Homeless Cemetery (Westerland)
The homeless cemetery in Westerland on Sylt , also known as the “homeland for the homeless”, was laid out in 1854 by the beach bailiff Wulf Hansen Decker. Until then, unknown bodies washed up on the beach were simply left to their own devices. Most of them were seamen who went overboard and drowned. A chronicler counted 418 dead on Sylt's beaches for the period from 1600 to 1870.
history
The first burial took place in the newly laid out cemetery on October 3, 1855 . It was a sailor washed up on the Westerland beach the day before. The last funeral took place on November 2, 1905. During the time of its existence, 23 unknown sea deaths from the Westerland beach and 15 unknown sea deaths each from Rantumer and Hörnumer beach were buried in the homeless cemetery. A simple wooden cross was erected for each of the 53 dead, on which the time of burial and the name of the place of discovery was noted.
Only once was it possible to subsequently identify a dead person buried in the cemetery in 1890. It was the sailor Harm Müsker from Holterfehn. He drowned at the age of 18 when the "Gerhardine" ran aground in October 1890. Today a plaque commemorates him.
Closure and memorial
The cemetery was closed in 1907. Later, unknown seamen found dead were buried in the New Cemetery in Westerland, or victims of the north beach sections in the cemeteries of List or Keitum . The homeless cemetery has been preserved as a memorial. The facility was originally located in the heathland south of Westerland. Due to the later expansion of the city, the cemetery is now located in the city area at the corner of Elisabethstrasse and Käpt'n-Christiansen-Strasse.
Commemoration
Memorial stone of the Romanian Queen
In the summer of 1888, Elisabeth zu Wied , Queen of Romania , spent her vacation in Westerland. On the way from her accommodation, the garden house of the Villa Roth (today's Hotel Roth in the Westerländer Strandstrasse) to the beach, the then "ladies bath" on today's Käptn-Christiansen-Strasse, she regularly passed the homeless cemetery. In the year of her stay, this path was named Elisabethstrasse in her honor. On her departure she donated money for a memorial stone for the cemetery.
The memorial stone contains a text panel with the last stanza of the poem "Heimat für Heimatlose" by the Protestant theologian Rudolf Kögel from Berlin:
We are a people from the stream of time.
Washed to earth's island,
full of accident and heartache
, the Savior brings us home.
The father's house is always close,
it is the cross of Golgotha,
home for the homeless
Visitors
Over time, the burials became an experience for the islanders, but above all for the tourists. One guest wrote in his diary in 1900: “ This afternoon a corpse was carried to the cemetery on a rattling farmer's wagon, where a few hundred curious people had gathered. Gentlemen in beach shoes, white suits and colorful hats. Ladies in tennis costumes, bright hats and red parasols. Above it a jubilant summer day with a bright sky. Anyone who saw it from afar would have thought that it was some kind of outdoor festival ”.
Web links
- Sylt the cemetery of the homeless
- Homeless cemetery in Westerland
- Construction yard employees discover old grave slabs in the ground - an unexpected find. In: Sylter Spiegel from July 24, 2013
Individual evidence
- ^ "Cemetery of the Homeless" in Westerland on inselpur.de (accessed on December 16, 2013)
- ↑ Information board at the cemetery
- ^ "Royal bathing visit in Westerland", Sylter Rundschau August 28, 2013 (accessed December 17, 2013)
- ↑ The German Poetry Library (accessed December 17, 2013)
- ↑ "A funeral became an experience" on sylt-travel.de (accessed on December 16, 2013)
Coordinates: 54 ° 54 ′ 20.3 ″ N , 8 ° 18 ′ 2.5 ″ E