Marterl (Wayside Cross)

Here rest the two innocent children ...

Grave plaque for two children
1871
Zinc plate, colored; 37 x 29,5 x 6 cm

At the end of 2010, the Museum for Sepulchral Culture was once again fortunate enough to win an auction for a new piece in its collection. Offered by the auction house as a "grave panel", it is actually an inscription panel made of sheet zinc, as it is known as a component of wrought-iron grave markers from the Alpine region. Such grave markers, which became increasingly widespread from 1700 onwards, usually depicted crosses, with the inscription panel forming the crucifixion point. The auctioned piece is also likely to be from a forged grave cross from the German-speaking south.

The text makes clear that the parents felt the death of their two children as a heavy loss and great suffering. The loss of one's own children in those days was not at all uncommon. Many infants and children died from incorrect or insufficient nutrition or from all kinds of diseases that are nowadays considered terse, but which could not be treated at that time due to the lack of appropriate medication. Even until the beginning of the 20th century, many children died in Europe as a result of unhygienic conditions. Since there was little understanding of antisepsis and not everyone was aware of its importance, many children were at risk of death, for example from infections, shortly after birth, as were many women in childbed. In view of the high infant mortality rate and the much lower life expectancy of people at that time, faith and the associated popular piety were important elements in dealing with strokes of fate, which were to be expected much more frequently in succession at that time. The formulated hope for a reunion in the hereafter, which is explained by the parents on the inscription plaque at the same time as the end point for a sometimes long time of "pain", expresses this clearly. The tomb plaque also takes this into account iconographically, in that the door front is painted with the archangel Raphael and Saint Tobias. Tobias is the main character in the Book of Tobit (Tobias) in the Old Testament. The archangel Raphael takes care of him several times and helps him. Tobias, in turn, trusts Raphael, which is why he becomes the symbol of trust in God and piety. Apart from that, Tobias in Hebrew means: God is good.

Dr. Ulrike Neurath