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People have always remembered and honoured their dead at their graves. Relatives of those killed in war and buried abroad lack such a quiet place of remembrance. Churches can serve as these special places, providing spaces to pause and mourn.
Until the mid-19th century, only the rulers and the elite were commemorated in churches. Have you noticed the military symbols commemorating the officer’s son at the von Heinen family’s burial chapel, opposite the entrance to the pulpit?
With the dissolution of the estates-based society, particularly after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the death of the ordinary soldier also came to be seen as worthy of remembrance, linked to the cult of the dead and glorification: ‘heroes who fell for their people and their fatherland’. Death in war was to take on a special meaning: as proof of love for one’s ‘friends’, one’s comrades, and the people.
Through the experiences of the two world wars, memorials to the suffering of millions became important to many people. Alongside the commemoration of the dead lies the process of coming to terms with traumatic events and their historical context.
People have always remembered and honoured their dead at their graves. Relatives of those killed in war and buried abroad lack such a quiet place of remembrance.
In 1958, the parish of St. Marien in Rostock commissioned Thuro Balzer (1882–1967), an artist and teacher in Rostock, to compile this memorial book.
The book’s 164 memorial pages list the names of the 237 men and women from St Mary’s who died during the Second World War on all fronts across Europe and at sea.
The names are listed chronologically in the memorial book according to the date of death. You can browse through the memorial book on the Memorial Pages page.
The commemorative book also includes Sundays and feast days of the church year (see left).