War cemetery (Hildburghausen)
On the war cemetery on the city cemetery Hildburghausen least 444 victims were both 1914-1945 world wars buried. In addition to many restored tombs, there are a number of monuments that were erected from 1924 to 2005.
World War I military cemetery
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The north-eastern part of the city cemetery was used from 1914 as a cemetery of honor for soldiers who fell in World War I. Most of them were wounded and sick soldiers from all over the empire who had died in Hildburghausen hospitals . In 1927 there were 58 graves of German soldiers from the First World War who were buried in the cemetery. There were also three graves of Russian prisoners of war . The remains of four French and one Italian were returned to their home countries in 1926. Former German combatants were given additional beds until the 1930s. At first the grave sites were marked with wooden crosses. In 1915 a model of a tombstone was sketched, which symbolically leaned against the iron cross . It was the template for the “cross stones” made of shell limestone , which were set up uniformly from 1925/26 to 1928 (and later). They came from the workshop of the master stone sculptor Heinrich Borzel / Hildburghausen. The cost was 50 Reichsmarks per stone and was mostly borne by the relatives. But there were also donations, state support and help from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, founded in 1919 . Even now (2018) there are still or again 58 grave crosses for soldiers of the First World War who were buried here.
The foundation stone for the (still existing) memorial for the fallen took place on July 18, 1924, in the year of the 600th anniversary of the city. On August 28, 1926, the consecration celebrations took place in the Hildburghausen City Theater. The names of around 230 fallen or missing soldiers from Hildburghausen are carved on the back of the monument. The front shows a motto in the style of the time: THE PERFORMANCE DIES HIS DEATH VICTORIOUS / Awakening THANKS AND VOWE AND HOPE / LOVING WE ARE WITH YOU / YOUR AWAKENED / ETERNALLY CONNECTED. The sculpture as the upper part of the monument was created by Max Hoene , it is supposed to symbolize the resurrection of two fallen, with an angel in their midst.
Fallen memorial (from 1924) at Hildburghausen cemetery
War graves in cemetery (2018)
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WWII military cemetery
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During the Second World War , Hildburghausen was also the location of several hospitals and auxiliary hospitals with a large number of beds. The soldiers who died there were also buried in the cemetery of honor. Their number is not known. In addition there were shot down planes , casualties in the air raid on February 23, 1945 and casualties in the fighting near and in Hildburghausen in April 1945. For April 1945 there are about 20 and for May about 7 gravestones of members of the Wehrmacht . The last dates of death recorded on the grave crosses are from June 1945.
In 2008, an additional plaque was attached to the memorial from 1924, bearing the following text: IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN, MISSING AND VICTIMS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. The inauguration of the memorial plaque took place on November 16, 2008 on the occasion of the day of national mourning. The plate is made of Schönbrunn sandstone . It was made by the stonemason company Willnat and Rußwurm from Hildburghausen.
There is no name board in the cemetery for the Hildburghausen soldiers who did not return from World War II (in contrast to World War I). If one assumes a number of war casualties of “well over 500” for Hildburghausen in the Second World War and assumes that most of them were probably soldiers, then one obtains the assumed order of magnitude.
Bomb casualties February 23, 1945
There are about 92 gravestones in four long rows (not all of them are clearly legible due to weathering and mossing) with victims of the American air raid on Hildburghausen on February 23, 1945. Among them are numerous women, including children, and about fifteen to twenty members of the Wehrmacht ( killed wounded from the hospitals?). The field with the bomb victims is not marked as such, the visitor can only assign the gravestones if the date of the attack is known.
Bomb victim woman
Bomb victim child (2 yrs)
Allied soldiers World War II
Grave site for originally 31 Allied soldiers who died in the Hildburghausen military hospital. They came from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia and the USA. The remains of a number of them were returned to their home countries after the end of the war. The memorial probably dates from 1949, it was restored in 2007.
Allied soldiers, died in Hildburghausen
Soviet soldiers and civilians, foreign forced laborers
High obelisk from 1946 in honor of the 23 prisoners of war buried here from the Soviet Union and 65 foreign forced laborers . In 2012 the facility was renewed, including the fencing.
Soviet oblisk at Hildburghausen cemetery
Displaced persons memorial
Memorial stone with the inscription (metal letters on natural stone): “To commemorate the victims of flight and expulsion after World War II” ( Association of Expellees , Hildburghausen). The inauguration took place on June 8, 1996.
Displaced persons memorial cemetery Hildburghausen
Memorial to victims of the tyranny
Memorial stone with the inscription: IN HONOR MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE. The stone was erected after the fall of the Wall .
Memorial for victims of the tyranny in Germany
The war graves during the GDR era and afterwards
Werner Schwamm describes the fate of the German war graves in the Hildburghausen cemetery during the GDR as follows:
“In the times of socialism, little importance was attached to the maintenance of such facilities, and the result was decay. In 1992/93, a resolution by the German Bundestag called on the municipalities to record all war graves and facilities in the cities and communities. The graves were then registered. A site plan was not available. In some cases only wildly overgrown mounds of earth could be seen without names of graves. Under difficult conditions ... Allocation of the grave sites. In agreement with the Thuringian State Administration Office and the War Graves Commission , the burial complex in the central cemetery was redesigned by the city's building yard with a uniform lawn and pathways. The small number of old grave marks was revised in 1995/96, and 213 new grave marks were made and placed. The contract was awarded to the stonemason firm Hartmut Körschner from Eisfeld after a tender . The facilities and individual graves are presented to the visitors in a manner appropriate to their piety and thus comply with the War Graves Act. "
According to the statutory mandate, the war graves are permanently protected by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Thuringia .
According to information from the cemetery administration, there are 58 grave crosses from the First and 240 from the Second World War in 2018. They were last cleaned and demossed in 2006.
literature
- Werner Schwamm: Friedhöfe in Hildburghausen - places of reflection and remembrance (therein: “The war graves from the First and Second World Wars”, pp. 39–46). Edited by Hildburghausen city administration, cemetery administration. Verlag Frankenschwelle KG, Hildburghausen 2005. ISBN 3-86180-173-6
- http://www.schildburghausen.de/chronik/