During the First World War, seamen and airmen who had been forced down were washed up on the shores of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and buried in these countries. In Finland, German troops participated in the fighting to gain the country's independence. When the German armed forces invaded Denmark and simultaneously landed in Norway on April 9, 1940, both countries were dragged into the conflicts of the Second World War. With these measures, the German side only just managed to avoid the Allied actions in Norway that were planned almost simultaneously. In Denmark, there was hardly any fighting. In Norway, the eventful and often loss-making fighting against both the Norwegian defenders and the allied forces that had landed only ended in June 1940.
Finland had already been attacked by the Soviet Union in the winter of 1939/40 (“Winter War”) and, despite heavy Soviet losses, was forced to request an armistice very soon. The country re-entered the war on the side of Germany when German forces began attacking the USSR on June 22, 1941. German troops were deployed from Finnish soil, mainly in the areas north of the Arctic Circle. There they essentially waged a positional war. In the fall of 1944, they were forced to withdraw from Finland after the country requested peace with the Allies.
In what was then neutral Sweden, German dead are buried who were victims of plane and ship crashes or died on military transports. In the spring of 1945, Denmark was the destination of numerous ship transports carrying wounded, sick and refugees from East Germany. Many died during these transports or shortly thereafter from exhaustion and disease. They have their final resting place in Denmark, most of them in Copenhagen.
The war graves agreement was concluded in Copenhagen on October 3, 1962.
World War I
In Denmark, there are various smaller graves in different municipal cemeteries. These are 50 dead of the First World War, most of whom fell in the Battle of Jutland (31.05. to 01.06.1916) and were washed up on the shores of Denmark. The only war grave site maintained by the Volksbund is in Skagen.
Second World War
The 26,155 war dead of the Second World War are buried in 35 war cemeteries (14,900 refugees and 10,250 soldiers).
Other wars
In addition to the cemeteries of the First and Second World Wars, the monuments and cemeteries of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 and the German-Danish Wars of 1848/51 and 1864 are also under the care of the Volksbund.
In Denmark, the majority of war graves are located in public cemeteries. The cemeteries at Gedhus, Grove and Oksbøl are independent sites.