Monuments to prominent figures
The well-tended small park is a place of rest and remembrance.
Historic civic park
The former cemetery was established in 1802 and, until 1902, served as a burial place for over 4,000 deceased townspeople and spa guests.
The area around the cemetery was increasingly built up after 1900. Pedestrians used the grounds as a thoroughfare. From 1935 until the post-war years, the remaining graves and some well-preserved grave monuments were rigorously cleared away and the stones used, among other things, to fortify a fire pond built in the northwest corner. The north and west walls crumbled, and road construction destroyed rows and rows of graves. Playgrounds sprang up in changing locations. Over time, the yearly fairground spilt over from the market square to the old cemetery via Mittelstrasse, which led to repeated public protests.
The installation of granite memorial stones (stelae) in 2008, commemorating prominent or interesting town personalities and donated by local citizens and businesses, limited the fairground area and improved the green belt.
Among others, Dr Friedrich Bode (1811-1899), Bad Nauheim's first spa doctor from 1837, found his final resting place on the grounds of the historic civic park. And the first local policeman Heinrich Klinkerfuß is also buried here. He ensured law and order on his daily patrols through the alleyways and went down in local history as "Serschande Heinrich" (a corruption of "Sergeant" Heinrich).
Contact
Förderverein Alter Friedhof - Historischer Bürgerpark e. V.
Martin Fink
Rittershausstraße 12
61231 Bad Nauheim
