Heimbach war cemetery
The Heimbach war cemetery is a war cemetery in Heimbach in the Düren district in North Rhine-Westphalia . The official name of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge is: Heimbach-Mariawald-Abtei Mariawald war cemetery.
location
The cemetery is located in the Kermeter nature reserve at around 450 m above sea level, southwest of Mariawald Abbey . It can be reached by a footpath from the monastery .
Background and story
At the end of the Second World War , there was a main dressing station in the monastery from autumn 1944 to spring 1945 . Fallen soldiers were buried on a slope above the monastery. In 1949 there were considerations to transfer the dead to the Gemünd military cemetery. However, the community of Heimbach and the abbot agreed not only to keep the cemetery, but to expand it. In 1950, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge commissioned the Bensberg architect Orth to expand a cemetery of honor . In addition to the deceased from Heimbach, other dead from Berg , Eicks , Glehn , Hostel and Sauermühle were reburied. In addition, there were those who fell from the Schönblick military cemetery, which was located next to the St. Michael mission house in Heimbach. The inauguration took place on September 20, 1953 by the Aachen district president Brand. The church service was led by the cathedral capitular Neujean from Schleiden together with the pastor Korth from Gemünd. Every year there is a memorial service on the day of national mourning.
construction
The center of the complex is an 11 m high oak cross , which was erected on a rubble stone base . To the side is a staircase with a wall, in which a cassette with the grave directory is embedded. Behind it are five rows of graves, which are marked with crosses made of greywacke . A total of 414 war dead are buried in the cemetery, including Russian and Polish soldiers. The youngest dead are 18 to 20 years old. A dead man from Luxembourg was transferred to his home country in 1946. At the rear entrance, a stone in the masonry bears the inscription: "EHRENFRIEDHOF MARIAWALD / MEMORIAL OF THE DEATH OF THE WAR 1939–1945". It is supplemented by another memorial stone next to the graves that reads: “REMEMBERED OUR DEAD IN THE EAST”.
Web links
- War cemetery Heimbach-Mariawald-Abbey Mariawald , website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, accessed on September 21, 2019.
Coordinates: 50 ° 37 '5 " N , 6 ° 28' 31.8" E