Menhir from Ober-Saulheim

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The menhir of Ober-Saulheim

The menhir of Ober-Saulheim (also known as Langer Stein , Der Lange Stein or Teufelsstein ) is a menhir near Saulheim in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate .

Location and description

The menhir is located south of Saulheim and northeast of Wörrstadt on the northeast slope of the Wörrstädter Höhe at a parking lot next to the L 401. It is surrounded by a hedge.

The menhir is made of limestone. It has a height of 320 cm, a width of 160 cm and a depth of 80 cm. It is columnar, slightly curved and ends in a rounded tip. On the north side it has a deep channel running the entire length of the stone. Seen from the west, the stone looks very phallic , while the north side is more reminiscent of female forms. At the end of the Middle Ages, a late Gothic niche was carved on the south-east side , which contains a portrait of Mary .

The Lange Stein served as a court for a long time . A second stone is said to have stood near it, which was probably the base of a wooden cross. Because of its shape, it was popularly known as "The Devil's Soup Bowl".

The menhir in regional sagas

There are several legends about the stone . According to the first, the stone came to its place when the devil saw that a church was being built in Wörrstadt. Then he threw a stone from Donnersberg. But he aimed too far and the stone landed between Wörrstadt and Saulheim.

Another tells that a rich man buried a treasure here. Since the devil wanted to get his soul, he put the stone on it. The man could no longer get to his treasure and hanged himself on the next tree. Since then, the treasure has been guarded by an owl (according to another variant, by a dwarf). One day when a young man came by, the dwarf offered him part of the treasure, provided that the young man would then commit one of the three deadly sins of drunkenness, adultery or murder. He chose drunkenness as the least evil, but in his intoxication he committed adultery and finally murdered the horned husband when he caught him.

A third legend tells of a poor woman from Wörrstadt who hid her savings on the top of the stone during the French Revolutionary Wars . After the war ended, all the money was still available.

A fourth legend is based on a true story. In 1883 an attempt was made to remove the stone. Two men were killed in the process. Since then the legend goes that the stone kills anyone who tries to knock it down.

literature

  • Georg Durst: The monoliths of the province of Rheinhessen. In: Mainz magazine. Volume 33, 1928, pp. 20-21.
  • Otto Gödel: Menhirs, witnesses of cult, border and legal customs in the Palatinate, Rheinhessen and the Saar area. Speyer 1987, p. 129ff.
  • Johannes Groht : Menhirs in Germany. State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-18-5 , pp. 16, 266–267, 341–342.
  • 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. 160.
  • Friedrich Kofler: The menhirs and long stones in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. In: Correspondence sheet of the general association of German history and antiquity associations. Volume 36, 1888, p. 127.
  • Karl Schumacher: Archaeological map of the area around Mainz. In: Mainz magazine. Volume 3, 1908, p. 33.
  • Bernhard Stümpel: Report of the state office for prehistory and early history in the regional district of Rheinhessen and in the Kreuznach district for the period from January 1 to December 31, 1966. In: Mainzer Zeitschrift. Volume 63/64, 1969, p. 185.
  • Detert Zylmann : The riddle of the menhirs. Probst, Mainz-Kostheim 2003, ISBN 978-3936326079 , pp. 56, 59, 104.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Johannes Groht: Menhirs in Germany. P. 341.
  2. ^ Menhirs in Rheinhessen

Coordinates: 49 ° 51 ′ 13.9 ″  N , 8 ° 8 ′ 40.1 ″  E