Columbarium (Cochem)

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Columbarium (Cochem) in Oberer Weg 9

The Columbarium , also wrongly called the oath hand tower , is a listed building in Cochem . The three-storey tower is designed as a massive quarry stone building. The building was erected in 1889 by Carl Joseph Friedrichs (1831-1916).

history

Reminder hand

The tower was built by Carl Joseph Friedrichs (1831-1916), who was born in Cochem-Cond . Friedrichs went to America from Wittlich in 1850 and became wealthy as a gold digger during the Montana Gold Rush , only to return to Germany in 1866 .

Since December 16, 2019, the tower in Obere Weg has again been adorned with a pyramid roof covered with natural slate and the original “warning hand”, which is believed to have been the case for the last time at the beginning of the 1930s. The tower with its "warning hand" probably served as a reminder to his first wife Betty, nee. Hirsch (1850–1926) and one of her older brothers. Shortly before Friedrich's departure from Helena in Montana in September 1866 , after Friedrichs had made spectacular gold discoveries during the Montana Gold Rush, his brother Ferdinand Hirsch (* 1838) borrowed around $ 10,000. However, he never paid back this money.

After his arrival in the winter of 1866, Friedrichs went to his father Bernhard Hirsch (1807–1885) in Cochem to get the money back. There he fell in love with his youngest daughter Betty and married her. One day before the wedding on September 26, 1867, her father had presented the groom with a prenuptial agreement for a “real estate complex” in Meiningen , which he had recently acquired, to the value of 90,000 marks, which the groom also signed without hesitation. When his Betty divorced him on October 15, 1881 in Wollishofen near Zurich, Friedrichs had to pay her 90,000 marks (as of 2016: approx. 639,000 €) for the property, which has since been sold.

Villa Cochem Moselpromenade 60

After Betty remarried in 1882 and had a romantic winegrower's villa built in Cochem with her second husband Johann Josef Schunck in 1884/1885, Friedrichs acquired a plot of land very close to the villa at the end of August 1885. Although the Schunck couple sold their villa in October 1888 and moved to Bonn , Friedrichs had the tower built in 1889/1890 and the top adorned with the “Mahnhand”.

An inscription on the front of the tower shows the following words in large letters:

COLUMBARIUM BUILT IN 1889 BY CJFRIEDRICHS COND .
Reminder hand on the columbarium

The warning hand, incorrectly called the oath hand , is made of sheet copper, is approx. 1.05 m tall and 0.7 m wide and weighs 13.1 kg. The fact that the hand appears golden today is due to a coating that was applied as permanent protection against corrosion. When the tower was first opened in 1928, a life-size white statue of Christ made of Carrara marble was found inside . The owner, Friedrich's eldest son, Reg. Medical Councilor Alphons Friedrichs (born October 10, 1867 in Meiningen), left it to the Cond municipality, which had it installed in the war memorial chapel in the former church tower of St. Remaclus Church.

The hand was probably removed from the roof of the tower around 1932. When the property with the tower on it was sold again in the 1960s, the new owner took off the roof construction because the roof was no longer in good condition.

restoration

The restoration of the original pyramid roof with slate roofing was carried out between September and December 2019 on the initiative of the book author Stephan Tournay ( Die Mahnhand von Cochem ) and the owner Günter Zenz. The necessary reconstruction of the wooden roof structure , the covering of the roof with slate and the installation of the "warning hand" at the top of the tower were carried out by the brothers and master roofers Stefan and Christoph Marx from Cochem. The building permit had been granted by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Monuments Office with effect from March 22, 2019. The construction costs for the entire construction project amounted to approx. € 30,000, which were financed exclusively from private funds.

literature

  • Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Friedrichs, Carl Joseph. In: Personalities of the Cochem-Zell district. Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 116.
  • Neuendorf / Knevel: The story of the Cochem Columbarium. In: Cochemer Stadtbote. 1974.
  • Walter Gattow: The hand of the oath of Cochem. In: Heimatjahrbuch Cochem-Zell 1987. pp. 104-106.
  • Hermann Jung: The hand of the oath of Cochem. A true Easter story from the Moselle. In: noon. No. 72/1932.
  • Stephan Tournay: The warning hand from Cochem. 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-060283-2 .

Web links

Commons : Columbarium  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephan Tournay: Die Mahnhand von Cochem , (Carl Joseph Friedrichs), records from my life . 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-060283-2 , OCLC 1062336555
  2. ↑ Die Mahnhand von Cochem, also called "Schwurhand", Stephan Tournay (author), In: Library of Congress (English)
  3. ↑ Cochemer Land - Yesterday and Today - The Columbarium zu Cochem, In: Stadt-und Landbote der Verbandsgemeinde Cochem, p. 23, Friday May 22, 2020, edition 21/2020
  4. ↑ Client: Stephan Tournay, building permit Az .: VG-CS 0046/2019 and 60-52301-152, State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate, March 22, 2019.
  5. ^ Daniel Rühle: Cochem, book about the Columbarium: Stephan Tournay writes Cochem history (s). In: Rhein-Zeitung , February 22, 2020
  6. ↑ Entry including table of contents in the DNB , accessed on February 23, 2020.

Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 20.8 ″  N , 7 ° 10 ′ 17 ″  E