Ostfriedhof

The Ostfriedhof covers sixteen hectares of Dortmund's Innenstadt-Ost, a cemetery laid out like a landscaped park. It opened in 1876, Dortmund's second municipal cemetery after the Westentotenhof, now the Westpark. The Ruhr's industrial boom explains the timing: four thousand inhabitants in 1811 had grown past fifty thousand by 1876. The first burial took place on 1 April of that year, and the oldest graves lie in fields two and five.

Benno Elkan, a Jewish sculptor, carved many of the artistic gravestones. A heritage listing protects the historical section and its 362 monuments, tree-lined paths, fountain, mourning hall and caretaker's house. The original plan followed a strict grid with clear axes, later softened into a park landscape of winding paths and plantings. Work on that conversion began in 1912, and the First World War pushed completion to 1921. The graves hold the families who powered Dortmund's industrial rise. Henriette Davidis, the pioneering cookbook author, lies here, as does Marie Reinders, women's rights activist and school founder. Field fourteen, established in 1898, held the Jewish section until 1943. Bombing and vandalism struck it hard during the Second World War, and restoration work stretched into the 1950s. Memorials for mining disasters stand among the fields, alongside a monument to the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

You come in from Robert-Koch-Straße, onto a main axis lined with monumental graves, many adorned with sculpture. Residents use the grounds as a green space, historical and contemporary burial culture side by side.