Ohlsdorf Cemetery
Burial site at Ohlsdorf cemetery
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| Details | |
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| Established | 1877 |
| Location | Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Germany |
| Coordinates | 53°37′29″N 10°3′42″E / 53.62472°N 10.06167°ECoordinates: 53°37′29″N 10°3′42″E / 53.62472°N 10.06167°E |
| Type | Public |
| Size | 391 hectares (966 acres) |
| No. of graves | 280,000+ |
| No. of interments | 1.5 million |
| Website | Official website |
| Find a Grave | Ohlsdorfer Friedhof Ohlsdorf cemetery |
Ohlsdorf Cemetery (German: Ohlsdorfer Friedhof or (former) Hauptfriedhof Ohlsdorf) in the quarter Ohlsdorf of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are civilians, but there is also a large number of victims of war from various nations.
In 1877 the Ohlsdorf Cemetery was established as a non-denominational and multi-regional burial site outside of Hamburg.
The cemetery has an area of 391 hectares (966 acres) with 12 chapels, over 1.5 million burials in more than 280,000 burial sites and streets with a length of 17 km (11 mi). There are 4 entrances for vehicles and public transport is provided with 25 bus stops of two bus lines of the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund. The cemetery is not only used as a burial ground, but also as a recreational area and tourist attraction. With its impressive mausoleums, rhododendron bushes, its ponds and birds, sculptures and funerary museum, about two million people from all over the world visit the cemetery every year.
About 40% of all burials in Hamburg take place here in Ohlsdorf Cemetery; in 2002 there were 1600 interments and 4300 urn burials. 230 gardeners take care of graves and all facilities.
One of four permanent Commonwealth cemeteries in Germany, the Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery is located near chapel 12 (Kapelle 12) of the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.
During World War I over 400 Allied prisoners-of-war who died in German captivity were buried here in, as well as sailors whose bodies had been washed ashore the Frisian Islands. In 1923 the remains of British Commonwealth servicemen from 120 burial grounds in north-western Germany were brought to Hamburg. Further dead Commonwealth soldiers of World War II and of the post war period were buried here too.
There are six memorial sites for the victims of the Nazi era, the "Monument for the Victims of Nazi Persecution" (Gedenkstätte für die Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung); the monument, "Passage over the River Styx" (Fahrt über den Styx) for the victims of the Hamburg firestorm; the "Memorial Grove for the Hamburg Resistance Fighters", which includes a memorial erected on the initiative of the Sophie Scholl Foundation, the "Ehrenfeld Hamburg Resistance Fighters"; the "Cemetery for Foreign Victims", erected in 1977 to honor the victims of Nazi concentration camps and forced labor; and the Erinnerungsspirale ("memory spiral") erected in 2001 in the "Garden of Women", as a memorial for the female victims and opponents of the Nazi regime. An additional memorial site was erected in 1951 at the nearby Jewish cemetery, Ilandkoppel, the "Monument for the Murdered Hamburg Jews".
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Wikipedia