German Waldheim Cemetery

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“Waldheim Cemetery” redirects here. For other uses, see Waldheim Cemetery (disambiguation).

Waldheim Cemetery, Chicago in May 1986 during ceremonies commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Haymarket Riot

German Waldheim Cemetery, also known as Waldheim Cemetery, was a cemetery in Forest Park, a suburb of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. It was originally founded in 1873 as a non-religious cemetery, where Freemasons, Roma, and other German-speaking immigrants to Chicago could be buried without regard for religious affiliation. In 1969, it merged with the adjacent Forest Home Cemetery, with the combined cemetery being called Forest Home.

Because it was unassociated with any religious institution, it was chosen as burial place of the Haymarket Martyrs. After they were buried there, the cemetery became a place of pilgrimage for anarchists and other leftists. In homage to the Haymarket Martyrs, many other anarchists and socialists are buried at Waldheim, including Joseph Dietzgen, Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman, Lucy Parsons, William Z. Foster, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Because of its role as a pilgrimage site for the American left, the Haymarket memorial there was the first cemetery memorial to be designated a National Historic Landmark.

The English part of the cemetery--that is, Forest Home--includes the grave of Billy Sunday.