Damager Cemetery is located at Ribe Landevej 53 in Haderslev and also serves as a quiet green space for a short walk. There is open access, parking by the entrance, a toilet, and tables and benches. The paths are suitable for walkers, wheelchairs, and prams, but in some places you should be prepared for changes in elevation.
The cemetery is fairly large and is being transformed into a more park-like setting. The development plan focuses on open grassy areas, more trees, and grave sites as smaller islands in the landscape. In sections 3 and 4, a broad central axis runs north-south toward the memorial for the First World War, lined with linden avenues and crossed by a cedar avenue.
In the eastern part, sections 5 and 6 are planned with flowering trees, while the northeastern part has been given a hazel grove. This makes spring especially worth noticing, but at other times of the year too you can see how the old cemetery structure is gradually being loosened up.
Damager Cemetery has several historical memorials, including a Danish memorial grove for the fallen from 1914-18 and a French memorial grove established after the Second World War. Behind the memorial from the First World War, the fence has been removed, so the view toward the pond has become part of the experience.
Damager Flower Garden is the cemetery’s perennial beds with a rather practical poetry: They are not only for decoration, but also for small grave bouquets. The beds were established in 2018 by the Haderslev Garden Circle and the parish council at Gl. Haderslev Church.
The Mowing Club keeps the beds going. In the season, relatives may cut one small bouquet for their own grave plot, but only with scissors, without stepping into the perennials and not from plants marked “Should be spared from cutting”.
The memorial grove at Damager Cemetery is small and understated: small stones with the names of young men from Gl. Haderslev parish who fell in World War I.
The stones typically give the name, date and place of birth, and date and place of death. They are not always actual graves; several died and were buried at the front or in cemeteries abroad, while the stone here preserves the connection to the home parish.
Damager Cemetery is not just rows of burial plots, but a green area in transition. The development plan points toward a more open, park-like character with new tree plantings, flowering trees, and open lawn spaces.
In the 5th and 6th quarter, flowering trees have been planted, which over time are intended to give the area the character of a grove. The more natural appearance fits the idea that cemeteries can also be small habitats for flowers, insects, and other species.
