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In recognition of his country’s National Day of Mourning for 2009, Dr. Lutz Hermann Görgens, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, honors German veterans of World War I and II buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery. Photo by Mike O'Neal
On a gentle west facing slope of the Chattanooga National Cemetery a singular monument honors foreign veterans of two World Wars, many of whom spent their final days at Fort Oglethorpe.
The dark stone obelisk differs from other monuments primarily because its inscription is written in German, the native tongue of 183 souls who died while prisoners in America.
“This is the largest burial site of POWs in the Southeast,” said Dr. Lutz Hermann Görgens, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, following a brief ceremony Nov. 14 that marked his country’s National Day of Mourning for 2009.
The Atlanta-based counsul general placed flowers at the monument, erected by the German government in 1935, that stands amid rows of gravestones bearing names of those destined to never again return home.
“They were entrusted to us,” said Gerry Depken of the Fort Oglethorpe Historic Preservation Commission.
Fort Oglethorpe, home of the 6th U.S. Cavalry, served as an internment camp for prisoners of war during both World Wars.
During World War I it was the largest such POW camp in the country and housed as many as 3,400 Germans, both military prisoners and enemy aliens.
Fort Oglethorpe was deemed too small to serve as a military base after World War II, its buildings sold and its cavalry unit reassigned in 1946. In 1949 the city of Fort Oglethorpe was chartered, becoming the first new Georgia city in 25 years.
Fort Oglethorpe residents and officials continue to honor their city’s military history that included being a post for cavalry, for WACS/WAACS (Women’s Army Corps/Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps) and enemy aliens.
“They died on our watch,” Depken said, as she looked toward the spot where Germans of two wars are buried on American soil.
Of 78 World War I veterans buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, 22 had initially been buried in North Carolina but were re-interred in Tennessee soil in 1933.
Among those interned at Fort Oglethorpe were many whose only offense was that they were of German lineage. This group included notables like Karl Muck, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who was a native of Bavaria.
Most of the 105 German World War II combatants buried in Chattanooga came to rest here after being disinterred from other POW cemeteries in Crossville, Tenn. and Camp Butner, N.C. following the war.
Perhaps the most famous World War II burial is that of Lt. Gen. Karl R.M. Buelowius, an officer who served under Gen. Erwin Rommel and defeated U.S. Army forces at The Battle of the Kasserine Pass during the North African Campaign.
Above the gray granite monement’s list of World War I dead is the inscription that translates as, “During the war years died here far from home, and Germany will ever remember you.”
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