St. Georgen war cemetery (Bayreuth)

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War graves in the St. Georgen cemetery in Bayreuth

The war cemetery at the St. Georgen cemetery in Bayreuth is one of the largest cemeteries for soldiers and bombs in Upper Franconia . 992 mainly German, but also foreign war deaths rest on the war cemetery , which has been occupied since autumn 1944 . They are soldiers and many of the approximately 1,000 (mostly civilian) victims of the Allied bombing raids on Bayreuth in April 1945.

War events in Bayreuth

On April 5 and 8, 1945, there were two heavy American air raids on Bayreuth, and on April 11, a very heavy British bombing raid followed . The Allies threw 475 (671) tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on the city from a total of 210 (285) strategic bombers. 4,500 apartments (37% of Bayreuth's living space) were destroyed. Around 1,000 people died. 62 foreign workers were killed in an air raid shelter in one of the cotton mills on April 5, and a large number of soldiers in a barracks at lunch on April 8. The St. Georgen cemetery was also hit and badly damaged. On April 14, US soldiers occupied the city. Fighting in the Bayreuth area continued for days.

Location and access to the war cemetery

The war cemetery is located in the southwest of the cemetery of St. Georgen in the district of St. Georgen on the road behind the church, a side street of Bernecker road. This is easy to reach from the federal highway 9 .

Occupation of the war cemetery

From autumn 1944 the south-western part of the St. Georgen cemetery became the resting place of soldiers who had died in Bayreuth hospitals .

A large part of the approximately 1,000 deaths from the Allied bombing raids in April 1945 were also buried here (others in the city cemetery), many even after reburial. The funeral ceremony on April 8th, after the April 5th attack "for the victims of American terrorist aviators", also took place here on the previous military cemetery. The celebration was scheduled for 8 a.m. and was postponed to 10 a.m. due to siren warning. Even then, the commemoration with the Lord Mayor had to be interrupted twice because of the risk of low-flying aircraft. On the same day, a funeral service had already taken place at 7:00 a.m. in the main cemetery.

In 1951, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge began to build a worthy war cemetery. In the following years, 184 dead from field graves in the area were laid to bed. The war cemetery was officially opened on June 13, 1954. There are now 992 war deaths there; in 1994 almost 1,000 were reported.

The guide for the bereavement of the city of Bayreuth shows only an incomplete and white area for the war graves on the map of the St. Georgen cemetery - in contrast to the grave fields with the civilian dead.

Design of the war cemetery

The dead received individual floor stones in the form of stylized crosses, with dates of birth and death (some “unknown” only with date of death). In between there are numerous symbol crosses in groups of three. The war cemetery is shaded by deciduous trees and surrounded by a hedge.

You can only recognize the bomb victims if you know the days of the air raids (April 5, 8 and 11, 1945); there is no common plaque. The victims of the air strikes were children, women and men, including many foreigners from Eastern and Western Europe. The St. Georgen cemetery itself was hit in the bombing and badly damaged.

An artistically designed cross indicates the German war victims without a grave "in the east".

Near the entrance from the civilian part of the cemetery to the war cemetery, there is a memorial stone with the inscription on two rows of graves: "Here, far from home, lie 99 dead of Eastern European peoples as victims of the war 1939–1945".

In the vicinity of the cemetery and at its entrances there are no signs indicating a war cemetery with soldiers and bomb victims located here.

  • Unknown soldier April 1945

  • Bomb victim woman April 1945

  • Eastern European bomb victims in 1945

  • Grave field St. Georgen war cemetery

  • Memorial cross for those who fell in Eastern Europe (without grave)

  • Map of the war graves of St. Georgen

  • Name book of the war victims St. Georgen

literature

  • Bayreuth cemetery administration: Counselor for bereavement. Bayreuth.

Web links

Commons : St. Georgen War Cemetery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Christoph Rabenstein , Ronald Werner: St. Georgen. Pictures and stories . Druckhaus Bayreuth, Bayreuth 1994, ISBN 3-922808-38-7 , p. 94 .
  2. ↑ http://www.nordbayern.de/region/pegnitz/stadt-erinnert-an-die-luftangriff-auf-bayreuth-1.4294709
  3. ^ Dieter Mronz: The urban development of Bayreuth since 1945 . In: Bayreuth. From an 800-year history . Edited by Rudolf Endres. Böhlau-Verlag Cologne, Weimar, Vienna. 1995. ISBN 3-412-10594-5
  4. ^ Rabenstein, 1994
  5. ^ Werner Meyer: Götterdämmerung. April 1945 in Bayreuth . RS Schulz publishing house. Percha 1975. p. 189. ISBN 3-7962-0066-4
  6. ^ Rabenstein, 1994

Coordinates: 49 ° 57 ′ 6.7 "  N , 11 ° 35 ′ 32.2"  E