Bremerhaven that was laid out in 1859 . In the province of Hanover it was the only cemetery in Geestemünde . He did not get a chapel until Christmas 1931.

history

Pastor Plaß, first grave of the new cemetery
Listed cemetery chapel

The cemetery of the Geestendorfer Marienkirche was big enough for 350 inhabitants for centuries. That changed after 1845 with the rapidly growing Geestemünde . Due to the Geestemünder ports , the number of inhabitants quadrupled to 1,500 within a few years. In January 1846, the Landdrostei Stade rejected the expansion of the cemetery at St. Mary's Church for reasons of cost. Twelve years later, on February 2, 1858, the church council asked the Royal Consistory in Stade to approve the creation of a new cemetery. The positive decision was not long in coming, especially since the parish wanted to bear the costs itself. For 9,000 gold coins she bought 10 pieces of arable land in the east of Geestemünde. The fields were "1,180 feet long, 323 feet above and 315 feet below".

The day before the official inauguration of the Geestendorfer cemetery, on May 14, 1859, Pastor Georg Plaß (born October 18, 1796), who had campaigned for a new cemetery for years, died. The congregation buried him on May 18.

The Marienkirche remained the fulcrum of the “Dodenweg” (death path ): funeral procession from the Geestemünder Paschviertel (between Bismarckstraße and Grashoffstraße) was not allowed to move directly to the new cemetery. They had to take the long way across Georgstrasse and An der Mühle - around St. Mary's Church. Only an order from the district administrator put an end to this custom in 1890. In the past there was probably only a paved path, but today Süderwürden still leads from Schillerstraße (Bremerhaven) directly to the cemetery. Due to the individual traffic and the low underpass under the new railway (1914) it lost its importance.

In spite of the great distance, the cemetery was laid out in the open field marrow; because in this way, extensions to the north (1892) and south (1905, 1908) were possible. Only hereditary and row funerals were planned. Foreigners - from Bremerhaven and Lehe - could only be buried in Geestemünde as an exception.

chapel

Laying out was difficult because there was no morgue or cemetery chapel . The neighboring hospital from 1869 was far too small for that. The new Geestemünder hospital at Hartwigstrasse 8 (1904) received a morgue in the back garden, which was also used by the Geestemünder community. In addition, in spite of the housing shortage and the small apartments in the apartment buildings, laying out at home was still common until 1930. The community and citizens urged, however, to build a chapel with a morgue and “need issue” that had been planned for years in the cemetery. In July 1923 Geeste Mündes stepped magistrate approached the church council with the request to the cemetery kommunalisieren . In return, the company promised its own morgue and thus a reduction in the extraordinarily high transport costs from the morgue at the hospital to the cemetery. The community did not shut itself off from a uniform administration of the cemetery system, but did not want to comply with the fees applicable in Bremerhaven or Lehe because the "conditions are very different". Negotiations were considered fruitless, especially since it was impossible to estimate how the urban corporations would be composed in the distant future. In 1924 Geestemünde and Lehe merged to form the city of Wesermünde . In April 1927 the community turned to the magistrate; Because according to the new building regulations, enormous road construction costs were to be expected when building a chapel. The Lord Mayor Walter Delius intervened. After two contracts had been agreed at the end of April 1930, the church council commissioned the architect Wilhelm Allers to design a cemetery chapel. It was inaugurated on December 22, 1931.

The chapel proved the independence of the parish and ensured the Protestant communities in Wesermünde and Bremerhaven the continued existence of their cemeteries. The project of a central cemetery behind the Bismarck Tower (Bremerhaven) had been completed ( rejected by all municipalities) . However, there was now no money for the redesign of the cemetery. Wilhelm Wendebourg , the superintendent of the Geestemünder community, asked H. Kühne in Kassel for an expert opinion. It turned out very bad. Wendebourg followed Kühne's suggestions - cooperation with the municipal cemetery administration, uniform fee schedule at the Wesermünder cemeteries, new cemetery administration. The cemetery planner and horticultural architect Franz Siebold managed to redesign and beautify the cemetery within two years. The small but important administration building opposite the main entrance was built in 1937. Wesermünde and Bremerhaven only met in November 1939 (after the attack on Poland ).

The chapel and its horticultural environment are strictly formal. The structure of the chapel could be a reference to the Marienkirche. The proximity to brick expressionism is recognizable . Above the double doors of the entrance is the masonry inscription:

JESUS SPRICHT: ICH LEBE UND IHR SOLLT AUCH LEBEN

The Holy Cross made of gilded binder heads is integrated into the wall surface of the tower . The two steles at the entrance carry cross-shaped lamp bodies made of blue glass. In the basement there are ten chambers for laying out the dead. An organ has been on the gallery since 2009. For the company's 75th anniversary in 2005, the funeral home Koop collected donations for a death knell . It rang for the first time in May 2009.

Model cemetery complex

Model cemetery complex

In order to raise and promote the art of cemeteries and tombs, the “model cemetery complex”, which is still known today under the name, was completed in 1938. With this system, the cemetery authority had set itself the task of fundamentally renewing the very inconsistent design of the tombs and tombs. In this burial field, the individual graves lay side by side without being separated by hedges or other plantings. The lawn was the connecting element and dominated the entire complex with the uniform ivy hills.

Memorials

Fallen of the First World War

  1. The complex from the 1920s is dominated by a sweeping oak, the symbol of the imperial era . It overshadows 18 grave slabs.
  2. In the vestibule of the chapel, two large memorial plaques remind of the “officials and workers” of the Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard who died in the First World War .

Fallen and bomb victims of World War II

Hall of Honor

On May 19, 1952, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge asked the city of Bremerhaven for permission to build a hall of honor on the honorary section of the cemetery for fallen soldiers and bomb victims. The place of honor was inaugurated at the end of June 1955. It includes 360 deaths, including 252 members of the Wehrmacht, 99 civilians who died in the air raids on Wesermünde and 9 foreigners. In the hall of honor, the names of the dead are placed on the wall behind the Christ body. The inscription on the stone at the entrance to the honor grove reads:

NIEMAND HAT GRÖSSERE LIEBE ALS DIE, DASS ER SEIN LEBEN LÄSST FÜR SEINE FREUNDE.

Displaced persons

Pastor Wachendorf consecrated the wooden home cross on April 7, 1950. It commemorated the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe in 1945–1950 . It was set up by country teams of Silesians , Upper Silesians , Pomerania , East Prussia , West Prussia , Danzigers and Sudeten Germans . The ambiguity of the inscription was clear:

HERR GELEITE UNS HEIM! DEN TOTEN DER OSTDEUTSCHEN HEIMAT.

Since the wooden base was rotten, the memorial was replaced by a granite stone in 1997. Associations of displaced persons , Bremerhaven citizens and credit institutes are responsible for the maintenance.

Shipping accidents

  • FD Thor

  • FD James Krüss

Graves

Cemetery administrator

Franz Siebold (1940)
  • 1892–1932 Ludwig Quantity
  • 1933–1936 Siegfried Quantity
  • 1937–1950 Franz Siebold
  • 1951–1967 Kurt Grahlmann
  • 1968–1983 Helmut Heinsohn
  • 1984–1991 Otto Bolz
  • 1991-2007 Jens Bek
  • 2007–2017 Jens Bek and Volker Lichtenberg
  • since 2017 Volker Lichtenberg

literature

  • Ralf Koop: The Geestemünder Friedhof. Documentation from 1859–2010 . Self-published by Ralf Koop i. Hs. Funeral Home Koop, Bremerhaven-Geestemünde 2011.

Web links

Commons : Geestemünde Cemetery  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Office for Monument Preservation # 3056
  2. ↑ a b Ralf Koop: The establishment of Geestemünde triggers the planning of the cemetery , in which: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), pp. 18–21.
  3. ^ Ralf Koop: The old Geestendorf and its churchyard , in ders .: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), pp. 15–17.
  4. ↑ Ralf Koop: The first cemetery order 1859 , in ders .: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), p. 22.
  5. ↑ a b Ralf Koop: attempts to localize the magistrate in 1923 , in ders .: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), pp. 40–51.
  6. ^ Ralf Koop: Franz Siebold is the new cemetery inspector , in which: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859-2010 (2011), p. 58.
  7. ↑ Ralf Koop: Architecture of the chapel as the central point of reference of the cemetery , in which: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), pp. 52–56.
  8. ^ Ralf Koop: Design in the spirit of the times: The model cemetery complex 1938 - Department 7 C , in this: The Geestemünder Friedhof. A documentation 1859–2010 (2011), pp. 66–67.
  9. ↑ Nordsee-Zeitung of June 24, 1955

Coordinates: 53 ° 31 ′ 41 ″  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 16.5 ″  E