Military Section of Cemetery in Rottenburg

Picture and text by Mark R. Hatlie

This picture was taken on 18 March, 2006 at the main cemetery in Rottenburg. When entering from the direction of town (the train station), the memorial is back, to the right. When entering from the side, it is immediately on the left.

	This shot shows most of the military section as seen after entering the cemetery from the side.
	This is the central path of the section.
	The cross is the centerpiece of the memorial. It reads, "For our fallen" followed by the dates of the two world wars.
	On the left, the first two plates list the dead by year for the First World War.
	1914-1916
	1917-1918. Much like for many countries in the Second World War, the rate of dead increases for the Germans toward the end of the war.
	The casualties for the Second World War start on the next plate. The death rate for the Second World War goes up slowly at first...
	the three plates to the right of the cross
	the dead for 1943 and 1944
	1944 doesn't quite fit on one plate. 1945 takes up almost two whole plates.
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	The crosses in the rows include the dead from the First World War, from the interwar period, and from the Second World War.
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	Those along the edges are from World War Two...
	...and from the interwar period.
	A few of the ones along the edge are especially done.
	This one is for a private in the engineers. His comrades put the plaque on his cross.
	This cross is for a man who died in a hospital in Stuttgart.
	Someone added to that cross a bronze plaque for a man who fell in Smolensk.
	Closer to the entrance, along the opposite wall of the cemetery, there is another row of military graves.
	They are all from the Second World War.
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