The German war cemetery with the dead of the Second World War is located in the south of the island of Saaremaa (German/Swedish: Ösel) near the town of Kuressaare.
Cemetery description
The war cemetery is located directly next to the civilian cemetery of the municipality of Kudjape. A limestone wall surrounds the site, which visitors enter through an iron gate. Crosses made of dolomite mark the graves on the lawn, which is scattered with trees. Each cross bears the names of two of the dead who rest there.
A paved path leads from the entrance to a square memorial square, in the middle of which stands a high metal cross. Stone steles are placed to the right and left. They bear the names of the war dead who have not yet been recovered and those who have been buried.
Burial
in 1942, the Wehrmacht established a military cemetery near the village of Kudjape - a good three kilometers from Kuressaare. Today, the German war cemetery in Kuressaare is one of two central collective cemeteries in Estonia and is designed for 3,000 dead.
History
The Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Estonia concluded a war graves agreement on October 12, 1995, which came into force on October 26, 1996. For a long time, the Volksbund's partner was the State Monument Protection Office in Tallinn. In August 2022, the Estonian Ministry of Defense took over responsibility and delegated it to the Estonian War Museum in March 2023. There are also close links with the Ministry of Culture and other authorities and institutions.
The preparatory work for the expansion of the Kuressaare war cemetery began in 1991. In the following years, young people helped to search for grave locations and clean up the cemetery as part of several work camps. A Wehrmacht occupancy plan from 1942 made it easier to identify the individual graves. The main work took place in 1995 and 1996.
On July 20, 1996, the War Graves Commission handed over the expanded war cemetery to the public. As it was set up as a central collective cemetery, it arranged for work to be carried out between 1993 and 1995 to investigate and record the locations of the graves of German soldiers on the island of Saaremaa. The first reburials took place at the end of 1996.
The Kuressaare-based company "DPS Invest" has taken over the maintenance of the site. The "Staadioni" hotel is located on the company's premises, where the war cemetery's register of names and visitors can be viewed on request.
Special feature
Inside the limestone wall, directly next to the German war cemetery, there is a cemetery for soldiers of the Soviet Union on the left-hand side. it was given its present appearance in 1986.
