Calais

This war cemetery is home to 394 German war dead from the First World War. 301 French 1,048 Belgians rest in neighboring cemeteries Département Pas-de-Calais The Calais cemetery was established in July 1922 by the French military authorities, who transferred the German dead from various temporary military hospital cemeteries to this cemetery. in 1927, the dead who had been buried in Sangatte were also transferred here. During the war, Calais was one of the most important supply ports for the British armies in France. As a result, there were also numerous military hospitals here, where not only their own wounded and sick were treated, but also Germans who had been taken prisoner of war. Temporary graves for the deceased were often set up on the grounds of the military hospitals. The earliest death dates of German soldiers begin in October 1914 with the fierce battles in the course of the "Race to the Sea" and around Ypres. In the first half of 1915, deceased soldiers who were taken prisoner in the battles for La Bassée, Neuve-Chapelle and Arras were buried here. Further burials did not take place until June 1917 with the start of the major British offensive in Flanders and in 1918 following the German attacks on Amiens, Armentières and the Kemmelberg. Those buried here belonged to units whose home garrisons were located in all countries and provinces of the Reich. Repair work between the wars The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission) carried out the first work to improve the condition of the cemetery from 1927 onwards on the basis of an agreement with the responsible French military authorities. 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 After the conclusion of the Franco-German War Graves Agreement of July 19, 1966, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. was able to begin the final design of the German military cemeteries in France from the First World War. With special permission from the French authorities, participants in Volksbund youth camps had already carried out horticultural restoration work under the motto "Reconciliation over the graves - work for peace". in 1977, the previous temporary wooden grave markers were replaced with permanent crosses made of Belgian granite, engraved with the names and dates of the dead. 365 of the 394 fallen lie in individual graves. Eight names are known in the common grave for 29 victims. The grave of a fallen of Jewish faith was given a stele made of natural stone 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." The known names of those resting in the common grave are inscribed on a plaque. A monolithic block of natural stone was erected as the central marker.