Legal Basis
The War Graves Agreement between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of the French Republic concerning German war graves on French sovereign territory dated 19.07.1966 (First and Second World Wars) names the Volksbund as the body responsible for implementing the tasks arising from the Agreement.
The preservation and maintenance of German war graves from the 1870/71 war on French territory is regulated by an exchange of notes.
It was agreed that the graves of German war dead from the 1870/71 war should be transferred to German care “under the same conditions as those provided for in the aforementioned agreement for the graves of German war dead from the 1914/18 and 1939/45 wars”.
Franco-Prussian War 1870/71
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 marked the beginning of three military conflicts within 75 years.
More than 800 gravesites in France, some with memorials, still commemorate this war today, which claimed the lives of around 41,000 people on the German side and around 140,000 on the French side.
There are a total of 800 war cemeteries and memorials, most of which contain the remains of both German and French war dead.
Formerly more than 2,000 graves, which were later combined into the 800 remaining war graves.
Transfer of the maintenance of the graves and memorials to the Volksbund with a note verbale dated July 19, 1966 between the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the French Republic.
In 2012, an agreement was concluded between the Volksbund, the Département Moselle, the ONAC (Office National Anciens Combattants et Victims de Guerre = French Graves Registration Service) and the French Ministry of Defense concerning the use of the Franco-German Cemetery 1870/71 at Gravelotte (near Metz).
The Département Moselle had decided to create a history and memorial center on the battlefields of August 1870 in Gravelotte. The project includes the Franco-German military cemetery 1870/1871 in the tour of the museum visitors.
The cemetery grounds (owned by the state) have been maintained by the German War Graves Commission.
In return for the museum visitors' right of way, the Département Moselle took over the costs of the necessary construction work on the site and the maintenance of the war cemetery.
First World War
The First World War had a devastating effect in France. 930,000 German and one million French soldiers fell. 461,000 fallen soldiers rest in individual graves at 192 German sites, and around 294,000 are buried in collective graves. The redesign of the 192 sites of the First World War for 765,000 fallen soldiers lasted until the 1980s.
The names are listed on stone and metal crosses as well as on slabs. The graves of fallen Jewish soldiers are marked with a name stele.
Article 25 of the Treaty of Versailles, which came into force in January 1920, stipulates that the Allied and Associated Powers and the German government shall respect and maintain the graves of military and naval personnel buried in the respective countries. In line with the course of the Western Front at that time, the vast majority of German war dead lost their lives in the Somme and Verdun areas, in the Reims (Champagne) region and in Alsace.
World War II
In France, World War II cost the lives of 240,000 people on the German side and 255,000 on the French side. The construction of the 22 war cemeteries for the fallen of World War II lasted until 1975.