The Mennonite Cemetery in Gern

A few years ago the Neuhausen history workshop dealt with the question of where the Mennonite cemetery in Gern lay without reaching a conclusion. The reason for this: the cemetery was not designated as such in the old maps because it was no longer used after 1849 at the latest, and the tombstones were slowly falling into decay. In his statement to the Munich Regional Court in 1835, the head of the Mennonite community, Heinrich Stalter [b. 1776], commented on the cemetery:

“Separate burial places for the Mennonites are: in Gern where his supreme majesty, the late King Max Joseph, donated land from his private property because the community of Neuhausen had refused to accept a deceased Mennonite child in the cemetery there. This burial place is enclosed with boards and is used to accommodate the Mennonites in the vicinity of Gern.”

Gern in 1859. Location of the Mennonite cemetery is marked.

Through contact with Herbert Holly, the research has now been tackled anew. He went through the files and land registers in the State Archives and discovered a lot that was previously unknown or ignored. But there was no clear indication of the cemetery’s location. In particular the words “near the Gern Bath” raised difficulties.

Our knowledge that King Max I Joseph had given the cemetery property to the Mennonites (and that must have happened before the King’s death in 1825) allow only the conclusion that this small property must have come from royal ownership.

In 1809 the royal court hunting administration was located in this corner of Gern with the address Gern No. 5. This included the “Jägerhaus” (hunters’ house) at Gerner Strasse 33 as well as a little more than 44,000 square meters of fields, meadows, and springs. The property Gern No. 6, with the current address of Nederlinger Strasse No. 31, did not yet exist in 1809.

On closer examination of the Gern map from 1859 we finally noticed a very small, landscaped plot unexpectedly sketched in at today’s Klugstrasse, estimated at about 100 square meters. In 1809 it still belonged to the property at Gern No. 5 and was fenced off from the neighborhood. This is a small part of the plot on which the house at Nederlinger Strasse No. 24 now stands, which is directly on the curve of the Klugstrasse at its intersection with Nederlinger Strasse. This also clarified the text “near the Gern Bath” because the property “Gern No. 8” began directly across the street and that was the Gern Bath.

But only when we found a photo from 1939 in our archive with a view down Klugstrasse toward the east in which a small part of the cemetery is visible at the edge of the photo, came the likelihood, bordering on certainty, that we have found the location of the Mennonite cemetery, even if nothing is left of it now.

October 15, 1939, view down Klugstrasse toward the east. The “Jägerhaus” is in the middle of the picture and the fence of the cemetery is discernible on the right edge.

The current situation: the Klugstrasse runs from the bottom toward the left, the Nederlinger Strasse toward the right. The Mennonite cemetery was in front of the corner house at Nederlinger Strasse 24, in the northern front garden of the building.