Herne forest cemetery

Herne forest cemetery
Mourning hall
Country:	Germany
State:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Place:	Herten
Opening:	July 1916
Oldest known occupancy:	July 9, 1916

The Herne forest cemetery was established between 1914 and 1924 as the municipal cemetery of the Wanne office at that time and was subsequently managed as the Wanne-Eickel forest cemetery until the cities of Wanne-Eickel and Herne were merged to form the new city of Herne ( location ). The cemetery at Ewaldstrasse 476 currently includes an area of ​​around 24  hectares , with the northern part of around eight hectares not previously being used for burials and densely populated with deciduous trees. A special feature of the cemetery is the fact that it has been in the area of ​​the city of Herten since it was built . More than 1,600 victims found their final resting place on the war cemeteries in honor of the dead of the First and Second World War . The Jewish part is under monument protection standing monument , registered in the list of architectural monuments of the city of Herten since 2 June 2008 (Memorial number 89).

history

The forest cemetery was created because there was no possibility within the municipality of Wanne to find a property of sufficient size that met the requirements in terms of health considerations as well as artistic aspects. Therefore, the Stallbergsche Hof was initially acquired in Eickel , but ultimately it turned out to be unsuitable for the intended purpose. Finally, after lengthy negotiations from the possession of the Counts of Nesselrode -Reichenstein at Herten Castle, an area of ​​around 15 hectares in the Herten forest on Ewaldstrasse in the area of ​​the city of Herten was purchased. In order to achieve the best possible result for clarifying the unfavorable groundwater conditions and to optimally integrate the existing trees into the cemetery to be created, a competition was then held in autumn 1914 . From the 57 submitted designs, the winner of the second prize was entrusted with the execution of the system, who subsequently also advanced to the head of the garden and forest administration. In the middle of 1915, work began on expanding the cemetery. Because of the mentioned groundwater problem, the construction of ten to twelve meters wide and three to four meters deep drainage ditches was necessary. With them a sufficient lowering of the groundwater level could be achieved and thus the necessary dryness and hygienic harmlessness of burials could be established. Since its completion, the sandy subsoil has been acting like a filter.

After the First World War , emergency workers were deployed to a large extent in the forest cemetery in 1923 and 1924 and completed the drainage system while moving large amounts of earth. In the course of the overall work, the pines in the original forest had to be cleared and the oaks did not survive the changes either, but the new plantings replaced this loss after a few years. The soil favored special types of plants. These are in particular the American oak under trees and the alpine rose in bushes . The drainage ditches were largely hidden from view of the visitors by special plantings.

The first burial in what was then the Wanne forest cemetery took place on July 9, 1916. Around 2300 more followed by mid-June 1925. There was the possibility of an electoral grave along the main routes and in connected special sections. The row grave fields were created in larger sections separated according to denomination. To the north of the mourning hall, the main path that begins at the gatehouses opens up to an open space, in the middle of which a boulder was placed for accentuation ( location ).

According to the overview plan of the city ​​of Herne, Urban Green Department (as of 2009), the forest cemetery comprises 29 grave sites for Jewish citizens, 191 children's grave areas, 1060 war grave areas, 2377 row grave areas, 25 special grave areas, 198 urn row grave areas, 111 urn election grave areas, 3803 election grave areas along the way and 209 election grave areas in the field.

In 2011, due to the low burials, 40 in 2009, 35 in 2010, while the cemetery is dimensioned for up to 1000 burials per year and the high infrastructure costs of the large facility, considerations arose to give up the cemetery. For this purpose, a city council proposal had been drawn up, which was to be presented for discussion at the meeting on November 13, 2011. The planning envisaged an adjustment of the areas of the city to be reserved for burials to the actual needs, but this could only come into effect from the year 2063 due to the usage rights for elective burial sites. For similar reasons, the Röhlinghausen and Horsthausen cemeteries were closed in 2006. According to a newspaper article in the WAZ on November 13, 2011, there is a leasehold contract between the city of Herne and the Graeflich Nesselrode administration . A new use of the entire forest cemetery can only be negotiated after 2063. The leaser refused to rededicate unused parts beforehand, unless the city was ready to buy the land. However, this failed in advance because the demand was too high.

After no burials had been carried out for years, a victim of the double murder was buried in Herne on March 16, 2017, with a special municipal permit .

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  Entrance area (2013)

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  View of the gatehouses (2013)

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  View to the west from the gatehouses with boulder (2013)

buildings

right gatehouse (2014)

Part of the original planning in 1914 was the construction of various buildings for the maintenance of the facility and cemetery purposes : the mourning hall , corpse storage and ancillary rooms, as well as a residential building for the cemetery supervision and office. As a result of the construction ban imposed during the First World War, the construction of an initially provisional morgue and an office in the entrance area could not begin until 1919/20. At the same time, a workshop including a warehouse was set up in the nursery. With the constant expansion of the facility, the necessary residential buildings could finally be built in 1924. The two single-storey buildings, closed at the top by a hipped roof, also act as gatehouses to the left ( location ) and right ( location ) of the original entrance of the forest cemetery on Ewaldstrasse. In the entrance area, they are accentuated by a five-arched arcade . Originally there were ten plaques above the three arcs on the front sides and the adjacent one on the long sides to the street and cemetery. The plaques created by the sculptor Wilhelm Braun showed, among other things, the coats of arms of the communities of Bickern and Crange . They also symbolized mining, industry, agriculture, shipping and the railway. The middle one on the right gatehouse was decorated with the relief of the bailiff Friedrich Weiberg , the "creator" of the forest cemetery. Of the ten plaques, only four are visible on the buildings (shipping, mining, railroad and the Bickern coat of arms). The nursery was built to the right of the old entrance, from which the plants required for the community's parks and other cemetery facilities were taken from the beginning. Today's mourning hall ( location ), built in the 1950s to replace the older chapel, and its outbuildings form the new entrance to the forest cemetery.

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  left gatehouse (2014)

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  Mining (2014)

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  Shipping (2014)

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  Railway (2014)

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  Bickern Coat of Arms (2014)

Jewish part

• See also

Wanne-Eickel Jewish cemetery

List of architectural monuments in Herten

In 1925, the bat Synagogengemeinde Wanne-Eickel the civil parish tub to assign an area on the newly created forest cemetery. Up to 1935, 17 parishioners were buried on the area in Department VI. From 1942, however, prisoners of war and forced laborers were buried in the same place. When the Jewish tombs were cleared, the tombstones were misused to fortify roads. In 1947 she was reburied in Department XVI ( Lage ). The tombstones erected there are replicas from the first years after the Second World War .

In 1971, the former chairman of the Wanne-Eickel synagogue community, Dr. Julius Leeser wrote a letter to Heinrich Weidmann , the mayor of his hometown, with the suggestion that a plaque be put up for the city's Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust . The forest cemetery was also discussed as one of the possible locations. During an inspection, however, it had to be determined that Department XVI, in which the Jewish graves were found, did not correspond to their original burial place, but in 1947 by the cemetery office and with the assistance of the Jewish. Religious community the dead had been exhumed. From 1942 onwards, Russian prisoners of war were initially buried coffin in vacant positions in Division VI. When there were no longer any prisoners left in 1944, the deceased prisoners were placed in the old graves of the Jews who had previously been buried. After the end of the Second World War, the Allied occupation authorities ordered the communities to restore the Jewish cemeteries in a dignified manner. On the part of the city of Wanne-Eickel, no contact was made with the nearby Jewish community of Gelsenkirchen or the Jewish regional association in Dortmund, but with Dr. Walter Kronheim, the former representative of the synagogue community Wanne-Eickel and now city director of Bad Oeynhausen. Kronheim, as the only representative of the de facto no longer existing synagogue community of Wanne-Eickel still living in Germany, consented to the reburial of the 18 verifiable dead from Section VI to Section XVI, where new tombstones with the old inscriptions were set up for them. As a place for the erection of a memorial, this burial place was no longer an option because of the questionable reburial 25 years later. According to the religious understanding, Jewish cemeteries or graves are not closed or re-allocated. The possibility of reburial, which is limited to a few exceptions, would also have required the supervision of a rabbi. The Jewish cemetery section was included in the list of architectural monuments in Herten as an architectural monument.

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Honorary cemetery / war graves / forced laborers

At the beginning of the First World War, the forest cemetery was not ready for its intended use, so fallen and deceased soldiers were initially buried on the existing church burial grounds. With the approval for burial in the Ehrenfriedhof in April 1916, seven soldiers who had previously been buried in the Protestant and one further in the Catholic cemetery were reburied in the forest cemetery. By 1925, the number of those buried in Section III of the Ehrenfriedhof had increased to 57. Within the forest cemetery, the cemetery of honor for the fallen of the First World War is a self-contained complex consisting of two parts. They differ in height, with the lower one, accessible from the main path, also serving as a display area for memorial services ( location ) and on the upper staggered in several rows the graves are arranged ( location ). In the axis of the cemetery of honor, the erection of a memorial for the fallen of the community of Wanne was considered early on. The tombstones themselves, however, should remain unadorned. The victims of the war buried during and after the First World War were mainly those who died locally. Whereby there was no compulsion to have his relatives buried here, but rather the existing old cemeteries could be used. In 1925 there was a soldier's grave in the Protestant cemetery in Crange , the Catholic cemetery on Horststrasse accommodated five more and the Protestant cemetery on Friedhofstrasse seven. Ten slave laborers used in the factories were buried between the general graves. In addition to nine Russians, this was a French. He was reburied in France in 1923 on behalf of the French government. The city of Herne lists 114 graves of German soldiers in the cemetery of honor, half of which originate from the First and Second World War. In 1991 there was a redesign.

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War cemetery for foreigners

Instead of the part originally belonging to the Wanne-Eickel synagogue community in Section VI ( Lage ), Russian prisoners of war but also forced laborers were buried from 1942 onwards. There are 1266 buried persons, including 977 deceased as a result of illness, and 54 Soviet soldiers killed by shooting or as victims of air raids. There are also five Russian civilians, three unknown Russian children and 227 Russian forced laborers who died as a result of illness, industrial accidents or air raids. Quite a few Russian forced laborers lost their lives in the military hospital that was located in the Röhlinghauser Görress School from the summer of 1943. A second camp for Russian prisoners of war existed not far from the Pluto colliery (Gelsenkircher Strasse). On February 23, 1945, 125 prisoners were killed there during an air raid. Two memorial plaques in Cyrillic script are set in at the entrance to the facility . On the left is 546, on the right 480 Russian favors and victims from 1941 to 1945 are commemorated. The facility was renewed in 1995 and 1996.

“The grave lists list the most common causes of death: work accidents, typhus, pulmonary tuberculosis, bombing, but also“ heart failure ”,“ general weakness ”or“ shot ”. These terms often obscure the real cause of death: inhuman treatment. "

- Volksbund

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For the civilian victims of the city of Wanne-Eickel, a burial field was created in Department XX ( Lage ), on which there are 280 graves. Altogether there are 1660 burials of victims of the two world wars of the 20th century in the forest cemetery. The last major renovation of the memorial for civilian victims took place in 1989.

Special tombs and memorial stones

Edmund Weber gravesite

• Grave complex of the Heitkamp family

See also: Heitkamp engineering and power plant construction

The extensive burial place in Department XIII ( Lage ) includes not only the members of the family who died in the 20th century, but also the gravestones of the company's founder Engelbert Heitkamp and his son Heinrich , which were erected in another cemetery in the 1960s . Engelbert, who came from the old Heitkamphof, which stood on the main road in Wanne-Eickel at the level of the crossing through the railway line ( Lage ), used the name Scharpwinkel called Heitkamp according to old Westphalian custom , probably in the late 18th century had a son of the north-west located Scharpwinkelhof married into the Heitkamphof. Engelbert Scharpwinkel called Heitkamp (January 8, 1834 to March 28, 1899; married to Friederike Heitkamp, ​​born Schulte called Gosewinkel , June 15, 1840 to April 14, 1908) founded the construction company named after him in 1892. Initially concerned with civil engineering work of all kinds, the field of work expanded increasingly. When Engelbert died in 1899, his son Heinrich Heitkamp (January 31, 1879 to May 27, 1964; married to Hedwig Heitkamp, ​​born Ufer , November 7, 1880 to March 6, 1947) initially joined the company as an authorized signatory , before becoming the manager in 1902 Owner took over. Heinrich had been using the sole name of Heitkamp again since 1900, with the approval of the government in Arnsberg. After the Second World War, Heinrich's sons Robert and Heinrich founded E. Heitkamp OHG as an umbrella organization , Heinrich Heitkamp (April 21, 1905 to October 2, 1974) led the construction company Heitkamp GmbH in Wesseling, Robert Heitkamp (September 21, 1915 to June 16 1998) the company of the same name in Wanne-Eickel. After strong expansion in the following decades and multiple changes in the ownership structure, which was still influenced by the family - the company employed more than 8,000 people in the wedding and works worldwide, including in power plant and motorway construction - the group filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and was dissolved in 2012 .

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  Engelbert Heitkamp (1834–1899)

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  Heinrich Heitkamp (1879–1964)

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  Engelbert Heitkamp (1918–1944)

• Edmund Weber's grave

• Memorial column ( location ) between section I and II for the 13 miners who died on July 9, 1917 at the Pluto Wilhelm colliery as a result of a firedamp explosion .

“THE MINERS WHO WAS ACCIDENT ON JULY 9, 1917 AT THE PLUTO-WILHELM MINE. GELSENKIRCHENER BERGWERKS-AG "

- Inscription on the memorial column

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• Memorial stone ( location ) in Department VI for the 1031 soldiers of the Soviet Army who were buried in the forest cemetery and who died between 1941 and 1945 “far from home”, the fallen citizens of the USSR and 241 civil workers buried here. The cenotaph, which was first erected in June 1949 and made of sandstone, was replaced in 1995/1996 as part of the renovation of the facility in Department VI. The inscriptions were left as they were, but the sides were swapped.

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• Memorial for the fallen of the two world wars

Memorial to the fallen of the two world wars (2013)

Opposite the mourning hall and to the right of the entrance to the cemetery of honor for the German soldiers is the memorial for the fallen of the two world wars. ( Location ) The 2.20 meter high sculpture Die Klage , standing on a one meter high base, was created by the sculptor Hubert Hartmann from Thüster Muschelkalk . It was unveiled on November 18, 1960. In the foreground is a kneeling woman who mournfully folds her hands in her lap, and behind her is a man standing protectively with his hands on her shoulder.

literature

• Hans-Heinrich Holland: Materials on the history of the forced laborers in Herten. 2nd edition, VHS Herten in cooperation with VVN-BdA and Herten action alliance against neofascism, Herten 2002, p. 26. digital
• Elfi Pracht-Jörns : Jewish cultural heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia. Part V: Arnsberg district. (= Contributions to the architectural and art monuments of Westphalia, Volume 1.3 ) JP Bachem Verlag , Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1449-7 , pp. 188–193 and Figure 134.
• Friedrich Weiberg (ed.): 50 years of office tub. Self-published, Wanne 1925, p. 146 f.

Web links

Commons : Waldfriedhof Herne (Herten)  - Collection of images

Commons : Waldfriedhof Herne (Herten, Jewish part)  - Collection of images

• Herne forest cemetery. listing the names and dates of 1662 war victims. Retrieved June 7, 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Area according to TIM-online NRW
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Friedrich Weiberg (Ed.): 50 years of the Wanne office. Self-published, Wanne 1925.
3. ^ City of Herne. Forest cemetery. Show plan. As of July 2009. Accessed April 11, 2014.
4. ↑ ^{a b} City buried forest cemetery. Closure of the cemetery. WAZ dated November 19, 2011, accessed June 7, 2014
5. ↑ Rest in the countryside. WAZ dated June 25, 2008, accessed June 7, 2014.
6. ^ Wit / dpa: Hundreds of rockers at the funeral of nine-year-olds. In: spiegel.de. Spiegel Online , March 16, 2017, accessed May 1, 2017 . 
7. ^ Society for local history Wanne-Eickel eV: Sacred buildings and religious art in Wanne-Eickel and Herne. (= Der Emscherbrücher 2000), Herne 1999, p. 78.
8. ^ Elfi Pracht-Jörns: Jewish cultural heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia. Part V: Arnsberg district. (= Contributions to the architectural and artistic monuments of Westphalia, Volume 1.3 ) JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1449-7 , p. 192.
9. ^ Wanne-Eickel (forest cemetery). at Uni Heidelberg.de, accessed on June 7, 2014.
10. ↑ Ralf Piorr : "Unfortunately I see myself compelled to abstain from any reply." - The memorial stone for the Jewish community in Wanne-Eickel. In: Ralf Piorr (Ed.): "Seams felt, here .... On the history of the Jews in Herne and Wanne-Eickel." Klartext Verlag , Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-101-9 , p. 238 f.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} War graves in Herne. on Stadt Herne.de, accessed on June 7, 2014.
12. ↑ ^{a b c d} Herne-Wanne-Eickel-Waldfriedhof. at volksbund.de, accessed on June 7, 2014.
13. ↑ Ehrenfriedhof in the Waldfriedhof. on Wanne Eickel Historie, accessed on June 7, 2014.
14. ^ Heinrich Lührig, Gerhard Schmitz: Röhlinghausen. Wanne-Eickel III. Edited by the Society for Local Studies Wanne-Eickel eV, Herne 1995, p. 200.
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} 75 years of Heitkamp. Building is fun. Festschrift, Wanne Eickel 1967.
16. ↑ Memorial column commemorates mining accident. on Wanne Eickel Historie , accessed on June 7, 2014.
17. ↑ Cenotaph for prisoners of war and forced labor. on Wanne Eickel Historie , accessed on June 8, 2014.
18. ↑ Memorial - the lawsuit. on Wanne Eickel Historie , accessed on June 8, 2014.

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