Nécropole mixte franco-allemande

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

From 1915, this cemetery designed by Clemens Julius Mangner (1885-1957), designer of those of Saint-Quentin and Le Sourd (Aisne), was planted with varied tree species. Despite the extensions of the 1920s and 1970s, the necropolis retains its original layout. Created in 1916, by the will of the Kaiser, it bears witness to the battle and siege of Maubeuge, the longest endured by the German army during the 1914 invasion (25 August-8 September). To boost the morale of the armies, Wilhelm II engaged in a policy of commemorating the victorious battles of 1914. Between February and April, the forts of the Maubeuge ring are cleared. General Martini, military governor of Maubeuge, has a "commemorative cemetery" created at Assevent to gather together the scattered graves. The expenses are shared among the communes already heavily taxed by the occupant's levies since 1914 in proportion to the number of inhabitants. The necropolis is inaugurated on 20 October 1916 by the military authorities, in the presence of a French delegation and Princess Charlotte of Prussia, mother of the Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, great-nephew of the Kaiser, buried at Assevent. According to the provisions of the Frankfurt Treaty of 1871 and as at Cambrai, the German authority hands over the keys of the cemetery to the mayor to ensure its upkeep. Faithful to their principle, "Enemies in life, united in death", the Germans created this cemetery to bury hundreds of bodies which remained without graves for two years (1914-1916). While the German authority obliged the communes to finance the construction of the cemetery, it nevertheless endeavoured to identify all the soldiers before their burial to offer an individual grave to each. The necropolis is enlarged in 1926 by the German architect Tischler to accommodate soldiers exhumed from communal cemeteries in the region. During the years 1960-1970, numerous re-burials took place at Assevent. In 1998, eight of the nine bodies of French soldiers found in a collapsed communication tunnel of Fort Leveau are buried in the presence of officials and the daughters of two of the soldiers.