Historical war graves
The Johannisfriedhof cemetery in Chemnitz was closed in 1884 and converted into a park. Most of the graves were leveled. In 1928, the area was renamed Karl-Marx-Platz. Since 1974, the square has been known as “Park der Opfer des Faschismus” (Park of the Victims of Fascism). Today, there are still nine war graves and three honorary graves in the park. The nine war graves are the final resting place of soldiers who fell in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71: one Frenchman and eight Germans aged between twenty and thirty.
number: E14 von 20
title: Historical war graves
artist:
year of creation: vor 1884
material: , Denkmal
There are nine graves in total, arranged in two rows. However, there are large gaps within the rows. The graves consist of a slanted gravestone and a grave border. Everything is made of metal and elaborately designed. The gravestones are decorated with various ornaments, ranging from crosses to various curves. The gravestones bear the names of the individual fallen soldiers. It is striking that all the graves are overgrown with ivy.
The tombs that still exist today are only representative of the original number of graves. However, the majority of these graves were leveled, so that only a few graves remain today. Strictly speaking, these are not graves in the true sense of the word: only the tombs remain as a reminder of the former St. John's Cemetery – the deceased soldiers were reburied.