Bitter corpses
The Leichenbitter or Leichbitter (also funeral bitter , corpse teller , announcer in Northern Germany , locally Swabian also corpse saw, corpse loader, corpse manager, bitter or death bitter) was a public office until the 19th century . The bitter had to deliver the news of his death and invite people to the funeral . The term Leichenbitter is mentioned for the first time in literature in 1691.
Field of activity
The bitter was the man who went from farm to farm in the village or from house to house in the city, or knocked on the door or with his stick on the shutter on an address list given to him, in order to go to the corpse in the name of the bereaved ask to invite to the funeral . He did this by saying his saying in front of the unlocked door or in front of the open window without a name. There was no way he went into the house. Nor was it proper to ask or let him in. Death shouldn't come into the house . You could already see and hear him coming. The rumor of death went with him. Likewise, a woman could be a bitter.
For the news of his death, which the bitter simply brought, he received a coin or a piece of bread in his hand. He went with the funeral at the end of the funeral procession, had everything in view, paid the fees to the pastor, paid the bells. He later said goodbye to the guests at the funeral and thanked them for attending the funeral on behalf of the bereaved.
The pictures show him as a thin, often poor-looking man who was dressed in a long black skirt, top hat and black ribbon. In Anhalt he wore a black ribbon on his hat. The corpse bitter or woman of the dead was also dressed accordingly. This is where the bitter expression comes from. The bitter for the corpses, who could also be the bitter for the wedding or the christening of the child, arranged the funeral, instructed the pastor, ordered the gravedigger and the death-bearers, and paid any wage-earners. He was the master of ceremonies when the burial was carried out . Above all, he determined the order of the people in the funeral suite and invited people to the funeral feast . This mourning meal was originally the reward for the dead bearers and gravedigger and also the feast for the mourning entourage. The saying goes: Eating and drinking hold body and soul together . Later these obligations of the corpse were taken over by the undertaker . Basically, the job characteristics of today's undertaker have remained those of the earlier corpse bitters and have become more differentiated.
Social position
The bitter and the gravedigger and later the undertaker and other professions, such as the executioner , were considered ritually unclean because of their dealings with the dead and were viewed as so-called " dishonest professions ". They were essential to life, but people did not like to deal with them and avoided dealing with them.
In Anhalt, neighbors of the deceased regularly took over the task.
history
In rural life in the Middle Ages , death was announced in two directions. Inwardly, it served to banish the dead in the house and yard, in the family, in servants and towards animals. Outwardly it was called the death announcements . At first it was a neighbor who took on the task of inviting the neighborhood, friends, and the community in general to the corpses .
In the Biedermeier period it has always been the custom in the stands of the nobility and the upper middle class, the private death with a few extra lines on a ticket, which brought a messenger in an envelope which close relatives and friends with this grief billet to communicate and Invite attendance at the funeral. The good quality of the paper and the printing was a sign of prosperity and social prestige.
The very first obituaries appeared at the end of the 18th century in the so-called intelligence papers. The death was announced under the heading of family news in the body text. The first obituary notice can be found in the royal privileged Berlin newspaper of June 30, 1789. The current custom of publishing a private obituary in a daily newspaper and sending a (often printed) memorial letter to those affected by the death outside the region goes back to the early 19th century. It presupposes the fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press and the ability to write and read. The current black borders of the obituaries were later taken over from the advertisements of the merchant class.
In the country, printed obituaries or corresponding cards sent by post did not gain acceptance until later, at the end of the 19th century or in many cases not until a few years after 1900: on the one hand because people in the country kept to old customs for longer, but also because At first, printing works also had to develop in smaller towns and transport connections only gradually improved.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Joachim Heinrich Campe: Dictionary of the German language. Reprograph. Reprint of the Braunschweig edition, Olms Verlag Hildesheim 1809 = 1969, III, p. 86.
- ↑ The job is described by the farmer Johann Brunner: Bitter women - an extinct profession. In: Bayerischer Bauernkalender 1986, p. 55.
- ↑ Kaspar Stieler: Der Teutschen Sprache Genealogy and Fortwachs , Nuremberg 1691.
- ↑ Barbara Happe: Memories of a corpse bitter from Bleichstätten on the Swabian Alb. In: Schwäbische Heimat 1991/3, pp. 325–328
- ↑ Ulrich Wenner, Middle Elbian Dictionary , Volume 2, HO, Akademie Verlag Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003740-7 , column 835
- ↑ This is where the term bitter expression comes from . Since Christoph Martin Wieland's poems and Friedrich Schiller's tragedy: The Fiesco's Conspiracy (1st act 7 appearance), it has become proverbial. This expression was later transferred to the habitus of the undertaker . Klaus Dirschauer: Take it easy - you dare to win. The funeral director Klaus H. Meyer-Heder . In: funeral culture . The magazine of the Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter eV ., Ed. Fachverlag des Deutschen Bestattungsgewerbes GmbH, Düsseldorf 65th year 5.2013, pp. 32–34.
- ↑ Ulrich Wenner, Middle Elbian Dictionary, Volume 2, HO, Akademie Verlag Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003740-7 , column 835
- ↑ Paul Sartori : Death Announcements . In: Journal of the Association for Rhenish and Westphalian Folklore , Vol. 1 (1904), pp. 35–54; see also: Paul Sartori: Sitte und Custom . Handbooks on Folklore Vol. V, Part 1: The main stages of human existence , Verlag von Wilhelm Heims, Leipzig 1910, p. 129 f.
literature
- Klaus Dirschauer: Words on Mourning. 500 selected wisdom and quotes for obituaries and letters of condolence. 5th edition Claudius Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-532-62319-0 .
