Katholischer Friedhof Köln-Mülheim

The Old Catholic Cemetery in Sonderburger street in rechtsrheinischen Mülheim district, is one of the oldest preserved as such cemeteries in the city of Cologne. He is the Catholic parish of St. Clement and Mauritius managed and used to this day for funerals.

History

When exactly was the cemetery, is not clearly documented. However, because of the preserved cemetery chapel of St. Mauritius announced that it was built in the 13th century, and in the Middle Ages the church building and the cemetery always formed a unit, it is assumed that the cemetery in the 13th century or earlier this point had already passed. At the time, the place for funerals of members of the St. Mauritius church was used in Mülheim and in the neighboring town of Buchheim (now also a part of Cologne ) lived. However, no details of the history of the cemetery have survived until the 18th century; even today are no older tombs more about that which is demonstrably oldest dating back to 1841.

Relocated after the end of the 18th century the Duchy of Berg, which also Mülheim belonged, was occupied by French revolutionary troops were there in 1804 the Napoleonic funeral laws in force, under which were prohibited, among other burials within cities, so that existing internal local burial sites had to be - a fact that led at that time to the establishment of the Cologne Melaten cemetery. However, towards a relocation of the Mülheim municipal cemetery there were protests on the part of St. Mauritius Church, which argued that neither the resources nor suitable land should be available for installation. Since the Bergische management not very strongly insisted on their demands for a transfer, it is the community managed to escape their obligation for decades. When the Prussian government finally in 1865 issued a decree was confirmed by the churchyards as the property of the relevant communities, unless the property has long been undisputed and there, the cemetery was finally laid on the table.

To a temporary closure of the cemetery it was in the 20th century: 1904, Cologne, near Mülheim put a large municipal cemetery ( cemetery Mülheim ) and banned shortly thereafter Neubestattungen in the cemetery of St. Mauritius, with the exception of burials in existing family graves. Since a large part of the cemetery over the next few decades largely neglected, there was in the 1930s, negotiations between the City and the community through a partial acquisition of the cemetery through the city and the conversion of purchased land in a green area. However, they retreated to the length, to the city after the outbreak of the Second World War rejected their purchase intention permanently. Only in 1955 could the church separate from the unneeded part of the cemetery grounds by sold it to a Redemptorist, needed the land for the construction of a monastery. With the entry into force of a new burial order in the 1970s, the continued existence of the cemetery was a Catholic church cemetery now secured; since there is fully buried again.

Throughout its history, the cemetery was expanded several times. In the 19th century, in the wake of advancing industrialization and the resulting population and community growth in Mülheim, this happened twice, in 1844 and 1870. A further expansion took place in 1970 when, after the 1955 performed partial sale of the property of burial place soon became insufficient. For the same reason the church in the years 1982 and 1992 each had to buy back a portion of the previously sold the site.

Since 1989 are both the cemetery and the chapel of conservation.

Structures

The oldest datable grave stone in the churchyard dates, as already mentioned, from 1841 and belongs to the tomb of Keup family that had the community at the time donated to a hospital and hence the Mülheim Keupstraße its name. Many other well-known names from the Mülheim story can be found here. Also striking is the tomb of the landowner Ludwig Köhler 1868, a stele with angel figure and reliefs, which doubles as the tallest tomb of the cemetery. The oldest part of the cemetery with a variety of sometimes elaborate grave stones from the 19th century is located on a hill around the chapel and near the entrance gate of the Special Burger Street.