Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Vladslo

There was an aid post at this spot in October 1914. And where there are wounded soldiers, a cemetery usually follows sooner or later. At the end of the war, this Waldfriedhof (Wood Cemetery) contained 584 German burials. By 1938, the concentration of smaller burial grounds in the area had increased this number to 3,800. A final, major regrouping of German graves in the 1950s increased this still further, to its current total of 25,645.

One of the soldiers now buried here is Peter Kollwitz, son of the artist Käthe Kollwitz and her doctor husband Karl Kollwitz. Käthe's world-famous statue group - 'The Grieving Parents' - now stands at the back of this cemetery, having been moved here from Roggeveld (Esen).

There are also a number of heads by Käthe Kollwitz. If you open them from left to right, you can read some of her diary entries made during the period 1914 to 1941.

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