Forest cemetery (Rhöndorf)

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Waldfriedhof, old cemetery chapel (2014)

The forest cemetery in Rhöndorf , a district of the city of Bad Honnef in the Rhein-Sieg district in North Rhine-Westphalia , dates back to the 1920s. It stands as a monument under monument protection and is especially as the site of the tomb of Konrad Adenauer known.

location

The forest cemetery is located in the lower area of ​​the Rhöndorf valley, which goes up from Rhöndorf to Löwenburg, at the eastern foot of the Drachenfels and at the southern foot of the Wolkenburg . As a partially terraced hillside cemetery, it covers altitudes between 95 and 140  m above sea level. NHN . The entrance is on Löwenburgstrasse.

history

Self-portrait by Karl Menser (1929/30) in the forest cemetery

On December 29, 1919 the decision was made to set up a cemetery in Rhöndorf. So far, the people of Rhöndorf had been buried in Honnef. The Rhöndorfer Tal was chosen as the location of the new cemetery because a facility directly on the Rhine was not possible due to the risk of flooding and the central terrace was built up to the foot of the mountains. The land required for the new cemetery, located on a former wheat field , was owned by the Beautification Association for the Siebengebirge (VVS) and the winery owner Broel. The VVS gave them to the city in exchange for other parcels on the condition that they appoint an expert for the artistic development of the cemetery. The choice fell on the sculptor Karl Menser .

In March 1920 Menser presented his drafts to the public, in June he submitted a first general plan to the city as an artistic draft, which was probably later followed by a more detailed implementation plan adapted to the topography of the site. Occupancy of the cemetery began after August 1921, when the city of Honnef published a statute on the cemetery. For the construction of the walls, stairs and various individual structures, material from a higher quarry was used. It only received its desired imprint as a "forest cemetery" in the following years and decades with the growth of the newly planted trees. The cemetery was the only burial place designed by Karl Menser; after his death in 1929 he was buried here.

Konrad Adenauer's grave

Originally, the forest cemetery was intended to hold 950 to 1000 graves. At the end of the 1960s it was expanded in terraces due to the nature of the site, in contrast to the existing cemetery - and a new cemetery chapel was built at the entrance to the valley. After Konrad Adenauer (* 1876) was buried in the forest cemetery on April 25, 1967, wreaths were often laid at the grave site by party and state representatives.

On October 13, 2011, the forest cemetery was placed under monument protection as a garden monument , after only the old cemetery chapel (since 1985) and a tomb (since 2000) had been protected. A comprehensive renovation had been in progress since 2010, which was completed in spring 2016 and cost almost 430,000 euros. Among other things, a replacement pond was created and a new watercourse system was built.

description

Hollow road with wooden bridge between the old and the new part of the cemetery (2014)
New cemetery chapel (2014)

The forest cemetery is a building of landscape architecture and is considered an example of burial places shaped by the reform movement , which were based on the principles of landscape gardens in contrast to the large central cemeteries . His overall concept included round grave fields, pond (s) and various individual structures, including 60 designs for simple forms of grave monuments of various materials ( iron , wood or stone) and the original cemetery chapel . According to Menser's initial plans, the cemetery was to be made accessible via a system of pretzel-shaped paths, which could only be partially implemented. The old and the new part of the cemetery are divided by a cut into the terrain, which contains a ravine that once served as a conveying path for the quarries of the Siebengebirge , and are connected by a wooden pedestrian bridge. On the newer part of the cemetery near the bridge there is a large pond that used to serve as a water reservoir for a fountain in the park of Villa Merkens . The predominant tree species in the old part of the cemetery include red beech , linden and oak .

The old cemetery chapel, a quarry stone building with a bell tower , is located on the edge of the forest cemetery on the mountain side. It was built in 1921/22 as a war memorial chapel to commemorate those who fell in World War I from Rhöndorf based on a design by Menser and was inaugurated in 1930. While three of them relief and a life-sized Pietà of marble have received, two were Friese damaged in World War II and later removed. Left the chapel is the "Menser Memorial," a bust of bronze , the sculptor in 1929 as a self-portrait created and was set up here 1930th A death lamp with a cross at the entrance to the oldest part of the cemetery also goes back to Menser .

One of the preserved, artistically designed graves from the first occupation period is a tomb from 1927 made of colored wrought iron . The grave of the Konrad Adenauers family is on the northern extension of the cemetery. It was in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne until 1948 ; on request Adenauer was on the forest cemetery translocated . A white shell limestone stele , which was designed and executed by a student of the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand , serves as the tomb . It shows a relief of the risen Christ with a cross flag and a kneeling angel.

The cemetery also includes a war cemetery for 10 fallen soldiers from World War II .

Buried personalities

literature

  • Kerstin Walter: Find peace and quiet in the Siebengebirge Nature Park. The Rhöndorf forest cemetery as a memorial. In: Yearbook of the Rhenish Preservation of Monuments. Volume 43, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-335-0 , pp. 261-269.
  • Christian Griesche, Hans Otzen: Rheinische Friedhöfe. From Cologne to Koblenz. Edition Lempertz, Königswinter 2011, ISBN 3-941-55760-2 , pp. 24–28.

Web links

Commons : Waldfriedhof  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bad Honnef , number A 291
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kerstin Walter: Find peace and quiet in the Siebengebirge Nature Park. The Rhöndorf forest cemetery as a memorial.
  3. ↑ a b c City of Bad Honnef: Historical development of the forest cemetery Rhöndorf , 2013 (display board) - information partially taken from this Wikipedia article
  4. ↑ Forest cemetery with Adenauer's grave is being redesigned and renovated , General-Anzeiger , May 11, 2012
  5. ↑ The Waldfriedhof Rhöndorf is more beautiful than ever ( Memento from May 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) , press release of the city of Bad Honnef, April 27, 2016
  6. ^ Karl Günter Werber : Honnefer walks . 2nd revised edition, Verlag Buchhandlung Werber, Bad Honnef 2002, ISBN 3-8311-2913-4 , p. 54.
  7. ↑ State Conservator North Rhine-Westphalia (Ed.): Yearbook of Rheinische Denkmalpflege 39 , Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-23-5 , p. 205.
  8. ↑ a b c d Bad Honnef history trail - forest cemetery
  9. ^ Heinz Firmenich (revised by Karl Günter Werber ): City of Bad Honnef (= Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz : Rheinische Kunststätten , issue 12). 3rd, revised edition, Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 1987, ISBN 3-88094-541-1 , p. 19.
  10. ↑ Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf-Waldfriedhof war grave memorial site , Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
  11. ↑ rp-online, August 24, 2014


Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 45.7 ″  N , 7 ° 13 ′ 6.4 ″  E