In Rüsselsheim there is a small park, which has a lot to do with Opel, but whose importance is hardly known among the population. It is located in Mainzer Straße and was built on the site of the former Seilfurt settlement, where part of the Opel factory premises and the Opel port are located today.
In addition to a massive mausoleum, the Seilfurter Tor is characteristic of the park, but no longer stands in its original location, but has been moved twice in the course of history to make way for the Opel plant, which begins directly behind the cemetery walls. The houses in the neighbouring Theodor-Körner-Straße used to be company apartments of the car manufacturer, so that the employees could live in the immediate vicinity of their workplace.
Exemption for people with capital
The inhabitants of the small settlement of Seilfurt were resettled around 1480 in neighbouring Rüsselsheim and today's Haßloch district. Only the church and the cemetery were preserved, because Rüsselsheim did not get its own church until 1514. The old cemetery continued to be used, but was quickly overcrowded after the plague years of 1634 and 1635. In any case, the plague victims were to be buried outside, which is why the city at that time had a field that was bequeathed to it by a shepherd who himself died of the plague.
In 1919, planning began in Rüsselsheim for a new cemetery, which was to be laid out in the form of a park. This is how the forest cemetery came into being, to which the deceased were reburied from the small cemetery in Mainzer Straße. Actually, the small cemetery should have been completely abandoned, if it hadn't been for Wilhelm Opel, one of Adam Opel's sons, who applied for a mausoleum in 1919, just as the planning for the forest cemetery began, which was to be located directly at the Opel plant. Adam Opel, who died in 1895, already had a stately grave in the small cemetery. While the people of Rüsselsheim grumbled because people with capital got a special permit and were allowed to continue using the small cemetery, Adam Opel was reburied there after the mausoleum was completed. Today, the square building looks quite unadorned, has a mourning hall from which steps lead down into the crypt, where Adam Opel's direct descendants found their final resting place over the years. Marion Irmgard Opel was last buried there in 2014.
Stolen copper roof
The mausoleum, as a rule, remains locked. Only on special occasions, for example during guided tours, do the heavy doors open and reveal the small hall in which the memorial plaques for the deceased of the Opel family are installed. A bust of Adam Opel, which used to adorn the grave in the cemetery, forms the center. The exit to the crypt is hidden under a carpet, the heavy door in the floor is only opened at a funeral.
A few years ago, the mausoleum suffered considerably. One night, unknown perpetrators dismantled the copper roof and stole it. Since then, water has penetrated into the mausoleum, the damage is clearly visible, the plaster has softened and falls into the burial site. The tin roof has since been repaired, and the interior renovation is to begin as soon as the city has reached an agreement with Opel on the costs.
One of the most interesting historical places
Even though the view into the interior of the mausoleum remains blocked, there are still some old graves in the cemetery that tell of the history of Rüsselsheim. These are tombs in different variations, the inscriptions point to honorable Rüsselsheim residents, some of whom were related to each other or married. Manufacturers, restaurateurs, wine merchants and, with Georg Hessemer, a former mayor of Rüsselsheim are identified by the inscriptions on the graves.
In the far west of the cemetery, right next to the wall that separates the cemetery from the Opel factory, there is a cross donated by the Opel family in 1909. And there is a tomb in memory of the victims of the German-French War of 1870 and 1871, which is considered one of the oldest monuments to war victims in Hesse.
Today there are a few benches in the cemetery next to old trees, and there is a small playground. For art historian Cordula Steffen-Hammes, who regularly offers guided tours of historically significant places on behalf of the city, the small cemetery in Mainzer Straße is one of the most interesting historical places in the city.