Talking stones
With the term Speaking Stones , Talking grave stones or one speaking stones in some places (especially in Jeverland , Friesland , East Friesland and North Friesland ) graves or memorials and steles designated whose inscriptions from or take the life of the deceased witness and / or biblical quotations included.
History / background and description
Since at the end of the 17th century and especially in the 18th century, agriculture on the rather sterile North Frisian Islands could not feed the growing population, numerous male residents hired on whaling ships and in some cases made considerable wealth. This was not only displayed on worldly things such as clothing or the design of the houses, but was also reflected in the funeral culture. Wealthy whalers and captains had elaborately designed tombstones that tell the life story of the deceased with their inscriptions.
Were initially only rough-hewn site-specific occurring boulders of granite with inscriptions provided, so were later imported and therefore more expensive, but at the same time easier to edit disks or steles from sand stone used. In the 17th century, tombstones lying on the ground predominated. There were also smaller red sandstone tiles that were often provided with a small drill hole and attached to a piece of wood or a whale bone. Standing stones, so-called steles, have been used since the 18th century. Their carved inscriptions tell of the life of the deceased and are often additionally provided with (partially) colored reliefs that depict, for example, whaling ships. Today, most of the tombstones are no longer in their original place, but are set up in museum zones or on the edge of the cemetery.
Occasionally, grave steles with inscriptions such as, for example, are found in previous times, in other regions or cultures. B. Named speaking stones in Jewish cemeteries .
Examples
Examples of talking stones are the tombs of Hark Olufs , his father Oluf Jensen and Captain Hark Nickelsen in the cemetery surrounding St. Clement's Church in the municipality of Nebel on the North Frisian island of Amrum . Such gravestones can be found on the neighboring island of Föhr . a. by Matthias Petersen or the painter Oluf Braren in the cemetery of St. Laurentii in Süderende , at the church of St. Nicolai in Wyk on Föhr -Boldixum or at St. Johannis in Nieblum .
Monument protection
Most of the historical stones are either a single monument under monument protection or, together with the respective church and / or the cemetery as a whole ensemble a monument zone . Many of these stones are now in need of restoration , as they are marked by the effects of the weather or have moss or lichen growth.
Modern, comparable forms of funeral culture
Only apparently in contrast to the historical form of these analog speaking stones are more and more digital tombstones spreading nowadays .
literature
- Wolfgang Runge: Talking stones. Grave steles in the Oldenburger Land from 1600–1800. Holzberg, Oldenburg 1979, ISBN 3-87358-110-8 .
- Walter Lüden : Talking stones. Gravestones on the island of Foehr. Christians, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-7672-0847-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 13.1 MB) In the harbor of eternity? The Amrumer Friedhof as a tourist attraction, essay by Matin Rheinheimer, published in the North Frisian Yearbook, Volume 47, 2012, PDF file
- ^ [1] Ohlsdorf magazine for mourning culture
- ↑ Martin Rheinheimer: In the port of eternity? The Amrum cemetery as a tourist attraction. In: Nordfriesisches Jahrbuch 47 (2012), pp. 141–162.
- ↑ Historical tombstones at St. Clement's Church in Nebel on the island of Amrum , private homepage, PDF file
- ↑ [2] Catalog of historical tombstones on the island of Amrum, PDF file
- ↑ [3] historical gravestones on the homepage of the evangelical parish of Nebel
- ^ [4] official website of the Office Föhr-Amrum
- ↑ [5] Examples of speaking stones in Nebel / Amrum on a private website
- ↑ [6] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Stuttgarter Nachrichten , accessed on June 22, 2012
- ↑ [7] "Memory has many colors and shapes", a contribution to KulturARD.de on the ARD website
- ↑ [8] "Talking tombstones tell about whaling" an article on welt-online , accessed on June 22, 2012
- ^ [9] History of Nieblum on the homepage of the local community
- ↑ [10] “With full sails in the sky” an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine , published by faz-net on November 3, 2005
- ↑ [11] "The Riddle of the Speaking Stones" appeared in the Sylter Rundschau , January 30, 2012, accessed on March 7, 2017
- ↑ [12] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Nordfriesland Tageblatt, accessed on June 22, 2012
- ↑ Matthias Schulz: Precious memory. In: Der Spiegel . July 14, 2008.
- ↑ Digital tombstones: flat screens in the cemetery. at: stern.de March 20, 2008.
- ↑ Gravestones with flat screens are trendy. In: Basler Zeitung . online, October 14, 2008.
- ↑ [13] Taz.de, May 3, 2012
