Südfriedhof (Cologne)

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The Südfriedhof in Cologne is a municipal cemetery in the Zollstock district , which belongs to the Rodenkirchen district. The cemetery has a total area of ​​around 615,400 m² and is currently the largest cemetery in Cologne's urban area. The south cemetery, built in 1901, houses a number of architecturally interesting tombs and is also one of the most important green spaces in the city.

Main path with Hochkreuz (2006)

location

Map of the south cemetery

The almost trapezoidal area of ​​the Südfriedhof extends from Kendenicher Straße in the north to Militärringstraße in the south and from Kalscheurer Weg and Oberen Komarweg in the west to Höninger Weg and Leichweg in the east. The main entrance is on Höninger Platz on the northeast corner of the site; Besides it, there are two other entrances on Obere Komarweg and on Kendenicher Straße.

The horticultural design of Cologne's southern cemetery is purely a park cemetery with a dense population of trees and paved, wide, avenue-like paths. This makes it ideal for long walks in both summer and winter. The south cemetery is also an important part of the so-called Cologne green belt : there it lies at the intersection of the park landscape of the Outer Green Belt with the green axis south , which connects the Inner Green Belt from the Volksgarten via the Vorgebirgspark with the Outer Green Belt and from there to Brühl and Bonn will be continued. Due to its abundance of green spaces, the Südfriedhof also offers a habitat for numerous animal species, including the red fox and bird species such as the long-eared owl , the buzzard or the ringed parakeet .

history

Emergence

The south cemetery was laid out between 1899 and 1901 and opened for burials on April 1, 1901. In addition to the Cologne North Cemetery in the Weidenpesch district , which had been inaugurated five years earlier, it was designed to relieve the increasingly full Melaten cemetery , which until the end of the 19th century was the only central non-denominational large cemetery in the city, which now had a population of over 300,000 . The original part of the Südfriedhof was a trapezoidal area of ​​around 20 hectares, enclosed by Kendenicher Straße, Höninger Weg (south of Höninger Platz) and Kalscheurer Weg, the latter two streets having to be partially relocated in the course of the later expansion of the cemetery .

Avenue in the main entrance area

The construction of the south cemetery was based on designs by the horticultural architect Adolf Kowallek , who was horticultural director of the city of Cologne from 1887 to 1902 and was also involved in the design and creation of the north cemetery and several other green spaces in the city. Even then, Kowallek's design provided for a park-like facility with numerous avenues and circular paths, whereby the network of paths, unlike that of the Melaten cemetery, should not be chessboard-like, but rather curved. This can be seen in the overview plan of the cemetery to this day: In contrast to the areas that were added in the course of later cemetery expansions, which have a normal straight-line division, arched main paths are noticeable in the area of ​​the main entrance and the high cross as well as strictly circular circular paths around the high cross be crossed by radial straight paths. In addition, numerous trees and bushes of both Central European and exotic origins were planted in the construction of the cemetery, some of which have been preserved to this day. Kowallek, who died shortly after his retirement in 1902, was also buried in the Südfriedhof; his grave is near the entrance area.

Cemetery buildings

Mourning hall

Simultaneously with the construction of the actual burial site, plans for the associated cemetery structures, in particular the mourning hall and the gatehouse, were also concretized. They too should not only serve their purpose, but also decorate the entrance area of ​​the new cemetery. For this purpose it was planned to build the buildings in a style based on the neo-Romanesque . However, it took a few more years from the opening of the cemetery to the completion of the buildings, among other things because the Prussian government initially refused the building permit due to the proximity of the planned buildings to a military base on the so-called outer fortification belt of the city. The administration building, the gardener's house, the gatehouse and a morgue were not completed until 1905 .

A mourning hall was not initially planned for the cemetery complex, as it was originally assumed that most burials, as was still largely common in the 19th century, took place directly from the house where they died. However, since in the course of the rapid population growth at the end of the 19th century and, as a result, the increasingly cramped living conditions of the working class, it seemed unreasonable for many families to leave the deceased at home for spatial and hygienic reasons, the need for one was gradually recognized in Cologne as well Mourning hall with laying out rooms. In this case, too, however - also due to the conflict with the Prussian government over the planned location of the building - it took several years before the hall could be built. The octagonal mourning hall to the right of the main entrance was finally completed in 1912. The hall, which is still in use today, also included a lounge for clergy and relatives as well as funeral cells from the start. In terms of style, the mourning hall was based on the four previously built cemetery buildings.

The toilet house

Other buildings that were built in the early days of the cemetery include a farm yard that was laid out at the beginning of the 1920s and is no longer used today in the southern area of ​​the original cemetery area, as well as the public toilet block immediately to the right of the main entrance gate, which is still in use today . This building could only be erected after lengthy negotiations between the city and the Cologne transport company : Since the tram staff could also use the toilet due to the proximity of the cemetery entrance and thus also the planned toilet block to the tram terminus at Höninger Platz, the city asked the transport company to use it a financial contribution to the construction of the building. After a one-time grant was finally agreed, the toilet facility was completed in 1925.

The newly built gatehouse

Of the buildings erected in the early days of the Südfriedhof, the mourning hall, the gardener's house and the toilet house have been preserved. The original gatehouse and morgue were completely destroyed during an air raid in 1943. The other cemetery structures and numerous monuments also suffered damage of varying severity. After the Second World War , the morgue was not rebuilt; A rather provisional functional building was erected as a gatekeeper building. The mourning hall and the former gardener's house, which has now been sold to private owners, have been a listed building since 1980 . Since the 1990s there have also been efforts to rebuild the original gatehouse with the help of donations ; the construction was completed in 2009.

Extensions to the south cemetery

When the southern cemetery was first built, there were initially no plans for a possible expansion. Rather, the city of Cologne originally planned to create a new Cologne “central cemetery” not far from the city center, the area of ​​which should be sufficient for around a hundred years of use. This large cemetery was supposed to replace both the south and the north cemetery, whose capacity at the original size would only have been sufficient for around 20 years of use. In the end, however, these considerations had to be discarded, as no suitable plot of land for such a central cemetery could be found without getting in the way of the military administration once again. Instead, it was decided that the already created large cemeteries - that is, the South and the North Cemetery - to expand and also create another large cemetery with expansion potential to their relief, what with the opening of the Cologne West cemetery was implemented in the 1917th

The first expansion of the south cemetery due to lack of space took place between 1915 and 1916. For this purpose, the city bought a previously agriculturally used area immediately south of the original cemetery area. This corresponded to an expansion of about seven hectares. Similar to the construction of the West Cemetery, which was carried out around the same time, the work on the first expansion of the South Cemetery included prisoners of war from the First World War. When designing the expansion site, there were demands to deviate from the original horticultural design, as this was too confusing. Therefore, when expanding, the complex network of circular routes was finally dispensed with and a straightforward division was adopted. However, the landscape character of the cemetery was to be retained during the expansion. For this purpose, more poplars were planted in the areas that were added , as, due to their rapid growth, they would quickly reach the height of the trees in the old part and thus enable a uniform overall picture of the cemetery planting.

The hill with the war graves in the second part of the extension

Six years after the first expansion, a second one was necessary because the Commonwealth Cemetery of Honor (see below in the section " Cemetery of Honor ") that had meanwhile been set up on the first expansion site had taken up a relatively large amount of space, so that the capacity was exhausted prematurely. For the second expansion, which was completed in 1926, the city also acquired land south of the existing cemetery section, which had previously been used for agricultural purposes, among other things. The approximately 20 hectare second extension site, like the first two plots, was bordered by the old Kalscheurer Weg in the west and by the Höninger Weg in the east; in the south it reached up to the old military ring. With the second expansion, the Südfriedhof grew to almost double its previous area. A special feature of this second expansion site is a hill on which a Prussian fortress with artillery rooms was located until it was blown up in 1919 . On this hill, war dead from the Second World War were later buried in mass graves.

During the third cemetery expansion, which became necessary at the end of the 1930s, the cemetery grew “in width” for the first time. For this purpose, the southern part of Kalscheurer Weg had to be relocated, which can still be recognized today by the bend that Kalscheurer Weg makes a little south of Kendenicher Straße. Overall, the third expansion site is an approximately teardrop-shaped, 11-hectare area, which is connected to the existing cemetery areas in the east, the Kalscheurer Weg in the west and the upper Komarweg in the south, which was then arched there (later on the fourth Extension was also dissolved). The boundary between the original cemetery area and the first expansion area on the one hand and the third expansion area on the other can still be recognized very clearly today by the tree plantings that have developed to different degrees.

The fourth and final expansion of the south cemetery was made in 1963. The approximately five-hectare extension site, which was formerly used for agriculture, was connected to the south-western border of the cemetery and, like the rest of the cemetery, was delimited in the south by the military ring. The part of the Upper Komarweg, which had previously bordered the cemetery, was moved to the west in the course of the fourth expansion (similar to the southern part of the Kalscheurer Weg in the course of the third), where it formed the new cemetery boundary. In contrast to the Kalscheurer Weg, the original route was not completely dissolved, but integrated into the cemetery path network as an avenue.

With the fourth enlargement, the Südfriedhof reached its current size of almost 63 hectares in 1963. A further expansion beyond the military ring was briefly considered at the end of the 1960s, but had to be discarded for various reasons. Instead, in 1969, the city laid out the Steinneuerhof cemetery a few kilometers further south as relief for the southern cemetery . From today's perspective, in view of the considerably reduced number of burials and the relative increase in space-saving urn burials , a further expansion would not have been necessary.

Tombs and monuments

Grave of Franz Kremer
Grave of the boxer Peter Müller

Graves of famous personalities

In addition to locally important personalities, several artists, entrepreneurs and athletes who are well-known beyond the city limits of Cologne have found their final resting place in the Südfriedhof. The most famous people buried here are:

Cemeteries of honor

Commonwealth Cemetery of Honor
Italian cemetery of honor
Collective graves from the First World War

There are also numerous war graves from the two world wars as well as two separate military cemeteries in the south cemetery .

Cologne War Cemetery

One of these is the Commonwealth Cemetery of Honor in Hall 40 on the first expansion site. It is still owned by the British state and is operated and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (in German: Commonwealth War Graves Commission ). Mainly the soldiers of the Commonwealth countries who died in the two world wars, also in other regions of Germany, are buried here, but also members of the occupation forces who died between and after the world wars. Cologne was occupied by British troops from 1919 to 1926; The cemetery of honor was established in 1922. At that time, the British purchased a 1.4 hectare plot of land on the expansion site from the city of Cologne, which was previously intended for the occupation of German deceased, in order to have their war victims and members of the military buried there. Some time later, the British bought a further 3600 square meters. During the Second World War , other British dead were buried in this cemetery of honor. In total there were over 3000 people. In terms of its horticultural design, the Commonwealth Cemetery at Cologne's Südfriedhof is largely identical to other British military cemeteries: Here, too, uniform, white grave slabs made of English Portland sandstone , a high cross on the central axis and well-tended, short-cut lawns characterize the overall picture.

Italian cemetery of honor

The Italian Cemetery of Honor on the second expansion area, like the rest of the southern cemetery except for the Commonwealth Cemetery, is now maintained by the City of Cologne. There were in the 1920s Italian prisoners of war who died in German POW camps of World War I, from different regions of Germany reburied . The Italian government acquired the 0.6 hectare site of the Italian Cemetery of Honor for this purpose from the city of Cologne in 1926. A little over 1900 prisoners of war rest here. The center of the war cemetery is an obelisk crowned with a gilded star , around which uniform grave slabs lie in straight rows. Unlike the Commonwealth Cemetery, the Italian Cemetery of Honor is also fenced in separately, but is the property of the City of Cologne and not - as originally stipulated in the treaty - of the Italian state. How exactly this retransfer came about is no longer comprehensible today.

In addition to the two separate cemeteries of honor, the southern cemetery houses mass graves of military and civilian victims of the two world wars, distributed over almost its entire area. One example is the grove of honor created in 1920 in field 32 in the original part of the cemetery, where over 2,500 soldiers who died in the First World War rest. In the second part of the extension, on the hill, which, as already mentioned, served as a fortress until 1919, you will find graves of around 4,000 aviation victims of the Second World War.

Some family graves worth seeing

Franz Herrmann's grave

The oldest and mostly architecturally most elaborate graves in Cologne's southern cemetery can be found in the original part of the cemetery. Representative family graves are mostly located directly on the main and circular routes, while simple row graves were created in the rear corridor areas from the start. If you enter the south cemetery from the main entrance and walk along the main path in the direction of the Hochkreuz, you will see several tombs typical of the Wilhelminian era on the sides , for example the neoclassical Melder grave on the right side of the main path and the Art Nouveau wall grave of the Franz Herrmann family .

The Hummerich wall burial site is also located on the avenue between the main entrance and the high cross built in 1905 . It is best known in connection with a curious incident: from September 1944 to March 1945, cash and other monetary assets belonging to the city of Cologne were hidden from the approaching US troops in a chamber of this grave that was still unoccupied at the time . Some of the neighboring family graves were also used as hiding places for the city's treasures. This story became famous in 1985 through a publication in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger .

Olbertz grave site (2006)

Immediately opposite the Hummerich burial place you can see the Mauser grave, a column-supported, temple-like structure with a stylized sarcophagus on the inside, on which a male figure in a robe rests, protecting a young man with his left hand . The classicist tomb of the Steinkrüger family from 1917, which is located immediately to the right behind the high cross, is also modeled on a temple . Further to the right of the Hochkreuz, in field 32, the imposing wall grave of the Hartmann-Firnich family, somewhat hidden between bushes, with a life-size Christ figure in the center, catches the eye.

Mathieu Olbertz's grave, densely overgrown with ivy, in field 32 on the avenue leading to the right from the Hochkreuz is also one of the most striking and elaborate monuments in the southern cemetery. It was particularly noticeable because of the bronze peacocks placed on the side , which are supposed to indicate eternity. These sculptures are no longer available.

Fassbender grave

The 1920s and 1930s are also represented at the Südfriedhof with a number of monuments typical of the time: For example, the grave of the Fassbender family in hall 15 with a white marble sculpture group from 1935 made up of four mourning figures carrying a coffin, or the Wiemer grave in hall 24 1938 with the life-size sculpture of a miner with a pick and a pit lantern.

Similar to the Melaten cemetery and other cemetery cemetery in Cologne, anyone can also sponsor graves worth preserving in the south cemetery . You can choose a historical tomb that is threatened with decay and have it restored yourself. In return, you receive a lifelong right to use this grave site, i.e. the right to have yourself or your relatives buried there. An example of a sponsorship grave in Cologne's Südfriedhof is the Mathie grave site in hall 24, which originally housed the architect Carl Moritz and the figure of a pilgrim with a staff created in 1920 is striking. The sponsorship system for historical tombs, which was originally tried out in Cologne, has meanwhile also established itself in numerous other cities in Germany.

Other notable tombs

Gravesite for the homeless

Grave of Ursula Kuhr

Usually, homeless people with no family members are cremated and buried anonymously after their death. In order to enable such deceased to have a more dignified burial, a community burial place for homeless people known by name was laid behind the mourning hall (hallway 27) in 1997 on the initiative of the interest group “Burial of Homeless People”. The first burial there took place on April 14, 1997. The purchase of the tomb, which is designed for up to 144 urns, as well as the maintenance and other costs incurred are financed through donations.

Ursula Kuhr's grave

The grave of the Cologne teacher Ursula Kuhr is located in hallway 78, a little further away from the core area of ​​the cemetery. She was one of the victims of the Volkhoven assassination attempt , which claimed a total of ten lives in 1964 and made headlines across Germany. Ursula Kuhr was one of the two teachers killed in the process: she was stabbed to death by the assassin Walter Seifert when she tried to prevent him from entering a school building. The grave inscription reminds of this: “ Ursula Kuhr, geb. Erwen, teacher, * October 3, 1939, † June 11, 1964, sacrificed her life to protect the school children entrusted to her in Volkhoven ”. To the left of the inscription you can see the relief representation of a figure who, with children in protective cloaks, turns against the rising flames.

See also

literature

  • Jürgen Fritsch, Günter Leitner: Cemeteries in Cologne - in the middle of life. Jürgen Fritsch-Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-936333-01-7 .
  • Herbert Heimbach: The Südfriedhof in Cologne-Zollstock - from the beginning until today . Cologne 2005 (script available from the Cologne-Zollstock Citizens' Association).
  • Günter Schwanenberg: Em Himmel es d'r Düvel loss ... Musical-literary forays into the south cemetery. Marzellen-Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-937795-11-9 ( Edition Narrengilde 7).
  • Josef Mahlmeister : Angels, children and muses in the south cemetery in Cologne. A photo book with Cologne stories about angels, children and muses. Palabros de Cologne, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-9810559-9-3 .

Web links

Commons : Südfriedhof (Cologne)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 53 ′ 53 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 20 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 7, 2007 .