North Cemetery (Minden)

The entrance to the north cemetery

The cemetery chapel in the north cemetery

The Minden North Cemetery is an 18 hectare listed cemetery complex in the East Westphalian city of Minden . It is located in the north-west of the city on the high bank on the left bank of the Weser and has been operated since 1904 as the successor to the Minden old cemetery .

history

The cemetery was planned from 1899 by resolution of the Minden City Council. Stadtgarteninspektor Isermann planned the facility and implemented the plan. The chapel was planned by the Minden city architect August Kersten. After almost a hundred years of occupation, the old cemetery, known in Minden as the “Old Cemetery” or “Botanical Garden”, was replaced in 1904 by the “New Cemetery” - now known as the “North Cemetery”. A war cemetery was laid out in the north cemetery between 1945 and 1946 for the dead of the Second World War . The foreign victims of war and violence lie in a burial ground here. The memorial plaque indicates 128 members of different nations. A total of 566 victims of both world wars - 264 civil citizens and 302 soldiers - are buried here. The large cross can also be found here, which was initially intended for the Schlageter monument on the Jakobsberg , but was dismantled there after a short time. In September 2007 the grave field of remembrance was inaugurated in the north cemetery , on which destitute and single people from Minden and the region of the church district Minden can be buried.

In 2011, the Nordfriedhof took part in the Open Monument Day for the first time . The chapel located in the cemetery is also often the point of the central ceremony on Minden's day of national mourning. In 2001 it was also the location of the ceremony for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

architecture

The cross on the banks of the Weser

The cemetery is designed in a park-like manner: it has wide paths lined with spacious lawns and is planted with rhododendrons .

The cemetery chapel, which was built in 1905 and is a listed building, is located in the cemetery. It is at the end of the avenue that begins at the main entrance on Marienstraße. The historic “In Kuhlmanns Freuden” path can be found on the banks of the Weser between the streets “Im Hohlweg” and “Wallfahrtsteich”. From 1810, families from Minden set up private burial sites there, where burials were carried out until around 1872.

The stairs with the high cross are located on the slope to the banks of the Weser.

The gatehouse at the entrance to Marienstraße was sold by the city of Minden in private hands.

Prominent tombs

Melitta Bentz (1873–1950) developed the coffee filter
Hermann Dröse (1880–1957), head of the employment office and long-time deputy mayor
Carl Hoffmann (1885–1947), cameraman