I had heard that the caretaker of this cemetery could be persuaded to open the doors to the now unused and relatively untouched Trauerhalle, or mourning hall. That is what I wanted, shove a few sheckles his way and start snapping. I've never been lucky, no one was around, other than a few casual visitors to the cemetery.
Oh, hello!, fortune favours the brave. Did I mention i,ve never been lucky? After squeezing through I was in what must have been a former toilet block, now empty , leading nowhere. Scramble back out.
So the graveyard it is then.
Burials have taken place here since the beginning of the 16th century of the common era, making it one of Germany's oldest graveyard.
I avoided the more modern parts of the graveyard, just to enjoy the time worn memorials that look, to me as good in decay, as they would have when carved.
When one is unable to find a pillow, I guess a skull will suffice, how bizarre.
The mausoleum of the Ducal family; from 1841, when Fredrich, Duke of Saxe-Altenberg was the first to be shoved in there until the last one, Prince Moritz joined him in 1919. In 1974, the tombs were removed and sold to a local scrap dealer, the remains were buried in unknown unmarked graves elsewhere in the cemetery
It now lies derelict and securely locked
The cemetery, seems to have catered to all faiths, symbolic in the carvings.
Within the graveyard is a plot with 191 war graves commemorating German troops from the First World War, a plot with a further 116 German graves from World War II.
232 Russian and 74 Polish POW's and 14 Soviet soldiers are also within the cemetery
Let's single out hollywood and other film studios for the glorification of war, a generation, baby boomers, myself included gladly soaking up and cheering the heroics of onscreen actors winning the war, often single handedly, killing german servicemen and women and civilians with glee. never a thought or a care that they too are all someones daughters.
There is no glory in war.
Gunner, Dankwart Lohoff 18yrs old, died during an air raid on the city of Bremen.
They are all someones sons.
