Friedhof Helgoland in Helgoland, Schleswig-Holstein

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Get directions Kirchstrasse
Helgoland, Kreis Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein 27498 Germany

Coordinates: 54.18299, 7.88502
Cemetery ID:

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Helgoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea. Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands (population 1,127) are located in the Helgoland Bight (part of the German Bight) in the southeastern corner of the North Sea off of the Atlantic Ocean. It's about 30 miles from the German main land.

In 1945 Allied air forces bombed and destroyed Helgoland and it's smaller islands. Even the old cemetery (established in the 17th century) was destroyed. Helgoland remained under British occupation until the islands was returned to Germany in 1952. This new cemetery was created in and is the main burial ground for the islanders. Many though opt for cremation and a burial at sea. A few islanders who had died between 1945 and 1952 were buried on the mainland, but later re-interred on the island by their families.

Inhabitants of Helgoland are mostly Lutheran. The church within this cemetery is named after St. Nikolas and was built in 1959. There is nothing left from the old cemetery except for some grave stones, lined up against the wall of this new cemetery. Bones found in the old destroyed cemetery were placed in boxes and re-interred in a niche inside St. Nicolai Church. A "Book of Remembrance" contains the names of all those that were buried in the old cemetery.

Other burial grounds on Helgoland were and are:
Alter Friedhof Helgoland (defunct)
Friedhof Helgoland
Friedhof der Namenlosen

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Please note that the graves in Germany are not perpetual. After a certain period of repose (15-30 years) the graves are being leveled and re-used. There is no toxic embalming being done in Germany, so the coffin and the corpse have decomposed naturally. If the family of the deceased decides to purchase another period the duration can be extended in this cemetery by another 20 years. This cemetery had not any burials prior to 1953.