Herrnhuter Gottesacker

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Entrance portal to the Herrnhuter Gottesacker
Herrnhuter Gottesacker
Remembrance of the dead on Easter morning, contemporary representation with a schematic view of the cemetery.

The Herrnhuter Gottesacker was laid out as a cemetery for the Moravian Brethren from 1730 in Herrnhut . In contrast to the baroque cemetery culture, it is distinguished by its pronounced simplicity of design (uniform grave sizes, lying corpse stones standardized as early as 1747, dominance of the horizontal, etc.). In this design of the sacred space, the Brethren implemented their ideas of equality before death and rest before resurrection.

As a model, the Gottesacker not only served directly for the community cemeteries of the Moravian daughter congregations - while it otherwise had no influence on its contemporary cemetery aesthetics - it was also received intensively by the cemetery reformers at the beginning of the 20th century and thus influenced cemetery aesthetics to the present day . In terms of its history, it is therefore similar to the Dessau New Burial Grounds , which followed a similar program, albeit for different reasons.

history

The first burial on the Herrnhuter Hutberg took place on November 24, 1730, when the six-year-old Hans Beyer was buried. Before that, the residents of Herrnhut had buried their dead in Berthelsdorf. Today the Herrnhuter Gottesacker can be counted among the most important cultural monuments in the region, which is all the more significant because it is not a historical relic, but is still used by the Moravian Brethren . If the continuity of the history of our church becomes clear at one point, it is above all in our church.

After the first grave was only temporarily fenced in, an earth wall with lawn benches was built around the still very small burial site in 1731. The first extensions were necessary in 1738 and 1741. The avenue of lime trees that leads from the village to the Gottesacker was laid out in 1742. In 1754 and 1755, a hedge was planted around the site. In the first few years there were not stones on all graves, and it took several attempts to get a stone for each grave. As early as 1740, a synod of the congregation decided: "Stones should be placed on our graves with the name, the day of death and a verse, since the main idea of ​​the brother is inside." The letters on the stones were initially red filled out; the remains of this color can still be seen on some stones. Originally the individual choirs had their own ranks. It was not until 1797 that a distinction was no longer made between the brothers and sisters according to the choir affiliation.

This is how the Gottesacker developed with its typical features: the uniform, flat stones with the simple inscriptions, the gender separation, the lack of married and family graves, the planting with hedges and linden trees and the entrance gate with two sayings. Everywhere the churchyard became an indispensable part of a brotherhood. The church in Herrnhut has been the model for many brotherly gods all over the world. As early as 1740 it was decided that each local congregation should have its own churchyard and that this should even be a condition for later foundations. Just as a person has to orient himself to Jesus in all his actions, so lying in the grave is also a liturgical act, taught Zinzendorf. After all, Jesus was also in the grave. The churchyard was one of the liturgical rooms of the community. It became the meeting place for every traditional local church as well as the hall and the square.

When a bypass road was to be created between the village and the Hutberg in 1936, the residents successfully resisted, as in this case the church would have been cut off from the community.

The graves of all those - a total of over 6,200 - who lived in the Moravian Brethren can be found in the church .

In October 2003 a church association was founded to preserve it.

The Herrnhuter Gottesacker is part of the Moravian Gardens and a member of the garden culture trail on both sides of the Neisse . This improves the possibilities of care ( park seminars ) and the prospects for funding and tourist development.

Reception in fraternal communities

Gottesacker in Hanerau
  • The church in Hanerau is divided into six fields. The broad middle ground separates the sexes. In the upper third are married people, whose graves are arranged in mirror image. The two middle fields were initially only intended for young men and virgins, the lower for children. All those who had died were buried with their heads facing east.
  • Even today, the Gottesacker in Rixdorf represents the cemetery of the three parishes, the part of the Brethren Church is clearly distinguishable from the part of the Lutherans and Reformed by its uniform and simple grave design.
  • The oldest surviving grave in Neudietendorf is from 1743. The lying gravestones are similar and simple. According to the custom of the Brethren, grave sites are neither excavated nor deedicated, so the cemetery is enlarged if necessary.

Famous pepole

literature

  • Christian Rietschel : The Moravian model of a community cemetery. The Church of the Brethren. In: Vom Kirchhof zum Friedhof 1984. pp. 75–88.
  • Norbert Fischer : The little heart that lies here is losing its life. Historic cemeteries in Germany. Hamburg, 1992. pp. 45-52.
  • Dieter Scheidig : From the court of the dead to the city cemetery. A Thuringian cemetery story . Lobenstein 1999, p. 38.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homepage garden culture path on both sides of the Neisse, members and cooperation partners , accessed on June 4, 2018
  2. ↑ The forest cemetery in Hanerau

Web links

Commons : Herrnhuter Gottesacker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 1 ′ 10 "  N , 14 ° 44 ′ 54.7"  E