Catholic cemetery Cologne-Mülheim
The Old Catholic Cemetery on Sonderburger Strasse in the Mülheim district of Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine is one of the oldest preserved cemeteries in the Cologne city area. He is the Catholic parish of St. Clement managed and Mauritius and used today for funerals.
history
When exactly the cemetery was created is not clearly documented. However, since the St. Mauritius cemetery chapel, which has been preserved to this day, is known to have been built in the 13th century, and in the Middle Ages the church building and the churchyard always formed a unit, it is assumed that the cemetery began in the 13th century or earlier this position had already existed. At that time, the site was used for burials for members of the St. Mauritius community who lived in Mülheim and in the neighboring town of Buchheim (now also a district of Cologne). However, no details of the history of the cemetery until the 18th century have survived; Also, no older graves have survived today, the oldest known to be from 1841.
After the Duchy of Berg , to which Mülheim also belonged, was occupied by French revolutionary troops at the end of the 18th century , the Napoleonic burial laws came into force there in 1804 , according to which, among other things, burials within cities were forbidden, so that existing inner-city burial sites were relocated had to be - a fact that at that time also led to the establishment of the Melaten cemetery in Cologne . However, the St. Mauritius community protested against the relocation of the Mülheim community cemetery, which argued that neither financial resources nor suitable land were available for relocation. Since the Bergische administration did not insist particularly strongly on their demands for a relocation, the community managed to escape its obligation over decades. When the Prussian government finally issued an ordinance in 1865, according to which churchyards were confirmed as the property of the responsible municipalities, provided that the property had existed for a long time and unchallenged, the relocation of the cemetery was finally off the table.
The cemetery was temporarily closed in the 20th century: in 1904 the city of Cologne established a large communal cemetery ( Mülheimer Friedhof ) near Mülheim and shortly thereafter prohibited new burials in the St. Mauritius cemetery, with the exception of burials in existing family graves. Since a large part of the churchyard was largely neglected in the course of the next few decades, negotiations between the city and the municipality took place in the 1930s about a partial acquisition of the cemetery by the city and the conversion of the purchased areas into a green area. However, they dragged on until the city finally abandoned its intention to buy after the outbreak of World War II . It was not until 1955 that the congregation was able to part with the part of the churchyard area that was no longer needed by selling it to a Redemptorist community that needed building land for the construction of a monastery . With the entry into force of a new burial order in the 1970s, the continued existence of the cemetery as a Catholic community cemetery was now assured; Since then, there has been unrestricted burial again.
In the course of its history the cemetery has been expanded several times. In the 19th century, in the course of advancing industrialization and the resulting population and community growth in Mülheim as well, this happened twice, namely in 1844 and 1870. Another expansion took place in 1970 when, after the partial sale of the property in 1955, the Burial place soon became insufficient. For the same reason, the municipality had to buy back part of the previously sold land in 1982 and 1992.
Both the cemetery and the chapel have been a listed building since 1989 .
Buildings
As already mentioned, the oldest datable tombstone in the churchyard dates from 1841 and belongs to the burial site of the Keup family, who had donated a hospital to the community at the time and which is why Mülheimer Keupstraße owes its name. Many other well-known names from Mülheim's history can also be found here. Also striking is the grave of the landowner Ludwig Köhler from 1868, a stele with an angel figure and reliefs , which is also the highest tomb in the churchyard. The oldest part of the cemetery with a large number of sometimes elaborate gravestones from the 19th century is located on a hill around the chapel and near the entrance gate from Sonderburger Straße.
literature
- Cemetery administration of the Catholic parish of St. Clemens and Liebfrauen (ed.): Old Catholic Cemetery Cologne-Mülheim . Cologne 2005
- JR Beines: The churchyard at St. Mauritius in Buchheim , in: Colonia Romanica IX / 1994, pp. 33–36
- G. Leitner: Friedhöfe in Köln - Mitten im Leben , pp. 304-306. Cologne 2003
- HM Schleicher: The Old Catholic Cemetery Cologne-Mülheim , in: Rheinische Friedhöfe, 2nd anthology 1992, pp. 84–86
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 21 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 31.7 ″ E