{{Short description|Cemetery in Berlin, Germany}} {{Expand German|Invalidenfriedhof|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox cemetery | name = Invalidenfriedhof | image = Invalidenfriedhof.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | map_type = | map_size = | map_caption = | established = 1748 | country = {{flag|Germany}} | location = Scharnhorststraße 25<br>[[Oranienburger Vorstadt]],<br>{{small|quarter}} [[Mitte (locality)|Mitte]], [[Berlin]] | coordinates = {{coord|52|31|55|N|13|22|16|E|region:DE-BE_type:landmark|display=it}} | latitude = | longitude = | type = Veterans | style = | owner = | size = | graves = c. 230 preserved | website = | findagraveid = 639249 | political = }} The '''Invalids' Cemetery''' ({{langx|de|Invalidenfriedhof}}) is one of the oldest [[cemetery|cemeteries]] in [[Berlin]]. It was the traditional resting place of the [[Prussian Army]], and is regarded as particularly important as a memorial to the German [[German campaign (Napoleonic Wars)|Wars of Liberation]] of 1813–15.
==History== [[File:InvFriedhof 9a.jpg|thumb|left|Tomb of General von Scharnhorst]] The cemetery was established in 1748 to provide burial grounds for those [[veteran]]s wounded in the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], who inhabited a nearby hostel (''Invalidenhaus'') built on the orders of King [[Frederick the Great]]. A royal decree of 1824 declared that the ''Invalidenfriedhof'' should become the burial ground for all distinguished Prussian military personnel, including [[Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien|Bogislav Count Tauentzien von Wittenberg]]. One of the most notable tombs from this period is that of [[Gerhard von Scharnhorst]] (a hero of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]), designed by [[Karl Friedrich Schinkel|Schinkel]] with a sculpture of a slumbering lion cast out of captured cannon by [[Christian Daniel Rauch|Rauch]]. The cemetery was also the resting place of the soldiers killed during the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states]]. By 1872, approximately 18,000 funerals had taken place in the cemetery.
Numerous commanders and officers who fought in [[World War I]], such as [[Max Hoffmann]], [[Helmuth von Moltke the Younger|Helmuth von Moltke]], [[Ludwig von Falkenhausen]] and [[Karl von Bülow]], were buried in the cemetery, along with several high-ranking members of the [[Freikorps]]. The body of [[Manfred von Richthofen]] (the 'Red Baron') was transferred to the cemetery in 1925 from his original grave in [[France]]. During the [[Weimar Republic]], high-ranking military personnel such as [[Hans von Seeckt]] continued to be buried in the cemetery, but approximately half the graves were gardened over in this period.
During the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]], a number of senior figures were buried in the Invalid's Cemetery, including former Army Supreme Commander [[Werner von Fritsch]], fighter ace [[Werner Mölders]], [[Luftwaffe]] commander [[Ernst Udet]], Munitions Minister [[Fritz Todt]], ''Reichsprotector'' of Bohemia and Moravia [[Reinhard Heydrich]], Field Marshal [[Walter von Reichenau]], Colonel General [[Curt Haase]], Colonel General [[Hans-Valentin Hube|Hans Hube]] and General [[Rudolf Schmundt]], who was an adjutant to [[Adolf Hitler]] killed in the [[20 July plot]] by the bomb intended for Hitler. After [[World War II]], the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] ordered that all Nazi monuments (including those in cemeteries) should be removed, and this resulted in the removal of the grave-markers of Heydrich and Todt, although their remains were not disinterred.
In May 1951, the [[East Berlin]] city council closed the cemetery off to the public so that repairs and restoration could be carried out, and to prevent any further damage of the graves. Since it lay close to the [[Berlin Wall]], in the 1960s over a third of the cemetery was destroyed to make way for watch towers, troop barracks, roads and parking lots. Some of the graves were damaged by gunfire from soldiers guarding the wall.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Huggler|first1=Justin|title=Red Baron's cemetery will see few visitors saluting First World War dead|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11009437/Red-Barons-cemetery-will-see-few-visitors-saluting-First-World-War-dead.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804080006/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11009437/Red-Barons-cemetery-will-see-few-visitors-saluting-First-World-War-dead.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 August 2014|work=Daily Telegraph|date=4 Aug 2014}}</ref>
The degradation of the cemetery continued in the 1970s, when soldiers stationed nearby began to use abandoned or damaged gravestones to build shelters in case of bad weather. It was probably{{or|date=November 2011}} only the fact that the cemetery contained the graves of German freedom fighters like Scharnhorst, regarded by the East German [[National People's Army]] as its forerunners, that prevented its total destruction. [[File:Invalidenfriedhof (3).JPG|thumb|Looking west to the Graves of Scharnhorst, Boyen and the Rauch family]] [[File:Invalidenfriedhof (6).JPG|thumb|Former death zone (Todesstreifen) in the cemetery with the rest of the Berlin Wall (Hinterlandmauer – left), right: the western wall of the cemetery]] [[File:Invalidenfriedhof, Grab von Moltke.jpg|thumb|Restitution grave stone of [[Helmuth von Moltke the Younger|Helmuth von Moltke]]]] After [[German reunification]] in 1990 the cemetery came under the monument protection scheme and restoration work began. There is now a memorial to Berliners killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall in the cemetery. The cemetery also contains an unmarked mass grave of Berliners killed in allied Air Raids.
In December 2019 the unmarked grave of Reinhard Heydrich in the cemetery was opened, with police launching an investigation after a cemetery employee made the discovery. Stating that no remains had been removed, the police believe that whoever violated Heydrich's grave is thought to have had inside knowledge of its location.<ref>{{cite news |title=Grave of top Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich opened in Berlin |work=BBC News |date=16 December 2019 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50806873 |access-date=16 December 2019}}</ref>
==Notable individuals== In chronological order (a fuller alpha-list is at [[:Category:Burials at the Invalids' Cemetery]]): * 1757 – [[Hans Karl von Winterfeldt]] * 1813 – [[Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst]] * 1824 – [[Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel von Tauentzien|Bogislav Friedrich Emanuel Graf Tauentzien von Wittenberg]] * 1837 – [[Job von Witzleben (Prussia)|Job von Witzleben]] * 1841 – [[Gustav von Rauch]] * 1843 (d. 1814) – [[Friedrich Friesen|Karl Friedrich Friesen]] * 1848 – [[Karl Friedrich von dem Knesebeck]] * 1848 – [[Hermann von Boyen]] *1850 – [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (1790-1850)|Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch]] * 1856 – August Hiller von Gaertringen * 1878 – [[Therese Elssler]] (later Therese von Barnim) * 1881 – {{ill|Karl Julius von Groß|de|Julius von Groß}} (later von Groß von Schwarzhoff) * 1892 – [[Fedor von Rauch]] * 1899 – [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch (1868-1899)|Friedrich Wilhelm von Rauch]] * 1890 – [[Gustav Waldemar von Rauch]] * 1900 – [[Alfred Bonaventura von Rauch]] * 1901 – [[Albert von Rauch]] * 1909 – [[Friedrich von Holstein]] * 1910 – [[Julius von Verdy du Vernois]] * 1913 – [[Alfred von Schlieffen]] * 1914 – Karl von Schönberg * 1916 – [[Helmuth von Moltke the Younger|Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke]] * 1917 – [[Moritz von Bissing]] * 1917 – [[Maximilian von Prittwitz|Maximilian von Prittwitz und Gaffron]] * 1918 – [[Hans-Joachim Buddecke]] * 1918 – [[Hermann von Eichhorn]] * 1918 – [[Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay]] * 1919 – Robert von Klüber * 1920 – [[Rudolf Berthold]] * 1921 – [[Hans von Beseler|Hans Hartwig von Beseler]] * 1921 – [[Karl von Bülow]] * 1923 – [[Ernst Troeltsch]] * 1925–1975 (d. 1918) – [[Manfred von Richthofen|Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen]] * 1926 – [[Wolf Wilhelm Friedrich von Baudissin]] * 1926 – [[Josias von Heeringen]] * 1927 – [[Max Hoffmann]] * 1928 – [[Ulrich Neckel]] * 1933 – Hans Maikowski * 1933 – Werner von Frankenberg und Proschlitz * 1933 – [[Ludwig von Schröder]] *1935 – [[Friedrich von Rauch (1855-1935)|Friedrich von Rauch]] * 1936 – [[Ludwig von Falkenhausen]] * 1936 – [[Hans von Seeckt]] * 1937 – Adolf Karl von Oven * 1938 – Rochus Schmidt * 1939 – [[Oskar von Watter]] * 1939 – [[Werner von Fritsch]] * 1940 – [[Wolff von Stutterheim]] * 1941 – [[Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière]] * 1941 – [[Friedrich-Carl Cranz]] * 1941 – [[Ernst Udet]] * 1941 – [[Werner Mölders]] * 1942 – [[Walter von Reichenau]] * 1942 – Herbert Geitner * 1942 – [[Fritz Todt]] * 1942 – [[Hermann von der Lieth-Thomsen]] * 1942 – Carl August von Gablenz * 1942 – [[Reinhard Heydrich]] * 1943 – [[Curt Haase]] * 1944 – [[Hans-Valentin Hube]] * 1944 – [[Rudolf Schmundt]] * 1945 – Walter Marienfeld
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |first1=Laurenz |last1=Demps |first2=C. |last2=Scheer |first3=H.-J. |last3=Mende |title=Invalidenfriedhof. Ein Friedhofsführer |publisher=Simon |location=Berlin |year=2007 |isbn=978-3936242089}} * {{cite book |first=Guido |last=Hinterkeuser |year=2023 |title=Der Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin und seine Wiederherstellung |publisher=Schnell & Steiner |location= Regensburg |isbn=978-3-7954-3832-6}} * {{cite book |last=Thoms |first=Robert |title=Invalidenfriedhof Berlin |location=Hamburg |year=1999 |isbn=3898110486}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * [http://invalidenfriedhof-berlin.de 3d art project "Ghost – Memory Deconstructed" on the Invalid's Cemetery in Berlin] * {{Find a Grave cemetery}}
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[[Category:Cemeteries in Berlin]] [[Category:Prussian Army]] [[Category:Cemeteries established in the 1740s]] [[Category:1740s establishments in Prussia]]