The planning documents at the municipal “Emergency Committee to Combat Emergencies in the Dresden Provincial Capital Area” from the year 1943 identified Sternplatz as one of more than 100 points for the collection of bodies of air-raid victims. The bodies were to be collected, identified and transported to the designated cemeteries. At the end of 1943, after evaluating the heavy air raids on large German cities, Dresden’s Criminal Investigation Department pushed through changes in the plans in order to cope with the anticipated high number of victims. After these changes, two central collection points were established: at Tolkewitz Cemetery and Heide Cemetery, where a memorial grove for air-raid victims had already been established as a precaution in mid-1944.
On the night of 13 February 1945, the buildings surrounding Sternplatz were gutted by fire and later were almost completely demolished.

Marked in 2001