Bremerhaven Municipal Cemetery in Wulsdorf

Historical image of a ship.
Tug SIMSON and steamer MOSEL just before the explosion, woodcut 1875
©Archive German Maritime Museum
Logo of the Creative Commons License »Creative Commons Universal 1.0 - No Copyright« (CC 0 1.0)This picture is licensed under the license »Creative Commons Universal 1.0 - No Copyright« (CC 0 1.0).

When founded in 1827, Bremerhaven did not have its own cemetery. Funerals had to be performed in nearby Lehe. An agreement to establish a new graveyard on the Langenacker strip of land at Weserstrasse was made with the Wulsdorf community. Planning was done by the renowned landscape gardener Friedrich Wilhelm Benque (1814-1895), who was also responsible for the Bremen Bürgerpark (1867).

In Wulsdorf, Benque laid the pattern for a park with around 500 trees. The first funeral took place on May 5th 1871. The chapel, built in 1887, was designed by the notable Bremerhaven architect Louis Löschner (1825-1894). He had not only finished the Lord Mayor Smidt Memorial Church (1855) in central Bremerhaven, but also lived in Wulsdorf since 1871. A crematorium was added in 1930.

A number of grave sites at the Bremerhaven municipal cemetery in Wulsdorf cemetery are also interesting from the point of view of local history. This also involves tragic historical events and incidents. For instance, there is a memorial to the victims of the so-called Thomas disaster of December 11th 1875 (when 81 people were killed in Bremerhaven by an explosion near Neuer Hafen basin caused by an unscrupulous criminal attempting an insurance fraud) and to the victims of Nazi terror in Bremerhaven, the latter being responsible for the killing of nearly 300 Jews from this area. Some of the victims of the firebombing of September 18th 1944 are also buried in Wulsdorf.

Victims of the Thomas catastrophe are also buried at Wulsdorf.

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