Homeless Cemetery (Amrum)

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The entrance gate to the cemetery of the homeless in Nebel on Amrum.

The cemetery of the homeless in Nebel on Amrum , also known as the cemetery of the nameless , was laid out in 1905 by the beach bailiff Captain Carl Jessen , according to the church chronicle . The first burial took place a few years after the establishment of the first seaside resort on Amrum on August 23, 1906, the last on June 4, 1969. Alongside the Westerland and Spiekeroog cemeteries, the Amrum complex is one of the most famous cemeteries of the homeless .

history

Wooden crosses in the homeless cemetery in fog.

Most of the unknown bodies washed up on the beach on the islands were seamen who had gone overboard and drowned . The residents simply left these to their own devices or buried them on the spot, mostly in the dunes, renouncing any memorial signs, or buried the corpses in a corner of the village cemetery without a tomb or cross. Others hid the beach bailiff , whose duties included this service. But he held on his farm always one as Dodenmannskist designated coffin ready. Some of the dead could be identified from the documents they had with them. They were kept in fog in a black shed or temporarily buried until relatives came to collect the bodies to bury them at home.

Dealing with the unknown dead changed from the middle of the 19th century with the slowly developing seaside resort . “In order not to be seen as uncivilized, even barbaric, in relation to the bourgeois-educated spa guests,” the dead washed up should now also receive a simple, dignified burial. Amrum is one of the plants that were set up relatively late. The cemeteries in Westerland on Sylt and on Spiekeroog have existed since 1854, that of Listland on Sylt since 1865.

Captain Carl Jessen, then beach bailiff in Nebel, donated the small plot of land for the cemetery, which was laid out in 1905 south of the island village of Nebel across from the Amrum windmill . The first burial took place on August 23, 1906, the last on June 4, 1969. Since then, better techniques have been used to identify all beach bodies. A total of 32 people found their final resting place in the cemetery. They were mainly washed ashore on Kniepsand , the sandy beach off the island west of the island. The pastor announced funerals in the cemetery of the homeless after the service, which resulted in many Amrum residents attending the funerals. The graves of the casualties were decorated with simple wooden crosses that indicate the date of the find.

The St. Clemens parish kept the cemetery beyond the actual resting period of 30 years and has maintained it to this day. She does not receive any subsidies for this. Confirmands of the parish contribute to the maintenance of the area with their work.

In 2010 the state road that passed the cemetery was relocated. This meant that the parish had to redesign the cemetery from 2011. In the course of these measures, the community had the south gate, previously a secondary entrance, redesigned into a new entrance area in order to make the cemetery more accessible. She planted the disused entrance with bright lilac bushes so that visitors no longer have to enter the cemetery directly from the street. She also had three sculptures set up in the shape of a ship. They are supposed to symbolize life and death. On February 18, 2012, the parish opened the newly designed cemetery to the public.

Memorial stone and sculptures

Entrance area with the sculpture the sinking ship .

The wooden archway of the entrance portal to the cemetery bears the inscription "There is still some rest". Immediately behind the entrance is a field stone from the old western wall of St. Clement's Church with the engraved words "Rejoice that your names are written in heaven". (Luke 10; 20)

The ship of life , erected on a mast in the south of the cemetery, symbolizes an ark in the form of a flat-bottomed ship . It is a joint effort by Volker Göpfert, who saw it to size, and Helmut Seesemann, who carved it. It was created from an oak felled in the Netherlands in 1627, which was probably initially used as a ship's beam and was built into a captain's house in Foggy in 1863. When this was renovated in 2010, the beam was removed and put to a new use.

The death barge in the north of the cemetery is also set up on a mast . It symbolizes "the ship on which, according to mythological ideas, the sun travels through the realm of death at night". Herrmann Christiansen forged it in the Fahretofter forge ( Dagebüll ).

The third sculpture is in the entrance area of ​​the cemetery. The sinking ship is intended to encourage visitors to donate to maintain the cemetery. The sinking ship is also a work of the Fahretoft forge.

Web links

Commons : Cemetery of the Homeless (Nebel auf Amrum)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Erich Pörksen: The landmarks of the island of Amrum. 2nd Edition. Breklumer Verlag, Breklum 2002, ISBN 3-7793-1119-4 . Pp. 17-39.
  2. ↑ Norbert Fischer: [ North Sea Coast Memorial Landscape: Staging of maritime death ]. Accessed on September 29, 2016. In: Norbert Fischer: Staging of the Coast (series of publications by the Isa Lohmann-Siems Foundation): Berlin 2007. ISBN 3496028009 . P. 457
  3. ↑ Norbert Fischer: [ North Sea Coast Memorial Landscape: Staging of maritime death ]. Accessed on September 29, 2016. In: Norbert Fischer: Staging of the Coast (series of publications by the Isa Lohmann-Siems Foundation): Berlin 2007. ISBN 3496028009 . P. 456
  4. ^ A b Association for the Promotion of German Cemetery Culture: Cemetery of the Nameless . In: Nordsee-Netz.de Retrieved on September 29, 2016.
  5. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Büscher: See gives, see takes ( Memento from September 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Mare Issue No. 11 from December 1998. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b c d Norbert Fischer: The maritime death - on the redesign of the cemetery of the nameless on Amrum . In: Ohlsdorf - Zeitschrift für Trauerkultur Issue No. 117, II, 2012 from May 2012. Retrieved on September 29, 2016.
  7. ↑ Norbert Fischer: Gedächtnislandschaft North Sea Coast: Stagings of maritime death ( Memento from September 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed on September 29, 2016. In: Norbert Fischer: Staging of the Coast (series of publications by the Isa Lohmann-Siems Foundation): Berlin 2007. ISBN 3496028009 . P. 456 f.
  8. ↑ Eigel Wiese: Cemetery of the Nameless . In: Abendblatt.de of November 29, 2013. Retrieved on September 29, 2016.
  9. ↑ a b Denkmalprojekt.org: Nebel / Amrum, Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein . Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g St. Clemens parish Amrum: Cemetery of the nameless . Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  11. ↑ a b ww / kta: St. Clemens invests in cemeteries . In Shz.de from June 3, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2016.

Coordinates: 54 ° 38 ′ 56 "  N , 8 ° 21 ′ 13.7"  E