War cemetery Hötzelsroda
The war cemetery Hötzelsroda is a military cemetery and memorial in the area of the city of Eisenach in Thuringia . The war cemetery is located northeast of Eisenach not far from the Hötzelsroda district in the area of the former landscape park of the Dürrerhof manor .
history
Soldiers of the US Army , who had taken the town of Eisenach and its surroundings between 1 and 6 April 1945 laid yet in April 1945 near the Dürrerhof a military cemetery for fallen soldiers in the fighting to Eisenach and the Werra line the in died on the last days of World War II . 375 fallen members of the Wehrmacht were buried, some of whom were later reburied.
Further burials of found soldiers followed over the years, for example the remains of a German soldier who fell in Ukraine in the early 1990s . Most recently, in October 2008, a fallen fighter pilot recovered near Bucha was buried on the war cemetery. There are currently 372 graves in the military cemetery, which is a bedside cemetery.
The initially wooden grave crosses were later replaced by iron crosses. In 1982 the cemetery was extensively redesigned at the expense of the Eisenach district and many of the iron crosses were replaced by tombstones. In 1994 the city of Eisenach took over the maintenance of the war cemetery. In the spring of 1995, in coordination with the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, fundamental work began on redesigning the area. The Free State of Thuringia assumed the costs of 195,000 German marks. The cemetery of honor was reopened on November 19, 1995 for national memorial day .
The plaque below the high cross bears the following text: HERE RUHEN 358 GERMAN SOLDIERS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. YOU DIE, BE US ADMINISTRATION AND OBLIGATION TO MAINTAIN PEACE.
Every year the dead are commemorated on the day of national mourning as part of a ceremony.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 31.1 ″ N , 10 ° 21 ′ 24.1 ″ E