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Geoff Delderfield Photography | all galleries >> Other Galleries >> WW1: Rememberence > Langemark German Military Cemetery - stone crosses
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31-MAY-2004

Langemark German Military Cemetery - stone crosses

Total burials: 24,917
Identified graves: 19,378
Kameraden Grab burials - known: 17,342; unidentified: 7,575.

Origins
The cemetery started as a small group of graves in 1915. Burials were increased here by the German military directorate in Gent during 1916 to 1918.

In the mid 1920s, when the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge and the Official German Burial Service in Belgium began to renovate the cemeteries in Flanders, the cemetery was renamed Langemarck-North. With the setting up of a register of German military cemeteries in Flanders in 1930 the cemetery was renamed as German Military Cemetery Number 123. It was officially inaugurated on 10 July 1932.

During the 1930s approximately 10,000 soldiers were brought here from 18 German burial sites around the region of Langemarck and the total number of burials in the cemetery reached about 14,000. About 3,000 of the graves were those of the Student Volunteers who died in the battle of Langemark in October and November 1914 and as a result of this the cemetery became known as the Student Cemetery - Der Studentenfriedhof. Eight soldiers were buried in each plot and they are marked by a flat stone inscribed with their names, where known.



After the Second World War and following the agreement in 1954 to establish three major German collecting cemeteries for First World War dead, Langemark underwent major redevelopment in the late 1950s:

groups of basalt-lava crosses were placed in the grounds
a basalt-lava cross was erected near the old bunker
the Kameraden Grab (Comrades Grave) was made for the unidentified dead
the lifesize bronze statue of four mourning soldiers, by the Munich sculptor Professor Emil Krieger, was placed at the upper end of it.
Exhumations from Westroosbeke, Passchendaele, Moorslede, Zonnebeke, Poelkapelle and Zillebeke were carried out and reburials at Langemark brought the total number of dead known dead to over 19,378. All the 'unknown' dead who were removed from all over Flanders at this time were taken to Langemark for reburial; the remains of 24,917 unidentified German soldiers are interred in the Kameraden Grab – a 'Comrades Grave'. The total number of soldiers buried or commemorated in Langemark stands at 44,234.

In 1971 more work was done at Langemark. The Volksbund changed all the grave markers which had previously only given the grave number to stones giving personal dates for each soldier where possible.

In recent years research by the Volksbund has identified 16,940 of the 24,000 previously 'unknown' soldiers buried here and since 1984 their names have been inscribed on granite blocks by the communal grave. That same year an international ceremony at Langemark was held to mark the completion of renovation work, which included moving the statue of the mourning soldiers to the 'horizon' of the cemetery.

Canon EOS 10D
0.00s at 80.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time31-May-2004 12:24:50
MakeCanon
ModelEOS 10D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length80 mm
Exposure Time
Aperture
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Mode
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Program
Focus Distance

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