Rheinfelden forest cemetery

General plan

The Waldfriedhof Rheinfelden is located at Riburgerstrasse 8 in Rheinfelden . It was executed in the mid-1920s according to the plans of the landscape architect and teacher at the cantonal fruit and horticultural school Oeschberg in Koppigen , Albert Baumann (1891-1976).

History and design

Baumann's original idea was to create a representative entrance area with a central avenue and decorative areas around the chapel, which at that time was the only building in the cemetery. The area was framed by the forest that already existed at the time, so that the entrance area forms a kind of clearing. Behind the chapel you entered the forest with the actual grave fields.

The area underwent significant changes and additions from the mid-1940s onwards by Helmut Vivell, the youngest son of the garden architect Adolf Vivell . The expansions planned by Vivell form the urn walls, which were gradually built from 1947 onwards in the western area of the natural edge of the terrain, as well as the plate graves for urn burials, which no longer exist today. In addition to the centrally located cross in the water basin, the pontooner monument designed by Otto Frey-Thilo (1916–2004) from Laufen limestone was added in 1957. This was built in memory of the pontoon accident at Trübbach-Steg on July 20, 1956. Further works are the sculpture Big Sun created by the sculptor Paul Agustino (1934–2012) and the iron sculpture Credo by Daniel Waldner (* 1963).

At the forest cemetery there is, among other things, an abdication and laying out hall, an outdoor tombstone museum and a grave sculpture designed by August Suter and Adolf Glatt . In 1932 Jakob Strasser painted the four murals Mother and Child , Entombment , Resurrection and St. Martin in the abdication chapel .

From the 1990s there were practically no more redesigns. The exception is the construction of the communal grave above the urn walls. Otherwise only a few maintenance and renovation work will follow. The cemetery in Rheinfelden still represents the original idea of the forest cemetery today. This makes it something special, as it is one of the few existing forest cemeteries in Switzerland.

Graves of important personalities

Bruno Beetschen (1897–1989) Mayor 1929–1965
Garabed Leon Enezian (1926–2007) Armenian-Swiss pharmacist
Josef Enzler (1884–1976) composer of marching music, pseudonym: Xander Seffel
Miquette Frey-Thilo (1909–2002) sculptor
Otto Frey (sculptor) (also Otto Frey-Thilo ; 1916–2004), Swiss sculptor
Robert Haas (1869–1943), General Director of the Rheinfelden power transmission works
Arthur Habich (1874–1941), Salmen Brewery, Rheinfelden
Carl Habich-Schilplin (1873–1931) Salmen Brewery, City Councilor of Rheinfelden
Karl Habich-Dietschy (1845–1928), engineer, Salmen brewery, Rheinfelden
Robert C. Habich-Jagmetti (1915–1988) engineer, Salmen brewery
Johannes Hess (1877–1951), industrial and technical director of Wacker Chemie
Emilio Guido Hunziker-Habich (1869–1925), engineer for canal and hydraulic engineering, especially power plants on the Upper Rhine
Rudolf Indlekofer (1910–1997), publisher, art collector
Richard Molinari (1916–2003) Mayor 1966–1987, founder of the Molinari march (Rheinfelder 50-kilometer march)
Adolph Roniger- Huerlimann (1880–1961) Feldschlösschen brewery owner
Emil Roniger- Hoffmann (1883–1958), writer, founder of Rotapfel Verlag, translator, patron, collector of art and autographs
Jakob Strasser (1986–1978) painter
Rainer Weibel -Gerster (1921–2002), director of the pottery factory in Laufen , CVP politician