Landmark research
Boundary stone research is a field often carried out by regional or local historians to research historical boundary stones and other land monuments .
Landmark research by private associations
In many regions of Germany there have historical associations such as local historical societies set itself the goal of the present in its territory historical landmarks (including medullary, memorandum, Bann, goods or forest stones called) miles - kilometers - and hours stones as well as canal stones , but also other historical landmarks such as stone crosses and cross stones or wayside shrines and wayside crosses as important witnesses of their respective epochs, to research, to preserve, to secure or, if necessary, to renovate and, if possible, to re-erect them in their traditional locations. Your self-chosen area of responsibility includes inventory, border inspections, preservation of monuments (recovery or purchase of stolen stones, their restoration or cleaning and replacement in original locations), interpretation of letters, numbers and symbols on boundary stones, public relations, publication of findings in the local press, in Brochures, historical collection sheets, etc., lecture and conference work ("boundary stone conferences") and the establishment of boundary stone educational trails or boundary stone paths and lapidaries or boundary stone gardens. Introductions to boundary stone research are also offered in the university area.
Official landmark research
State offices for the preservation of monuments or other authorities deal with boundary stone research and sometimes publish relevant publications, for example
- the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt (The boundary stones of the historical border between Chursachsen and Churhannover in the southern Harz, 2000);
- the Hessian State Office for Soil Management and Geoinformation inventories old border marks;
- the Bielefeld land surveying and cadastral office keeps a boundary stone index,
- In May 2010, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation decided to assign historical landmarks and rock marches to architectural monuments and to include them in the list of monuments and thus in the Monument Atlas (see web links). The first examples were boundary stones on the old border between the Benediktbeuern monastery court and the Tölz district court.
Web links
- Bavarian Monument Atlas (search for "monument by content", keyword "boundary stone")