Westfriedhof (Cologne)

The West Cemetery is a municipal cemetery to the north of Venloerstraße in the Cologne district Vogelsang in the district of Ehrenfeld. It has an area of over 52 hectares, making it one of the largest cemeteries in the city.

The West Cemetery is one of the five large cemeteries in Cologne, which has existed since the beginning of the 19th century Melaten Cemetery and four so-called relief cemeteries - cemetery adjacent to the West of the South, the North and the East Cemetery - belong. These four relief cemeteries were created at that time to solve space problems of Melatenfriedhofs and other existing at the time cemeteries of the city. The West Cemetery should be according to the North and the South Cemetery of the third relief cemetery. The plans for its construction, including a competition for ideas for garden design began in 1912, the building, which is approximately 200 Russian prisoners of war were also been used, lasted from 1913 until 1917. The opening of the burial ground was the first funeral on October 1, 1917. Originally the West cemetery should completely replace the Melaten cemetery as Cologne Central Cemetery; For this reason, closed the city Melaten for Neubegräbnisse immediately after commissioning of the West cemetery. Only in 1923, the continued use of Melaten was decided.

To date, the West cemetery has a typical for the larger Cologne municipal cemeteries park character with wide avenues and abundant tree planting. On the grounds of the cemetery are also several sections with Roma tombs and Muslim funerals. Also you can find also a crematorium; this one was built in 1937 and was also the first crematorium in Cologne. Just north of the West Cemetery is followed by a wooded area, which was scheduled as a possible expansion area. Adjacent to the western cemetery of the Jewish cemetery.