Altona Main Cemetery ( or ''Friedhof Altona'') is located at Stadiongasse 5,

Bahrenfeld is a western quarter of the city of Hamburg in Germany, it is subject to the district/borough ''Bezirk Altona'' and was an independent settlement until 1890. It is home to DESY and the Barclays Arena. In 2023 the population was 31,438. Histor ...

, Altona, in north-western

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and, with an area of 63

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s, is the fourth largest burial ground in the city and surrounding area. It has been a protected site since the revision of the Hamburg Monument Protection Law (''Hamburger Denkmalschutzgesetz'') in 2013.

History

The main cemetery of Altona was planned from 1913 by Ferdinand Tutenberg, Director of Gardens of the then District of Altona. The new facility, designed as a central cemetery for the whole of Altona, was to replace the existing small church burial grounds and with its generous area of green to provide an appropriately contemporary element of town planning. Construction began in spring 1920; the first burial took place on 2 October 1923, even before the official opening on 1 November 1923. The address was given by the Mayor of Altona, Bernhard Schnackenburg, three months before his untimely death from typhus. Tutenberg's plan was based on the concept of an "architectonic landscape" which would make possible a dignified burial even for the less well-off inhabitants of the town. To explain his intentions Tutenberg wrote in 1928: "A visitor to the dead will not have the view of rows of graves stretching away into the distance but through the smaller space of the little garden... will have the opportunity for inner composure". Thus a geometric and axial network of paths was laid out, the central axis of which was formed by the broad central avenue, now terminating in a monument honouring the fallen of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. To the west of this axis are alternating areas of park and woodland, and to the east the area for urn burials, laid out in concentric circles. Most burials are marked by grave

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s, whereby the desired homogeneity of appearance is attained. In the wooded section however there are also some elaborate burial walls or crosses. The site has a chapel and two nurseries for the cemetery gardener. The chapel was extended by Gustav Oelsner in 1926-27 by the addition of the rectangular arcade. A

crematorium A crematorium, crematory or cremation center is a venue for the cremation of the Death, dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a ...

was originally planned, but was never built. Up to 2012 more than 100,000 burials had taken place in the cemetery.

The present

War graves

There are 1,856 war graves from World War II, mostly civilian casualties from the bombing of Altona, but also some graves of soldiers. The present arrangement dates from the end of the 1960s, when the dead whose graves had been scattered throughout the cemetery during the war were re-buried in one spot around a high cross; the soldiers' graves are directly next to it. The graves of the bombing victims are arranged in the shape of a cross. The gravestones are in the form of either standing crosses or flat stones. The soldiers' gravestones bear only an

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

and the name of deceased, without any other decoration or even the dates of birth and death.

Roma and Sinti burials

A part of the cemetery is set aside for the graves of

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

and

Sinti The Sinti (masc. sing. ''Sinto''; fem. sing. ''Sintetsa, Sinta'') are a subgroup of the Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France, Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally Itinerant groups i ...

HSV cemetery

Since 2008Information on the HSV burial area from Bezirk Altona
Viewed on 10 September 2014 there has been in the north-east of the cemetery a special burial ground for supporters of the

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

(HSV): the

Volksparkstadion Volksparkstadion () is a football stadium in Hamburg, Germany, with a capacity of 57,000, which makes it the eighth largest stadium in Germany. It has served as the home ground of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV since 1953. The Volksparkstadion ...

lies directly over the road. For its construction inspiration was taken from the shape of a football stadium, with allusions to elements such as the stands, the goal and the field. Parts of the area have been laid with turf from the stadium ground itself.

Graves of notable people

Max Brauer Max Julius Friedrich Brauer (3 September 1887 – 2 February 1973) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the first elected First Mayor of Hamburg after World War II. Life In 1923, Brauer was mayor of the independe ...

(1887 - 1973), Mayor of Altona * Ferdinand Tutenberg (1874 - 1956), planner of the cemetery * Bernhard Schnackenburg (1867 - 1924), Mayor of Altona * Ernst Budzinski (1888 - 1951), actor * Adolf Jäger (1889 - 1944), footballer * Herbert Tobias (1924 - 1982), photographer * Peter Rühmkorf (1929 - 2008), poet

Future development

The cemetery has been run since its creation by the District of Altona. Integration into the central Hamburg cemetery administration is under discussion in the context of an administrative reform, but is regarded critically by the District of Altona.''Elbe Wochenblatt'', 22 October 2013
. Viewed 24 September 2014

Photographs

Max Brauer Grab.jpg, Grave of Max Brauer with a typical grave stele HSVFriedhof1.JPG, HSV burial ground, with the HSV stadium in the background Friedhof Altona Ehrenmal 5.jpg, Central monument Friedhof Altona Roma-Gräber.jpg,

graves

Notes and references

Literature

* * *

External links

Website of Altona Cemetery

List of the Cultural Monuments of the City of Hamburg

on the website of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge {{coord, 53.586, 9.888, type:landmark_region:DE_dim:2000, display=title Cemeteries in Hamburg Geography of Hamburg Altona, Hamburg