Historical Information (Source: Volksbund)

5003 German war dead First World War

The German military cemetery Mons-en-Laonnois was created in December 1920 by the French military authorities as a collective cemetery for German war dead who were provisionally buried in their own field graves or in civil cemeteries in 45 municipal areas. Those resting in Mons suffered death in one of the great battles and in the numerous skirmishes that took place from September 1914 to October 1918 between Soissons and Reims, on the Aisne, Vesle and Marne, and for possession of the Chemin-des- Dames took place. The German advance to the Marne and the retreat on the Aisne in autumn 1914, the French major attack in early April 1917, the failure of which led to a momentous moral crisis in the French army and mutinies of individual regiments, should be emphasized. The French attack at the end of October 1917, the German offensive at the end of May 1918 and finally the fighting of retreat from August to October 1918 claimed more victims -Holstein, West Prussia, Württemberg and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck were.