Sachsenhain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panorama with pulpit and paths
Sachsenhain

The Sachsenhain is a former, large-scale monument of the National Socialists in Verden (Aller) in Lower Saxony . Today the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Hanover runs the Sachsenhain youth farm there.

history

The name Sachsenhain refers to the blood court of Verden , at which, according to the Annales regni Francorum, Charlemagne had the ringleaders of the Battle of the Süntel executed in 782 . A first draft of a memorial with a 70 meter high monument and a 12-meter Widukind - Sculpture with horse put the anti-Semitic publisher and main sponsor of the early Nazi party , Julius Friedrich Lehmann before.

The 1934 from the chief ideologue of the Nazi Party , Alfred Rosenberg , required anti-Christian memorial was commissioned by the Ahnenerbe from Reichsarbeitsdienst created and local construction companies with the help of local craft the designs provided Garden designer Wilhelm Hübotter and Karl Dröge while Reinhard Berkelmann acted as employees.

Between 1934 and 1936, the Reichsführer SS , Heinrich Himmler , had 4,500 boulders collected for the oval-shaped Sachsenhain and erected along a two-kilometer-long and six-meter-wide circular path as a memorial to the allegedly 4,500 pagan Saxons who were killed by Charlemagne at the blood court of Verden should have been executed at this point. The stones have been dug into the ground vertically in rows next to each other in the manner of historical pig pen systems .

The farmers in the area were obliged to provide every boulder they found there. Among the boulders there are also rune and sacrificial stones , which suggests that a large number of megalithic graves in the surrounding area were irretrievably destroyed by the measure . Since the required number of 4500 boulders could not be obtained, the gaps were filled with rubble stones.

In the south there are two pulpits that face a large meadow, the so-called Thingplatz . There was never a real thing at this point. In the north of the facility, five old Lower Saxony half-timbered houses (including the Zehnthof of Duke Christian von Wolfenbüttel ), which had been restored in other places after their demolition, were rebuilt and handed over to the 80th SS standard as a training facility. For the construction of the training facility, the Schutzstaffel (SS) operated the Verden satellite camp , a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp , from January to April 1945. The interior of the grove served the SS as a training area.

On June 21, 1935, a large inauguration and solstice ceremony took place, in which the still unfinished complex planned as a pagan cult site and SS parade ground by Alfred Rosenberg, Heinrich Himmler and Walther Darré ( Reichsbauernführer and head of the Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS ) was inaugurated.

After the Second World War , displaced persons initially lived in the houses. From 1950 the Evangelical Youth leased the houses from the British military government , in 1956 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover acquired the land from the state of Lower Saxony . The Evangelical Youth has been running the "Evangelical Youth Farm Sachsenhain" there since 1950, an educational and conference center. In 1966, the complex was expanded to include a steel-framed chapel. In 1976 one of the half-timbered houses was completely destroyed and parts of the complex were destroyed by fire, so two new houses with a half-timbered structure were built and used again from 1977/1978.

The stone-lined circular path in the grounds of the Jugendhof is accessible and a tourist and excursion destination, but also an attraction for neo-Nazis and right-wing extremist, “neo-pagan” groups.

literature

  • Ev.-luth. Landesjugenddienst eV Hannover (Hrsg.): Lebendige Steine. The Evangelical Youth Court turns 50. Hildesheim 2000, ISBN 3-9804792-2-6 .
  • Justus H. Ulbricht: "Heil you, Wittekinds tribe". Verden, the “Sachsenhain” and the history of ethnic religiosity in Germany . In: Local calendar for the district of Verden : Verdener Sachsenhain , yearbook 1995, pp. 69–123 (part 1) and 1996, pp. 224–267 (part 2), publisher: district of Verden, ISSN  0948-9584 .
  • Michael H. Kater: The “Ahnenerbe” of the SS 1935–1945: A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57950-9 .
  • Hans-Helmut Peters: Living stones. In: Peter Becher / Rolf Koppe (ed.): Five churches under one roof. Evangelische Heimatkunde , Lutherhaus Verlag, Hanover 1981, page 70–72, ISBN 3-87502-061-8
  • Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Sachsenhain near Verden , p. 78–80, in: If stones could talk. Volume I, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1989, ISBN 3-7842-0397-3 .

Web links

Commons : Sachsenhain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charlemagne - Regesta Imperii RI I n. 260b to 782, ubi Alara confluit in Wisora. : “Criminal Court; The Saxon nobles ... appear at the call of the king who demands the extradition of the authors of the uprising; all accuse Widukind, who fled to the Danes again, as the author; Since they cannot extradite him, they extradite all who, following his call, participated in the outrage, 4500 Saxons; these are beheaded in Verden (Ferdi) ad Aller on the order of the king in one day. "
  2. ↑ Martin Langebach , Michael Sturm (ed.): Places of Remembrance of the Extreme Right (= Edition right-wing extremism ). Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2015, pp. 62–69, ISBN 978-3-658-00130-8 .
  3. ↑ Denkorte in Verden ". Gedenkstaettenforum.de, accessed on March 18, 2013 .
  4. ^ Die Gartenkunst , Volume 50, self-published by the German Society for Garden Art, 1937, p. 127; limited preview in Google Book search
  5. ↑ a b Hans-Helmut Peters: Lebendige Steine. In: Peter Becher / Rolf Koppe (ed.): Five churches under one roof. Evangelische Heimatkunde , Lutherhaus Verlag, Hannover 1981, page 71, ISBN 3-87502-061-8
  6. ↑ Marc Buggeln: In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (Ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 5: Hinzert, Auschwitz, Neuengamme. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-52965-8 , p. 530.
  7. ↑ Website of the Evangelical Youth Farm Sachsenhain
  8. ↑ Bremer Tageszeitungen AG (Ed.): They march again ... Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-938795-00-X , p. 38 ( They are marching again ... ( Memento of July 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; accessed on May 14, 2008]). They are marching again ... ( Memento of the original of July 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.weser-kurier.de

Coordinates: 52 ° 56 ′ 44 ″  N , 9 ° 13 ′ 30 ″  E