Viéville-sous-les-Côtes

Département Meuse 1179 German war dead, 3 war dead of the k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army, 1 Russian war dead, 1 French war dead The German military cemetery Viéville was established in November 1914 by the rear services of the German 33rd Res. Inf. division. It initially housed the dead of this division from the battles for the Meuse heights west of Viéville and the access to the Meuse. Later, other divisions that were deployed here also buried their dead in this cemetery. Sculptors who served as soldiers created the memorial in 1915. It was badly damaged during the fighting in the summer and fall of 1918 and was rebuilt - somewhat smaller - by the French authorities after the end of the war. The three Austro-Hungarian soldiers The three Austrian-Hungarian soldiers belonged to the Austro-Hungarian 35th Inf. division, which was deployed in the Verdun area from fall 1918 to support the German allies. The division was recruited from the Transylvania region (today Romania) and consisted of Transylvanian Saxons, Magyars and Hungarians. The Germans resting here belonged to units whose home garrisons were in Bavaria, Saxony, Lorraine, West Prussia, Silesia, Thuringia, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Westphalia and the Rhineland. 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 included additional tree and hedge planting as well as repairs to embankments and steps. However, 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, 1968, 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 War Graves Commission had already begun preliminary gardening work, in particular securing the terraces and steps. in 1972, work began on replacing the previous temporary wooden grave markers with metal crosses bearing the names and dates of those who died here. The corresponding 35-kilogram concrete foundations, which were transported by the German army, were again placed at the graves by young volunteers from the Volksbund. Of the 1179 German fallen, 1044 victims were given individual graves. 135 of the fallen rest in a common grave; 55 of them remain unknown. For religious reasons, the five graves of the fallen of the Jewish faith were marked with a gravestone made of natural stone instead of a cross, the Hebrew characters of which read: 1.(above) "Here rests buried .... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be included in the circle of the living." This was followed by a fundamental landscaping overhaul of the grounds, including the addition of trees and greening of the graves. The communal grave was given a new border made of natural stone and the entrance was redesigned. A sculptor carried out extensive restoration work on the central monument, which, in addition to the war damage and due to the poor quality of the stone material used, showed considerable signs of decay. Maintenance: The cemetery is constantly looked after by the Volksbund's maintenance service.