German War graves

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German War Graves 1870-1945

The German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgraberfursorge) was formed on 16th December 1919 with the intention of recording and commemorating all the dead of the First World War. Many of the inhabitants of the formerly occupied countries didn't like the idea of so many German cemeteries being scattered across the former battlefields and begrudged their former enemy the land in which they were buried. Some cemeteries were left to ruin and others were being desecrated (many were cared for , however), so the VDK set to looking after these graves and "concentrating" several cemeteries into a fewer number (for example , only 18* WW1 German cemeteries now exist in Belgium out of the 670 + that existed in 1920 (128 cemeteries being concentrated into Langemark alone!), and only 2 from WW2) with a larger amount of "inhabitants". The largest WW1 cemetery exists at Menin in Belgium and contains the final resting place of 47,864 soldiers.

(* These 18 ( Vladslo, Hooglede, Langemarck, Menen, Tarcienne, Maissin, Anloy-Heide, Bertrix-Heide, Neufchateau-Malonne, Bellefontaine, Virton-Bellevue , Musson-Baranzy , Halanzy ,Brussel-Evere ,Eupen, Herstal, St.Vith, Luttich-Robermont ) do not include those in civil cemeteries and British (CWGC) cemeteries.)

After the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, the work of the VdK was limited as collections for the funding of the organisation were prohibited. After 1940 some "defeatist" or "pacifist" edifices in the WW1 cemeteries were destroyed by the German army and the VdK, as an organisation, was accused of treason and disbanded in 1941 (beginning work again in 1946, but not as a re-constituted body until 1952). In the meantime, the pro-national socialist professor Wilhelm Kreis was appointed (under Albert Speer) as Architect General of German War cemeteries.

After WW2 (1952), the VDK was re-constituted with an even more immense task to achieve - a task which is still ongoing to this day. Similar tasks to WW1 were carried out with the maintenance and relocation and recording of casualties and graves (a task that was even more difficult that that of 1919 due to the immense numbers involved combined with the destruction of so many millions of documents because of Allied air raids), but it wasn't until the 1990's that they were allowed to do their work in the Eastern battle areas. This huge task (in which some graves and cemeteries have been totally lost for 60 years) is being carried out admirably and new cemeteries appear almost yearly. The largest war cemetery in the world is also being constructed , an 80,000 plus "super cemetery" near St.Petersburg (Solugabowka), containing the concentrated remains of soldiers from many of the "lost" cemeteries of this area

The VDK now cares for the graves of several million German war victims in more than 100 countries world-wide. They care for the resting places of more than 1.2 million in over 8,500 cemeteries (military and civil) within Germany alone.

Since July 1966, they have also been responsible for the German graves from the Franco-German War of 1870-71 in France where they care for the resting places of 20,096 war dead buried in 841 mass graves and 1,417 dead buried in 1,178 single graves.

Completely reliant on public contributions for financial support, the VdK receives no government funding but can call upon the support (not always free!) from a variety of organisations (such as the CWGC (when German graves are encountered in their cemeteries) and the French "Sesma") in the upkeep of graves/cemeteries under their care.

To find out more about the VDK ,or to search for a German casualty, visit their website (in German) by clicking HERE

Just to dispel the rumour that all German headstones consist of black crosses, here are some images of headstones from various cemeteries from 3 different wars. As can be seen there are still some original headstones to be found in certain cemeteries... (click on the thumbnail to view the full-size image)