Mons-en-Laonnois

Mons-en-Laonnois Département Aisne 5003 German war dead First World War The Mons-en-Laonnois German military cemetery was established in December 1920 by the French military authorities as a collective cemetery for German war dead who had been provisionally buried in 45 communal areas in their own field graves or in civilian cemeteries. Those buried in Mons died in one of the major battles and in the numerous battles that took place from September 1914 to October 1918 between Soissons and Reims, on the Aisne, the Vesle and the Marne, as well as around the Chemin-des-Dames estate. The German advance to the Marne and the retreat to the Aisne in the fall of 1914, the major French attack at the beginning of April 1917, the failure of which led to a serious moral crisis in the French army and mutinies by individual regiments, deserve special mention. Further casualties were caused by the French attack at the end of October 1917, the German offensive at the end of May 1918 and finally the retreat battles from August to October 1918. Those resting in Mons mainly belonged to units whose home garrisons were in Westphalia, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Kurhessen, Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, West Prussia, Württemberg and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck. 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 responsible French military authorities in 1926. However, the problem of permanently marking the graves 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. - with financial support from the German government - was able to undertake the final design of the German military cemeteries of the First World War in France. In addition to basic landscaping with tree and hedge planting and greening of the graves, the entrance was built and the communal graves were enclosed with natural stone masonry. In 1974, the previous temporary wooden grave markers were replaced by metal crosses with the names and dates of those buried here cast into them. The names of those buried in the common graves are recorded on cast plaques. The 35-kilogram cross foundations were moved by volunteers from a Volksbund youth camp. The Bundeswehr transported the concrete foundations and, like the young people, provided significant support for the work of the Volksbund. 3,261 of the 5,003 fallen rest in individual graves; three remain unnamed. In the two common graves with 1,742 victims, only 191 are known by name. There are also four civilian workers among the dead. For religious reasons, the graves of the 12 fallen of Jewish faith received a natural stone grave stele instead of a cross. The Hebrew characters read: 1. (above) "Here rests buried .... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be interwoven into the circle of the living." Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly maintained by the Volksbund's maintenance service.