Ostenfriedhof Dortmund

Taeglichsbeck tomb by Clemens Buscher

The Dortmund Ostenfriedhof (also known as Ostfriedhof or Ostpark) is a cemetery and park-like green area established in 1876 in the Dortmund district of Innenstadt-Ost .

Many famous citizens of the city are buried in the 16 hectare east cemetery on Robert-Koch-Strasse, which is close to the city center. Beautiful old graves with ornate tombs are evidence of wealthy families who have found their final resting place here. Numerous grave sculptures were made by the Jewish sculptor Benno Elkan . The historical part of the cemetery with trees and paths, the fence, a gate, fountain, the mourning hall, a toilet house, the administrator's building and 362 individual grave monuments are registered as monuments in the monuments list of the city of Dortmund .

The Ostenfriedhof is now part of the Route of Industrial Culture .

history

Location map

The Ostenfriedhof in Dortmund was established in 1876 as the second municipal cemetery after the "Westentotenhof", today's Westpark . This second cemetery complex is related to the rapid population growth in the course of the industrialization of the Ruhr area. While around 4,000 people lived in Dortmund when the Westentotenhof was founded in 1811, in 1876 there were over 50,000. The first burial took place on April 1, 1876.

It was buried in two fields, rarely in three fields at the same time. The oldest graves can be found in fields 2 and 5. In 1898 burials are recorded for the first time in field 14, which means that the Jewish section of the cemetery has existed since that time. Already in 1912 it was decided to lay out the main cemetery and thus to transform the east cemetery into a park. However , this project was delayed mainly by the First World War and it was not until 1921 that the first burial took place in the main cemetery. On this day, the east cemetery as well as the south-west and north cemetery were closed for burials in series. The burials in family and hereditary crypts were allowed.

The Ostenfriedhof suffered severe damage during the Second World War and was temporarily closed to all public traffic. The Jewish cemetery in particular was badly damaged by vandalism during the Nazi era and heavy bombing. The enclosure, which was destroyed and only restored in 1949, encouraged further vandalism in the post-war period, for example through bronze theft. The reconstruction work was slow due to a lack of personnel and material and lasted until the 1950s.

Between 1950 and 1955, the east cemetery was expanded to include grave fields 24 to 28 and since then more burials have been carried out.

The Jewish part of the Ostenfriedhof

Memorial for the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime

The dead of
the
Jewish community
Dortmund
1933-1945
In the face of God,
mindful of their loved ones
, they had to give up their lives
for the faith of their fathers

According to the burial register, field 14 has been used as the Jewish part of the cemetery since 1898, with field 14a being reserved for adults and field 14b for children's burials. The tombs were along the paths. The bombing raids of the Second World War destroyed this part of the cemetery particularly badly. Only three direct bomb hits were recorded on this relatively small area. What the bombs spared was robbed or destroyed by looters. In the course of reparation, the city of Dortmund undertook to renovate the Jewish cemetery section after 1945. Bomb craters were removed, the two row fields leveled, lawns sown and new paths laid out. A memorial with the following inscription was erected for the Dortmund Jews who were victims of the National Socialist regime.

Jewish burials were restricted in the Ostfriedhof from 1936 and stopped in 1943. Even after 1945 no more Jewish burials took place here; A separate area of ​​the main cemetery in Dortmund was reserved for them.

Important personalities and graves

Family grave of steel construction company Jucho

"Persephone", grave sculpture by Benno Elkan

Relief on the tomb of Fritz Geck

Many families who played a decisive role in the city's industry and economy lived in the surrounding residential area of ​​the Ostenfriedhof. In the heyday of the coal and steel industry , these families acquired large fortunes, which is reflected in the impressive tombs.

Directly behind the entrance on the right is the grave of Henriette Davidis , who was one of the first and most successful cookbook authors in Germany.

Another important woman from Dortmund, the women's rights activist and school founder Marie Reinders , is buried in grave field 19 in the western part of the cemetery.

From the main entrance at Robert-Koch-Straße 35 one of the main axes of the cemetery leads south. The founding generation of the Hoesch family , long owners of one of the largest German steel companies, is buried here. The design for the grave of the important construction company Caspar Heinrich Jucho (field 13) comes from the Paris World Exhibition of 1898. One of the last remaining cast-iron tombs in Westphalia is the crypt of the Bäumer family with impressive art nouveau ironwork (field 3).

Two memorials commemorate large firedamp explosions in Dortmund. On August 19, 1893, 61 miners were killed at the Kaiserstuhl I colliery . 48 of these miners were buried next to a large memorial stone under iron steles with name plaques (field 10). On December 22, 1897, another large explosion followed at the same mine, this time at Shaft II, in which 19 miners were killed. The monument in the form of a large stone slab can be found in field 11.

Another memorial commemorates the Jewish victims of National Socialism. Next to a central memorial there is a row of stones connected with chains that bear the names of various concentration camps.

Some of the grave monuments were designed by the Dortmund-born Jewish artist Benno Elkan , who among other things created the bronze menorah in front of the parliament in Jerusalem .

A memorial stone next to the memorial for the mine dead commemorates Carl Wilhelm Tölcke , one of the pioneers of the General German Workers' Association founded by Ferdinand Lassalle in 1863 .

Other outstanding tombs:

• Fritz Brinkhoff (1848-1927); Brewmaster
• Wilhelm Brügmann family ; Entrepreneur and mayor of Dortmund; Box 21
• Crüwell family; Publisher; Field 2
• Bernhard Hoetger ; Sculptor, painter and architect of expressionism; Box 18
• Ludwig Holle ; Prussian Minister of State; Box 21
• The Kleine family ( Eduard Kleine , secret Bergrat, honorary citizen, 1837–1914; Eugen Kleine, Bergrat, director of the Harpener BAG 1867–1928; Paul Kleine, district court director, 1871–1941 among others)
• August Klönne family ; Entrepreneur; Box 21
• Kortenacker / Röllecke families; Building contractor; Box 19
• The Kruger family ; Booksellers and publishers; Field 2
• Brother Jordan Mai (1866-1922); Franciscan, was reburied in the Franciscan Church in 1950; Box 14
• Otto Rupprecht (1855–1902), General Secretary of the National Liberal Party for Westphalia
• Wilhelm Schmieding family : Mayor of Dortmund; Box 21
• Heinrich Schüchtermann family ; Manufacturer and honorary citizen; Field 2
• Schulze family; Architects; Box 23
• Friedrich Springorum family ; Industrialist; Box 5
• Otto Taeglichsbeck (1838–1903); Mining Captain and Director of the Dortmund Higher Mining Authority; Box 10
• Carl Tewaag ; City politician and honorary citizen; Box 21
• Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen (1905–1967); Critic, bookseller, translator, donor of the modern art collection at the Ruhr University in Bochum

Sculptures and tombs by Benno Elkan

Benno Elkan: Kneeling man with extinguished torch

• Walking , 1904
• Crouching, 1905
• Resurrection , 1905
• Seated boy playing the flute , 1906
• Melcher family tomb, 1908
• Persephone , 1908
• Cycle of Death , 1910
• Kneeling man with extinguished torch , 1910
• Dormant, 1910 (lost)

Sources and references

1. ↑ No. A 1030. List of monuments of the city of Dortmund. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: dortmund.de - Das Dortmunder Stadtportal. Monument Authority of the City of Dortmund, April 14, 2014, archived from the original on September 15, 2014 ; accessed on June 12, 2014 (size: 180 kB). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ on the industrialization of the city of Dortmund cf. also the article on the history of the city of Dortmund
3. ^ City of Dortmund, Citizen Services: History (s) from the city district, Volume 1, Der Ostfriedhof
4. ↑ cf. also the articles on the cookbook museum in Dortmund and the Henriette-Davidis-Museum in Witten -Wengern

literature

• Nöring, Rosemarie; Schade, Heinrich (Hrsg.): Der Ostenfriedhof - A contribution to local history of the metropolitan area Dortmund , Dortmund 1955/1998
• P. Döring, R. Ebert, B. Posthoff (eds.): Discover Dortmund - 25 city tours. Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88474-268-X
• Hofmann, Fritz and Schmieder, Peter: Benno Elkan. A Jewish artist from Dortmund. Essen 1997, ISBN 3-88474-650-2

Web links

Commons : Ostenfriedhof Dortmund  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~6~10629
• Site plan with photos of the tombs
• Pictures of the monument in the picture archive of the LWL media center for Westphalia

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 35.3 "  N , 7 ° 29 ′ 33.1"  E