Visit Drinkeldodenkarkhoff, Tranpad, Spiekeroog Island, Germany

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The Drinkeldodenkarkhoff (cemetery for drowned people) in Tranpad on Spiekeroog, also known as the cemetery of the homeless, is a memorial for the victims of the emigrant ship Johanne, which ran aground on November 6, 1854 off the island. As a result of the accident, 77 emigrants lost their lives. The recovered dead were buried on November 9th in a dune valley that was then still outside the village. In the years that followed, corpses washed up on the beach were repeatedly buried there. The emigrant ship Johanne ran aground on November 6, 1854 on its maiden voyage from what was then Geestemünde (today: a district of Bremerhaven) in the direction of New York off Spiekeroog. 216 emigrants were on board. The heavy seas destroyed the lifeboats of the wooden barque about 30 meters long and about 5.5 meters wide, so that they could no longer be used. No rescue was to be expected from the island either. The residents of Spiekeroog had to watch the disaster helplessly because they did not have a suitable lifeboat on hand. Only when the tide was low could the shipwrecked be rescued. The German Emigrant Newspaper reported on November 16, 1854: “The force of the waves was terrible, and what the passengers had fled on deck in the hope of easier rescue was washed away by them, thrown at the ship a few times and then no longer seen . As a result, some of the bodies are horribly mutilated. ”The islanders found dead bodies and broken body parts on the beach. On the first day, 30 dead had to be cached and laid out. In the following days, lifeless bodies were washed up again and again. A total of 77 of the emigrants lost their lives: 18 men, 34 women, 18 children under 10 years of age and 7 infants. There was no room for so many dead in the small island cemetery. The islanders therefore buried the Johanne dead in a dune valley, which was then still outside the village, in the specially set up "Cemetery of the Drowned" ("Drinkeldodenkarkhoff"), which is now on the eastern edge of the village. On the 125th anniversary of the sinking of the Johanne in 1979, many relatives who were born after the accident came together at the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff to commemorate their relatives. In 1859 the site was marked with a first iron cross, the inscription of which reminded of those who died in the stranding and carried the words: "I am the resurrection and the life" (Jn 11.25 EU). Today the Drinkeldodenkarkhoff is a large, fenced-in place with two benches. In memory of the dead, the people of Spiekeroog built a small hill made of boulders, on which a wooden cross surrounded by a metal anchor rope stands today. An anchor and a plaque in front of the hill complete the memorial. On the area there is another memorial stone for seven residents of Kaufungen near Kassel who were killed in the accident and willing to emigrate. The parish council had it installed at Pentecost 1997 to commemorate the dead.

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