Kaldenkirchen Germany is just a little bit south east of Venlo Netherlands. The 75th Infantry Division was in Kaldenkirchen Germany from March 7 to the 11th of March 1945. The were involved in clearing Venlo Netherlands and the surrounding area including Kaldenkirchen, of remaining German resistance. Kaldenkirchen was close to the Geilenkirchen salient, a German defensive position within the Siegfried line. The salient restricted Allied movement and therefore became a target of the Allied offensive.
The city was evacuated in the final weeks of a World War II before more heavy fighting occurred. The Cross and Mary garden I sketched was built on the ruins of the German Westwall. A pastor discovered a blasted bunker and in 1947 decided to convert it into a garden. On Pentecost, the townspeople come here to honor the people lost in World War II.
As I walked through the garden, I noticed that a farmer was plowing his fields right behind the lush landscape. The Cross and Mary Garden uses a bunker complex built by the Germans as the foundation for building a tiered garden. On the path that winds around the edge of the garden are 12 sculptures that depict the 12 stations of Christ carrying the cross. In a central area there is a deep pit that is surrounded by stone work. There is then a flat elk aged staging area that is probably used for a pulpit during outdoor sermons.
I sketched a bust of Christ inset on a brick column. On each of the faces of the column there were metal plaques with names of fallen Herman soldiers. The saying 0n the fr0nt face of the column translates to… “Good peace and freedom against forgetting.”. There were some really amazing relief sculptures with height contrast of white figures against dark ground. There was one in the distance behind the Christ bust I sketched and another under the elevated staging area.
Locals seem to use the garden to walk their dogs. One woman was walking her tiny fluffy pup. Then a man was on the garden with his hunting dog. The hunting dog was not on a leash. As I was finishing my sketch, I noticed the dog run past the bust of Christ with something in its mouth that was moving. It was a dove. The dog stopped and shook its head violently until the dove stopped struggling. Then the dog disappeared onto the woods with the prize on its mouth. The man wanted to leave so he shouted for the dog to come. It returned to the man but the dove must have been left behind on the woods.