Forest cemetery Duisburg

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Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 39.5 "  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 2.6"  E

The forest cemetery between Wanheimerort and Buchholz is the largest cemetery in Duisburg with 67 hectares. It was laid out in the early 1920s according to plans by the Duisburg architect Herman Bräuhäuser . As the municipal cemetery of the Duisburg business operations , it is designed as a burial place for various nations and faiths. In addition to the common row and elective graves, the cemetery also has grave fields for the Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Muslim communities. There are also numerous memorial places for urns, which can be buried either in the classic or as maintenance-free graves under trees, in the lawn or, since 2011, in the Memoriam Garden.

The forest cemetery was part of the medieval Duisburg city forest . A network of paths over 50 km leads through a varied cultural landscape. 6000 trees, including beeches and oaks that are up to 170 years old, as well as a diverse flora and fauna underline the forest-like character. Some buildings and sections of the complex are under monument protection, including graves and mausoleum of prominent Duisburgers. The many memorials and special grave fields for victims of the Nazi era give an insight into the eventful history of the city. In the southern part of the cemetery is the field of honor for the fallen of the Second World War.

history

Sculptures by Kurt Schwippert in front of the listed mourning hall.
Bell at the site of the old crematorium.
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The forest cemetery is also called the New Cemetery. Due to the increasing population due to industrialization, the old cemetery on Sternbuschweg became too small. Duisburg had to find a new location for a municipal cemetery. It was decided to go to a wooded area in what is now Wanheimerort. However, this did not belong to the city, but to the Haniel entrepreneurial family . Because she refused to sell the property, the city initiated an expropriation process . On June 14, 1923, the New Cemetery was inaugurated. The oldest surviving tombstone is a boulder with a plaque commemorating a deceased person from 1924.

From 1925 there was also a sanctuary and morgue. It was built in the style of the modern architecture of the early 1920s, simple undivided brick buildings in the style of Expressionism , which are very reminiscent of a factory building. They should form a contrast to the old beech trees in the cemetery. The city councilor of the structural engineering department Karl Prenzinger and the architect Herman Bräuhäuser were responsible for the planning of the cemetery and the building ensemble . It is not surprising that there are similarities to buildings in the nearby Dickelsbach settlement .

In 1929 the foundation stone for the crematorium was laid. It was designed by the architect Fritz Weimann. Despite its simplicity in the style of the New Building , the clinkered building was reminiscent of a Gothic cathedral. Due to financial constraints, it was not completed until 1932. Above the entrance was a larger than life sculpture of a mourner. It came from the sculptor Kurt Schwippert . During the Second World War it was destroyed in air raids. In 1953 Kurt Schwippert replaced them with the sculpture group Drei Aalter . It symbolizes youth, maturity and old age.

In 1939 the honorary cemetery was created in the southern part of the cemetery. It was intended to serve as a burial place for fallen soldiers. The first funerals took place in November of the same year. There you sworn still on November 15, 1944 Volkssturm during a memorial service for the dead. The field of honor became a place of execution in the last weeks of the war . On March 21 and April 9, 1945, prisoners and deserters were shot in the forest cemetery . After the war they were exhumed by the new military government and were to find their final resting place on König-Heinrich-Platz. In 1947, however, they were reburied in the forest cemetery.

There has been an Islamic burial ground in the forest cemetery since the 1990s.

In 2001 a new crematorium was built at the main entrance on Düsseldorfer Strasse. It was created according to the plans of the architect Jutta Heinze. The outdated technology no longer met today's environmental requirements and the increased need for cremation. For this purpose, the old cell wing was torn down except for the mourning hall and replaced by a new building. In the following year he was handed over to his destination. The old crematorium was demolished in 2003. As a reminder of the old location, only the small bell with the inscription “To commemorate the dead 1953” remained. It hung in the tower of the former crematorium chapel. Kurt Schwippert's group of sculptures found a new place in the courtyard in front of the mourning hall.

In 2010 the memoriam garden was laid out in the forest cemetery. It is located at the parking lot entrance and leads on curved paths through a park-like facility. It is tended by the cemetery gardeners and designed according to the season. Between dry stone walls, water features and the rose grove, there is space for urns and graves.

Special grave fields

Memorial at the Ehrenfeld by Dorothee Ludwig-Mindt.
Memorial stone Russian children's graves of slave laborers.

The cemetery of honor

Cemetery of honor

The Ehrenfeld in the southern part of the cemetery is a memorial to the victims of the Second World War. 3513 people from different nations who lost their lives during the war and the 299 air raids by British-American bombers on Duisburg are buried here. The memorial of the two mourning women was erected on November 19, 1961. It comes from Dorothee Ludwig-Mindt and bears the inscription: "The dead admonish the living".

On favor box a commemorative base with oak wreath and the inscription "THE DEAD MATES" to diem fallen recalls. There the National Socialists swore the Volkssturm men to the final battle. After the war, the swastika was removed from the emblem. In damp weather, however, it shimmers through.

To the south-east of it, at the entrance to Wedauer Straße, there is a burial ground for politically persecuted victims of national fascism .

Jewish graves

Jewish graves

The Jewish burial ground in the northeastern part of the cemetery near the entrance to the Lith has been occupied since 1930. In 1941-1942 the field was divided up in order to bury Russian prisoners of war on the unused part. Before that, the deceased were secretly embed in the Jewish field, but the existing graves of the Jewish community were left untouched. Today 96 tombstones are still preserved there. The last funeral took place there in 1981. In theory, the field is still available to the Jewish community. However, it is no longer used because it does not comply with the religious requirements of the eternal rest of the dead. It is a listed building. Monument number: 656

Russian war graves

Russian war graves 1

Russian war graves 2

Russian war graves children

The forest cemetery is the second largest field in Germany with Soviet war victims. Over 1000 are buried in three separate grave fields. Many of them were not properly buried until after the war years. Before that, the so-called Eastern workers were disposed of in other ways. An official instruction from 1941 for the burial of forced laborers read: “A coffin is not required for the transfer and burial. The corpse must be completely wrapped in strong paper (if possible oil, tar or asphalt paper) or any other suitable material. The transfer and burial is to be carried out unobtrusively ”.

Maternity protection did not apply to them either. In the southeastern part, near the highway, there is a Russian children's burial ground. 263 children were buried there between 1941 and 1945. Many were only a few weeks old. The memorial plaque in Cyrillic was put up later and commemorates 48 children buried there.

Graves of well-known Duisburgers

Many famous Duisburgers also found their final resting place in the forest cemetery:

Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Gravesite of Wilhelm and Anita Lehmbruck.

(January 4, 1881 - March 25, 1919) Printmaker and sculptor. The Lehmbruck Museum in the city center is named after him. His widow Anita Lehmbruck arranged for him to be moved from Berlin to the Waldfriedhof before she herself blessed the temporary cemetery in 1961.

Grave field 46. Location

Herbert W. Koehler

Family grave Köhler-Osbahr.

(December 17, 1919 - March 11, 2001)

Politician and founder of the Köhler-Osbahr Foundation for the Promotion of Art and Science, which he founded in 1986 together with his wife Ingeborg Köhler-Osbahr (1919–2002). Her resting place is the family grave Köhler-Osbahr.

Burial ground 61. Location

Johann Wilhelm Welker

Welker mausoleum

(March 22, 1870 - May 3, 1962)

1917–1944 General Director of Franz Haniel & Cie .

Grave field 45th location

Peter Kloeckner

Kloeckner mausoleum

(November 9, 1863 - October 5, 1940)

Industrialist and founder of the iron and steel trading company Kloeckner & Co .

Grave field 12. Monument number: 704 Location

Karl Jarres

Karl Jarres grave site

(September 21, 1874 - October 20, 1951)

Lord Mayor of Duisburg 1914–1933 and Reich politician in the Weimar Republic .

Grave field 42nd location

Heinrich Weitz

Heinrich Weitz grave site

(August 11, 1890 - October 30, 1962)

Lord Mayor of the City of Duisburg 1945–1947, Finance Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia 1947–1952 and honorary president of the German Red Cross 1952–61.

Grave field 42nd location

Others

Before the forest cemetery was built, the forester's house Zum Lith belonged to the Haniel family. Today the cemetery administration is located there.

Peter Klöckner's mausoleum was designed by the architect Herman Gehrig and the sculptor Alexander Zschokke . It is a listed building.

A few years ago, many graves in the cemetery were the victims of metal thieves. The prominent graves were not spared either. The busts of Lehmbruck and Köhler-Osbar were stolen.

See also

swell

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation Ulrich Hübner - Art and Architecture of the German Cremation Facilities in a Historical Context (page 365) http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-120960
  2. ↑ Diss. Duisburg - War memorials as places of learning for peace education work: Old monuments with new inscriptions http://www.diss-duisburg.de/2012/12/kriegsdenkmaeler-als-lernort/#__RefHeading__2195_2144550533
  3. ↑ ZUM - Central Office for Teaching Media on the Internet e. V.: Forced labor - living conditions - rules of conduct for forced laborers; Bestattung October 27, 41 (page 2) http://www.zum.de/Faecher/Materialien/lehmann/dps/lebensumstaende/med_versorgung/bestatt_271041_2.jpg