The German war cemetery in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, is located on the grounds of the military airport "Golubovci", which is part of the city's civil airport. Military personnel therefore monitor access. Anyone wishing to visit the cemetery must present a passport.
Description of the cemetery
A concrete path leads to the entrance of the cemetery, which is surrounded by a cypress hedge. The main path of natural stone paving forms the central axis of the site, which visitors follow to reach a circular memorial square. Burial blocks one to four are arranged on either side of this axis. Granite crosses bear the names of those buried there.
All the war dead of both world wars who died in what is now Montenegro are listed on 29 name plaques attached to a circular wall. A two-meter high metal cross stands in front of the wall. The memorial stone at the base of the cross bears the inscription "German war cemetery - resting place of the dead of the Second World War on the territory of present-day Montenegro". A characteristic feature of the site is the old cypress trees, which have been supplemented by new plantings.
Occupancy
There are 15,611 casualty reports for soldiers of the Second World War from the two now independent states of Serbia and Montenegro. The dead rest in almost 600 locations. The number of war graves from the First World War is not known.
According to the records of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission), around 2,000 German soldiers died in Montenegro during the Second World War. They are buried in 200 different places.
With the creation of this war cemetery, 64 of the dead were buried. Up to 800 graves are possible at this collective cemetery.
History
The German-Montenegrin War Graves Agreement was signed on August 9, 2011. It came into force on November 30, 2012 and forms the legal basis for the Volksbund's work in the Balkan state.
In 2013, the Montenegrin government decided to make available a plot of land measuring around 2,600 square meters on the site of the "Golubovci" military airport. It was only after a lengthy negotiation and planning phase that planning permission was granted in March 2016. Work began in the same year. On November 19, 2016, the cemetery was inaugurated as the first German war cemetery.
