Waldfriedhof Darmstadt

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The Waldfriedhof Darmstadt is located in a wooded area on the western outskirts of Darmstadt .

history

The striking cemetery was laid out at the beginning of the First World War according to plans by August Buxbaum and inaugurated in 1914. The first building was the crematorium from 1913 to 1914. After delays caused by the First World War, the funeral and mortuary hall was completed in 1918, the rest of the cemetery buildings followed by 1922.

The forest cemetery is laid out in the shape of a horseshoe with a length of about 650 m. It is accessed symmetrically by the large main path (north-south axis in the middle), several diagonals and circular paths. The entrance to the forest cemetery is characterized by a striking architecture. In addition to the portal and the semicircular colonnade, in which crypts with heavy lids were created, there are two symmetrically designed domes with a diameter of 17.5 m on the east and west sides as well as the identical administrative and residential buildings at the end of the colonnade. The back of the colonnade is designed as a columbarium wall for storing 945 urns . In the center of the cemetery buildings on the forecourt is a fountain, flanked by two columns with urns.

The memorial and the memorial for the dead of both world wars are impressive . Within the spacious memorial there is a mass grave for the approximately 12,000 victims of the night of the fire on September 11, 1944, many of whom were no longer identifiable. The area is designed as a roundabout. The names of the dead are recorded on bronze plaques on the wall of the lower gallery. The three large, recumbent bronze figures that remember the victims of the night of the fire were created by the Darmstadt sculptor Fritz Schwarzbeck . The war cemetery was built in the early 1950s. A large concrete cross stands on the eastern edge of the complex . The inscription “You are unforgotten” is on the base. The dead lie on three semicircular levels between the concrete cross and the main path. The dead of the night of the fire lie on the central, lowest level. Immediately in front of this memorial was the group of figures "victims" by Schwarzbeck from 1958. It consisted of three bronze reliefs lying on the floor. The reliefs symbolized a sleeping family; consisting of father, mother and child. The reliefs were stolen in December 2017. A reconstruction of the bronze figures is planned.

On the other side of the main path, in the western part of the cemetery, there is a large free grave field, which is reserved for disasters .

"Crematorium Waldfrieden"

A new crematorium was built east of the funeral and morgue. The new pollutant limit values ​​of the Federal Immission Control Act that came into force in 2000 forced the construction of a new crematorium. The new crematorium went into operation in March 2001 and enables up to 4,500 cremations per year. There are 63 cold rooms in the building. In 2008 the crematorium was renamed “Waldfrieden Crematorium”. Since 2010 there has been a new prayer room in the “Crematorium Waldfrieden”, in which denominational symbols have been dispensed with. This made it possible to design the memorial ceremony individually. The handover of the coffin into the flames can be broadcast on a screen.

Graves of famous personalities

Others

The old crematorium is now used for cultural events.

Since May 2014 there has been a café in the former residential building in the western wing of the building.

See also: List of cultural monuments on the forest cemetery

Picture gallery

  • Main entrance with colonnade and eastern mourning hall (2008)

  • Entrance portal seen from the cemetery side (2008)

  • Main entrance with urn wall, seen from the cemetery side (2008)

  • War Victims Memorial (2016)

  • One of the main axes of the cemetery (2014)

  • Site plan of the cemetery (2007)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information board at the cemetery entrance
  2. ↑ Darmstädter Echo, Saturday, December 23, 2017, p. 14
  3. ↑ 100 Years of the Waldfriedhof, Darmstadt City of Science, Green Space Office, 2014
  4. ↑ Darmstädter Echo, Thursday, July 24, 2014, p. 13

Web links

Commons : Waldfriedhof Darmstadt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 23 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 43"  E