Drinkeldodenkarkhoff (Spiekeroog)
The Drinkeldodenkarkhoff (= cemetery for drowned people) in Tranpad on Spiekeroog , also known as the cemetery of the homeless , is a memorial for the victims of the emigrant ship Johanne , which ran aground on November 6, 1854 off the island. As a result of the accident, 77 emigrants lost their lives. The recovered dead were buried on November 9th in a dune valley that was then still outside the village. In the years that followed, corpses washed up on the beach were repeatedly buried there.
history
The emigrant ship Johanne ran aground on November 6, 1854 on its maiden voyage from what was then Geestemünde (today: a district of Bremerhaven) in the direction of New York off Spiekeroog. 216 emigrants were on board . The heavy seas destroyed the lifeboats of the wooden barque about 30 meters long and about 5.5 meters wide, so that they could no longer be used. No rescue was to be expected from the island either. The residents of Spiekeroog had to watch the disaster helplessly because they did not have a suitable lifeboat on hand. Only when the tide was low could the shipwrecked be rescued. The German Emigrant Newspaper reported on November 16, 1854: “The force of the waves was terrible, and what the passengers had fled on deck in the hope of easier rescue was washed away by them, thrown at the ship a few times and then no longer seen . As a result, some of the bodies are horribly mutilated. ”The islanders found bodies and battered body parts on the beach. On the first day, 30 dead had to be cached and laid out. In the following days, lifeless bodies were washed up again and again. A total of 77 of the emigrants lost their lives: 18 men, 34 women, 18 children under 10 years of age and 7 infants. There was no room for so many dead in the small island cemetery. The islanders therefore buried the Johanne dead in a dune valley, which was then still outside the village, in the specially set up "Cemetery of the Drowned" ("Drinkeldodenkarkhoff"), which is now on the eastern edge of the village. On the 125th anniversary of the sinking of the Johanne in 1979, many relatives of the victims who were born after the accident came together at the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff to commemorate their relatives.
The memorial
In 1859 the site was marked with the first iron cross, the inscription of which reminded of those who died in the stranding and carried the words: " I am the resurrection and the life " ( Jn 11.25 EU ).
The Drinkeldodenkarkhoff is now a large, fenced-in place with two benches. In memory of the dead, the people of Spiekeroog built a small hill made of boulders, on which a wooden cross surrounded by a metal anchor rope stands today. An anchor and a plaque in front of the hill complete the memorial.
On the area there is another memorial stone for seven residents of Kaufungen near Kassel who were killed in the accident and willing to emigrate . The parish council had it set up at Pentecost 1997 to commemorate the dead.
consequences
literature
- Gotthard Fürer: The sinking of the three-masted barque Johanne. The fate of Hessian emigrants before Spiekeroog 1854 , 2nd edition, Verlag Enno Söker, Esens 2013, ISBN 978-3-941163-00-3
Web links
Drinkeldodenkarkhoff contemplation by Silke Niemeyer, announcement broadcast kirche-im-wdr.de August 30, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Here quoted from: Radio Bremen : Schauplatz Nordwest. The Drinkeldodenkarkhof on Spiekeroog from March 3, 2015. Accessed on February 14, 2016.
- ↑ a b See the memorial plaque in the cemetery, which can be viewed online on Wikimedia Commons . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ Dietrich Nithack (local chronicle of the East Frisian landscape ): Spiekeroog, Wittmund district . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
- ↑ Nordseebad Spiekeroog GmbH -Cure Management & Shipping: Drinkeldodenkarkhof ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved February 14, 2017
Coordinates: 53 ° 46 ′ 18.1 ″ N , 7 ° 42 ′ 2 ″ E