CWGC Cemetery: BERLIN SOUTH-WESTERN CEMETERY

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access possible via main entrance. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on telephone number 01628 507200.

Local Information

The Cemetery is located close to the village of Stahnsdorf, about 26 kilometres south west of Berlin and 15 kilometres east of Potsdam. The Cemetery is on the eastern edge of the Potsdam Forest. Visitors travelling along the main road between Potsdam and Stahnsdorf should follow signs for Tetlow, Stahnsdorf and the airport, Schonefeld. Immediately after passing the village boundary of Stahnsdorf lies the left hand turning, at the traffic lights, into Bahnhofstrasse. The Cemetery lies 500 metres after this left hand turning on the left hand side of the road. The CWGC plot is approximately twenty minutes walk from the entrance. The plot is found by following signs for the church and continuing on the main path running through the Cemetery.

Historical Information

In 1922-23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Berlin South-Western was one of those chosen and in 1924-25, graves were brought into the cemetery from more than 140 burial grounds in eastern Germany. There are now 1,176 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the Commonwealth plot at Berlin South-Western Cemetery. The total includes special memorials to a number of casualties buried in other cemeteries in Germany whose graves could not be found. The following cemeteries are among those from which graves were brought to Berlin South-Western Cemetery: ALTDAMM PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Pomerania. 51 burials of 1915-1918. BUDEROSE PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Brandenburg. 20 burials of 1918. CROSSEN PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Brandenburg. 68 burials of 1918. DOBERITZ PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Brandenburg. 38 burials of 1914-1918. HASENHEIDE GARRISON CEMETERY, Brandenburg. 64 burials.. HEILSBERG PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, East Prussia. 12 burials of 1917-1918. 39 burials remain at Heilsberg. KLEIN WITTENBERG OLD CEMETERY, Saxony. 25 service and eight civilian burials of 1915. NEW (or PRISONERS OF WAR) CEMETERY, 74 service and three civilian burials of 1915, 1917 and 1918. WITTENBERG OLD SMALL CEMETERY, two burials of 1914 and 1915. LAMSDORF PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Silesia. 83 burials of 1917-1919. MAGDEBURG MILITARY CEMETERY, Saxony. 25 burials of 1915-1918. MERSEBURG TOWN CEMETERY, Saxony. 12 burials of 1914-1917, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 33 burials of 1917-1918. OPPELN TOWN CEMETERY, Upper Silesia. 11 burials of 1921. 30 post war burials remain at Oppeln. SCHNEIDEMUHL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, West Prussia. 67 burials of 1915-1918. 18 burials remain at Schneidemuhl. STARGARD PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Pomerania. 41 burials of 1917-1918. STENDAL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, Saxony. 1413 burials of 1917-1918. ZERBST (HEIDETOR) CEMETERY, Anhalt. Two burials of 1914-1915, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 45 burials of 1917-1918.