Langemark German Military Cemetery
Langemark German Military Cemetery was created in October 1914 by the 234th Reserve Infantry Regiment and the 23rd Reserve Jager Battalion and was known as Langemarck Nord and by 1916 there were 1,107 burials in the cemetery and this number was reduced due to the heavy fighting in the area in 1917 and 1918 so that by the Armistice there were now some 630 burials remaining. Langemark village was overrun by the Germans in April 1915 during their poison gas attack, the German front line was 100m north of the cemetery before the gas attack. Read more about the gas warfare in Flanders here Langemark was not retaken until the Third Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Langemarck 16 to 18 August 1917 when it was the 20th (Light) Division who captured the village. The Germans retook the village during their Spring Offensive in 1918 before it was finally retaken by the Belgians on 28 September 1918. To the north of the cemetery is the Memorial to the 34th Divisional Artillery and Royal Engineers and this stands in front of a German bunker that was used as an advanced dressing station. Read more about the German dugouts and bunkers here
In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles made Belgium responsible for the war graves within its territory and in 1926, the German government, through the ‘Belgium and German War Graves Agreement’ took over the maintenance and care of the 670 German cemeteries in West Flanders and the cemeteries in other areas of Belgium. The two organisations created to with responsibility for the care and maintenance the war graves were the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge, VDK, founded in 1919 and funded by donations, and the Amtliche Deutsche Graberdienst, ADG, which was the official German government war graves commission and funded by the state. ADG took on the responsibility for all the German cemeteries with the exception of Langemark Nord and Roeselare which were the responsibility of the VDK and they appointed Robert Tischler as their head designer. Much of Tischler’s design is still visible today greatly influenced by the German Student Union who from 1926 took up the Langemarck myth and encompassed this in the brief they gave to Tischler. Following the 1954 Belgium German War Graves Agreement the now West Germany took responsibility for Langemarck and
between 1955 and 1957 the concentration of cemeteries into Langemarck took place expanding the burials to some 44,000 and in Plot B the creation of the Kameradengrab and the installation of Professor Emil Kieger’s bronze Mourning Soldiers sculpture group. All unidentified soldiers were reburied in a mass grave, the Kameradengrab, which contains some 25,000 men and the inscription on the grave is taken from Isaiah 43:1 to emphasise the religious tone: ‘I have called you by name, you are mine.’ Another change to denazify the cemetery was the addition made to the motto ‘Germany must live, even if we must die’ with the addition at the end of the name of the poet ‘Heinrich Lersch 1914’ to emphasis the 1914 context of the cemetery. Today, there are only four concentration cemeteries, Langemark is not the largest that title belongs to Menen, they are Vladslo, Menen, Langemark, and Hooglede. The largest German cemetery is at Lommel.
The Langemark Myth
The significance of Langemarck and the Kindermord symbolised in the mind of the German nation the death of youth. This was born from the action at Langemarck on 23 October 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres when in the fields opposite the crossroads at Kortekeer Cabaret, on the road between the village of Bixschoote and Langemarck, the Germans launched numerous counter-attacks against the British 1st Infantry Brigade. They suffered heavy losses, with the German losses including anything up to 3,000 young, untrained, underage, student recruits from Reserve Corps numbers XXII to XXVII, although German Regiments also included men from all ages, who had marched into the withering fire of professional British infantry units. The fate of these young regiments was taken up by the German press in order to cover up the disastrous losses and they invented the story of the cream of German youth, advancing with arms linked, and marching into the hail of fire singing patriotic songs and advancing over the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, dying a heroes death for the Fatherland. The myth of the Kindermord was created. In the 1920s the German Student Union took up the Langemarck myth and changed the young regiments to student regiments and then made a pilgrimage to Langemarck in 1928 to find the cemetery in a state of disrepair, the ground was still full of shell holes, graves scattered, and they took their outrage back to Germany and took full advantage of the outcry. They took control of the Langemarck myth and began plans to reconstruct the cemetery in their vision as well as appealing for donations to make this vision happen. Robert Tischler was appointed by the students, Tischler was a Nazi, to design Langemark Nord and he encompassed everything that the student associations requested in linking the cemetery to the myth of 1914 and in creating a place of pilgrimage for German youth to visit and honour the youth of Langemarck. In July 1932 the now redesigned Langemark Cemetery was inaugurated and there were now 10,143 burials in the cemetery, with 3,800 of these unidentified, and with this the Studentenfriedhof was created and the myth of Langemarck was now a major pillar of Nazi propaganda. Following the occupation of Belgium in May 1940 Adolf Hitler visited the cemetery in June 1940 and his visit was recorded for posterity by German newsreels and Hitler’s personal photographer Heinrich Hoffman. After 1944 the name and the myth of Langemarck represented the past and the name was changed to Langemark with the myth never again being invoked. This was similar to the myth of the Yser front that was created by Flemish nationalist movement the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in the inter-war years and during the Nazi occupation when the Yser pilgrimages and the myth of the Yser front had brought together the German occupiers and the collaborating Flemish nationalists. The Flemish nationalists also provided ‘volunteers’ for the Waffen SS Flemish Legion to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union and also the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen. In 1946 the Yser Tower at Dixmude was blown up by persons unknown however, a replacement tower was built. Thousands of other Flemings actively resisted the occupation and the collaboration with the Belgian government prosecuting the collaborators after the liberation in 1944.
Langemark Today
The cemetery is cared for by the Volksbund and in 2002 was listed as an official monument by the Belgian government and this allows the Volksbund to apply for funds from the Flemish authorities. The visitor car park and he entrance tunnel leading from the car park were added in 2006. Entry to the cemetery is via a red sandstone entrance, the sandstone was brought from the Vosges. There are two Chapels of Remembrance, one has a map of the German cemeteries in Belgium, the other, the Listenraum, has carved oak tablets with the names of 6,000 men buried in Plot A which was opened on the inauguration of the cemetery in 1932. The Kameradengrab, this is a purpose built reinforced concrete ossuary not a mass grave, is in front of you as you pass
through the entrance and there is a series of bronze blocks listing the names of 16,940 of 24,917 men in the ossuary, nearly all the names are of men from Bavaria missing in Belgium during WWI. The records of men from the archives in other regions of Germany were lost during the allied bombing in WWII. Looking over the Kameradengrab are Emil Krieger’s bronze statues. The cemetery is in two distinct parts. You enter the Eichenhain
or Oak Grove, this is planted with oaks, and is the original burial area of the cemetery Plot A and within this area of the cemetery there are 10,143 men buried of whom 3,836 are unnamed. In the 1970s the oak crosses and their replacement markers where themselves replaced with the granite pillow markers you see today. The basalt crosses represent the logo of the Volksbund and are in the main a design feature. Over to the right of the entrance building and in the north section of the cemetery is the Einbettungs Friedhof Nord and here there are 9,475 men buried as well as three bunkers, the concrete blocks are not tank traps but markers placed here as part of the original 1930s cemetery to outline the German frontline. The name blocks, made of granite, were fixed to each block to commemorate the regiments and the student associations who funded the 1932 cemetery.
British Dead
The names of the two British soldiers buried in the Kameradengrab.
31006 Private Albert Carlill, 1st/4th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 164th Infantry Brigade, 55th Division. Died 4 November 1918, age 19. Son of William and Charlotte Carlill, of Welton Road, Brough, Yorks. Died as a prisoner of war and was buried at the time in Louvain Communal Cemetery but his grave was lost. Epitaph: ‘Their glory shall not be blotted out.’ S/43486 Private Leonard Harry Lockley, 4th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, Posted as missing 30 October 1918, age 18. Son of Mrs E Lockley of 5 Morland Road, Fawcett Road, Southsea, Portsmouth. He CWGC record originally recorded that he was buried in Jemappes Communal Cemetery which was located south West of Mons and recorded as having died in hospital. However, the record was altered to show that he was buried in Langemark German Military Cemetery.
German Airmen
Leutnant Erwin Bohme After serving in a bomber unit, he was transferred to Germany's first fighter squadron Jagdstaffel 2. During Böhme's combat career, he was a friend and eventual subordinate to Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. He was also friend, subordinate, and wingman to Germany's leading ace of the time, Oswald Boelcke. Böhme was inadvertently responsible for Boelcke's death on 28 October 1916. Although haunted by guilt, Böhme carried on, becoming a 24-victory ace (and a squadron leader). Leutnant Werner Voss A German flying ace credited with 48 aerial victories. A dyer's son from Krefeld, he began his military career in November 1914 as a 17‑year‑old Hussar. After turning to aviation, he proved to be a natural pilot. After flight school and six months in a bomber unit, he joined a newly formed fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 2 on 21 November 1916. There he befriended Manfred von Richthofen. Read more about both here
The cemetery was designed by Robert Tischler, he died in 1959, and Georg Fischbacher was appointed in 1960 and the cemetery was redesigned in the 1970s. Professor Emil Kieger designed the bronze Mourning Soldiers sculpture group and these were added to the cemetery in 1956 and they stand in sombre watch directly over the Kameradengrab.
Location
Langemark is located north of Ieper off the N313, a road that runs between Ieper and Poelkapelle. From the N313 turn off towards Langemarck along the Zonnebekestraat(opposite the St. Julian Canadian Memorial). Follow the Zonnebekestraat into the village to the traffic lights, go straight over at the lights into Klerkenstraat and the cemetery is along here on the left, at the outskirts of the village.
Burials
UK – 2
German – 44,535
Unnamed – 11,813
Comments