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Skeletons found in Germany raise awareness of martyrs
By Tim Huber and Wolfgang KraussSCHWÄBISCH GMÜND, Germany — It began with a simple hole in the ground.
University of Tübingen archaeology students work at the excavation site in December 2008. Carbon dating determined the skeletons were from the 17th century, not the 16th. — Photo by Wolfgang Krauss
A family wanted to build a house and began digging a foundation in May 2008. It became a job for archaeologists when skeletons were found.
As the remains were carefully unearthed, city archives director Klaus Jürgen Herman was the first to assume the bones were of profound historic significance.
On Dec. 4, 1529, seven Anabaptists were sentenced to death by sword “due to the error of rebaptism,” and the executions were carried out three days later Dec. 7. They were the uncompromising core of an original 40 Wiedertäufer “rebaptizers” — half of whom were women — who were arrested for both “hidden preaching” and the more serious offense of unauthorized assembly.
The location was right, and city records appeared to confirm Herman’s suspicions. For more than six months the city possessed what seemed to be the world’s first confirmed remains of Anabaptist martyrs.
That is, until University of Konstanz professor Joachim Wahl’s Carbon-14 analysis determined otherwise. The bones were too young. Rather than being 480 years old, they dated back only to the 17th century.
Nevertheless, the discovery gave the community an opportunity to face a dark time in its history.
On Dec. 5, city officials joined an ecumenical gathering of Christians 480 years and a day after the 1529 sentencing to remember a group of individuals who treasured their faith more than their lives.
A plaque was unveiled at the gate of the Schmiedturm (Smith’s tower), the location the condemned Anabaptist prisoners passed through en route to execution. A text with the names of those executed was read as part of a memorial service.
“Four hundred eighty years ago people desiring to follow Christ in nonviolence and love of enemies appeared threatening to the government and the state church,” said Wolfgang Krauss on behalf of the South German Mennonite conference. Today we remember together those who even on their way to execution prayed for their persecutors.”
Speaking for the Lutheran and Catholic churches, dean Immanuel Nau stressed the 16th- century injustices should motivate people of all faiths to reconciliation and serve as an obligation to stand up for the persecuted today. That feeling was summed up in the closing song, “Let’s Go the Way of Justice.”
Portions of this article first appeared in Die Brücke, a publication of the Mennonite church in Germany.
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