Forest cemetery - the burial in Sovetsk of Russian and German soldiers who died during the First World War, as well as German soldiers and civilians of Tilsit, who died during the Second World War. Object of cultural heritage of local (municipal) significance.
| Cemetery | |
| Forest cemetery | |
|---|---|
| Der Waldfriedhof | |
 Forest cemetery Sovetsk | |
| A country |  Russia |
| City | Sovetsk (Kaliningrad region) |
| Build Date | 1918 year |
| condition | Active burial |
Content
History
The first Russian troops appeared in Tilsit on August 23, 1914, three days later he was completely captured by the army of General Rennenkampf. At the same time, the Russian regime was distinguished by its softness, and even the Tilsitians themselves noted the high culture of the officers.
The fighting at Tilsit occurred on September 12-13. Russian losses due to command errors and weak communications amounted to more than 3,000 people (in addition, the entire convoy and artillery).
September 16, 1914 German soldiers were buried in the Forest Cemetery. The dead from the Russian side were buried on the other side of the cemetery. Subsequently, soldiers were buried here, dying in the prison hospital for prisoners of war. At the initiative of the mayor Paul in 1918, a stele and memorial plates were erected on a mass grave. In the pre-war time, the Forest Cemetery was well-groomed, solid, in the middle of it on a hill was a crematorium.
It was an impressive building, consisting of three parts, connected by galleries. The middle part had a dome. The crematorium was built in 1911-1913. Its author is the city's construction adviser, government architect Gauer. Today, only ruins remain from the crematorium.
During the Second World War, this burial place was badly damaged, and in the early years of the post-war years it was plundered. Tombstones were removed and taken to Lithuania from mass graves; in the early 1990s, only part of the plates was returned. Only by 1955 the burial was discovered and brought into a more or less decent condition.
With Perestroika, a change in attitude to the past of the region, and in particular, to the memory of Russian soldiers. In 1989, the Museum of the city of Sovetsk came up with a proposal to equip the mass grave and create a military Russian-German memorial complex. To achieve this goal subbotniks began to take place, and collection of signatures on the need for reconstruction began. On March 16, 1992, the head of the city administration issued a decree “On the reconstruction of the burial place on Heroes Street”, on the German side, the People’s Union of Military Graves of the Land of Reyland Pfalz took an active part in the fate of the mass grave. The reconstruction took place under the guidance of the architect of the city N. Ryabov and with the support of the Tilsit community from the city of Kiel. On June 13, 1992, with the participation of Metropolitan Cyril, a procession was completed and an Orthodox cross was established. Later, an international youth camp developed in Sovetsk, where in summer, students in Germany and Russia carried out work to care for mass graves. Separate commemorative signs were also installed here in 2000 and 2006.
Description
The cemetery is located in the park area. From the central alley, paths lead to different parts of the cemetery. In the northeastern sector, 514 German soldiers and residents of Tilsit are buried. There are stone obelisks and crosses with the names of the dead. Four stone slabs with embossed names of the dead and a boulder with a reinforced plaque with the inscription in German: “Zum Gedenken an die Toten der Stadt Tilsit 1943 und 1944” (City of Tilsit in memory of the dead) are installed vertically along the path. The central monument, a 4-meter metal Lutheran cross with a concrete border, was erected in 2000 with the assistance of the German People's Union for the Care of Military Graves.
In the southwestern sector, a plate with an Orthodox cross and an inscription in German was installed: "Hier ruehen 187 russische und 1 rumanischer Krieger 1914-1918" (187 Russians and 1 Romanian warrior are buried here). From the plate along the path are tombstones. At the burial place of 298 Russian soldiers in 2006, a black granite stele was installed with an Orthodox cross. The territory around the perimeter is surrounded by a metal fence, paths are paved with paving slabs.
The burial place of German soldiers and civilians in the city of Tilsit, who died during the Second World War, was formed during the hostilities.
Links
Gallery
Captured Russian officers “with their ladies” in Tilsit (from a German postcard from World War I )
Russian prisoners of war on the streets of Tilsit (June 1915 ) (from a German postcard from World War I )
Ancient chapel at the entrance to the park
Forest cemetery
Information plate