Tjark Evers
Tjark Ulrich Honken Evers (* around December 21, 1845 on Baltrum ; † December 23, 1866 drowned in the mudflats between Langeoog and Baltrum) was a young seaman who came from the North Sea island of Baltrum. Soon after his death, his tragic end made him a legend far beyond the borders of East Frisia .
death
The Evers family was closely connected to the island of Baltrum. Honke Eilts Evers, Tjark's father, was a skipper on the island. Honken Evers, Tjark's brother, later became captain and mayor of Baltrum. Tjark Evers also went to sea and attended the navigation school in Timmel in the quieter winter to prepare for the helmsman's exam.
Evers wanted to visit his parents unannounced for Christmas and had a Langeooger translate him from Westeraccumersiel to Baltrum in the early morning of December 23, 1866, two days after his 21st birthday . After he was dropped on the beach in the thick fog and the boat drove on towards Langeoog, Evers noticed that he was not on Baltrum, but on a plat, a sandbank in Accumer Ee that sinks into the sea at high tide. Realizing that there would be no rescue from drowning, he wrote a suicide note in his notebook. He greeted his parents and siblings and wrote his thoughts and prayers in the book.
"Dear mother! God comfort you because your son is no more. I stand here asking God to forgive my sins. Greetings everyone. I have the water up to my knees now, I must drown in a moment, because help is no longer there. God be merciful to me sinner. It is 9 o'clock, you are about to go to church, only pray for me, poor, that God be gracious to me.
Dear parents, brothers and sisters, I am standing here on a plateau and must drown, I will never see you again and you will not see me. God have mercy on me and comfort you. I'm putting this book in a sigar box. God grant that you receive the lines from my hand. I greet you for the last time. God forgive me my sins and take me into his kingdom of heaven. Amen.
To skipper HE Evers Baltrum
TUH Evers
I'm T. Evers from Baltrum.
The finder is asked to send this book to my parents to Cpt. HE Evers Island Baltrum "
Evers put the notebook in a cigar box he had brought as a present and wrapped it in a handkerchief. The cigar box was powered in Wangerooge , where it was discovered on January 3, 1867. Tjark Evers' body was never found. The story of his death is also documented by an entry in the church register of the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Baltrum, as well as by the search advertisements placed by the concerned parents in various regional daily newspapers in January 1867.
Death by drowning was not uncommon in the region at the time, but the extraordinary circumstances and the suicide note that he received make Evers' case something special.
Commemoration and reception
The box and its contents were kept in the Evers family for several generations, even when the family moved to Esens . The memorabilia were later placed in the local museum there, and then from 1998 to 2002 in the Wadden Sea House in Wilhelmshaven . On March 19, 2002 Horst Evers handed over the book and cigar box to the Heimatverein Baltrum eV The exhibits first came to the Inselkammer in the North Sea House and have been on display since 2007 in the Museum Altes Zollhaus. On May 13, 2015, a memorial for Tjark Evers, the so-called Evers memorial, was unveiled on Baltrum. The monument comes from Bernd Clemenz-Weber.
In 2008 the short film Die Zigarrenkiste by Matthias Klimsa was released . 2013 Astrid Dehe and Achim Engstler took up Evers' death in the novella Auflaufend Wasser . Earlier literary processing dates from 1928 and 1935.
The medieval folk rock band Schandmaul released the song Tjark Evers in 2016 , the lyrics of which are based on the wording of the suicide note. This song was again covered in a Low German version by the Bremen folk band Versengold .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Book of the month of the Aurich Landscape Library: A sad Christmas story - Astrid Dehe / Achim Engstler: Auflaufend Wasser, Göttingen 2013 , accessed on September 21, 2016 (with illustration of the notebook).
- ↑ a b c Baltrumer Kirchenbuch Jg. 1866 In: Sabine Hinrichs: Schicksal - The return of the cigar box to Baltrum , The island bell Baltrum 2-2002 , accessed on September 21, 2016.
- ^ Photo of the plaque on the memorial , accessed on September 21, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e Baltrum online: Tjark Evers Monument inaugurated , May 14, 2015 , accessed on September 21, 2016.
- ↑ Website for the film: Die Zigarrenkiste , accessed on September 21, 2016.
- ↑ Christian Jooss-Bernau: Story Searcher with Bagpipes , In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, p. R18, September 20, 2016.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Evers, Tjark |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Evers, Tjark Ulrich Honken (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German seaman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1845 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baltrum |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 23, 1866 |
| Place of death | Wadden Sea between Langeoog and Baltrum |