Avricourt

Département Moselle 559 German war dead First World War The German military cemetery at Avricourt was established by the German troops in September 1914. Shortly after the start of the war, vanguards of both armies attempted to explore and take possession of advantageous positions along the border between the then German Reich and France. This led to fierce fighting on both sides of the border, which had cut through Avricourt since 1871, at the beginning of August 1914, with heavy casualties on both sides. The first dead in this cemetery date from this period. Further casualties came after the so-called "Battle of Lorraine" and from the period of the trench warfare from 1915-1918. The soldiers resting here belonged to units whose home garrisons were in Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg, Alsace, Lorraine, Hesse, Saxony, Brandenburg, Silesia and the Rhineland. Repair work between the wars The first 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. By 1932, the Volksbund had carried out extensive development work: the renovation of the entrance area with wing walls and forged gate, the edging of the communal grave in natural stone, the erection of a memorial and the marking of the graves with crosses made of red Vosges sandstone with the names of those buried here engraved on them. The graves of six French and three Russian dead were marked with the concrete cross with a name plate that is customary in French military cemeteries. Final design After the conclusion of the Franco-German war graves agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) - with financial support from the German government - was able to begin the final design of the German military cemeteries in France from the First World War. The Volksbund's young helpers carried out the preliminary gardening work. After a fundamental landscaping overhaul of the entire area in 1973, the cemetery received granite crosses. 302 fallen soldiers rest in individual graves, 257 in a common grave. The three graves of the fallen of Jewish faith were given a natural stone grave stele instead of a cross for religious reasons. The Hebrew characters read: 1. (above) "Here rests buried .... ." 2. (below) "May his soul be interwoven into the circle of the living."