Hunnenstein (Bad Dürrenberg)
| Hunnenstein The hand | |||
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 17 '23.8 " N , 12 ° 3' 50.2" E | ||
| place | Bad Dürrenberg , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany | ||
The Hunnenstein (also Die Hand ) is a prehistoric menhir that originally stood on the Keuschberg in Bad Dürrenberg and is now located in the spa park there, near the southern end of the graduation tower .
description
The menhir consists of yellow-gray brown coal quartzite . It has a height of 233 cm, a width of 90 cm and a depth of 53 cm. It is irregular in shape and has rough surfaces at both ends. Its surface has several natural depressions, three of which have apparently been reworked to give them the appearance of a human hand, a dog's paw and a horse's hoof, according to a legend . These three depressions are also occasionally painted with gold bronze .
The Hunnenstein in regional legends
According to a legend, on March 15, 933, the East Franconian King Heinrich I set up camp on the Keuschberg during a campaign against the Hungarians . When he saw a blood-red sunrise and the campfires of the Hungarian army in the morning, he fell down in front of the menhir in prayer and asked for divine assistance. He stood up again with the words “As true as my hand is pressing on this stone, so surely we will win!” In fact, the stone became so soft that Heinrich's hand left an imprint on it.
According to a variant of this legend, such a sign promising victory was only possible if three beings touched the stone at the same time. But since none of Heinrich's warriors dared to help the king, only a dog and a horse stood by his side. Your paw and hoof prints can therefore be seen next to Heinrich's hand.
literature
- Johannes Felix , Max Näbe : About relationships of stone monuments and erratic blocks to cult, to legends and folk customs. In: Meeting reports of the Natural Research Society in Leipzig. Volume 42, 1915, pp. 1-20.
- Johannes Groht : Menhirs in Germany. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-18-5 , pp. 415, 445.
- Horst Kirchner : The menhirs in Central Europe and the menhir thought. Academy of Sciences and Literature, Treatises of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class, Born 1955, No. 9, Wiesbaden 1955, p. 179.
- Waldtraut Schrickel : Western European elements in the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age of Central Germany. Part I. Catalog. Publications of the State Museum for Prehistory Dresden, Volume 5, VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1957, p. 25.
- Britta Schulze-Thulin : Large stone graves and menhirs. Saxony-Anhalt • Thuringia • Saxony. 2nd edition, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2011, ISBN 978-3-89812-799-8 , pp. 105-106.