Drinkeldodenkarkhoff (Borkum)

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The Drinkeldodenkarkhoff (= "cemetery for drowned people") with the adjacent Dodemannsdelle (= "valley of the dead man") is located on the East Frisian island of Borkum . It was a cemetery for the homeless , where the corpses of victims of stranding or shipwrecks washed up on the coast were Christian buried. The name of this cemetery is explained by the fact that most of the victims could no longer be identified and therefore could not be buried in their homeland. After the cemetery was leveled, it is now a memorial.

history

It is unknown when the Borkumers laid out the cemetery. The victims were so numerous that the Borkumers could not bury them at the time in the whaling cemetery by the old lighthouse, as it was too small for it. In 1860 alone there were 21 “Drinkeldode”, compared to ten islanders who had died. From 1859, the church registers of the Reformed Church document burials in the cemetery that was used earlier.

Presumably they wrapped most of the corpses washed up on the beach in simple cloths and buried them in the dunes on the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff, a valley east of the Großer Kaap, a wooden day mark. The Borkumers, on the other hand, usually spent the equivalent of a sailor's earring or other valuables found on the corpses for a burial in a simple wooden coffin. The graves themselves were left without any further jewelry or monuments. The largest mass burial took place at the end of the 18th century: in 1792 the English ship The Liberty ran aground off Borkum and sank. The entire 300-man crew was killed. The Borkumers buried their corpses in the “Dodemannsdelle” (= “Valley of the Dead Man”) adjacent to the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff.

In 1835 the only funeral that was not anonymous took place. The buried man was not a drowned seaman either, but Bailiff Tönjes Bley. He had ordered in his will to be buried at the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff. From then on he was commemorated by a particularly raised burial mound adorned with a memorial, which was seen by a Bremen pastor who was in Borkum in 1872. He describes the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff as a fenced-in place with some raised burial mounds.

According to research by the archivist Wilhelm Pötter from Borkum, the last burial took place at the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff in 1875. From then on, the Borkumers buried drowned people in the new cemetery on Deichstrasse, which had been laid out two years earlier. However, without the involvement of a clergyman, as one often did not know whether the dead belonged to the Christian faith.

The Drinkeldodenkarkhoff then fell into disrepair. Around 1900 there was said to have been a cross with an inscription at the "cemetery for the homeless" and even after the First World War the area should still have been recognizable as a cemetery. In the early 20th century, the old Drinkeldodenkarkhoff was finally leveled. The north dunes in which it was located are now partially built over. Nothing can be seen of the historic cemetery.

On December 2, 1929, the city council of Borkum deleted the name Drinkeldodenkarkhoff from the official plans of the municipality of Borkum. Since 1931 the area has been called “Playground Sancta Maria” on the official maps.

On the initiative of the museum director in Borkum, Helmer Zühlke, the local heritage association had a monument erected by the Föhr island stone mason Markus Thiessen in 2009, which commemorates the former resting place.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Norbert Fischer: nameless cemetery and "Dodemannsdelle": The maritime death on the island of Borkum . In: OHLSDORF - magazine for mourning culture . Issue No. 124, I, 2014, February 2014. Accessed February 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c Borkumer Zeitung of October 15, 2009: Inauguration of the memorial at the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff . Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  3. ↑ Jens Bald: Ship Cemetery Ems Estuary. Stranding off the island of Borkum - part l . In: German Shipping Archive. Scientific yearbook of the German Maritime Museum . Issue 22 (1999). P. 153f.
  4. ^ The treasures from the island museum. Part 2: sailor earrings . In: Burkana - the maritime magazine . Issue 44 of December 2015. p. 18. ISSN 1864-5992
  5. ↑ Borkumer Zeitung of October 19, 2009: Monument for “legendary, gruesome place” . Retrieved February 14, 2017.

Coordinates: 53 ° 35 ′ 39.6 ″  N , 6 ° 39 ′ 57 ″  E