Since 1939, at the latest, the Municipal Gardens Authority, acting on behalf of the city administration, made extensive preparations for the recovery and burial of air-raid victims. The office of the ”Director of Burials” was created, and its head visited Berlin, Munich, Leipzig and other cities to evaluate their air-raid experiences.
Part of the tools and materials needed for burial work, including a large supply of chlorinated lime, had been stored on the premises of the city nursery at Tatzberg 6 since 1942. At the same time, the city nursery was the base of the ”Municipal Burial Crew No. 1 for the Recovery of Air-Raid Victims”. The nearly 200 men who were obliged to serve in the seven crews had to report to their assigned locations after “air raids involving bombing” to receive orders form the Municipal Emergency Committee.
The burial crews functioned as planned after the air raids in October 1944 and January 1945. The February air raids, however, shattered the municipal crews’ technical and human resources.

Marked in 2001