German Waldheim Cemetery, also known as Waldheim Cemetery, was a cemetery in Forest Park

Forest Park, Illinois

Forest Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in the United States. The population was 15,688 at the 2000 census...

, a suburb of Chicago in Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. It was originally founded in 1873 as a non-religion specific cemetery, where Freemasons

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, Roma, and German-speaking immigrants to Chicago could be buried without regard for religious affiliation. In 1969, it merged with the adjacent Forest Home Cemetery, with the combined cemetery being called Forest Home.

Because it was unassociated with any religious institution, it was chosen as burial place of the Haymarket Martyrs. After they were buried there, the cemetery became a place of pilgrimage for anarchists and leftists. Because of its role as a pilgrimage site for the international left, the Haymarket memorial there was the first cemetery memorial to be designated a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

. The Haymarket Martyrs' Monument

Haymarket affair

The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...

 by sculptor Albert Weinert

Albert Weinert

Albert Weinert American sculptor Born in Leipzig, Germany, Weinert attended the Royal Academy there and then the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium. In 1886 he immigrated to the United States, settling first in San Francisco and then New York...

 is located here.

In homage to the Haymarket Martyrs, many other anarchists and socialists are buried at Waldheim, including:
The English part of the cemetery—that is, Forest Home—includes the graves of:

See also

Cemeteries in Chicago

• Acacia Park Cemetery
• Bohemian National Cemetery
  Bohemian National Cemetery
  Bohemian National Cemetery is a cemetery at 5255 North Pulaski Road on the north side of Chicago, Illinois.-History:The cemetery was established by members of Chicago's Czech community in 1877. The community had been outraged when a Czech Catholic woman named Marie Silhanek was denied burial at...
  
  
• Graceland Cemetery
  Graceland Cemetery
  Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road...
  
  
• Mount Olivet Cemetery
  Mount Olivet Cemetery (Chicago)
  Mount Olivet Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in Chicago, Illinois. The cemetery is operated by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The cemetery is located at 2755 West 111th St.-History:...
  
  
• Oak Woods Cemetery
  Oak Woods Cemetery
  Oak Woods Cemetery was established in 1854; it covers an area of and is located at 1035 E. 67th Street in Chicago. The first burials took place in 1860. Soon after the American Civil War, between four and six thousand Confederate soldiers, prisoners who died at Camp Douglas, were buried here...
  
  
• Rosehill Cemetery
• Westlawn Cemetery
  Westlawn Cemetery
  Westlawn Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located in Norridge, Illinois. The cemetery covers and roughly 46,000 people are buried there.-Notable interments:*Jack Ruby, convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald...