The German War Graves Commission ( in German) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German

war grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

s in Europe and North Africa. Its objectives are acquisition, maintenance and care of German war graves; tending to next of kin; youth and educational work; and preservation of the memory to the sacrifices of war and despotism. Former head of the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

Wolfgang Schneiderhan was elected President of the organisation in 2016, succeeding SPD politician

Markus Meckel Markus Meckel (born 18 August 1952) is a German theologian and politician. He was the penultimate foreign minister of the GDR and a member of the German Bundestag. Early life Markus Meckel was born on 18 August 1952 in Müncheberg, Brandenburg. ...

. The

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

, currently

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

(SPD), is the organisation's patron.

Role

The German War Graves Commission cares for the graves, at 832 cemeteries in 46 countries, of more than 2.7 million persons killed during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The German war graves are intended to remember all groups of war dead: military personnel, those dead by

aerial warfare Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare. Aerial warfare includes bombers attacking enemy installations or a concentration of enemy troops or strategic targets; fighter aircraft battling for control o ...

, murdered in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, and all other persons persecuted to death. In addition, the Volksbund maintains cemeteries and memorials of the Franco-Prussian War,

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (german: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Krieg) was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig, ...

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

, and the German colonial era.''Bau, Instandsetzung und Pflege.''
auf: ''volksbund.de''

History

Establishment

The commission was founded as a private charity on 16 December 1919, as the ''recognised

erman Erman Rašiti may refer to: Given name * Erman Bulucu (born 1989), Turkish footballer * Erman Eltemur (born 1993), Turkish karateka * Erman Güraçar (born 1974), Turkish footballer * Erman Kılıç (born 1983), Turkish footballer * Erman Kunter (b ...

Commission'' under the war graves provisions of Article 225 of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. By the 1930s, the commission had established numerous cemeteries for German

dead...

World War II and postwar

During

, the Volksbund's work was mostly carried out by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

's own graves service. After World War II, the Volksbund resumed its work in 1946 and soon established more than 400 war cemeteries in Germany. In 1954, the German chancellor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...

, tasked the Volksbund with the establishment, care and upkeep of German war cemeteries abroad.

Philosophy

To guard the memory of the victims of war and violence, to work for peace among all nations and to guarantee dignity of men, are the main goals in the statutes of the German War Graves Commission. All activities of German War Graves Commission must harmonize with these general principles.Satzung des Volksbundes Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, § 3 – Aufgaben und Rechtsgrundlagen (Activities and legal basis)

Organisation

Financing

The Commission spent about 52 million Euro (in 2019). Half of it was used for maintenance of the cemeteries, more than a third to remind what happened and to learn from it, the rest was used to keep the association running. Two-thirds of this sum was financed by members and private donations. One-third was paid by government (war graves outside of Germany) and states (maintenance of some war graves within Germany).

Activities

Casualties, war graves, prisoner of war graves

The commission looks after "832 military cemeteries in 46 countries with about 2.75 million dead" and its work is carried out today by 8,000 honorary and 556 full-time employees. Since the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, the ''Volksbund'' has access to Eastern Europe, where most

German casualties occurred. Since 1991, 188

cemeteries and 330

cemeteries in eastern, central and south-eastern Europe have been reconstructed or rebuilt and about 764,524 bodies have been buried in new graves. Maintenance of German war cemeteries in France is looked after by the (the "German Military Burials Maintenance Service") known as ''S.E.S.M.A.''. * With 46 foreign partner countries bilateral war grave agreements were settled by the year 2019. Requests on foreign war graves in Germany are handled by the German War Graves Commission.Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (Hrsg.): ''Arbeitsbilanz 2010.'' Sonderdruck 2011, p. 13 * On behalf of German Government, the construction, repair and care of German War cemeteries outside of Germany is handled by the Division of Cemetery Construction and Building Maintenance (german: Referat Friedhofspflege und Bauunterhaltung). In 2019, the workload covered more than 832 war cemeteries of

and

and more than 800 war cemeteries/memorial sites of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. * The German War Graves Commission (''Volksbund'') cooperates with and uses the files of

German Federal Archives The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (german: Bundesarchiv) are the National Archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture and t ...

, former''

Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) The was a German government agency based in Berlin which maintained records of members of the former German who were killed in action, as well as official military records of all military personnel during World War II (ca. 18 million) as well as ...

'' in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(Register of German soldiers killed in action or who became prisoners of war). This bureau collects and preserves data and

dog tag Dog tag is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of casualties; they have information about the individual written on them, including i ...

s of active German soldiers of World War II. The ''Volksbund'' is in close contact with other tracing services, e. g. the

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within ...

. Information gathered on occasion of exhumation of bodies is recorded by ''Volksbund'' and transferred to other institutions to assist in identifying missing people (for example, by

s) and by updating files. * The commission searches for war casualties and when found, transfers them to central cemeteries in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, Germany and

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

through the ''Volksbund'' exhumation service (german: Umbettungsdienst). There were 19,735 exhumations in the year 2019. Search for undetected burial places of war casualties is done by records of former ''WASt'', eyewitnesses, historical photographs of World War II cemeteries and assistance of local residents during construction of new roads or structures. Names of missing soldiers are remembered, e.g. in Rossoschka German War Cemetery, on granite cubes as memorials for family members and as a warning for future generations in their effort to live in peace. * The exhumation service documents in a draft manual document for each body of a soldier found at the grave site, the dog tag (if existent), the remaining clothing and other individual belongings, human height, characteristics of

human skeleton The human skeleton is the internal framework of the human body. It is composed of around 270 bones at birth – this total decreases to around 206 bones by adulthood after some bones get fused together. The bone mass in the skeleton makes up a ...

, state of

dental notation Dental professionals, in writing or speech, use several different dental notation systems for associating information with a specific tooth. The three most common systems are the FDI World Dental Federation notation (ISO 3950), the Universal Nu ...

to make it easier to identify later unknown soldiers.Beate Kalbhenn: ''Der Name ist entscheidend. Grabnachforschung durch den Volksbund.'' In: Stimme & Weg x/1997, pp. 24–25 * From about 6,200 cemeteries for German

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

180 were reconstructed (state: 2011). Cemeteries for prisoners of war cannot all be maintained. So only a selection of prisoner of war cemeteries will serve the memory for those who died in war captivity.

War grave database online

The German War Graves Commission offers an accessible online database of 4.8 million individual names for World Wars I and II.Online-Search for War Graves (Volksbund Gräbersuche online)
(in English) War cemeteries and war dead of World War I and II inside of Germany are also documented in these files (895,561 in 2010). Among these are war dead transferred to Germany or persons who died within Germany but only those are registered whose remains were transferred to war cemetery areas within civil cemeteries, not those removed to individual family graves. Further in this database persons can be found who died by

aerial bombing of cities The aerial bombing of cities is an optional element of strategic bombing, which became widespread in warfare during World War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale in World War II, and is still practiced today. The development of aeri ...

, as

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

or in

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

, partly foreign members of German

auxiliary troops The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of inf ...

who died in World War II or even some members of

who died before World War II began. A grave research request ( in German) can be sent online or as hardcopy to Volksbund (German War Grave Commission) to clarify the unknown fate of a German soldier. As some

family name In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

s are very common it is important to mention all

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

s and the

date of birth A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many reli ...

of the missing soldier. As additional data should be given if available:

date of death A death anniversary (or deathday) is the anniversary of the death of a person. It is the opposite of birthday. It is a custom in several Asian cultures, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Myan ...

, last unit ( in German) and last letters. Often withdrawing troops could not bury their casualties. Detailed data on the war dead of World War I were reconstructed by volunteers in digital format.

List of German cemeteries by country/conflict

War cemetery database online

German War Graves Commission has an online inventory of its cemeteries. Data collected for each cemetery are

location (geography) In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

, how to reach, number of dead, course of military events in the region and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

of the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

Some cemeteries by country

Jewish gravestone at Laventie German Military Cemetery

;Australia – World War I & II *

Tatura Tatura is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, and is situated within the City of Greater Shepparton local government area, north of the state capital (Melbourne) and west of the regional centre of Shepparton. At the 2 ...

German Military Cemetery (Total Burials: 250) ;Austria – World War I & II *

List of German war cemeteries in Austria A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...

:de:Liste von Soldatenfriedhöfen in Österreich ;Belgium – World War I *

Vladslo German war cemetery Vladslo German war cemetery is about three kilometres north east of Vladslo, near Diksmuide, Belgium. Established during World War I, the cemetery holds 3,233 wartime burials. In 1956, burials from many smaller surrounding cemeteries were concen ...

(Total burials: 25,644) *

Langemark German war cemetery The German war cemetery of Langemark (formerly spelt 'Langemarck') is near the village of Langemark, part of the municipality of Langemark-Poelkapelle, in the Belgian province of West Flanders. More than 44,000 soldiers are buried here. The villag ...

(Total Burials: over 44,000) *

Menen German war cemetery The Menen German war cemetery is a military cemetery in the Belgian town of Menen territory and partly in Wevelgem. There were nearly 48,000 German soldiers buried from the First World War, making it the largest in Flanders. In between are seve ...

(Total Burials: 47,864) *

Hooglede German war cemetery The Hooglede German war cemetery (' in German) is a military cemetery in the Belgian town of Hooglede, six kilometer northwest of Roeselare. It is located at the east side of Hooglede. It contains 8,241 buried German soldiers from World War I. M ...

(Total Burials: 8,247) ;Belgium – World War I & II *

Lommel German war cemetery Lommel German war cemetery is located at in the municipality of Lommel, Belgium. It is the largest German military cemetery in Western Europe outside Germany itself. German soldiers who died during the World War II on the territory of Belgium re ...

, (Total burials World War I: 542, World War II: 38,560) ;Belgium – World War II * Recogne German war cemetery, (Total burials: 6,809) ;Canada – World War I & II * Kitchener German war cemetery, Ontario (Total Burials: 187) ;Croatia – World War II * Split German war cemetery (Lovrinac) * Zagreb German war cemetery ;Egypt – World War II * El Alamein German war cemetery in

El Alamein El Alamein ( ar, العلمين, translit=al-ʿAlamayn, lit=the two flags, ) is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Arab's Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. , it had ...

:de: Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte El Alamein ;Finland – World War I & II * Helsinki-Honkanummi German war cemetery :de:Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Helsinki-Honkanummi, (Total burials World War I: 6, World War II: 364) ;Finland – World War II * German Military Cemetery Rovaniemi Norvajärvi (Total burials: 2,530) ;France (Western Front) – World War I *

Fricourt German war cemetery Fricourt German war cemetery is near the village of Fricourt, near Albert, in the French département of the Somme. Most of the fallen were members of the Imperial German 2nd Army. Of the 17,000 burials, about 1,000 died in the autumn of 1914 an ...

(Somme) (Total burials: 17,027) * Gerbéviller German Military Cemetery (Lorraine) (Total burials: 5,462) * Vermandovillers German war cemetery (Total burials: 22,632) Somme Département *

Neuville-St Vaast German war cemetery The Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery is a World War I cemetery located near Neuville-Saint-Vaast, a small village, near Arras, Pas-de-Calais, in Northern France. It is the largest German cemetery in France, containing 44,833 burials, of whi ...

(Arras) (Total burials: 44,843) ;France (Normandy) – World War II * Orglandes German war cemetery (Total burials: 10,152) * Huisnes-sur-Mer German cemetery :fr:Mausolée du Mont d'Huisnes (Total burials: 11,956) *

La Cambe German war cemetery La Cambe is a Second World War German military war grave cemetery, located close to the American landing beach of Omaha, and north west of Bayeux in Normandy, France. It is the largest German war cemetery in Normandy and contains the remains of ...

(Total burials: 21,222) * Andilly German war cemetery :fr:Cimetière militaire allemand d'Andilly (Total burials : 33,085) * Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux German war cemetery * Marigny German war cemetery :fr:Cimetière militaire allemand de Marigny (Total burials: 11,169) * Champigny-Saint-André German war cemetery (19,831) ;Southern France – World War II * Berneuil German war cemetery :fr:Cimetière militaire allemand de Berneuil (Total burials: 8,332) ;Greece * Dionyssos-Rapendoza German war cemetery (Total burials: 9,973) *

Maleme German war cemetery Maleme ( el, Μάλεμε) is a small village and military airport to the west of Chania, in north western Crete, Greece. It is located in Platanias municipality, in Chania regional unit. History Bronze Age A Late Minoan tholos tomb has been ...

(Total burials: 4,465) ;Ireland – World War I & World War II * Glencree German war cemetery ;Israel – World War I * Nazareth German war cemetery :de: Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof in Nazareth ;Italy – World War II * Futa Pass Cemetery (Total burials: 30,683) * :it: Cimitero militare germanico di Pomezia (Total burials: 27,443) * :it: Cimitero militare tedesco di Costermano (Total burials: 22,028) * :it: Cimitero militare germanico di Motta Sant'Anastasia (Total burials: 4,561) ;Luxembourg – World War II *

Sandweiler German war cemetery The Sandweiler German war cemetery is a World War II cemetery in Sandweiler, in southern Luxembourg. It contains the graves of 10,913 German servicemen from the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944 and spring 1945. Of these, 5,599 were buried by ...

(Total Burials: 10,913) ;Netherlands – World War I & World War II * Ysselsteyn German war cemetery, (Total Burials World War I: 85, World War II: 31,513) ;Russia – World War II * Krasnogorsk German war cemetery (POWs, near

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) * Rossoschka German war cemetery * Sologubovka Cemetery ;Spain – World War I & World War II * Cuacos de Yuste German war cemetery :es: Cementerio Alemán de Cuacos de Yuste ;Tunisia – World War II * Bordj Cedria German war cemetery, Tunisia :de: Soldatenfriedhof Bordj Cedria ;United Kingdom – World War I & II *

Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery The Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery () is on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, England. The cemetery contains nearly 5,000 burials from both the First and Second World War. The burials are mainly German and Austrian nationals with a very small ...

(looked after by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

) (Total Burials 4,855)

War-graves commissions in other countries

* Austria – Austrian Black Cross (Austrian War graves on the

Vienna Central cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...

are still looked after by German War Graves Commission.) * France - ** Ministère de la Défense with online data base of war graves **

National Office for Veterans and Victims of War The National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (french: Office national des anciens combattants et victimes de guerre (ONACVG) ) is a French governmental agency under the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Its purpose is recognition and suppor ...

(ONACVG) ** Souvenir Français. * Netherlands – OorlogsgravenstichtingWebsite of the Oorlogsgravenstichting in Netherlands
/ref> (Netherlands Wikipedia) * Russia – Association of War Memorials * United Kingdom (and former overseas Imperial territories Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa) –

* United States –

American Battle Monuments Commission The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is an independent agency of the United States government that administers, operates, and maintains permanent U.S. military cemeteries, memorials and monuments primarily outside the United States. ...

References

External links

Homepage Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission)

* ttp://www.spiritofremembrance.com/page/german-remembrance-and-peace Spirit of Remembrance: German Remembrance & Peace
David Crossland: ''Database of fallen Soldiers. Germany Still Locates 40,000 War Casualties a Year.'' In: Spiegel Online International, May 08, 2012

* ttp://www.volksbund.de/volksbund.html Homepage Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission) *
Der Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) – Online Gräbersuche (online grave search)
*

** ttp://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaette.html Inventory of German War Grave cemeteries in alphabetical order {{Authority control Organizations established in 1919 1919 establishments in Germany