Homeless Cemetery

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Wooden crosses in the homeless cemetery (Westerland)
Neuwerker cemetery of the nameless

Cemetery of the homeless , also called homeless cemetery , cemetery of the nameless , cemetery of strangers , refers to a cemetery by the sea, on a river or on a trade route, on which the corpses of the victims of strandings washed up on the coasts , shipwrecks, of those who drowned in rivers as well as of travelers on trade routes were buried in a Christian way. The name of these cemeteries is explained by the fact that most of the victims could no longer be identified and therefore could not be buried in their homeland.

Homeless / Nameless Seafarers' Cemeteries

Nameless cemeteries were established as early as the 18th century, but at the latest since the middle of the 19th century, and are naturally mainly located on the coast, such as the homeless cemetery in Westerland on Sylt , the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff on Spiekeroog , the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff on Borkum , the Homeless cemetery in Nebel on Amrum and the homeless cemeteries on Neuwerk , Pellworm , Trischen and on the dune of Helgoland . It was consecrated on June 22, 1319 on the island of Neuwerk.

Plaque at the foot of the main cross in the cemetery of the nameless on Neuwerk.

A poem by Gustav Falke serves as an inscription in the Nameless Cemetery on Neuwerk.

Homeless! How painful that sounds,
sunk namelessly in the grave,
That no mother's arm wraps around,
To whom no brother gives flowers.

Oh, in the wind that
blows this stone, this hill sand, there
will be many a fearful lament that
goes looking for you crying.

But
light after light is heavenly beautiful at night, it thaws
like consolation from those heights:
You are not homeless.

Cemeteries of the homeless / nameless from rivers

In addition, there are also cemeteries of the homeless / nameless in the inland, such as the cemetery of the nameless in Vienna or the Grunewald-Forst cemetery in Berlin , where water corpses and those who have died due to suicides are also buried.

Stranger's cemetery on trade routes

Tauern cemetery on the top of the pass

Foreign travelers, pilgrims, craftspeople and beggars were buried in cemeteries along historical trade routes, mountain passes and military roads.

  • Tauernfriedhof : At the top of the Radstädter Tauern pass in Obertauern (Austria), remote cemeteries were created for strangers who died there when they were crossed.

War cemeteries and military cemeteries

War cemetery for 30,000 Soviet prisoners of war in Oerbke
  • Cemetery of the Nameless in Oerbke : a war cemetery where around 30,000 Soviet prisoners of war from World War II were buried in mass graves.
  • Obermarchtal military cemetery : This cemetery was originally a cemetery for strangers and was then used as a military cemetery.
  • Military cemeteries sometimes have similar designations as “cemetery of the nameless soldier”.

Missing sailors

Missing soldiers

  • Meersburg, German War Cemetery Meersburg-Lerchenberg : This war cemetery is also a memorial for missing soldiers and soldiers whose graves are not accessible.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association for the Promotion of German Cemetery Culture e. V. ( Memento of October 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 28 kB)
  2. Ostfriesland.de
  3. Roger Repplinger: Friedhof der Namenlosen taz.de, November 22, 2008, accessed September 16, 2019.
  4. a b Eigel Wiese: Cemetery of the Nameless. In: Hamburger Abendblatt of November 29, 2013, p. 6.
  5. Erich von Lehe: Small island chronicle. In: A tower and its island - monograph of the North Sea island of Neuwerk. 1952, p. 165 ff.

Web links

Commons : Cemetery of the Homeless  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files