page_title: Talking Gravestones of Amrum
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Talking Gravestones of Amrum / History
caption_attribution_description: The making of this document was supported by the Community-Budget of Wikimedia Germany. To see other files made with the support of Wikimedia Germany, please see the category Supported by Wikimedia Deutschland. Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| Français&#160;| Magyar&#160;| Nederlands&#160;| Português&#160;| +/− Grabstein des Amrumer Steinmetzes Jan Peters. Er hat etwa 36 von den heute noch erhaltenen Grabsteinen hergestellt.
context_page_description: The Talking Gravestones of Amrum, also known as the Story-telling Gravestones, are historic artifacts on the German island of Amrum, one of the North Frisian Islands off the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula. They stand in a legally protected section of the St. Clemens Church cemetery in the village of Nebel. The gravestones, totaling 152, are inscribed with sometimes detailed accounts of the occupations, life histories, social rank and families of the deceased. The best-known gravestone is for Hark Olufs, an early 18th-century seafarer and folk hero. Similar objects can be found at the neighbouring island Föhr.
  The gravestones, most made of sandstone by local stonemasons, date from 1678 to 1858. Their inscriptions reflect the historic culture of the times and the whaling industry that then occupied many Frisian Islanders. The largest are 2 meters tall and weigh about 800 kilograms.
context_section_description: The first of Amrum's gravestones were finished in the last decades of the 17th century. During this period, the standard of living on Amrum began to increase rapidly due to the proceeds of whaling. But economic conditions began to decline in the early 19th century, so there are fewer "talking gravestones" from then on.
  After the Second Schleswig War in  1864 Amrum was briefly ruled cooperatively by Prussia and Austria, but  after the former's victory over Austria in 1866 it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Then, in 1871, Prussia was subsumed into the newly united German Empire, in which Amrum was part of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein. The new Wilhelmine rulers disliked the "disorderly" old cemetery in Nebel and substituted die-straight walks, placing some 'talking' gravestones in the cemetery walls. In that location some weathered quickly and became illegible.
  In 2009, a group of local residents began a drive to restore the gravestones, though some could no longer be rescued. The project ultimately cost 330,000 euros.
  For the new arrangement, the St. Clemens congregation placed the 152 gravestones in thematically related sections along a "Way of the Stones" (Allee der Steine).
caption: Gravestone of stonemason Jan Peters
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