White Deer Forest Cemetery

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The Weißer Hirsch forest cemetery is a cemetery on the edge of the Dresden Heath . Because of its natural location, it is one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Dresden . Numerous grave sites are under monument protection .

Overview of the Weißer Hirsch forest cemetery

history

Until the end of the 19th century, today's Dresden district of Weißer Hirsch belonged to the Loschwitz parish . The dead of the White Deer found their final resting place in the Loschwitz cemetery . On April 1, 1897, the independent Parochie Weißer Hirsch was founded. The forest cemetery of the new community was laid out in a wooded area on the southern edge of the Heath and was inaugurated on July 1, 1898. In December 1898, the forest, which was surrounded by a sandstone wall, received its own mortuary . The first burials took place in 1903.

In the years that followed, the population of the Weißer Hirsch almost doubled. Bad Weißer Hirsch also reached its peak visitors as a health resort around 1910, so that the community made plans to expand the cemetery, which were rejected in 1914. As a result of their own efforts to clear the parish, the Oberloschwitzer had laid out the Oberloschwitz cemetery east of the forest cemetery in 1918. In 1919 the Loschwitz community received permission to use the death hall of the forest cemetery. The connecting gate between the two cemeteries became a simple hedge in 1931. Two years later, Oberloschwitz was cleared to the parish of Weißer Hirsch. As a result, both cemeteries were merged on October 1, 1933. A larger cemetery chapel was also built, which was renovated in 1975 and 1993.

The Weißer Hirsch forest cemetery is located on hilly terrain and is terraced. The south-eastern edge of the cemetery goes steadily up to the grave of Manfred von Ardennes , so that at the highest point you are several meters above the actual cemetery area.

Müller burial site and memorials

The mausoleum of the Müller family

The artistically most important grave in the forest cemetery is the Müller Mausoleum , which the industrialist Johann Carl Müller (1867–1944) bought in 1930 as a hereditary burial place. On the 120 square meter area, which is surrounded by a fence, stands the mausoleum, which in turn is closed by a grid. On the inside walls of the mausoleum there are life data and names of the deceased of the family on plaques. Through the entrance you can see a male and a female figure made of white marble , which the sculptor Johannes Schilling originally created for Alfred von Fabrice on the occasion of the early death of his daughter. After the sculpture had stood on the Fabrices property for many years, it came into the possession of Johann Carl Müller and finally in the mausoleum. Here it is illuminated by daylight from above through a roof opening and thus highlighted. The mausoleum made the forest cemetery known beyond the borders of Dresden and made it a tourist magnet in the 1930s. Postcards with the mausoleum motif were even sold.

The forest cemetery has two memorials. An obelisk at the entrance to the cemetery commemorates those who died in the First World War . In the northern part of the cemetery there is a cross with a plaque and memorial stone in memory of the victims of the bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945.

Cenotaph for those who fell in World War I at the entrance to the cemetery.
Memorial for the victims of the bombing raids on Dresden in 1945.

Personalities

Under monument conservation

Listed grave of Carl Ludwig Theodor Graff

Other graves

Grave of Manfred von Ardenne
Grave of Friedrich Wilhelm Neuffer

literature

  • Ev.-Luth-Kirchgemeinde Dresden-Loschwitz (Hrsg.): 300 years Kirchgemeinde Dresden-Loschwitz. Festschrift. Ev.-Luth. Dresden-Loschwitz parish, Dresden 2004.
  • Beautification Association for White Deer, Oberloschwitz (Hrsg.): Forest Cemetery White Deer. For the 100th anniversary on July 1st, 1998 . Dresden 1998.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Beautification Association for White Deer, Oberloschwitz (ed.): Waldfriedhof White Deer. For the 100th anniversary on July 1st, 1998. Dresden 1998.

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 48.7 ″  N , 13 ° 49 ′ 56.1 ″  E