Municipal cemetery (Chemnitz)

The Chemnitz crematorium

View over the urn grove, in the foreground a memorial for the victims of fascism

The municipal cemetery (formerly: Neuer Friedhof ) in Chemnitz is the main cemetery of the city of Chemnitz . It is located just outside the city center in the Bernsdorf district . The cemetery is bounded by Augsburger , Reichenhainer and Wartburgstraße . To the west, Reichenhainer Straße separates the crematorium and the urn grove from the municipal cemetery.

investment

Before the construction of the municipal cemetery, the Johannisfriedhof Chemnitz was the most important cemetery. With the ten-fold increase in the population to around 200,000 in the course of the industrial revolution from 1830 to the end of the 19th century and the high mortality rate, the existing cemeteries were soon no longer receptive. In 1866, cholera broke out in Chemnitz , which increased the need for a new cemetery. In the spring of 1871, work began on the New Cemetery .

The celebratory hall for burials was built in the years 1872/73. The hall was consecrated on April 28, 1874 by Vice Mayor Vetters. The first burial then took place at the city's expense.

On September 27, 1885, the Cremation Association was founded in Chemnitz. After cremations were no longer prohibited in the Kingdom of Saxony , the cremation association acquired the area of today's urn grove. On December 15, 1905, the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the crematorium followed. The consecration of the crematorium took place a year later, on December 15, 1906. It was the first crematorium in Saxony. The next day the first cremation was carried out.

The 4.10 meter high statue of Christ made of white marble is located in the open space between the ceremonial hall and the morgue. Donations and funds from 68 church councils raised 13,750 marks for a monument in the New Cemetery in 1901 . Between the base and the ledge is a text from the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, Verse 19: "I live and you shall live too". The statue by the sculptor Richard König was unveiled on October 2, 1904.

The area of the cemetery is 30.8 hectares, that of the urn grove 8.5 hectares.

Memorial to the victims of the terrorist bombing of March 5, 1945

The city commissioned the Chemnitz sculptor Hanns Diettrich to erect a memorial to commemorate the victims of the air raids on Chemnitz . On the area in front of the memorial, 1224 bomb victims found their final resting place. In the center of the sculpture you can see a grieving woman with the dead child in her arms. A poem by Louis Fürnberg can be read about it: "The wounds that the terrible barbarian inflicted on humanity will close and the glow of the early red will pour over the new earth under the plow." In 1992 the memorial was restored on March 7th Desecrated in 2020 by spreading left-wing extremist slogans on a large scale.

At the entrance to the same lawn with the mass graves there is a memorial stone with the following inscription: “In memory of 4000 victims of the Anglo-American bomb terror in Chemnitz on March 5, 1945. This is where 1224 victims of the bombs found their final resting place.” On March 5, 1945 The heaviest air strikes were carried out by the United States Army Air Forces during the day and by the British Royal Air Force and the Canadian Royal Canadian Air Force at night . On March 5, 1945, it was two of a total of ten air raids on Chemnitz.

There are five grave fields with bomb victims in this cemetery: Numbers 6, 22, 51, 58 (with memorial), 61 (about 50 foreigners: "United Nations").

Grove of honor of the socialists

The Socialists' Grove of Honor was inaugurated in 1982. It is located in the north of the cemetery. Karl Marx's statement was chosen as the motto of the memorial : “Because longing and longing and THE DED - it stayed with us!” At this location, anti-fascist resistance fighters from Chemnitz and the surrounding areas are honored. Clauss Dietel , Hans Brockhage , Gottfried Kohl and Heinz Schumann were responsible for the design and the artistic design of the Ehrenhain .

Significant grave sites

On December 19, 1878 Richard Hartmann was buried in the Johannisfriedhof. On September 19, 1884, his son-in-law Eduard Keller bought a family grave in the New Cemetery. By acquiring a neighboring position on October 4, 1884, this was expanded. Since the Johannisfriedhof was closed, the bones of Hartmann and his wife Auguste were transferred to the new grave on June 2, 1904.