Russian and Soviet war cemeteries in the city of Lübeck

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There are four Russian and Soviet war cemeteries in the independent city of Lübeck . Two of them are located in the Vorwerker Friedhof on Friedhofsallee in Lübeck . The Graves Act in Germany guarantees the inviolability of these graves. The Federal Republic of Germany bears the costs of maintaining the graves .

image place location address Web link
Lübeck-vorwerker-cemetery-tomb-russian-soldiers-wk-1.JPG Lübeck (Location) Vorwerker Friedhof, Block 21: WWI war cemetery Grave site for 90 Russian prisoners of war of the First World War
HL Back then - Vorwerker Friedhof - Memorial to Russian War Victims - Anlage.jpg Lübeck (Location) Vorwerker Friedhof, Block 32: WWII war cemetery Grave site for around 300 Soviet forced laborers
Lübeck (Location) Cemetery of honor Travemünder Allee / Sandberg Grave site for four Soviet victims of World War II
Lübeck-travemünde-cemetery-st.-lorenz-war-graves.JPG Lübeck-Travemünde (Location) St. Lorenz Cemetery, Mühlenberg 8 Grave site for three Soviet victims of World War II

background

Gravesites of Russian soldiers of the First World War

The war management of the IX. Army Corps of Altona was built at the beginning of the First World War one as Barack hospital designated military hospital , which was Germany's largest hospital in the war, on the castle field . For those who died there, the cemetery authorities had provisionally made the most beautiful place available behind the main chapel of the Vorwerk cemetery, for which cemetery inspector August Langenbuch was responsible as director of the cemetery administration , as the construction of a grove was planned. On November 23, 1914, there were already eight German dead in the trenches on one side and three Russian and three French dead on the other.

Today the graves of Russian soldiers from the First World War are in Block 21. ( Location )

Langenbuch put on the Vorwerker cemetery a burial site for deceased German soldiers and a framed by fir trees burial ground for more than 80 captive dead Russians to.

Cemetery of Russian soldiers (1931)
above cemetery of Russian soldiers (today)

In 1920 the Senate discussed the preparation of the graves of "enemy warriors". This involved the approval of funds for new crosses and inscriptions. Individual burial mounds with wooden crosses were created. Most of them were Russians who died in captivity. The decidedly lined up wooden crosses of the same size marked the soldiers' graves - typified graves - and impressed the viewer. Langenbuch put on the Vorwerker cemetery a burial site for deceased German soldiers and a framed by fir trees burial ground for more than 80 captive dead Russians to. On the grave of a Russian Asian Muslim, under the cross, the symbol of the Christian faith, was a simple wooden plaque with the Asian inscription. The use of recumbent grave slabs, although giving a very calm overall impression, was not very popular at the time.

After the Second World War, the field was expanded to include 15 supposed Poles. One of them turned out to be a Russian shot on May 9, 1945, who was reburied on September 29, 1952.

Today the field is even with terracotta tiles . Recumbent grave slabs were not very popular back then, although they give a very calm overall impression. In winter they disappeared under the snow and quickly put moss on.

Soviet war dead of World War II

Bad treatment of forced laborers and prisoners of war

Forced laborers were mainly used in the armaments industry in Lübeck. The people of the Soviet Union were treated badly and inadequately fed. The clothing in winter was insufficient. People died from abuse, malnutrition, illness, unsanitary conditions, work to the point of exhaustion, accidents, bombing and executions. From 1943, deceased forced laborers were buried in the Vorwerker cemetery. Deceased Soviet prisoners of war were brought to the anatomical institute in Kiel. Large numbers of victims of the Gestapo and special courts were not buried in Lübeck.

Soviet honor grove

As early as 1946, the Soviet Military Mission had selected the place in Block 32 that it wanted to use for its honorary grove in Lübeck. She urged the cemetery administration to review the 482 corpses of Soviet citizens here convert beds .

Since this was considered impracticable for reasons of cost, they turned to the British occupying power , on whose territory Lübeck was located, for help . So could Mayor Otto Passarge the Senate report on 7 July 1946: "The request of the Soviet Military Mission to the City Council ... has military government such claims rejected for the time being, with the indication that the Soviet military mission is not authorized to to judge the city authorities within the occupation zone ... "

Finally it was agreed that only the dead at the end of 101 soldiers, mostly prisoners of war , new to this burial would.

The grove is a rectangle in which there is a square from the second quarter, the corners of which are each formed by a tree. To the left and right of the opening forming the entrance to the rectangle there is a bench inside. The graves are arranged chronologically clockwise. In the upper half of the square, two rows of tombs connect the side rows in terms of time and space. They are interrupted in the middle, thus enabling passage to the monument .

The monument stands in the form of an obelisk outside the square, characterizes the complex and is designed around the number five. Its base has the shape of a dog's foot lying on the ground . On the side facing the entrance there is a plaque with an inscription in Cyrillic letters . As on all Soviet monuments of the Second World War in Germany, it reads:

“380 Soviet citizens who perished in fascist Germany between 1941 and 1945 are buried here. She will not forget her homeland. "

A column in the shape of a pentagram rises from a smaller pentagon on the base . A five-pointed red star , today it is often perceived as a symbol for the socialist or communist worldview , stands on the obelisk.

Construction work began in August 1946. When the Lübeck companies and stonemasons commissioned by the Soviet military mission had not received any money, the construction work was stopped in autumn 1947.

From June 15 to 18, 1949, 63 Soviet nationals were reburied in the cemetery in the honor grove.

On July 12, 1949, the Lübeck City Director Emil Helms turned to the Minister of the Interior of Schleswig-Holstein , Wilhelm Käber , ... the column should be removed down to the base . In their place a pyramid made of concrete ... is to be built; the whole thing crowned by a Soviet star . The cost is estimated at 300 marks. The star was made from artificial and shell limestone for 68.50 DM. The Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior then took over the costs.

On August 11, 1949, the inspection was carried out by the Soviet authorities and handed over to the Lübeck cemetery administration for further maintenance .

On September 29, 1952, three more beds were made in the honor grove:

  • Unknown Russian (died after several fights among Russians in Hubertus)
  • Alexander Jakoslemi Bassen (was shot while looting by English soldiers on May 9, 1945 )
  • Unknown Russian (the former prisoner of war in Hubertus died on May 7, 1945 in an accident )

  • Grove of Honor

  • Obelisk base

  • blackboard

  • Crown

  • Surrounded by September 29, 1952

Web links

Commons : Russische Kriegsgräberstätte Lübeck  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cemetery plan of the Vorwerker Friedhof ( Memento from June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Russia thanks you for looking after the war graves. In: HL-live.de, archive from December 17, 2014
  3. ↑ The coordinates in the database are incorrect and lead to downtown Lübeck
  4. ↑ The coordinates in the database are incorrect and lead to downtown Lübeck
  5. ↑ The coordinates of the database are wrong
  6. ↑ In the graveyard of the fallen warriors. In: Lübeck advertisements . 166th vol., No. 595, edition of November 24, 1914.
  7. ↑ New forms in tomb art. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1930/31, No. 7, edition of January 3, 1931, pp. 26-27.
  8. ↑ Wilfried Fick: Friedhöfe: Vorwerker Friedhof. 100 years from 1907–2007. Hanseatic City of Lübeck - Department of Planning and Building, Memorials to Russian Soldiers, World War I, Lübeck 2006, p. 35.
  9. ↑ New forms in tomb art. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1930/31, No. 7, edition of January 3, 1931, pp. 26-27.
  10. ↑ Forced laborers in Schleswig-Holstein using the example of Rellingen and Lübeck at www.rueppel-hamburg.de ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ The number 380 refers to various facilities in the cemetery.
  12. ↑ Wilfried Fick: Friedhöfe: Vorwerker Friedhof. 100 years from 1907–2007. Hanseatic City of Lübeck - Department of Planning and Building, Memorials and Graves of Russian Soldiers, World War II, Lübeck 2006, pp. 40–42.
  13. ↑ The training and further education center of the Federal Police Academy in Lübeck was founded in 1951 on the site of the Hubertus camp .