This tomb has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since September 2023.
Burial
This Franco-German war cemetery in the Département of Marne was created by the French military authorities after the end of the First World War as a collective cemetery for the fallen who had been buried in temporary graves during the fighting or immediately afterwards in countless locations. Souin was at the heart of the Champagne battles of 1915, 1917 and 1918. As a result, soldiers continued to find their final resting place here in 1928 and beyond. They belonged to units whose home garrisons were located in almost all countries and provinces of the former German Reich. There are 30,743 French and 13,790 German soldiers buried in this cemetery.
Of these, 2,466 rest in individual and group graves - 166 without names. Of the 11,324 soldiers buried in communal graves, 1,907 are known by name. For religious reasons, the eleven graves of Jewish soldiers were marked with a natural stone stele instead of a cross.
History
The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission) undertook the first work to maintain the cemetery in 1928 on the basis of an agreement with the French military authorities in 1926. It planted trees and a hedge as an enclosure and landscaped the graves. A new entrance with a wrought-iron gate was built and the communal grave was given a natural stone border. However, the problem of permanently marking the graves remained unresolved - first due to a lack of foreign currency and later because of the Second World War.
After the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund - financially supported by the German government - began the final design of the German military cemeteries in France. Groups from the Volksbund youth camps helped to restore the landscaping. in 1972, the Volksbund replaced the temporary wooden grave markers with crosses made of natural stone with engraved names and dates.
Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly maintained by the Volksbund's maintenance service in France.
Special feature
In September 2023, UNESCO declared 139 First World War cemeteries as World Heritage Sites. 24 German cemeteries are in the care of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. - Souain is one of them.
