Student double grave

The gravestone for Karl Siegfrieden and Karl von Müller

The double student grave is one of the most famous grave sites in the Central Hessian university town of Giessen . It is located in the north-west corner of the completely listed Old Cemetery , directly at the Licher Straße entrance.

The double grave is dedicated to Karl Siegfrieden (born June 4, 1822 in Darmstadt ) and Karl von Müller (born June 10, 1819 in Gladenbach ), who both died on March 10, 1840 in Gießen and were buried in a common grave.

history

Karl Siegfrieden and Karl von Müller both studied law at the Giessen Academia Ludoviciana and lived together in the “Zum Einhorn” inn. Von Müller was one of the founders of the Corps Teutonia Gießen, founded in 1839 . They gained notoriety through their common fate: Siegfrieden fell ill with typhus , which at the time was incurable, and was cared for by his friend, who infected himself. Both died on the same day. They were then honored by the Corps with an academic funeral in the form of a solemn funeral procession with torches and buried in the old cemetery.

The relatives of the two deceased students had a joint tombstone erected on the grave site . The double tombstone is made of sandstone and contains two text panels with inscriptions as well as a centrally arranged arched niche with a Nazarene angel figure holding a palm branch in his left hand. The angel figure, which symbolizes the Christian message of peace and resurrection, corresponded to the ideal of friendship of the romanticism of the time .

• Inscriptions
• 

  for Karl Siegfrieden

• 

  for Karl von Müller

The texts on the tombstone read:

Karl Siegfrieden, college student jurisprudence, born: Darmstadt on June 4th 1822. returned home on March 10th 1840. --------------- He was called the good son and brother, the one in mind and heart excellent youth, so one down here already bloom so wonderfully unfolded will be maintained in the land of the blessed for development delicious fruit.

Karl von Müller, college student jurisprudence, born: Gladenbach on June 10th 1819. called home on March 10th 1840. --------------- He was the widow only son, the best brother and the most loyal friend.

The identical death anniversary of the students and their shared grave inspired the imagination of numerous cemetery visitors and Giessen citizens for decades and fueled the myth that both died in the course of a duel . In 2008 it was made clear in the regional press with reference to an earlier report by the secret government councilor Georg Fritz from Alzey in a chronicle of the Corps from 1939 that both students had died of the then mostly fatal infectious disease typhus .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (ed.): Subject entity age cemetery In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
2. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910 , 58 , 5.
3. ↑ Georg Fritz , Josef Kremer: Corps Teutonia to Giessen. 1839-1935. Münchow University Printing House Otto Kindt, Giessen 1939.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Dagmar Klein: End of a legend: Students died of typhus . In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , October 25, 2008, archived on ohg-giessen.de ( memento from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (Oberhessischer Geschichtsverein Gießen e.V. ), accessed on November 28, 2012.
5. ↑ Inscription reproduced from the photographs Studentengrab1.JPG and Studentengrab2.JPG of the tombstone, accessed on February 6, 2013.

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 59.5 "  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 9.7"  E