This war cemetery is home to 1,871 war dead from the Second World War.
There are eight war cemeteries in Königswinter with a total of 2,323 dead. The sites are located in the municipal cemetery and in the districts of Eudenbach, Heisterbacherrott, Ittenbach, Niederdollendorf, Oberdollendorf, Oberpleis and Stielsdorf.
Here in Ittenbach rest 1,871 dead of the Second World War, in detail: 1.626 Germans, 224 Soviet citizens, 12 Poles, 4 Dutch, 2 Belgians, 2 French and 1 Italian.
Until the end of the war, the Königswinter area was away from the main fighting. Only a few anti-aircraft positions were located on the Rhine heights; there was an airfield in Eudenbach. However, the town experienced isolated bombing raids as early as February 7, 1941, which killed 5 people in Oberdollendorf. On February 4, 1944, bombs fell on Rosenau. The old town of Königswinter was hit by heavy bombs on April 22, 1944; 56 people lost their lives.
Only when the Americans crossed the Rhine bridge from Remagen to Erpel (Ludendorff Bridge) on March 7, 1945 in the afternoon did the war on land come to the Siebengebirge. Additional military hospitals were set up in the hotels. On March 16, 1945, the first parts of Königswinter and Ittenbach were occupied by the Americans. The highway was interrupted at Hövel. Ittenbach's significance in terms of war history is due to its location. It lies on the eastern edge of the Siebengebirge nature reserve, not far from a road that connects the Rhine Valley with the highway and the hinterland.
The Americans initially buried German casualties from this battle area alongside American casualties in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, between Aachen and Liège. An American military cemetery was also established there (inaugurated in 1960). The German dead were later transferred to the German military cemetery in Lommel/Belgium.
On March 26, 1945, Americans buried a German soldier who had fallen in the Siebengebirge mountains in a field between the edge of the forest and the road to Laagshof. In the days and weeks that followed, grave after grave followed. The Americans brought more dead from the Siegburg, Bad Honnef and Aegidienberg areas, but also from the Sauerland, the Ruhr basin, the Warburg Börde and even German casualties from Belgium and the "Battle of the Hürtgen Forest" (Eifel, High Fens). The Ittenbach war cemetery was established.
On the other side of the road to the Cologne-Frankfurt highway, where the ICE train line runs parallel today, the Americans buried their own fallen. In July 1945, the American dead were disinterred and transferred to the American cemetery in Margraten in the Netherlands or back home. The majority of the French and Belgian dead were also buried in their native soil.
With the help of the German War Graves Commission and the German Red Cross, the German fallen, who had been buried by comrades and the civilian population along the roads, in meadows and fields, in the woods and in local cemeteries, were reburied in Ittenbach. Not even a hundred of the soldiers buried here were initially known by name. The mayor, the parish priest and the "Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus" in Ittenbach helped the Volksbund to identify over 1,200 of the dead. The commitment of Sister Maria Gonzaga and teacher Magdalena Krämer was outstanding.
On August 8, 1946, the mayor of Königswinter asked the Volksbund to develop the cemetery into a worthy memorial. It is remarkable that it was the young people who took care of the military cemetery immediately after the war. The schoolchildren of Ittenbach decorated the graves with flowers and the schoolchildren of Velbert in the Bergisches Land region collected the first funds that the Volksbund was able to provide for the expansion. However, all efforts to obtain wood for the grave crosses and plants for the cemetery were in vain until the currency reform finally brought about change.
The planned expansion was then carried out on January 1, 1949 by the Volksbund, North Rhine-Westphalia State Association. It commissioned the Düsseldorf garden architect Willi Tapp to carry out the work.
The cemetery grounds, which had differences in height of up to 4 m, were largely leveled, the graves were marked with oak crosses and a simple wooden entrance building with a small belfry and a steel bell was erected. A place of honor was also created at the end of the cemetery with a high cross group consisting of three oak crosses. In front of these crosses, a grave slab made of seynite (glacial rock) was placed, on which the signet of the Volksbund, the five crosses, was raised; above it is written:
- "Our sacrifice is your obligation - peace!"
The suggestion for the gravestone and the inscription was made by the then Cologne District President Dr. Wilhelm Warsch.
On June 10, 1951, the Ittenbach war cemetery was dedicated by Minister President Karl Arnold. The blessing was performed by Canon Prelate Dr. Lenné, Cologne, and Oberkirchenrat Schlingensiepen, Düsseldorf.
In the spring of 1960, work began on the necessary redesign of the war cemetery. The weathered wooden grave crosses were replaced by stone crosses and three massive crosses made of graywacke were erected in place of the wooden high crosses. The entrance building gave way to a new memorial hall. The front wall of the hall bears the impressive bronze sculpture "Wise Angel" on a mosaic background, created by the sculptor Erich Elsner from Ratingen.
The cemetery was returned to the care of the town of Königswinter in its present form on May 30, 1962.
