The site was laid out in 1715 as a military and foreigners' cemetery - at that time outside the city wall - in an open field for "common immigrants, passers-by and soldiers". It was not until the University of Bonn was founded in 1818 that the Old Cemetery was discovered as a prestigious resting place befitting its status; accordingly, many professors are buried here. In 1884, the cemetery had to be closed due to a lack of space and the North Cemetery became Bonn's new central burial site. A burial ground was slowly transformed into an urban green space and cultural site with a museum-like character. In 1984, the Old Cemetery was placed under a preservation order.

Many well-known personalities are buried in the Old Cemetery. Honorary graves have, among others:

• Clara and Robert Schumann
• Maria Magdalena van Beethoven (mother of Ludwig van Beethoven)
• Charlotte von Schiller, Ernst von Schiller (wife and son of Friedrich von Schiller)
• Hermann Jakob Doetsch (Mayor of Bonn from 1875 to 1891)
• Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, there is also a memorial stone for August Macke
• Mildred Scheel (founder of German Cancer Aid)

The old cemetery is the second largest green space in Bonn's city center. Particularly worth seeing are the individual graves of famous personalities, e.g. the musician couple Clara and Robert Schumann, the historian Ernst Moritz Arndt, the literary historian and philosopher August Wilhelm Schlegel, Mildred Scheel and the memorial stone for August Macke and his wife Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke. With its trees, walls and path systems, the entire complex reflects the history of cemetery culture, Bonn's city history and its intellectual life in the 19th century. Today, the Old Cemetery is one of the most famous cemeteries in Germany.

Today, only a few burials take place in the Old Cemetery, mainly of relatives who own family graves in the cemetery and citizens who have taken over the sponsorship of a listed grave site as part of an agreement. In accordance with Christian custom, in the Middle Ages the deceased were buried in the churchyard directly next to the church within the city walls. In Bonn, this was the main parish church Alt-St.- Remigius, today's Remigiusplatz. During its administration of the archbishopric from 1702 to 1715, the cathedral chapter had ordered that soldiers be buried on a bastion in front of the Sternenpforte. This order in 1715 can be considered the origin of the Old Cemetery. The Cologne Elector and Archbishop Joseph Clemens had a 3300 m2 plot of land purchased in the north-west of Bonn to relieve the epidemic emergency cemeteries of the 17th century and as a replacement for Old St. Remigius. "Common inhabitants, passers-by and soldiers" were buried there. This "poor people's cemetery" was located on a bend in the Endenich stream and was surrounded by orchards, meadows and fields. This was the first cemetery outside the town walls, although it was not yet enclosed. Although the churchyard at Alt-St. Remigius became too small, the wealthy citizens continued to bury their relatives in the churchyard.

It was not until the last elector to rule Bonn, Max Franz von Habsburg, had the cemeteries built outside the city for hygienic reasons in 1775 and closed the inner-city cemeteries in 1787 that burials took place in today's Old Cemetery as a "general burial ground". This renewed the burial system and Bonn became a role model for other cities. "General burial ground" meant all Christian citizens. The Jewish population had to bury their dead on the right bank of the Rhine in Schwarzrheindorf. In 1884, the capacity was exhausted and another cemetery was built just outside the city gates in 1882. It is today's North Cemetery, then still called the New Cemetery.

As a result of the decree of 1787 and the sharp increase in population and epidemics, the town bought additional land. Six construction and extension phases from the years 1819/20, 1831/33, 1839/42, 1859/64 and 1876 are recorded in the park maintenance work of the Old Cemetery, which can still be seen in the cemetery today and give it its unmistakable appearance. Originally, the cemetery was planted with lighter and brighter trees so that the wind could dispel odors. Today, the old trees form a unique oasis in Bonn's city center.

In the 1840s, the grounds were already twice as large and gave rise to design and conceptual considerations. In 1855, under the direction of the ambitious Mayor of Bonn, Leopold Kaufmann, the gardener Christian Günther, a gardener and landscape gardener with planning responsibilities, presented a plan in the style of a natural landscape garden, which, according to the park maintenance work, was probably implemented but quickly changed again. The extension in the western section was planned at Kaufmann's request by the Royal Garden Inspector Wilhelm Sinning in 1865. Peter Joseph Lenné (1789 - 1866), who was born in Bonn, also influenced the development of these plans. The garden reached a high point in 1873 with the construction of the Christusbrunnen fountain. It was relocated to Stiftsplatz when the subway was built in 1973.

A further significant redesign was carried out in the 1870s by the Royal Garden Inspector Karl Friedrich Julius Bouché (1846 - 1922), who was responsible for the grounds in front of the war memorial.

Visitors can also use a smartphone app to guide them through the Old Cemetery. The program and the associated internet portal provide information on 29 gravesites of personalities of contemporary historical interest as well as on monuments and buildings. To activate the app on site, a QR code must be scanned, which is displayed on the information boards at all entrances. The application navigates the user via GPS to the individual gravestones. The audio file can then be played there.

 www.wo-sie-ruhen.de