Krematorium Tolkewitz

The Tolkewitz urn grove is part of the forest cemetery in the same-named district of Dresden, where cremation funerals are held. The cemetery is located next to the largest municipal cemetery, Johannisfriedhof, which was established in the mid-16th century. The city-managed cemetery, covering nearly 25 hectares, lies along Wehlenerstrasse leading to Pirna. With an area of 70,500 m², the Tolkewitz urn grove is the sixth largest cemetery in Dresden.
The first European crematorium was put into operation in 1876 in Milan, Italy. Two years later, the first crematorium on German territory was established in the Thuringian city of Gotha. In the following years, other cities joined: Heidelberg (1891), Hamburg (1896), and Offenbach (1899).
In Saxony, cremation was approved by law only in 1906, and it was subsequently decided to build a crematorium in Dresden. In 1908, the city of Dresden acquired a 3-hectare plot of land adjacent to the Johannisfriedhof cemetery, which was located in the then-independent municipality of Tolkewitz. In 1909, construction began according to the design of the famous Hamburg architect Fritz Schumacher. Local building councilor Hansi Erlwein was commissioned to oversee the construction. The facade was crafted by Georg Wrba, who, along with Otto Gussmann, was also entrusted with the interior decoration. Schumacher's building in Tolkewitz was the twenty-fifth crematorium in Germany. The first cremation took place here on May 22, 1911, and around 900 ceremonies were held annually. Since 1985, the crematorium with the urn grove has been a protected cultural monument, and a new adjacent building constructed in 2005 serves for cremations.