With its impressive mausoleums, rhododendron bushes, its ponds and birds, sculptures and funerary museum, about two million people from all over the world visit the cemetery every year.

[1] During World War I over 400 Allied prisoners-of-war who died in German captivity were buried here, as well as sailors whose bodies had been washed ashore on the Frisian Islands.

An additional memorial site was erected in 1951 at the nearby Jewish cemetery, Ilandkoppel, the "Monument for the Murdered Hamburg Jews".

The remains of some 38,000 victims of Operation Gomorrha, the bombing campaign that took place from July 24 to August 3, 1943, lie in a cross-shaped, landscaped mass grave.

A stone wall borders the grove, on which are the words of the Czech Resistance fighter and journalist, Julius Fučík, executed in 1943, "Mankind, we loved you – be vigilant".

The museum is dedicated to raising public interest for the Ohlsdorf cemetery, and for promoting historical and contemporary funeral culture.