Soviet garrison cemetery Eberswalde

Main entrance to the Soviet garrison cemetery (2012)

Main entrance 2010; the memorial plaque was only in German at the time.

The Soviet garrison cemetery in Eberswalde was established on April 15, 1946 by order No. 117 of the commanding officer of the SMAD , Vasily Danilowitsch Sokolowski . This order included the establishment and maintenance of "special cemeteries for the citizens of the USSR". The order expressly required the construction of such a cemetery in Eberswalde . The cemetery was used from 1946 and was completed by around 1949. The cemetery was expanded in 1956 and 1963. By 1967, 860 people known by name had been buried. In addition to military personnel, these included civilians, including numerous children. The dead had died from war injuries, accidents or illness.

The garrison cemetery is located in the Westend district on Heegermühler Straße (B 167) between the train station and Westendkino on the northern side of the street. The adjacent properties are a park and a restaurant.

history

Villa at Eisenbahnstrasse 6, today a monument, until 1993 apartment of Soviet officers

The Prussian military of the Kolberg garrison was stationed in what was then Neustadt-Eberswalde from 1717 to 1732. Before and in the Second World War , numerous military units were stationed in Eberswalde. Many of these properties were taken over directly by the Red Army in May 1945 , as well as numerous residential buildings in the city and representative villas for senior officers. Parts of the Feliks Dzierzynski Guard Regiment of the GDR were also stationed in Eberswalde.

The Soviet troops on the territory of the GDR (Western Group of Troops, WGT) occupied 777 barracks at 276 locations. This included 47 airfields and 116 training areas. According to its own information, the WGT counted 337,800 soldiers in 24 divisions in January 1991 , divided into five land armies and one air army. There were also 208,400 family members of officers and civilian employees, including around 90,000 children. Eberswalde was the stationing place of the 20th Guard Army , to which belonged:

Land Forces :

35th Motorized Rifle Division ( Krampnitz near Potsdam)
90th Guards Panzer Division ( Bernau near Berlin )
- 400th Panzer Artillery Regiment
6th Guard Motorized Rifle Brigade ( Berlin-Karlshorst )
34th Artillery Division ( Potsdam )
41st helicopter squadron (Finow)
337th Combat Helicopter Regiment (Mahlwinkel)
487th Combat Helicopter Regiment (Templin)

Air Force :

787th Fighter Regiment (Finow)

The Soviet troops made up more than a third of the population of Eberswalde towards the end of the 1980s, the garrison cemetery reached its maximum capacity as early as the late 1960s and was therefore closed. Numerous graves are therefore still located behind the cemetery in a park. Up to between 25,000 and 30,000 military personnel and civilians from the USSR were stationed in Eberswalde. After the garrison cemetery was closed, most of the dead were returned to their homeland, and some were buried in the Eberswalde forest cemetery.

Commemoration of pilots

Identical JAK-28R in the Aviation Museum Finowfurt

Memorial stone for the pilots Kapustin and Janow

Numerous pilots are honored with tombstones in the cemetery. Several members of the army with the same date of death have a common tombstone, decorated with fighter planes. Captain Boris Wladimirowitsch Kapustin and Oberleutnant Juri Nikolajewitsch Janow achieved particular fame when they steered their defective JAK-28 fighter aircraft into the Stößensee in what was then West Berlin on a transfer flight so as not to let the plane crash over inhabited areas. The supersonic reconnaissance aircraft of the 16th Air Army was to be transferred to Koethen three days in advance , but technical problems arose, which is why the surprising landing in Finow took place.

After three days of repairs to the drive, the launch was permitted on April 6, 1966. The aircraft reached an altitude of 4,000 meters, then both engines failed. The pilots received permission from the ground to bring themselves to safety using an ejector seat , but were looking for a place to ditch . While the pilots were not recovered until three days later, British military divers - the Stößensee was in the British sector of Berlin - hurriedly removed many parts of the then modern aircraft.

The two soldiers were buried in their hometowns of Rostov-on-Don and Ryazan near Moscow. A memorial stone for both was unveiled in 1979 in Finow City Park. In the middle of the memorial stones of the garrison cemetery, an inscription and a memorial stone commemorate the two pilots. The 75-year-old widow Galina Kapustina wanted to come to the memorial service on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the crash, but could not do so for health reasons.

During the GDR era, nothing was known about aircraft losses, fatal accidents in the Soviet Army or the JAK-28 accident in West Berlin.

reconstruction

Condition of the eastern cemetery wall on February 27, 2009, three days before the start of the reconstruction work

After the western group of Soviet armed forces withdrew in 1994, the cemetery was closed to the public as there was no visitor traffic. The cemetery was now looked after by the employees of the city of Eberswalde. Due to the poor condition of the facility, the city was planning to renovate the facility, which required approval from the Embassy of the Russian Federation, which was granted in 2007. From the spring of 2009, the cemetery was completely renovated and redesigned. This reconstruction cost 336,100 euros, which were paid for with funds from the state of Brandenburg. The reconstructed cemetery was reopened on September 10, 2009.

Ten of the former 250 gravestones were classified as particularly worth preserving and processed. In addition, 54 podium stones were made from polished gabbro , which contain the names of those whose grave location is known. All other names are immortalized on the four memorial plaques on the northern boundary of the cemetery. A polished memorial obelisk made of gabbro, a hard rock , was also newly made and set up. This bears the German and Russian inscriptions on two sides:

«Никто и ничто не исчезает бесследно»

"Nobody and nothing disappears without a trace"

and is decorated with a red star on all sides.

One of the new podium stones, 2012
Gabbro obelisk with red star
One of the typical aviator memorial stones
Northern end of the cemetery with individual stones
Main course
Reconstructed stairs at the entrance

The names of all the dead in the garrison cemetery

The entire cemetery is laid out like a park. The large deciduous trees remained and young birches were also planted. The surrounding wall, which was around two meters high, was replaced by a metal fence, except for the entrance area. The cemetery is open to the public.