At the end of the war, many German graves lay scattered in the villages around Ypres. After the war all these graves were assembled on 184 German cemeteries. The greatest number of dead lay in the Ypres salient. Langemark territory alone, counted 17 German burial grounds: one was "Langemark North", another one was was " Nr 123". In 1914 this cemetery had its origin in a British cemetery. Between the gas attack of 22 April 1915 and the summer of 1917 this burial ground lay in the German sector. About a half year later ( April 1918) the Germans occupied Langemark. During the war the number of people buried increased dramatically so that in 1919 there were German, French, British and Belgian graves for a total of 859,627 of which were German.

In the first years after the war the Belgian Wargraves Commission was responsible for the organisation. Later the German Wargraves Commission took over. The cemetery was extended on the presently lower part. Eventually the place had 10,143 individual graves: 6,313 of them had been identified, almost 4,000 remained unknown. Among these dead are also 3000 volunteers who were killed during the German siege of Langemark in autumn 1914. Because of the great numbert of student volunteers, they named the cemetery " Studentenfriedhof".

In 1952 the Belgian and German governments decided to centralise all German cemeteries: 4 German cemeteries would be left at Vladslo, Hooglede, Menen and Langemark. The Poppies' Field became a burial ground On the high "poppies' field" 9.257 identified soldiers were buried. On their graves came an oak log with a copper plate mentioning first names and surnames of two soldiers. The first interments started in January 1955 when the cemeteries of Langemark, Moorslede, Passendale, Poelkapelle, Staden, Westrozebeke, Zillebeke en Zonnebeke were closed. The Comrades' GraveBecause the Langemark cemetery could house the greatest number of graves, they decided to bury all unknown German soldiers in a comrades' grave Behind the then dividing-wall 366 graves were cleared to make room for a gigantic tomb in which 25,000 bodies were interred.

The number of soldiers buried exceeded 44,000:

• 10,143 of soldiers (identified or non-identified) from the original burial ground
• 9,257 soldiers (identified) on the former poppies field
• nearly 25,000 in the comrades' grave