Talking tombstones (Föhr)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The tombstone of "Happy Matthias" in the Süderende cemetery

The talking tombstones of Föhr, also narrative tombstones , are in the cemeteries of the St. Laurentii Church in Süderende , the St. Johannes Church in Nieblum and the St. Nikolai Church in Boldixum (today a district of Wyk Foehr ). Similar properties can be found on the neighboring island of Amrum . They are all under monument protection. Their inscriptions tell of family and professional life as well as special events in the life and honorary positions of the deceased. With 265 tombstones and tombstones, the St. Johannis cemetery has the largest inventory of historically valuable tombstones. The most famous tombstone on Föhr is that of Matthias Petersen , known as the happy Matthias. The only picture decoration of the stone is a round relief, which shows the goddess of luck Fortuna above a swimming whale like a coat of arms. The Latin inscription - the only one in the St. Laurentii cemetery - tells of the success of the deceased in 1706, having killed 373 whales in five decades.

Origin of the raw material

The tile-like sandstone slabs of the oldest grave monuments are made of red sandstone that was quarried in Solling or northern Westphalia. The larger stone blocks erected later on Föhr are about 160 by 70 centimeters. Most of the stones are made from Obernkirchen sandstone . Föhr captains often carried the stones as ballast on their ships. Only wealthy Föhrers could afford these stones. Poorer islanders, on the other hand, had to grind down old stones and have them redesigned. In some cases, test boards from the workshop of a stonemason were also used, as indicated by a few letters and the word ALVABET on the back of a grave slab.

Stonecutters

Apart from the few exceptions of the large slabs, which are likely to have been created by external, professional stone masons, all of the tombstones were made by island friezes. At first it was probably Dutch wood carvers who were on the mainland who were hired to decorate tombstones, before ship carpenters, who had acquired knowledge of stone processing, were commissioned with the production by the neighboring islands and by Föhr himself. On Föhr, for example, there were stonemasons in Oevenum and Alkersum . The design of the stones is sometimes very complex. Their production often took a long time. As a result, some gravestones could only be erected years after the deceased had been buried.

Language and symbolism

The Süderende cemetery.
The Nieblum cemetery.
The Boldixum cemetery.

The texts of most of the stones are almost without exception written in the "elegant" church language High German , although the island had belonged to Denmark for many centuries and Fering (Föhrer Frisian) was and is spoken in everyday life as it is today . Few of the stones have inscriptions in Low German , which was the official and church language until around 1700, while other texts are in Latin. Some gravestones from the 20th century have Feringian inscriptions. In order to be able to tell the long texts on the gravestones, the stonemasons sometimes used abbreviations:

  • JSGGS = God have mercy on their souls
  • DSGGS = whose souls may God be gracious
  • ISSGG = God have mercy on your soul
  • DSGGI = whose souls God is gracious
  • GSSSG = God be gracious to his soul.

The relief decoration on the tombs is in the Baroque and Rococo styles . It is often fantastically lush, the forms are not repeated. They show "angels, symbols of justice, happiness, the signs of faith, hope and love, proud ships, mills and often the family tree". Pictures with scenes from the Holy Scriptures are often the main motif of a stone. Sometimes the deceased or - in the case of seafarers - ships are also shown. If the sailor died on the ship, his gravestone shows a ship under full sail. A dismantled ship on the grave indicates that the sailor died on land. Other frequently used motifs are, besides the ships, mills, professional objects, but also Justitia.

A special iconography tradition has been preserved in the floral motif: the husband and sons of the family are listed on the tombstone in tulip-like flowers on the left, the wife and daughters on the right in the form of four-flowered, star-shaped flowers. A broken flower indicates that the person concerned had already died at the time the tombstone was made. The frequency of this symbolism testifies to a high child mortality rate.

history

Gravestones in Süderende.

The oldest tombs were tile-like sandstone slabs. In order to be able to set them up in an inclined position, the plates were provided with a hole in which a wooden stick or whale bone could be held. Later larger stones appeared, which were called Bremen stones because of their origin . The oldest speaking tombstone dates from 1604. After 1700, the prosperity of part of the island's population rose rapidly. Föhr seafarers, including many captains, were particularly active in whaling and merchant shipping between the 17th and 19th centuries . Now upright tombstones came into greater use. Most of them were made from Obernkirchen sandstone . The stele came into use in the 18th and 19th centuries . The narrow, upright gravestones, often in the form of a column, bear in the crown, which was mostly colored at the time of their erection, "mostly a pictorial representation that is often surrounded by a banner". In the following section the life path of the deceased is described in detail and in the lower area a saying or another graphic representation is often attached. Many also found a secondary use for the steles. They have been sanded off and have been re-labeled. The old crown was mostly retained.

The decline began in the first decades of the 19th century. Increasingly, classicist stones were now erected that dispense with figurative decorations such as extravagant depictions of the life of the deceased. Only a few speaking tombstones were made . In the middle of the century, this special form of grave culture was completely unusual. In the meantime, tombstones made of polished granite, on which only the names of the deceased and their life data can be read, have established themselves on the islands.

Web links

Commons : Talking Gravestones (Föhr)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Matthias Schulz: Precious memory . In: Der Spiegel . Edition 29/2008. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  2. List of cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein (PDF; approx. 1003 kB)
  3. a b Parish of St. Laurentii: The cemetery . Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  4. a b c Ev.-Luth. Parish of St. Johannis on Föhr: The old gravestones in the churchyard of St. Johannis .
  5. a b c d e f class G7b of the Eilun Feer Skuul : The riddle of the speaking stones . In: Nordfriesland Tageblatt of January 30, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  6. a b c d e f g h i Inseltouristik.de: St. Johannes Church in Nieblum on Föhr . Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  7. a b c Renate Preuss: Speaking stones . In: Land and Sea . Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  8. ^ Georg Quedens, Hans Hingst, Gerhard piece, Ommo Wilts: Amrum. Landscape, history, nature. Amrum 1991, p. 110.