Kviberg Cemetery, Gothenburg, Sweden, Part I

Section 3. Grave of Queen Sonja's former brother-in-law Rune V. Swanström (1917-1967) and his mother Nanny, née von Gegerfelt (1890-1953). See my blog article From von Gegerfelt to Shetelig, of 30 September 2010, for more details.



Section 2A. Grave of Harald Bernhard Bengtsson (1893-1966), nicknamed "Bildsköne Bengtsson", the infamous master burglar. See Bildsköne Bengtssons Minnesförening (Bildsköne Bengtsson's Memorial Associaton) for more details (in Swedish). "Bildskön" is not too easy to translate - "photogenic", perhaps?


Section 53B. Grave of Erik Bertil Swanström (1916-2003), who I believe was related to the above-mentioned Rune Valdemar Swanström.

Section 26. The Segerstedt Family grave, which includes the last resting place of Torgny Segerstedt (1876-1945), publicist and editor-in-chief of Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning, known for his uncompromising anti-Nazi stance and thus a good friend of Norway - he was also married to a Norwegian woman, Augusta Wilhelmina Synnestvedt (see the Norwegian Genealogical Society's periodical Genealogen No. 1/2011, pp. 12-26 for an article about the Synnestvedt family).

The German War Graves section.

Casualties from the submarine U 843.

Two unknown German soldiers.

According to the website of Kyrkogårdsförvaltningen i Göteborg (the Gothenburg Cemeteries Administration), Kvibergs kyrkogård (Kviberg cemetery) is the largest cemetery in Sweden and also the second largest in Northern Europe. I wonder which cemetery tops the list then. Ohlsdorf in Hamburg perhaps?

Anyway, Kviberg cemetery was consecrated in 1935 and is measured to 130 hectares (about 320 acres). The cemetery has 24 167 graves, but I am not sure when the website was last updated. In the early 20th century Gotenburg's first airport was situated where the cemetery is now.

The cemetery has among others two sections of war graves from bnoth WW1 and WW2. One is administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the other by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräbefürsorge. The former contains 68 burials of WW1, many of them naval casualties from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, as well as 46 from WW2, most of them airmen who failed to return from bombing raids over Germany or German occupied territories.

The German war graves section includes 96 casualties from WW1 and 281 from WW2, including victims from the submarine U 843, which was sunk in April 1945. See also my blog article Fjällbacka Church and Cemetery, Tanum, Sweden, of 11 July 2010.

In addition there are sections for among others persons of (former) Latvian nationality as well as Swedish seamen.

Kviberg Cemetery is located at Kortedalavägen (near the junction of Regementsgatan) in Gamlestaden in Gothenburg, and can easily be reached by tram from downtown. See the map provided by Eniro.

The photos were all taken in August 2008.