German War Graves Commission The German War Graves Commission ( " " in German ) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa . Its objectives are : " acquisition , maintenance and care of German war graves " ; " tending to next of kin " ; " youth and educational work " ; and " preservation of the memory to the sacrifices of war and despotism " . Foundation in 1919 . It was founded as a private charity on December 16 , 1919 as the " recognised [ German ] Commission " under the war graves provisions of Article 225 of the Treaty of Versailles . Members , Offices . By the 1930s , the Commission had established numerous cemeteries for German World War I dead . During World War II , the Volksbund ' s work was mostly carried out by the Wehrmacht ' s own graves service . After World War II , the Volksbund resumed its work in 1946 and soon established more than 400 war cemeteries in Germany . In 1954 , the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer , tasked the Volksbund with the establishment , care and upkeep of German war cemeteries abroad . Activities . To guard the memory of the victims of war and violence , to work for peace among all nations and to guarantee dignity of men , these are the main goals in the statutes of the German War Graves Commission . All activities of German War Graves Commission have to harmonize with these general principles . Funding for the German War Graves Commission comes from public donations . Casualties , war graves , prisoner of war graves . Today , it looks after about " 832 military cemeteries in 45 countries with about 2 . 5 million dead " and its work is carried out today by 8 , 000 honorary and 566 full - time employees . Now that the Cold War is over , the Volksbund has access to Eastern Europe , where the bulk of World War II German casualties occurred . Since 1991 , 188 World War I cemeteries and 330 World War II cemeteries in eastern , central and south - eastern Europe have been reconstructed or rebuilt and about 759 , 110 bodies have been buried in new graves . Everyday maintenance of German war cemeteries in France is looked after by the " " ( the " German Military Burials Maintenance Service " ) known as " S . E . S . M . A . " . War grave database online . The German War Graves Commission offers an Online - Service with free access to everyone to locate an individual war grave or the fate of a missing German soldier using a database with more than 4 . 9 million entries ( state 2012 ) concerning World War I & II . This datafile of mostly German military persons who were killed during World War I and II indicates the military cemeteries in which they are buried . About one million data files deal with the times of World War I . These datafiles were continually enlarged and deepened . Data of military persons who died during World War II but whose graves could not yet be found and data of missing soldiers were added . Deutsche Dienstelle ( WASt ) in Berlin helped to find out additional and unknown data . War cemeteries and war dead of World War I and II inside of Germany are also documented in these files ( 895 , 561 in 2010 ) . Among these are war dead transferred to Germany or persons who died within Germany . But only those are registered whose remains were transferred to war cemetery areas within civil cemeteries but not to individual family graves . Further in this database persons can be found who died by aerial bombing of cities , as prisoner of war or in imprisonment , partly foreign members of German auxiliary troops who died in World War II or even some members of Wehrmacht who died before World War II began . A grave research demand ( ) can be sent online or as hardcopy to Volksbund ( German War Grave Commission ) to clarify the unknown fate of a German soldier . As some family name s are very common it is important to mention all given names and the date of birth of the missing soldier . As additional data should be given if available : date of death , last unit ( ) and last letters . Often withdrawing troops could not bury their losses . Detailed data on war deads of World War I were destroyed in Berlin during World War II , by aerial bombing in February 1945 where the files of the bureau " Zentralnachweiseamt für Kriegerverluste und Kriegsgräber ( ZNA ) " got lost . War cemetery database online . Volksbund has also an online database on war cemeteries . Data collected for each cemetery are location ( geography ) , how to reach , number of dead , course of military events in the region and architecture of the cemetery . The search for war cemeteries can also be done in geographical order ( country , cemetery ) . List of German cemeteries by country / conflict . German War Graves Commission has an online inventory of its cemeteries . Some of these cemeteries are described below :