Otto Trojan

The grave of Sergeant Otto Trojan is located in the back of the cemetery, to the right of the main path. Unlike many other graves, the gravestone is preserved, but the grave border is no longer in place. On a drawing published by the artist Gerhard Wydra in November 1989 in Das Ostpreußenblatt, the grave border is still preserved.^[1]

Otto Trojan died at the end of January 1915, shortly before the start of the Winter Battle, in which the Russian army was finally pushed back from Masuria. Before that, the Russian army had repeatedly invaded the region since the beginning of the war.^[2] Whether Otto Trojan belonged to one of the Trojan families from Wilken cannot be reconstructed today. The name Trojan occurred frequently not only in Wilken, but also in other villages of the Johannisburger Heide.^[3] However, his grave is not located out of the way, but in direct proximity to other graves, so that it can be assumed that he was buried near family members.^[4]