Evangelical cemetery

Evangelical cemetery refers to a cemetery in German-speaking countries in which the commonality of the cemetery had become impossible after the Reformation . From the 16th century onwards, evangelical cemeteries were created in many places. The funeral of members of the other denominations was forbidden for a long time.

Anonymous burials were also permitted in Protestant cemeteries, and the graves of ordinary people remained unmarked for a long time.

Reformed areas

In Reformed areas, previously shared cemeteries were declared Protestant cemeteries or new cemeteries were created. Later, Catholic believers were granted hospitality rights in places where there was no Catholic cemetery of their own, but increasingly also in all mixed areas, albeit sometimes with higher grave fees. The regional church of the Kingdom of Saxony, for example, decided in 1906 that the Catholic deceased should be admitted and treated in the same way as Protestants in Protestant cemeteries.

Areas of Catholic Reform

In areas of the Catholic Reform , Protestant cemeteries did not become common practice until later, as the current Roman Catholic canon law there had two articles that were competing for the first time. On the one hand, heretics were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground; on the other hand, the establishment of new Protestant cemeteries was also not planned.

Development in Austria-Hungary

In the Habsburg Monarchy, according to a regulation from 1609, Protestant cemeteries were laid out in order to remedy this canon law deficiency. Many of the new Protestant cemeteries were then destroyed again during the Counter Reformation . After the Concordat of 1855 between Austria-Hungary and the Holy See, the cemeteries were finally to be separated. Wherever Protestant cemeteries could not be specially created, separate nooks and crannies were created for Akatholics , similar to suicides, wrongdoers and Jews .

List of well-known Protestant cemeteries

• Berlin: Evangelical Cemetery Altglienicke (1884), Evangelical Cemetery Alt-Schmargendorf , Evangelical Cemetery Stralau (taken over in 1949), Luisenfriedhof I (also called Alter Luisenfriedhof ), Luisenfriedhof II (also called Westend Cemetery )
• Regensburg: Messengersfriedhof  : Cemetery of the Protestant ambassadors to the Perpetual Reichstag at the Dreieinigkeitskirche
• Cologne: Evangelical Cemetery Cologne-Mülheim (1614)
• Vienna: Evangelical Cemetery Matzleinsdorf (1858, also called New Evangelical Cemetery )
• Wuppertal: Cronenberg Evangelical Cemetery (1783). Old Evangelical Cemetery Langerfeld (1785)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Norbert Ohler , Die und Tod im Mittelalter, 1990, p. 134
2. ↑ Gerold Eppler, Grabkultur in Deutschland: Geschichte der Grabmäler, 2009, p. 27
3. ↑ Michael Hirschfeld, Catholic Milieu and Displaced Persons, 2002, p. 316
4. ↑ German History Calendar , Part 2, 1908, p. 50
5. ^ France Martin Dolinar, Maximilian Liebmann, Katholische Reform, 1994, p. 417; Karl Amon, Maximilian Liebmann, Church History of Styria, 1993, p. 152.
6. ↑ John Borbis, Chr. Ernst Luthard, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, 1861, p.477.