Preserving the past, Building for the future: Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery
Modernisation work is currently taking place at the Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, Staffordshire in association with the German Volksbund (VDK - German War Graves Organisation). The existing buildings were in need of structural repair and are now undergoing a significant upgrade to improve and enhance this important site for future visitors.
The Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery was established after an agreement in 1959 between the governments of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany. The agreement covered the future care of the graves of German nationals who lost their lives in the United Kingdom during the two World Wars.
The site at Cannock Chase was chosen for its similarity to Lüneburg Heath in northern Germany and falls within the internationally recognised Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Between 1964 and 1966, around 5,000 German graves from cemeteries and plots not maintained by the CWGC were transferred into the cemetery by the Volksbund.
The cemetery was inaugurated on 10 June 1967 by Dr. Walter Trepte, the President of the Volksbund, in the presence of the German Ambassador, and a large party of relatives from Germany. Her Majesty’s Lieutenant of Staffordshire, the Chairman of the Staffordshire County Council, the Mayor of Stafford, the Mayor of Bremen and the Vice-Chairman and Director-General of the CWGC were also in attendance.
The buildings and layout of the cemetery were designed by Professor Diez Brandi of Göttingen, and the headstones are made of a dark grey Belgian granite standing in beds of purple heather situated in a gently rolling landscape. Each headstone bears the names of four men with their rank and dates of birth and death. The buildings incorporated a Hall of Honour with a bronze sculpture of a fallen warrior by Professor Hans Wimmer and an elevated East Terrace for the communal graves of four Zeppelin crews shot down over England during the First World War.
The CWGC maintains Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery on behalf of the German authorities, and its funding is provided by the German Government.
Since 1962, groups of German students from the Bremen area have visited to work voluntarily in the Cemetery each year, carrying out tasks such as cleaning headstones, highlighting inscriptions with white paint, and replanting the plots with heather.
The cemetery is a significant site of German remembrance where wreath-laying and remembrance ceremonies are conducted by the Volksbund, sometimes with relatives of those buried there and attracts around 50,000 visitors a year. In 2010, it was upgraded by English Heritage to a Category 1 site in its Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Interest in England.
Throughout its existence, the cemetery has been upgraded, and the new project administered by the Volksbund and funded by the German Government will be a significant upgrade to the existing Grade II listed structures.
The plan is to renovate and extend the existing caretaker’s cottage and change its use into a new exhibition/learning centre involving an extension into the current courtyard area. This will provide a new flexible exhibition space connected to a seminar room and storage area with an inner garden to enable a wide range of educational activities related to the cemetery and memorial.
The renovation will also include the replacement of the entire copper roof with a new material along with upgraded utilities allowing the sustainable operation of the new buildings reducing their carbon footprint.
The work is scheduled to be completed by summer 2026, with an opening ceremony later in September 2026.
Update on the works
