Westfriedhof (Magdeburg)

Entrance portal of the Westfriedhof

The Westfriedhof is a communal cemetery in Magdeburg 's Stadtfeld West district . With around 62.5 hectares, it is the largest cemetery in the state capital.

location

Plan of the Westfriedhof (around 1900)

The site is located in Stadtfeld West , borders the district of Diesdorf and extends from Grosse Diesdorfer Strasse in the north to Sudenburger Wuhne in the south, and from Seehäuser Strasse in the east to Diesdorfer Graseweg in the west.

The main entrance on the corner of Große Diesdorfer and Seehäuser Straße is formed by a neo-Gothic portal system in red brick construction, interspersed with sandstone. The seven-arched portal with wrought-iron entrance gates is flanked on both sides by small brick buildings built in 1897. The one on the left was originally designed as a porter's residence, the one on the right as a waiting hall with sales rooms. Behind the portal system there has been a small toilet block on the right since 1897, on the left a pavilion as the administration building for the cemetery inspection, which was expanded in 1914.
In the line of sight of the main entrance is the neo-Gothic cemetery chapel with side buildings. Behind this is the crematorium designed by Johannes Göderitz in 1923 .

history

Entrance area at the turn of the century

After the Magdeburg cemeteries were closed to burials in 1827, the north cemetery was opened as the first municipal cemetery in the same year . As a result of the population increase at the end of the 19th century, the south cemetery was opened in 1872 , but it was soon no longer sufficient. Therefore, in 1893, the city council approved funds for the construction of a new cemetery in the west of the city.

The Magdeburg West Cemetery was planned by the then horticultural director Johann Gottlieb Schoch (1853–1905) with an area of ​​around 30 hectares. The building was designed by the former city architect Otto Peters (1850–1927). After Gottlieb Schoch's death, gardening director Wilhelm Linke (1866–1942) continued to design the Westfriedhof. The cemetery was officially opened on October 17, 1898. The first funeral took place around 3 p.m. on the same day. Urn burials have also taken place in the Westfriedhof since the mid-1920s. In 1929/30 the pavilion was built at the entrance to the Westfriedhof in the New Building style.

Today the area of ​​the Westfriedhof is around 62.5 hectares. This makes it the largest cemetery in the state capital. It is home to historical graves, fountains and monuments that are considered part of Magdeburg's art history. They were created by sculptors and artists such as Eberhard Roßdeutscher , Heinrich Maria Waderé , Rudolf Bosselt , Albin Camillo Müller , Wieland Schmiedel and Fritz Cremer .

The crematorium was expanded for the first time in 1965. In 1994 the cemetery was completely listed, the crematorium was expanded again in 1996 and the chapel was renovated in 2000.

Community graves and memorials

→ Main article : War cemeteries Westfriedhof (Magdeburg)

In addition to graves from the First and Second World War, there are also several memorials on the area of ​​the Westfriedhof :

• In 1981 the sculptor Fritz Cremer created a memorial for the victims of fascism . His sculpture “O Germany, pale mother”, created from 1961 to 1965 for the Mauthausen Memorial near Vienna , was installed in 1983 as a bronze second cast on the Westfriedhof.
• Memorial for the victims of the bombing raid on Magdeburg on January 16, 1945 and the other air raids on Magdeburg: grave fields and memorial by Wieland Schmiedel 1995.
• Mass grave and memorial for 60 skeletons of young men found on the KGB premises at Klausener Strasse in Magdeburg (presumably members of the Soviet Army from 1950s)
• Community grave for the victims of the train accident of July 6, 1967 in Langenweddingen , who were buried here on July 11, 1967.
• Since 1996 there has been a memorial stone of the Republic of Italy for Italian military internees who fell (in the air raids) .
• Community grave facility for miscarriages .
• Grave field of the anatomical institute of the University of Magdeburg .

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  Three-part memorial for the bomb victims above the mass graves

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  First part of the memorial for the bomb victims ("January 16, 1945")

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  Grave for 60 dead from Klausener Strasse ( KGB site )

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  Memorial in front of the grave of the 60 dead from Klausener Strasse

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  Funeral service on July 11, 1967 for the victims of the Langenweddingen railway accident

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  Community grave system for false births

Graves of famous people

Numerous Magdeburg personalities found their final resting place in the Westfriedhof. These include, for example, the former mayors Hermann Otto Reimarus (1857–1920) and Hermann Beims (1863–1931), the industrialists Eugen Polte (1849–1911) and Rudolf Ernst Wolf (1831–1910) and the Faber publishing family. Other personalities buried in the Westfriedhof are:

• Jutta Balk (1902–1987), painter, puppet designer and co-founder of the municipal puppet theater in Magdeburg
• Bruno Beye (1895–1976), painter and graphic artist
• Arno Bieberstein (1883–1918), three-time German swimming champion
• August Blencke (1868–1937), orthopedist and university professor
• Heinrich Ehrenbrecht (1895–1960), third President of the German Table Tennis Association
• Karen Fredersdorf (1892–1985), singer and actress
• Irene Greulich (1944–2017), organist and cantor, from 1971 to 2008 church musician at the St. Wenzel town church (Naumburg)
• Gyula Grosz (1878-1959), radiologist
• Wilhelm Höpfner (1899–1968), graphic artist
• Reinhard Höppner (1948–2014), mathematician, SPD politician, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt and author.
• Ernst Holtermann (1867–1922), pioneer of the Protestant book trade in Germany
• Klaus Hoppe (1938–2006), engineer
• Gustav Kleff (1900–1967), gynecologist
• Wilhelm Löhr (1889–1941), surgeon
• Fritz Maenicke (1892–1970), sculptor and restorer
• Artur Mest (1875–1934), cinema entrepreneur
• Adolf Mittag (1833–1920), entrepreneur and patron
• Max Otten (1877–1962), doctor (internist, occupational physician)
• Claus Rautenstrauch (1961–2008), business IT specialist
• Otto Richter (1872–1927), SPD politician, co-founder of the Magdeburg building cooperative movement
• Johann Gottlieb Schoch (1853–1905), horticultural director
• Martin Schwantes (1904–1945), teacher and KPD member
• Karl Richard Toepffer (1840–1919), industrialist
• Hans-Jochen Tschiche (1929–2015), theologian, politician Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, co-founder of the Neues Forum, senior president of the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt
• Heinrich Unverricht (1853–1912), neurologist

A memorial stone was erected in the cemetery for the doctor Otto Josef Schlein (1895–1944) murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp .

literature

• Jansen: The new Westfriedhof in Magdeburg. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 19, No. 77 (September 30, 1899), 79 (October 7, 1899), 85 (October 28, 1899) and 87 (November 4, 1899), pp. 465–468, 481-482, 516-517 and 525-527.
• Hans-Joachim Krenzke, Magdeburg cemeteries and burial places. State capital Magdeburg 1998
• Jutta Boennen, Evelyne Schneider, Thomas Schuldt, Michael-A. Behrens: 100 years Westfriedhof Magdeburg. Cemetery and funeral business in the state capital Magdeburg, 1999
• Helmke Schierhorn , Thomas Klemm: Grave monuments of important doctors in Magdeburg. In: Magdeburger Blätter, 1984
• Josef Durm, Eduard Schmitt, Hermann Ende, Heinrich Wagner: Handbuch der Architektur. A. Bergsträmer, 1907, Volume 4, Issue 3, p. 136

Web links

Commons : Westfriedhof  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Monument information registration no. 094 82227 in the monument register of the state capital Magdeburg

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 41.7 ″  N , 11 ° 35 ′ 10.4 ″  E