Bouillonville

Département Meurthe-et-Moselle 1,383 German war dead First World War The German military cemetery in Bouillonville was established by their own troops in September 1914. It housed the fallen who had lost their lives in the battles for possession of the Meuse heights between St. Mihiel and Verdun. Further high losses were caused by the constant war of position with both sides trying to achieve a more favorable position against the enemy. Numerous severely wounded soldiers from the St. Mihiel - Priesterwald - Pont-à-Mousson section were also treated in the military hospitals in Bouillonville and the surrounding area - many succumbed to their injuries here. The detached troops also took casualties with them into the hinterland to bury them in a cemetery outside the fire zone. The rear services largely expanded the cemetery during the war. The terraces, the associated staircases and the natural stone walls were laid out, numerous trees were planted and a memorial was erected. After the end of the war, the French military authorities buried only ten German dead from a neighboring village; of those resting here today, a large proportion belonged to Bavarian units, the rest to units whose home garrisons were in Württemberg, Hesse, Westphalia, West Prussia, Silesia, Hanover, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Baden, Lorraine, Alsace and the Rhineland. Repair work between the wars The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) carried out the first work to improve the condition of the cemetery on the basis of an agreement reached with the French military authorities in 1926. This included planting trees and hedges and repairing the steps and terraces. In addition, a high cross made of natural stone was erected as a central marker. However, the problem of permanently marking the graves initially remained unresolved due to a lack of foreign currency and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Final design Following the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) - financially supported by the German government - was able to undertake the final design of the German military cemeteries of the First World War in France. Previously, young volunteers from the War Graves Commission had already begun the preliminary gardening work. This was followed by the creation of a new entrance with a forged gate and the renovation of the staircases to the upper terraces as well as the renovation of the embankments, the restoration of the monuments and the replacement of the previous temporary wooden grave markers with crosses made of natural stone with the names and dates of those who rest here engraved on them. All the fallen rest in individual graves. 23 of them remain unknown. For religious reasons, the six graves of the fallen of the Jewish faith were marked with a natural stone grave stele instead of a cross, the Hebrew characters of which read: 1 (above) "Here rests buried ... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be included in the circle of the living." This was followed by a fundamental landscaping overhaul of the grounds, including the addition of trees and shrubs and the planting of greenery around the graves.