Old Ehrenfeld Cemetery

Until the mid-19th century, Ehrenfeld's dead were buried at the churchyard of St. Mechtern. Rapid population growth called for new burial grounds: in 1824 a cemetery opened at the corner of Venloer and Alpener Straße (today's Alpenerplatz), and some three decades later burials had to move to Feltenstraße in Bickendorf for lack of space.

In 1867 the municipality of Ehrenfeld asked Cologne's council for permission to bury its dead at Melaten. The city refused, arguing that every municipality had to provide its own burial facilities. So from 1869 Ehrenfeld planned a cemetery of its own, directly north of the Cologne grounds. Its right-angled network of paths was deliberately aligned not with Melaten but with Ehrenfeld's Kirchhofstraße, renamed Weinsbergstraße in 1903.

Several structures and small monuments are protected. The slate-roofed, single-storey gatekeeper's lodge at the main entrance was built in 1914 to plans by Hans Verbeek, beside the wrought-iron gate; the earlier main entrance lay further to the southeast. Among the oldest fittings is the high cross of 1868, designed by Vincenz Statz — a square high stele crowned by a cross and bearing the inscription "Selig die Todten – Die im Herrn sterben" ("Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord"), donated by Jacob Wahlen. During restoration in the 1990s, a medieval armorial grave slab from the early 15th century was found in the foundation, probably from St. Mechtern and reused when the cross was built. The cemetery wall, still partly of original brick, is likewise protected.