Waldbachfriedhof Offenburg

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Chapel at the Waldbachfriedhof

The Forest Brook Cemetery of Offenburg in Ortenaukreis existed since 1871; With its diverse tree population, it has a special park character. The 4.35-hectare cemetery , located between the Moltkestraße, Zellerstraße, Brachfeld Street and Hindenburg Street, is due to its urban and art-historical importance, since 2003 under monument protection .

history

On November 1, 1871, the Waldbachfriedhof was consecrated by Pastor Pelissier; it replaced the city cemetery, which existed from 1832 to 1897 and was located in Wilhelmstrasse in the area of ​​today's Dreifaltigkeitskirche . A Jewish burial ground had existed here since 1870 and is now in a central location after the cemetery was expanded in 1912 and 1925. In 1876 the construction of the chapel and the morgue and keeper's house began. The stone cross in front of the chapel was donated in 1888. The last time the cemetery was enlarged was in 1945 to its present size. With the Weingartenfriedhof, the city of Offenburg has had a new main cemetery since 1960.

In the 1990s, the municipal council rejected the proposal to turn the ensemble into a city park due to its park-like character. After the trees were damaged in the 1999 hurricane Lothar , the construction of an arboretum at the Waldbachfriedhof began; By 2020 over 120 different tree species came together. Since 2001 there is again the possibility to bury urns in the eastern part of the cemetery. Attention is paid to decentralized placement of the graves in order to preserve the character of the cemetery. At the beginning of the 21st century, the chapel was extensively renovated and an organ was purchased. In 2003 the chapel tower donated by Offenburg citizens was inaugurated. In 2009, the support group "Historischer Waldbachfriedhof Offenburg" was founded, which has set itself the task of ensuring the continued existence of the cemetery as an art and cultural monument. In 2020 the Offenburg municipal council decided to demolish the house next to the chapel, which had previously been used as an apartment. The procedure was justified with high renovation costs and the fact that the "keeper's house" was not the original part of the ensemble, but was only built decades later.

Memorials

There are several memorials on the Waldbachfriedhof; they recall the fallen of past wars and the murders of persecuted people.

Memorial to the victims of the tyranny

Memorial to the victims of the tyranny

A stone relief is used to commemorate, persecute and murder the 72 "Victims of Tyranny in Dark Times", who were buried in the Waldbachfriedhof during the Nazi era . Next to it are three stone slabs on which the names of these people are immortalized in Latin and Hebrew script .

Memorial for the fallen of the First World War

Behind the guard's house next to the graves of the fallen there is a figure of Christ on a stone plinth, which puts her arms around a kneeling woman and a slumped soldier.

Special graves

Fallen graves of the First and Second World Wars

There are around 130 graves of fallen soldiers from the First World War and around 170 from the Second World War in the cemetery.

Allied cemetery

Here are the 45 graves of the concentration camp inmates who were slain by SS members in Offenburg on April 12, 1945, as well as a memorial.

Sister graves

There are about 90 row graves of nuns with wooden crosses on the Waldbachfriedhof, which are towered over by higher stone crosses. A number of them belong to the Vincentians, who worked in various social and church institutions in Offenburg. The majority of the sisters buried were Augustinian choir women from the monastery "Our Lady", who still look after the monastery schools in Offenburg today.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florian Pflüger, Offenburger Tageblatt of July 11, 2015 There were years of horror

Web links

Commons : Waldbachfriedhof Offenburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 28 ′ 18 ″  N , 7 ° 57 ′ 19.6 ″  E