A woodland cemetery shaped by reform
The first plans for a large municipal cemetery in the Junge Heide date to Hans Erlwein in 1913. War and economic crises delayed the project. The cemetery was laid out between 1934 and 1936. The first urn burial took place on 3 January 1936 and the first coffin burial on 20 November 1937.
The design retained substantial woodland and arranged burial sections between paths and planting strips. Motorway construction reduced the planned site. The present funeral hall was built between 1948 and 1950; later plans for a replacement hall with a crematorium were not realised.
Burial ground and a changing memorial landscape
Many people killed in the February 1945 air raids on Dresden were buried at Heidefriedhof. During the post-war years and the GDR period, several commemorative and burial areas were built or redesigned. They include the air-raid victims’ burial grounds, memorial wall, rondel and areas for victims of Nazi persecution.
These monuments also reflect the political ideas of the periods in which they were made. The Lernort educational project explores those layers through ten locations. Presenting the cemetery simply as a timeless peace park would miss this historical context.
More recent additions
Thea Richter’s memorial to Soviet prisoners of war and forced labourers was inaugurated in 1989. Małgorzata Chodakowska’s “Mourning Girl at the Sea of Tears” followed in 2010. The Pond of Remembrance opened in 2020.
Since 2025, a coloured splinter sculpture has accompanied the Dresden stele in the rondel. It places remembrance of Dresden’s destruction in the context of National Socialism, war and differing post-war interpretations. Follow the Cemetery tour between these places; Notable graves introduces people buried here.