Langemark

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Langemark is a town in the Belgian province of West Flanders, part of the municipality of Langemark-Poelkapelle.

Sculpture in the Langemark Soldatenfriedhof

Written as Langemarck on French and British maps, the village is known in military history as the the scene of the first gas attacks by the German army, which marked the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.

Langemark Soldatenfriedhof.

A part of the Langemark Soldatenfriedhof. Beneath and between the roots of these oak trees, are 10.143 soldiers of which 3.836 remain unknown.

There is now a major German was cemetery (Soldatenfriedhof) in this location. During the First Battle of Ypres (1914) in World War I, inexperienced German infantry, mostly young volunteer students, suffered severe casualties when they made a futile frontal attack on British Army positions near Langemark and were shot down by experienced British riflemen.

German graveyard at Langemarck with Ypres in the distance.

This mass grave contains 24.917 soldiers of which 7.977 remain unknown. The names of the known soldiers are shown on the basalt block that surround the grave.

The event became known in Germany - at times known as the Kindermord von Ypern (Murder of Children at Ypres, or more loosely, The Massacre of the Innocents) - because German propaganda soon singled out the 'Langemarck attack' as an example for heroic self sacrifice. Legend has it that the German infantry sang the first stanza of what later (1919) became their national anthem "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles," as they charged.

Near the entrance of the graveyard is a mass grave, which contains 24.917 soldiers. Between the oak trees, next to this mass grave, are another 10.143 soldiers. The 3000 students who were killed during the First Battle of Ypres are buried in a third part of the cemetery.