Elsterwerda Soviet Cemetery of Honor

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Soviet cemetery of honor

The Soviet Cemetery of Honor is located immediately north of the mountain cemetery in the small town of Elsterwerda in the Elbe-Elster district in southern Brandenburg . Today the facility is on the list of monuments of the state of Brandenburg.

Description and history

Stele erected in 2015.
Renovation work (2017)

The cemetery of honor in Elsterwerda was laid out in 1946 and 1947. It is characterized by two obelisks made of red sandstone and granite, which are located in the east and west of the complex. The cemetery of honor is dominated by mass graves, most of which are located in the eastern part. In the west of the complex there are mainly individual graves, but also other mass graves.

According to a grave survey from 1972, there are 42 individual and 72 mass graves at the Russian military cemetery in Elsterwerda, buried 2,741 Soviet soldiers who came from the prisoner of war camp Stalag IV B near Mühlberg and the entire area of ​​the former Bad Liebenwerda district . The number of dead probably buried here was recently increased to 2,861. The website www.sowjetische-memoriale.de of the project Soviet war cemeteries in Germany , which is supervised by the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst and the Office for War Graves Care and Memorial Work of the Russian Embassy in Berlin in Berlin , gives a number of 2,993 victims .

Some of the dead come from a military cemetery that was located on Mühlberger Schlossplatz from 1945 to 1948. A VVN memorial remained at the site there .

The obelisks got new copper roofs in 1999. In the same year Bundeswehr reservists repaired the surrounds on the left side and in 2001 active Bundeswehr soldiers on the right side of the 110 grave sites in the cemetery. After that, the city focused primarily on the maintenance and preservation of the structural substance. According to a newspaper report published in the Lausitzer Rundschau in 2012 , the city of Brandenburg received two annual disks of 50,000 euros each from the state for the renovation of the cemetery wall and the paths in this complex.

In 2015, on the initiative of relatives, another stele was erected east of the entrance with portraits, biographies and pictures of some other soldiers who had previously been buried in the cemetery without a name.

Since the system is now getting on in years, it has been extensively restored and repaired by the city since 2017. She is supported in this by the Russian Embassy, ​​the War Graves Commission of the State of Brandenburg and the Elbe-Elster district. A total of around € 160,000 is to flow into the redesign of the facility. The names of 2,861 fallen soldiers who were buried here will appear on 16 bronze plaques that are attached to blocks of granite stone.

  • View along the main axis to the west (2017)

  • The Soviet Cemetery of Honor from the air (2008)

  • Eastern Obelisk (2017)

See also

Web links

Commons : Soviet Ehrenfriedhof Elsterwerda  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg: Elbe-Elster district (PDF) Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum.
  2. ↑ a b c Frank Claus: “Behind 2053 digits stands: Unknown” in Lausitzer Rundschau, November 17, 2012
  3. ↑ Figures published in GDR times, which indicate 297 Soviet army personnel and 159 Soviet prisoners of war from the Mühlberg prisoner of war camp, are incorrect or incomplete.
  4. ↑ a b Frank Claus: "Dead people get their names back" in Lausitzer Rundschau, April 21, 2017
  5. ^ Entry of the Elsterwerda Cemetery of Honor at www.sowjetische-memoriale.de, accessed on July 11, 2017
  6. ↑ As of July 11, 2017
  7. ↑ Regina Scheer: Dealing with the monuments. A research in Brandenburg. Ed .: Brandenburg State Center for Political Education and Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, Potsdam 2003, p. 53. ( Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. PDF). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de
  8. ↑ Stefanie Endlich, Nora Goldenbogen, Beatrix Herlemann , Monika Kahl, Regina Scheer: Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism II , Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn, Autumn 2000, pp. 260/261 (online as PDF file)
  9. ^ Weeds and withered wreaths , Lausitzer Rundschau, August 28, 2007
  10. ↑ Frank Claus: “New stele for fallen Soviet soldiers at Elsterwerda Cemetery of Honor” in Lausitzer Rundschau, May 7, 2017

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 5.6 "  N , 13 ° 32 ′ 4.8"  E