Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge – or short Volksbund – is the German War Graves Commission and as such a humanitarian nonprofit organisation. On behalf of the Federal Government, the Volksbund is dedicated to the task of searching for and recovering war dead abroad, giving them a dignified burial and caring for their graves. The Volksbund offers services for relatives of the war dead and advises public and private bodies, also internationally, on issues of war graves care. The Volksbund is committed to the culture of remembrance and promotes the exchange and education of young people at the resting places of the war dead.

Today, the Volksbund has almost 230,000 members and donors. With their contributions and donations, with income from legacies and bequests as well as the proceeds from the annual door-to-door and on the streets collections, the Volksbund finances most of its work. The rest is covered by public funds from the federal and state governments.

Based on bilateral agreements, the Volksbund now fulfils this task in Europe and North Africa. It currently takes care of more than 836 war cemeteries in 46 countries, the last resting places of about 2.8 million war casualties. Several thousand volunteers and more than 500 employees now deal with the organization's various activities.

After the peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe, the work of the Volksbund also extended to the former Eastern Bloc countries, where around three million German soldiers lost their lives in the Second World War - almost twice as many as those resting in war cemeteries in other European countries.  The Volksbund faces huge challenges: many of the more than 100,000 burial places are difficult to locate, or have been destroyed, overbuilt or plundered.

Since 1991, the Volksbund has repaired or reconstructed 331 Second World War cemeteries and 188 burial grounds from the First World War in Eastern, Central and South-East Europe. 

A new era also began for the reburial service: Since the conclusion of the war graves agreement between Germany and the Russian Federation in 1992, the War Graves Commission has exhumed more than one million war dead in the East. In order to continue its work in the future, the Volksbund established the foundation "Gedenken und Frieden" ("Peace and Remembrance") in 2001.

The Volksbund preserves the memory of the war dead by establishing and maintaining the cemeteries. The huge grave sites remind the living of the past and confront them with the consequences of war and violence. The Volksbund offers numerous opportunities to educate and inform about the war graves and the associated topics and issues.

Every year the Volksbund receives more than 20,000 enquiries about the location of graves and the whereabouts of war dead and missing persons from the First and Second World War. In addition to relatives, historians, chroniclers, researchers, authors, and heir investigators are increasingly turning to the Volksbund with their research requests.

On its website www.volksbund.de the Volksbund provides information on the graves of about 5.4 million war dead under the button "Grave Search". This resource is used by more than one hundred thousand inquirers from all over the world every year.

As early as 1953, the Volksbund conducted the first official international youth exchanges and work camps in Europe under the motto "Reconciliation over the graves - work for peace". The education officers in the regional Volksbund associations work directly with schools and colleges by offering projects about and at war gravesites at home and abroad.

Conferences and seminars on the culture of commemoration in a European context, work camps for adults, educational trips and trips for relatives are further central parts of the Volksbund's education work.

The four youth exchange and education centres in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany, recorded about 27,000 overnight stays in 2023. 
Every year, several thousands of young people take advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the Volksbund ranging from work camps to school projects. 

In 2023, the organization offered 32 Workcamps in Germany and abroad.

 Together for peace - that is the motto of the Volksbund, to which staff, friends, sponsors and supporters feel committed.

The Bundeswehr, the German army, and the association of volunteer reservists support the Volksbund by providing practical help at national and international war cemeteries, during the youth exchanges organized by the Volksbund, at commemorative events and also by collecting donations both door-to-door and on the streets.

"Volkstrauertag" in November is Germany's official annual day of remembrance. The Volksbund organizes various commemorative events held throughout Germany on that day. It is an important day both in political terms and for the public; a day for mourning the dead that also serves as a reminder of how precious peace is.

The Volksbund's official patron is the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier.