Cuacos de Yuste is the only German war cemetery in Spain. There are 180 soldiers buried there.
Cemetery description
Special requirements had to be met when this cemetery was created. The special features of the landscape and historical buildings nearby - such as the Yuste monastery and a castle where Emperor Charles V spent the last years of his life - set the framework. He envisaged a restrained design that respected the landscape. In addition, the entrance building was to be adapted to the local conditions and constructed using appropriate craftsmanship.
A forged cross clearly marks the site as a burial ground. Granite crosses mark the grave locations.
Burial
26 of the 180 soldiers buried here died during the First World War, 154 during the Second World War. The majority belonged to the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. Many submariners are buried here. They died at sea and their bodies were washed up on the coasts of Spain. The names of other soldiers who could not be recovered are also immortalized on the grave markers, with the addition "i. m." - "in memoriam".
History
There was no fighting on Spanish territory in either the First or Second World War. Nevertheless, there were German war graves in 68 municipalities. After the end of the dictatorial regime established by Francisco Franco in the early 1980s, the Volksbund campaigned for the creation of a central German war cemetery.
After consultation with the Spanish government, construction of the cemetery began in the early 1980s. It was completed in the spring of 1983 and opened to the public with a ceremony on June 1. Over the years, the Volksbund has buried the German war dead in Cuacos de Yuste. The Volksbund's federal office in Kassel/Niestetal looks after the site.
Special feature
It is often wrongly assumed that the dead of the "Condor Legion" are buried in this cemetery. It fought as a German air force unit in the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) on the side of the nationalists under General Francisco Franco, who had staged a coup against the Spanish Republic. The deployment of German air force units in the civil war was subject to strict secrecy. The soldiers did not wear German uniforms and aircraft did not bear German insignia.
Neither the Nazi government nor the Spanish putschists admitted to these missions until 1939. The dead of the "Legion Condor" were therefore transferred to Germany in 1939 and buried in civilian cemeteries. The name of the legion stands above all for the first major air raids in history against the civilian population of a European country.
Among other things, the "Condor Legion" largely destroyed the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937. The picture of the same name painted by Pablo Picasso after the destruction is world-famous. On a 3.50 x 7.80 canvas, he captured the horror caused by the "Condor Legion".
