Merles-sur-Loison

Département Meuse, 1,499 German war dead from the First World War. The German military cemetery in Merles was established at the end of August 1914 by their own troops after the advance battles, which also affected this area. In September 1914, the military hospitals set up in Merles took in the wounded and sick from the troops operating in front of Verdun. Those who died here were also buried in an area next to the municipal cemetery. After a period of calm, the number of beds rose sharply when the German attack on Verdun began on February 21, 1916. It is almost exclusively members of the 21st and 25th Inf. Div. who were buried in Merles. A French counter-offensive caused heavy losses in August and September 1917. Accordingly, the number of burials increased again. These were almost exclusively the dead of Hessian units. Artists, such as sculptors and stonemasons, who served in stage and medical units created two memorials during the war, which have been preserved to this day. More graves were added in the final weeks of the war in September and October 1918, when the French and Americans on both sides of the Meuse made a futile attempt to break through the German front. After the end of the war, the French military administration buried German casualties who had been buried in a neighboring municipality in Merles. Those resting here today belonged to units whose home garrisons were in Hesse, but also in Silesia, Brandenburg, Hanover, Westphalia, East and West Prussia, Baden and Bavaria. Repair work between the wars Initial work to improve the condition of the cemetery was carried out by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) on the basis of an agreement reached with the French military authorities in 1926. This was limited to gardening work and additional planting of trees and shrubs. 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. - 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. Young volunteers from the Volksbund had already begun the preparatory gardening work. In 1978, the previous temporary wooden grave markers were replaced by metal crosses with the names and dates of the dead cast into them. A year earlier, young helpers moved the 35-kilogram concrete foundations, which had been transported by the German army, to the graves. 1302 fallen soldiers rest in individual graves. Of these, 19 remain unknown. Of the 197 dead in the common grave, only 13 are known by name. For religious reasons, the four 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 bound into the circle of the living. "Extensive planting of trees, shrubs and bushes followed. This was followed by the design of the entrance with a forged gate and wing walls, the restoration of the monuments and the greening of the graves. Finally, a new fence with a hedge was installed as an outer boundary. maintenance: The cemetery is constantly looked after by the Volksbund's maintenance service.