Praetbos ommetje

The official walk starts at the German military cemetery at Vladslo, although I began a little farther away. One of the first places you pass is Praetboshoeve, a quiet-looking farm that once formed part of a much busier military landscape.

Just behind the German third line, a Ruhelager was established in and around Praetbos, giving soldiers a place to rest away from the front. The farm buildings were constructed by and for German units and included recreational facilities such as a cinema, a casino and even a chapel.

Civilians from nearby villages were also requisitioned to work on the site. They helped build barracks, lay roads and repair trenches while living in a separate guarded camp. Old aerial photographs and maps show a woodland crowded with military infrastructure. Looking at the peaceful forest today, it is difficult to imagine just how much activity once filled this area.

After Praetboshoeve, the route follows Houtlandstraat for a short distance before turning back into the woods. Praetbos is mixed woodland, with larch and pedunculate oak particularly noticeable along the way. Most of the route follows unpaved forest paths and passes a small pond.

Farther on, a curved German memorial wall appears between the trees. The official route guide links it to the Lehr Infanterie Regiment and dates it to 1916. The regiment had suffered heavy losses on the Somme before spending time on the Yser front and moving to the Eastern Front at the end of August 1916.

A small concrete military structure stands just behind the wall, with several other wartime remains surviving elsewhere in the forest. Their precise purpose is not always certain, but together they make it clear that Praetbos was once far more than a quiet woodland behind the lines.

The final part of the loop returns to the German military cemetery at Vladslo. More than 25,000 German servicemen from the First World War are buried here beneath dark stone grave markers at the edge of the woodland.

At the far end stand the sculptures that made this site internationally known: Käthe Kollwitz’s The Grieving Parents. She created the work in memory of her son Peter, who was killed on 23 October 1914. Kollwitz worked on the figures for many years before they were first installed in 1932 beside his grave at Roggeveld cemetery in Esen.

When German war graves in the region were consolidated during the 1950s, both Peter and the sculptures were moved to Vladslo. His grave lies directly in front of the grieving father, at stone 3/29. After the smaller wartime remains hidden throughout the forest, this quiet ending gives the short walk much of its emotional weight.