The world's largest German war cemetery could be built in Sologubovka. There is room for 80,000 dead. The cemetery and peace park were inaugurated in 2000.
Cemetery description
The German war cemetery Sologubovka is located about 70 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg, which was called Leningrad until 1991. The five-hectare area is divided into three memorial and peace sites: In addition to the war cemetery, these are the Peace Park and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
The names of 35,348 dead are inscribed on granite steles. The cemetery offers space for a total of 80,000 dead and could thus become the world's largest German war cemetery.
Occupancy
56,416 German soldiers who died in the Second World War are buried in the collective cemetery.
History
in 1994, the German War Graves Commission began searching for a suitable site for a large collective cemetery. It found what it was looking for in Sologubowka after inspecting numerous German military cemeteries established during the war. In the district of Lezje, the Volksbund was given a church-owned site that offered sufficient space. There were already four smaller cemeteries in the immediate vicinity with a total of 3,200 dead. A Russian architect from St. Petersburg was commissioned by the Volksbund to design the site. From 1996, the Volksbund moved the war dead from numerous graves in the St. Petersburg region to Sologubovka. On September 9, 2000, the site was opened to the public in the presence of relatives and the local population.
An important part of the project was the restoration of the dilapidated Russian Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was consecrated in 1851, as a gesture of reconciliation. During the Second World War, the basement housed a military hospital for German soldiers. After the restoration, the Volksbund set up a memorial and exhibition room in the vault under the church with descriptions of the fates of German war dead. The names of all German soldiers who died in Russia during the Second World War, those who were missing and those who died in captivity are also documented there. On September 20, 2003, the Volksbund handed over the completely restored church building to the Russian community.
Special feature
At the same time, a peace park was created in Sologubowka. Two Russian birch trees and a German oak were the first three peace trees on the site. Around 400 peace trees now grow in and around the cemetery. The trees are marked with granite stones bearing the respective tree number. Lists with the tree numbers and the corresponding sponsors as well as the honor books with the dedications are available at the entrance to the cemetery. There are other Volksbund peace parks in La Cambe (France), Groß Nädlitz (Poland) and Budaörs (Hungary).
