At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the Pobrežje cemetery became the central military cemetery in Maribor. The units of Austria-Hungary army (Slovenes, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles...) were passing through Maribor towards the front on the Balkans or the Isonzo front. Dead soldiers were left behind, many of them unknown they found their last home on the Pobrežje cemetery.
Also many Russian and Italian prisoners of war who died during the construction of factory in Ruše or of hydroelectric power station in Fala are buried here. During the Second World War besides German soldiers also the Soviet and British prisoners of war were buried here.
After the war, in the south of the cemetery, the group tomb was built and the monument erected, dedicated to the deceased partisans.