Jäkle's grave
The Jäkle grave is a tomb in the forest near the boundary between the villages of Bergfelden and Heiligenzimmer in the Rottweil district . The popular hiking destination can be reached by foot from Heiligenzimmer. Another path begins at the hiking car park near Bergfelden. The destination can also be reached on well-developed paths from the hiking car park opposite the Schützenhaus Vöhringen.
Origin of the grave
The most recent written record comes from the year when Hans Kimmich (born 1834) put the oral stories on paper. What is certain, however, is that the herdsman Michael Jäkle died in 1627 and was buried in the forest at the location discussed. The influence of the Thirty Years' War , during which most of Bergfeld's residents and their pastors fled to the town of Sulz am Neckar , remains undocumented .
The grave and the name "Jäkle"
A stone tombstone on the grave (today in wood) has been preserved. Today's wooden grave cross and the inscription in the shrine call the name “Jäkle” or “Michael Jäkle” with a simple “k”. Hans Kimmich also calls him “Jäkle” with a simple “k”, but without a first name. The name "Johann Jäckle", which was taken over from newspaper reports, can be found in the Bergfelden community.
At the grave itself there is also a shrine that was built by a citizen of Bergfelden. Inside is a brochure with the stories of Hans Kimmich and his son G. Kimmich, as well as a guest book in which visitors can sign. Older guest books are kept in Bergfelden Town Hall.
The story of Hans Kimmich was translated into English by a son or brother of Edmund A. Jäkle at the beginning of the 20th century.
The "Jäkle" today
The Narrenfreunde Bergfelden, founded in 1998, represent the herdsman "Jäkle" as a figure, as he was typically to be found in the Middle Ages. When designing the dress, books and documentation from this period were used. The figure essentially consists of the wooden mask, hat, boots, shepherd's pants, shepherd's cape, shirt, jacket and the shepherd's staff. The hat is decorated with pine cones, the coat of arms of Bergfelden (the fortified church) is on the cape and the coat of arms of the fool friends Bergfelden on the shirt.
Tradition from Hans Kimmich
About 300 years ago a little boy was born in a poor hut in the little village of Bergfelden. The parents were still young, the father was a hunting assistant to the baron, who had his castle near by, the mother worked as a day laborer. Even as a child, Jäkle (as he was called) showed a strange being. He did not play like other children, but wandered around in the woods and fields, where he found the animals and birds. He often brought home young rabbits and young birds. He never learned to write or read, he was unsuitable for that. When he was about 12 years old, he asked his father to take him to the forest meadow (the narrator pointed in the uphill direction, where after a 10 to 16 minute climb the forest area formed a larger plain). The cattle that belonged to the farmer and the nearby monastery [Kirchberg] grazed on this meadow. Jäkle wanted to live there as a guardian boy and stay as long as he lived. His father gladly fulfilled his wish and handed him over to an old shepherd, who soon fell in love with the boy and initiated him into all of his secret arts and science, which he had copied from nature. Jäkle was soon able to imitate all animal noises. When someone came into their dwelling, an old raven shouted from some corner: What witt dah? (What do you want?) Or a doe came up and licked your hand. Grass snakes had their place on a crossbar in the corner. An old fox liked it here better than in his den, he was mostly lying in front of the hut in the sun. A giant sheep dog who brought the herders to herd cattle loved all other animals and was their protector. Without this clever dog, some lost cattle would have been lost.
He brought them all back without either of the two shepherds going with him. Jäkle, who understood the dog best, only had to say: “Karro seek!” And signal with his arm, and he answered and flew away. Then when winter came, the cattle were driven into the stables of the owners and the shepherds returned to their relatives, but not without first looking after their pets. Jäkle took the talking raven with him and his old teacher, the dog. When Jäkle appeared in the light rooms on winter evenings, which was seldom enough, he was playing all kinds of jokes with the young people. He could, for example, make sure that someone he put his hand on his shoulder couldn't get up from his chair or that a girl couldn't turn her spinning wheel until Jäkle spoke his redeeming word.
He was also widely known as a miracle doctor with cattle; He is said to have worked miracles, especially in the birth of foals and difficult calf births, by running his hand along the neck of the animals a few times. They became calm and everything went off normally. However, Jäkle was only allowed to exercise his office until midnight. He had to be at home for the 12 o'clock strike. He never said why this was the case. As a witch banner, Jäkle was sometimes asked for advice at that time. A farmer also came to him and said that it had been uncomfortable in his house for some time. In the middle of the night his cattle get restless, and when he looks, all the animals stand there trembling and sweating, and the horses' tails are braided. Jäkle told the man to draw three crosses with chalk on his stable door and to keep three others on guard in the stable until after midnight. If he saw something, he should stab it with the pitchfork. As Jäkle told him, so did the man and the spook ceased. The night watchman later told the farmer that he had seen a large, shaggy dog sneaking around his house for three nights. A blacksmith came to Jäkle and complained that every night something he could not say what it was was choking and plaguing him until his strength waned and he left his camp in the morning dead tired. He asked Jäkle for help. The latter went into an adjoining room for a moment and when he came back he told the blacksmith to try to grasp the thing that plagued him, take it on his anvil and strike. The following night Schmid got hold of something like a mouse. He got up, took it on his anvil, and hit it. The next morning, somewhere in the village, a person with a bruised head is said to have been lying dead in bed. From then on Schmid had quiet nights again.
It was winter again and Jäkle moved into his old house in the village as winter quarters. But this time he was not at all like usual. He lived quite withdrawn. If an old cousin, who had been looking after him since his parents died, hadn't come to see him, nobody would have noticed that Jäkle was lying dyingly ill on his bed. He foresaw his death and announced his last will to his cousin: “Make sure that I am buried near my cattle pasture under a large fir tree on a hill. But not earlier, until three times 24 hours have passed after my death. ”He showed the cousin exactly where the fir tree was and which signs he had scratched into its bark. When Jäkle died and the funeral was due to take place, the coffin was loaded onto a carriage drawn by two horses. As the funeral procession was just leaving the house, some participants looked back again. And what did they see? Jäkle, smoking a pipe, looked out the window after the funeral procession. The path to the forest rose steadily, but the horses did not have to pull, the strands were never tense. The vehicle was moved as if by an invisible hand to a point just before the burial place. Although the path was steep here, the horses had to pull so that sweat stood on their foreheads when they got to the grave. The forest rustled and the birds had taken over the funeral song. As the coffin was sunk into the pit, there was a sudden roar in the air, and it was as if all the forces of nature had been let loose. The fir trees bent and it got very dark. After the tomb closed, everything was quiet again. But the people who had accompanied Jäkle to his final resting place were terrified again on the way home: Although they had just buried Jäkle, they saw him walking with his mighty dog after his herd of cattle, which he rounds every day brought this time over to the cattle house. But - it was winter after all and no cattle could be in the pasture. To this day, the ringing of the cowbells and the call of Jackles should be heard in the forest at midnight.
Tradition from G. Kimmich (1937)
The story of Jäkle, as my father wrote it down here, goes back to the stories told by his grandfather, i.e. my great-grandfather. He didn't know Jäkle either, because he was born in 1834, while Michael Jäckle - that was Jäkle's real name - died in 1627. In the meantime, some things about the Jäkle will have been forgotten, one or the other may have been added. In any case, as a child I heard my father tell the Jäkle stories as they are here. He always acted as if he believed in it himself, and at the end he reported on his own experience with Jäkle:
One day in his youth he was in the woods with his younger brother Fritz, near Jäkel's grave, and told him what it was supposed to have been about Jäkle. Also that he still reacts gruffly today when someone in the forest calls him with "Jockele lock!" - whereupon Fritz immediately called the two words into the forest.
Nothing happened.
When they got home, their mother called for vespers and told Fritz to get a jug of cider from the cellar. But after a while he came back with the empty mug. “The jug is empty! Not a drop will come out, I even opened the bunghole! ”“ That can't be, ”said the mother,“ we first pierced it! Hans you go, Fritz is too stupid to fetch must! ". My father did as he was told and after a few minutes came back with the full mug, put it on the table and said "Jockele lock!".
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Coordinates: 48 ° 19 ′ 46 ″ N , 8 ° 41 ′ 40 ″ E