Old Protestant Cemetery in Lüdenscheid

The Old Protestant Cemetery

As was customary, the city’s oldest cemetery was located around the Erlöserkirche in the center of the Altstadt. Due to the growing population and for sanitary reasons, additional burial sites became necessary toward the end of the 18th century. Thus, following the establishment of a cemetery at Sauerfeld, the Protestant Cemetery was finally consecrated in November 1865. More than 4,000 people attended the ceremonial opening.
The first burial took place in January 1886, when a woman who had died at the age of 36 was laid to rest. Over the next 50 years, a total of more than 25,000 people were buried there.

The Old Cemetery on Mathildenstraße was laid out like a park, and its oldest sections still retain their original layout, which has remained largely unchanged to this day. The two main axes are lined with trees. The entire cemetery complex was designated a historic landmark in 1999.

Gatehouse / Cemetery Chapel

The gatehouse was built in 1867. Construction of the building cost 11,100 marks; which housed the gravedigger’s apartment in the west wing and provided a room for the pastor in the east wing, as well as a mortuary where bodies found or those who had died of infectious diseases were kept until they were transferred to the mortuary.
In 1948 and 1948, the then-open gate passageway and the existing rooms were remodeled to create more space for storing bodies and to provide mourners with a suitable cemetery chapel.
Today, the building is used, among other things, by the Diakonisches Werk and to store equipment.

The Selve Tomb

The mausoleum was built in the Art Nouveau style; its striking copper dome is visible from afar. The tomb commemorates a family of entrepreneurs from the Versetal valley who, during the Gründerzeit, rose to become one of the wealthiest families in the German Empire of that time within a very short period thanks to industrial development. The Selve family also made a name for itself through charitable endowments in Lüdenscheid, including the sanatorium in Hellersen.
It’s worth taking a look inside through the iron grating. Here you can admire the vaulted ceiling or, when the sun is in the right position, watch the light stream through the beautiful stained-glass windows into the mausoleum. Also worth seeing are the mosaic floor and the marble busts.
The latter are works by Luigi Calderini, a famous painter and sculptor from the turn of the century. The Italian came to the mountain town after meeting Fritz Selve.