page_title: Friedrich Schiller's skull
section_title: First doubts
hierarchical_section_title: Friedrich Schiller's skull / First doubts
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Fürstengruft in Weimar
context_page_description: Friedrich Schiller's skull has been the source of much controversy. Schiller was one of the most famous poets in German history. Long believed to be entombed in the Fürstengruft in Weimar, Germany, the location of the writer's skull is now unknown.
context_section_description: The authenticity of the skull in the Fürstengruft was first questioned in 1883 by the anatomist Hermann Welcker. He claimed the poet’s death mask and the skull did not match. Although experts agreed with him, laymen were outraged by his claims.
  In 1911, rumors that Schwabe may have chosen the wrong skull started circulating. This led a group of scientists headed by August von Froriep to reopen the original mass grave and unearth another sixty-three skulls and pick one as Schiller’s. In 1914, it was added to the Fürstengruft in an unmarked, inconspicuous, greyish-brown coffin to the side of the one containing the original skull.
  During World War II, both Schiller’s and Goethe’s remains were moved to an underground bunker to protect them from Allied air raids. After the war, the Allies moved them back to Weimar. A decade later, East German scientists opened the sarcophagus once again and concluded that the first skull did belong to the writer after all.
caption: The Fürstengruft
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