Cemetery for World War One dead in Dortmund

Pictures and text by Mark R. Hatlie

These pictures were taken on 8 June, 2007 in the southwest cemetery (Südwestfriedhof) in Dortmund.

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	The back of the obelisk reads, "Whosoever like you kept their great oath / Whosoever like you has fallen for the Fatherland / he lives on in the heart of the people." (Wer so wie ihr den grossen Schwur gelöst / Wer so wie ihr fürs Vaterland gefallen / der lebt im Herzen seines Volkes fort.) That is a modification of a verse by the German poet Theodor Kürner (1791-1813) which originally read in the first person "Whosoever like we..." (Wer so wie wir den großen Schwur gelöst, wer so für Gott und Vaterland gefallen, der lebt im Herzen seines Volkes fort.) That was used on earlier memorials after the War of Liberation in 1813.
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	The front of the column reads, "Dortmund citizens for their fellow citizens who fell in the World War 1914-1918 / Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13."(Dortmunder Bürger ihren im Weltkrieg 1914-1918 gefallenen Mitbürgern / Niemand hat grössere Liebe, denn die, dass er sein Leben lässt für seine Freunde. Joh. 15,13.)
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	Most of the graves are uniform, in two rows, the ones in the back standing, those in the front lower.
	But some are varied, like this mossed-over sculpture of a steel helmut.
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	Ludwig Jobst was killed in December of 1914, but there appear to still be people who are putting things at his grave.
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