Prillwitz idols

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Historical illustration of a bronze Prillwitz idol
Portrait of Gideon Sponholz (1745–1807). Regional Museum Neubrandenburg

The Prillwitz idols are several dozen bronze sculptures and bronze relief plates from the mid-18th century. They are at the same time remarkable artistic innovations by their manufacturers as well as clever forgeries , if they should give the impression to be connected with the historical place Rethra .

The localization of Rethra, the Middle Slavic sanctuary of the 11th century mentioned by Thietmar von Merseburg , was a preferred goal of north-east German historical research for centuries. In 1768 the long-established Sponholz family of goldsmiths in Neubrandenburg first saw one and then further small bronze figures inscribed with runes , which were believed to be Slavic idols. According to the information provided by the owners, these bronzes came from an archaeological find that an ancestor of the Sponholz family (allegedly) had made while planting a tree in the parish garden in Prillwitz . These figures put the north German scholarly world in a state of excitement, because under the (allegedly) Wendish runes the word "Rethra" was often to be read and Prillwitz was generally regarded as the site of the legendary sanctuary at that time. First the Neubrandenburg doctor and antique collector August Friedrich Christian Hempel (1737–1804) acquired 35 of these figures. Later, 22 more new idols came into the possession of the dukes of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Gideon Sponholz (1745–1807), the youngest member of a Neubrandenburg family of goldsmiths, a privateer and also an antique collector, has since been considered an expert on history. He set up his first private museum in Neubrandenburg and was allowed to carry out treasure digs with the permission of the ducal.

Although there were doubts about the credibility of the story and the authenticity of the bronzes, named after their alleged place of discovery, from the beginning, the pieces caused the most violent scholarly disputes well into the 19th century.

Based on judicial investigations and progressive research methods, it has been certain since 1850 that the "Prillwitz Idols" or at least the majority of them were modeled and cast in the workshop of the Neubrandenburg Sponholz brothers. The collection, which was most recently completely owned by the sovereign, was shown as part of the princely collections in Neustrelitz until 1945 , then was considered a war loss for decades and was only rediscovered towards the end of the 1980s. Today the pieces belong to the collection of the Mecklenburg Volkskundemuseum Schwerin-Mueß , but are not part of the permanent exhibition there.

The Prillwitz idols seem rather bizarre with their arbitrary combination of different style elements. The story of its discovery went down in Mecklenburg's history as a forgery of the century.

A few years ago Daniel Spoerri was inspired by the Prillwitz idols to create his own sculptures. Frank Pergande , editor of the FAZ , turned a Prillwitz idol into a weapon in his regional thriller "The Curse of the Duck" .

Literature (selection)

  • Andreas Gottlieb Masch , Daniel Woge : The religious antiquities of the Obotrites from the temple at Rhetra on Lake Tollenzer. According to the originals, ground down to the greatest detail, and in copper engravings, together with Mr. Andreas Gottlieb Maschens, Herzogl. Mecklenb. Strelitz Court Preacher, Consistorial-Raths and Superintendent's Explanation of the same, edited by Daniel Wogen, Herzogl. Mecklenb. Strel. Court meal. Rellstab, Berlin 1771 ( digitized copy from the Herzog August Library )
  • Jan Potocki : Voyage dans quelques parties de la Basse - Saxe pour la recherche des antiquitès Slaves ou Vendes, fait en 1794 par le comte Jean Potocki . Hambourg 1795 ( digitized version )
  • Franz Boll : Critical history of the so-called Prillwitz idols. In: Year books of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Vol. 19 (1854), pp. 168–286 ( digitized version ); ders .: Addendum to the critical history of the so-called "Prillwitz Idols". In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Vol. 20 (1855), pp. 208–227 ( digitized version )
  • Rolf Voß: The false saints of Prillwitz: Regional Museum Neubrandenburg shows spectacular forgeries from the 18th century. In: Das Museumsmagazin, 2005, pp. 34–35. ( Full text ( memento of October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); PDF file, 197 kB)
  • Daniel Spoerri : Daniel Spoerri - Prillwitz Idols: Art after Art after Art. [On the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, State Museum Schwerin, September 2 - November 26, 2006]. - Schwerin, 2006. ISBN 3-86106-094-9
  • Rainer Szczesiak: In search of Rethra. The "Prillwitz Idols". With a travel report by Daniel Spoerri. 2nd, revised edition, Neubrandenburg, 2006. (Series of publications by the Regional Museum Neubrandenburg; No. 39)
  • Gundula Tschepego and Peter Schüßler [eds.]: Walter Karbe's cultural history of the Land of Stargard from the Ice Age to the present. Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940207-02-9
  • Andrea Linnebach: In the “swamps of hypotheses” - knowledge transfer on the wrong track. The Prillwitz idols and regional archaeological research during the Enlightenment. In: Book Culture and Knowledge Transfer in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. Edited by Andreas Gardt, Mireille Schnyder, Jürgen Wolf. Berlin / Boston 2011, pp. 293-310.
  • Frank Pergande : The curse of the duck. Thomas Helms Verlag , Schwerin 2011. ISBN 978-3-940207-58-6

Individual evidence

  1. He was a doctor in Neubrandenburg since 1762, a son of Neustrelitz ducal personal physician Joachim Jaspar Johann Hempel (1707–1788). - Cf. Boll (1854), p. 176: “der doctor medicinae Hempel zu Neubrandenburg, a son of the ducal personal physician at the time” .

Web links

Commons : Prillwitzer Idole  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files