Vermandovillers German Military Cemetery, German war cemetery in Vermandovillers, France

Vermandovillers German Military Cemetery is the largest of the eleven German World War I cemeteries in the Somme. A tall forged-steel cross stands at the centre on a paved stone path, with a small plaque at its base. Behind it, rows of small black cast-metal crosses mark 9,455 individual graves, while heavy stone crosses and plaques on the outer walls mark 15 mass graves holding 13,200 dead.

French authorities established the cemetery in 1920 to receive German soldiers who died in battles south of the Somme during World War I. The site emerged from the necessity to provide dignified burial for large numbers of war casualties.

The 32 Jewish soldiers buried here have stone markers instead of crosses, inscribed in Hebrew with a phrase translated as "Here lies buried XXX. May his soul be woven into the circle of the living." Among them is the Expressionist writer Alfred Lichtenstein, who fell in 1914 fighting for the Kaiser.

The cemetery lies outside the village on the road from Vermandovillers to Foucaucourt-en-Santerre, partly bordered by the A29 motorway. The German War Graves Commission maintains the grounds, and metal plaques on the outer walls list the names of the known dead. A paved stone path leads to the central forged-steel cross.

Two German expressionist writers, Reinhard Johannes Sorge and Alfred Lichtenstein, are buried among the fallen soldiers here. Their presence makes this an unexpected place connected to literary history.