Alter Johannisfriedhof

The Alter Johannisfriedhof ("Old St. John's Cemetery") is the oldest burial ground in the city of Leipzig, Germany. It was heavily cleared in 1981 by the then East German regime and is now a park.

The burial ground was in existence as early as 1278 on the land of the Johannishospital (St. John's Hospital) in Leipzig, a leper hospital. It was later attached to the Johanniskirche (St. John's Church), built in the 14th century and destroyed in World War II. At first the burials were mostly of those who died of leprosy. In 1476 the burial ground was enlarged, after the order of the Prince-Elector that inhabitants of Leipzig without citizenship should also be buried there. In 1536 George, Duke of Saxony, ordered that it should become the common burial ground for the city of Leipzig. Consequently the first and second sections were both expanded several times. At the same time it was re-modelled in the style of the Camposanto in Pisa, a popular style of cemetery in Germany.

In 1680 and 1805 the graveyard was expanded by the additions of sections three and four respectively. When this additional space was also full, the final extension, in the form of the fifth section, took place between 1827 and 1863. By 1846, however, it was clear that further extension was impossible, and a new cemetery, the Neuer Johannisfriedhof, was opened on a different site.

During its history the burial ground was involved in military events on several occasions. During the Thirty Years' War Swedish troops camped here and partly destroyed it. In September 1813 it was used as a camp for prisoners and the wounded when the military hospitals in the city were full up. Soldiers lived in the vaults and used the coffins for firewood.

In the fourth section are unmarked mass graves for victims of the Seven Years' War and of the Battle of Leipzig.

In 1883 the first and second sections were re-planned and converted to a park layout, during which process the only tomb to remain untouched was that of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. On Christmas Eve of the same year the burial of a Dr. Emil Breiter brought to an end the graveyard's more than 600 years of use for burials. Between 1484 and 1834 257,275 burials are recorded. The burials were mostly of Germans, but Swiss and French people, Russians, Italians, English people and Americans were also buried here.

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Wikipedia