Murder Stone (Stünzel)
The Stünzel Mordstein is a stone of atonement and a registered monument in the Stünzel location in Bad Berleburg , North Rhine-Westphalia , intended to commemorate the murder of a carter in 1678.
On the high trail known today as the European long-distance hiking trail E 1 , which leads from Wittgenstein Castle in a north-westerly direction to the Bad Berleburg district of Stünzel, there is a weathered sandstone on the right edge of the path, partially surrounded , between the fairground for the annual animal show festival and the first houses of Stünzel from a beech hedge. Opposite the monument there is a forest path that leads from Holzhausen to the Stünzel. The stone is about 90 cm high; his inscription is no longer legible today. Apparently it was set before the village of Stünzel was founded.
At the beginning of the 20th century, contemporary witnesses traced the inscription with chalk and largely deciphered it. On the sandstone was a carved high cross with the year 1678 under its crossbar. Among them was the following message in roman capitals , as far as legible: "1678 - 13th Marts - Georg Lud-wygs von - Oberhundem - GCS alhier - vom Reilte ... - murderously shot. D.- GGSAmen "
The abbreviation DGGS was interpreted in 1958 by Wilhelm Hartnack as a blessing " Blessed by God's grace" . An earlier interpretation of the alleged four initial letters was: " To God be gracious ".
A few decades later the inscription could no longer be deciphered. The memorial stone was so forgotten that it was later painted over with a sign by the SGV .
From a file in the Fürstlich Wittgenstein Archive from the same year 1678, there is an indirect reference to the bloody act, when the catering of some citizens who participated in the persecution of the perpetrators is quantified. Apparently, the search was unsuccessful because nothing was known of an investigation or even conviction of one or more perpetrators.
The search must have taken place the day after the homicide. If the memorial of March 13th, but of March 4th in the Wittgenstein Archive, it may be a reading error on the memorial stone. It is more likely that the earlier Julian calendar was used once and the Gregorian calendar with its 10-day difference was used in the other record . Since the Gregorian calendar was introduced in the Protestant Wittgenstein around 1700, the stone could not have been set until this time.
The facts, however, seem to be clear: On 3./13. March 1678, the Sunday Oculi , the carter Georg Ludwigs from Oberhundem was shot at this lonely place by a man who was either a rider or was called something like that. The offender chase took place on 4th / 14th. March 1678.
Around 1900 there was an oral tradition in the Stünzel area that a man wanted to exchange his horse for another's. When he refused, he is said to have been killed or shot by his disappointed counterpart. The murderer put his saddle and harness on the coveted horse and made off. One of the two is said to have been a carter.
In response to a request from 1921, the responsible pastor from Oberhundem announced that the church records there said nothing about the incident. The pastor reported, however, on the statement of one of his predecessors, according to which he knew from his ancestors that a carter from the house of “Luiwes” (= Ludwigs) “at the Stünzel” had been robbed and murdered.
Since the death apparently did not find its way into the church registers of Oberhundem, it can be assumed that the body was not brought there, but rather buried on the spot, especially since the church registers of the church of Weidenhausen, which was closest at the time, do not provide any evidence of this.
Ultimately, the exact circumstances of this homicide from the 17th century remain in the dark to this day. The "murder stone" was entered in the list of architectural monuments in Bad Berleburg on November 28, 1995 at the suggestion of the Westphalian Office for the Preservation of Monuments . In the meantime, a plaque with explanations has been placed next to the stone.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Burkhard Meyer: The murder stone on the Stünzel . In: Weidenhausen and Stünzel - formerly one place - today two villages . Festgesellschaft "700 years of Weidenhausen" GbR, Bad Berleburg 2009, p. 309-311 .
- ↑ Karl Hartnack : The murder stone at Stünzel. In: Communications from the Wittgenstein Society for History and Folklore, 1921, Issue 1, p. 23
- ^ Wilhelm Hartnack: Light and shadow over the Stünzel . In: Wittgenstein magazine, 1958, volume 22, issue 4, p. 150.
- ↑ Scheele, Der Mordstein bei Stünzel , In: Heimatblätter für den Kreis Olpe, 1937, 14th vol. H. 9 u. 10 p. 83
- ↑ " The 4th Martius on the orders of Gn. Landtschulzen give some citizens out, so identify the perpetrators who shot the Cologne trucker, and should seek to drink 8 measure of beer for 10 albus. " City accounts Laasphe 1678, WA Acta L 46.
- ^ Wilhelm Hartnack: Licht und Schatten über'm Stünzel , Wittgenstein magazine, Laasphe, 1958, Volume 22, Issue 4, p. 151
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 42.9 " N , 8 ° 21 ′ 46.7" E