Westfriedhof (Cologne)

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Westfriedhof-Cologne.png
War graves in the Westfriedhof
Sculpture “The Prisoners” by Ossip Zadkine

The Westfriedhof is a municipal cemetery north of Venloer Straße in the Vogelsang district of Cologne in the Ehrenfeld district . It has an area of ​​523,000 m² (45,580 graves) and is one of the largest burial sites in the city.

General

The Westfriedhof is one of Cologne's five large cemeteries, which include the Melaten cemetery, which has existed since the beginning of the 19th century, and four so-called relief cemeteries - in addition to the Westfriedhof, the South , North and East cemeteries . These four relief cemeteries were created at the time to solve space problems for the Melatenfriedhof and other cemeteries in the city that existed at the time. The west cemetery was to become the third relief cemetery after the north and south cemetery. The planning for its construction, including an ideas competition for the horticultural design, began as early as 1912. The construction, on which around 200 Russian prisoners of war were also used, lasted from 1913 to 1917. The burial site was opened with the first burial on October 1, 1917 Originally, the Westfriedhof was supposed to completely replace the Melaten cemetery as Cologne's central cemetery ; For this reason, the city closed for new burials immediately after the opening of the Westfriedhof Melaten. It was not until 1923 that it was decided to continue using Melaten.

To this day, the Westfriedhof has the character of a park, typical of the larger Cologne municipal cemeteries, with wide avenues and extensive tree planting. There are also several sections with Roma graves and Muslim burials on the site of the cemetery . The municipal crematorium is also located here ; this was built in 1937 and was also the first crematorium in Cologne. In December 2018 it was decided to let the Dutch entrepreneur Die Facultatieve operate the crematorium in future . Since the end of March 2019, he has taken over the management as Krematorium Köln GmbH .

Immediately to the north of the Westfriedhof there is a forest area that was planned as a possible expansion area. The Jewish cemetery is located adjacent to the Westfriedhof .

In front of the burial ground of the victims of war and tyranny stands a cast (from 1958) of the sculpture “The Prisoners” by Ossip Zadkine from 1943. The 1.90 meter high bronze sculpture reminds “of the suffering of the French population under German occupation”.

Graves of famous personalities

Web links

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

literature

  • Günter Leitner: Cemeteries in Cologne - in the middle of life . Cologne 2003
  • Josef Mahlmeister : Peace and quiet in the old north cemetery and the west cemetery in Cologne . A photo book with stories from Cologne. Palabros de Cologne, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-9813632-1-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cologne crematorium is privatized. In: Koeln.de. Retrieved February 14, 2019 .
  2. ^ "Crematorium Cologne Limited Liability Company" takes over the Cologne crematorium. In: www.stadt-koeln.de. Accessed March 31, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Bruno Fischer: Cologne and the surrounding area 1933-1945: the historical travel guide . 1st edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 3-86153-692-7 , p. 128 .
  4. ^ A b c Jürgen Fritsch, Günter Leitner: Cemeteries in Cologne - in the middle of life. Jürgen Fritsch-Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-936333-01-7 , pp. 116-120.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 '18.6 "  N , 6 ° 52' 43.1"  E