Jelgava (German: Mitau) is located almost 45 kilometers southwest of Riga. The dead of the First and Second World Wars are buried on the site.
Description
The cemetery was established during the First World War. 145 original grave markers have been preserved - they commemorate the dead of the Baltic Army. Today, the central square is located near the original memorial site. A three and a half meter high metal cross stands there. The names of the German soldiers who died in Jelgava during the Second World War are inscribed on two granite plaques. Those whose graves can no longer be found are named on steles. Crosses mark the grave locations of the 172 dead who were reburied here by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission). Instead of a closed enclosure, trees mark the boundaries of the cemetery.
Burial
After additions in the 1920s and 1930s, 1,215 German and six Russian soldiers were buried in Jelgava. Another 500 German war dead were added during the Second World War.
The two world wars took their toll on the town of Jelgava: In the winter of 1916/1917, battles between the German and Russian armies took place to the north. During the War of Independence from 1918 to 1920, several units of different affiliations also fought around the town. in 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the then independent Latvia before German troops occupied the country from 1941 to 1944. During the Red Army's advance to the west, the front ran directly through Jelgava in the summer and fall of 1944. Almost 90 percent of the town was destroyed. The Soviet army later set up a camp for German prisoners of war here.
History
In the interwar period, all graves were marked with individual crosses. Hedges and trees gave the cemetery a typical landscape character. After the end of the Second World War, the grounds remained unkempt and almost all the grave crosses were lost.
After Germany and Latvia signed a war graves agreement on January 24, 1996, the War Graves Commission began to restore the cemetery in 1998. The Bundeswehr and local forces cleaned up the area and renewed the drainage ditches. As part of the redesign of the site, the graves from the First World War were marked with symbolic crosses. The cemetery was opened to the public on July 11, 2004.
Special feature
There is an obelisk opposite the German military cemetery in Jelgava. This monument commemorates the Latvian dead who fought for their country's independence in 1919/20. Russian soldiers who died in the battle for Jelgava in 1944 are buried near a cemetery chapel. Plaques list their names.
