Gravedigger (occupation)
It is incumbent on the gravedigger (north d. Kuhlengräber ) to dig and close graves , with relevant secondary activities related to the care of the dead and grave.
In the Middle Ages this was regarded as a despised " dishonest profession " that the freelancer had to take on in small church villages . Today gravedigger are mostly employees of the cemetery administration; the job title is "Friedhofswärter". In many cases, the grave digging is also carried out by a stonemason or a funeral home .
As a metaphor , the word is used often and then mostly inappropriately, for example: “ von Papen was the gravedigger of the German Republic. "
In the literature
Numerous literary works, such as Shakespeare's Hamlet , introduce grave diggers in order to put unvarnished things into their mouths about the “last things”.
In Wolfgang Borchert's short story Jesus does not take part anymore , in which soldiers from a punitive company have to dig graves en masse, the eponymous hero refuses this lowest service.
Personalities
Mario Schlembach - man of letters and gravedigger - in his autobiographical novel NEBEL he tells of his childhood in the cemetery and reports in detail about the job of the gravedigger.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Everyday death - the job of the cemetery keeper. Accessed January 30, 2018 .
- ^ Oe1.orf.at: writer and gravedigger | FR | 27 07 2018 | 7:52. Retrieved March 19, 2019 .