Barbarian stone

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Front view
Back. On the left in the background the reconstructed watchtower, on the right a moat and palisade
Inauguration in 1912

The so-called barbarian stone near Grüningen in the Hessian district of Gießen is a memorial stone erected in 1912 on the Wetterau Limes , which reminds of the course of the Roman Limes there. For artistic and historical reasons it is designated as a cultural monument based on the Hessian Monument Protection Act. It is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Upper German-Raetian Limes .

Geographical location

The Barbarenstein stands at the northernmost bulge of the Wetterau Limes, part of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes , about 1.5 kilometers (as the crow flies ) northwest of the Pohlheim district of Grüningen, on the northeast flank of the Obersteinberg ( 287.6  m above sea  level ). It is located on the western edge of a small grove north up the Limes from the small fort Holzheimer Unterwald next to the reconstructed Roman watchtower Wp 4/49 at a height of around 270  m .

description

The memorial stone, erected on a small rubble stone base, stands on the wall of a section of the Limes reconstructed with palisades and a moat at the tower site Wp 4/49. The upright rectangular cuboid made of yellowish-gray sandstone is modeled on the grave stele of a Roman soldier and has a triangular roof at the end. Within this with Bossenwerk provided a gable bloom is formed on both sides.

history

Robert Sommer , the director of psychiatry at the Giessen University Hospital (today: Center for Psychiatry at the Giessen and Marburg University Hospital ), had the memorial stone erected in 1912 together with his wife as a memorial stone or Limes memorial stone . The Latin inscription means 'In memory of the Romans, a barbarian'. The vernacular developed the name barbarian stone from this , which prevailed. According to Sommer, the inscription is intended to be self-deprecating and shows a view of history in the early 20th century that aimed at a "polarization between Roman civilization and idealized Germanism".

In 1910, Sommer acquired a 3,000 square meter plot of land with a 250 meter long piece of Limeswall in order to prevent the area from being leveled by increasing agricultural use. In 1935 he transferred the memorial stone and property to the community of Watzenborn and the Schiffenberg local history association , which he himself helped to establish in 1929. The obligation associated with the donation to preserve the area has been fulfilled by the association to this day. The watchtower at the memorial stone, which was incorrectly reconstructed in 1967 according to later knowledge, was renovated again in 2012. A memorial plaque “100 years of the barbarian stone” erected by the Heimatvereinigung in 2012 was stolen after just 25 days.

inscription

There are four Latin inscriptions carved on the stone, one on each side.

The name "barbarian stone" is derived from the inscription on the south-facing side:

MEMORIAE ROMANORVM BARBARVS ANNO MDCCCCXII
“In memory of the Romans, a barbarian in 1912”.

On the back facing north is the inscription:

LIMES IMPERII ROMANI
"Frontier of the Roman Empire".

The name of the installer is carved on the narrow sides.

ROBERTVS SUMMER CVM VXORE
"Robert Sommer with his wife"
CIVIS GISSENSIS
"A citizen of Giessen".

literature

  • Karlheinz Lang, State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Cultural monuments in Hesse. District of Giessen II. Buseck, Fernwald, Grünberg, Langgöns, Linden, Pohlheim, Rabenau. (Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany), Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2178-7
  • Renate Becker (Red.): Festschrift on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Heimatvereinigung Schiffenberg Gießen eV , Heimatvereinigung Schiffenberg, Gießen Druck, Gießen 2004

Web links

Commons : barbarian stone  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lang: Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen , pp. 410–411.
  2. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  3. ↑ Ulrike Enke: The psychiatrist Robert Sommer and his relationship to Watzenborn and the Heimatvereinigung Schiffenberg (PDF, 787.1 kB), in: Festschrift on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Heimatvereinigung Schiffenberg Gießen e. V. , p. 82.
  4. ^ (Agl): Pohlheim: "Gladiators" and facts on the barbarian stone . In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung of July 11, 2012
  5. ↑ (juw): The Limes Tower near Grüningen is being renovated . In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung of May 10, 2012
  6. ↑ (u): Memorial plaque for summer stolen after 25 days ( memento from June 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Gießener Anzeiger from August 9, 2012

Coordinates: 50 ° 31 '4.6 "  N , 8 ° 42' 49.9"  E