The Children’s Grave & Skulls of Burgkirchen

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BURGKIRCHEN, BAVARIA — The Teutonic Trio (daughter Mere, son-in-law Matt, and I) stopped in this small town for Matt’s brief dental appointment. Then it would be on to Burghausen, where Matt works most days, and more sightseeing for Mere and me. (More on that in the next installment of my Bavarian and Austrian adventure. Go to garyborders.com to read earlier pieces.) Mere and I bought espressos and shared a pastry before strolling around town.

We quickly found a picturesque church — not surprising in Bavaria. St. Johann Baptist is a Catholic church first consecrated in 1477. It was locked. We wandered around a bit outside, then walked around town some more. Matt’s appointment was longer than he expected. We ended up back at the church and walked around its fenced courtyard once more.

That is when we found the skulls and the Children’s Grave both along the church’s exterior.

The Children’s Grave was designed as a monument in 1953, eight years after the war ended. An angel carved from limestone hangs on the wall above, while flowers and lichen cover the well-tended site. A plaque sadly notes this as the final resting place of infants from what was Orwellianly called the Burgkirchen Foreign Children’s Care Center. Under Nazi Germany (which included Bavaria), prisoners of war and other Eastern workers — mostly from Poland and the Soviet Union — were forced to work at nearby chemical and armament factories. Many died, including 152 infants whose mothers gave birth and then had to turn over their infants. As one of the plaques states: “Lack of hygiene, cold, and insufficient nutrition led to illnesses and the deaths of a large number of children in a short time.”

The neglect was deliberate, resulting babies dying in the Nazi labor camps, along with adult workers. The adults were buried in a nearby forest until after the war, where their remains were interred at the church’s cemetery. The infants were laid to rest there as well, their graves marked with wooden crosses — thanks to one Karl Forsterer. His “moral courage” is honored in a plaque at the Children’s Grave, but I was unable to find any further information about him.

The memorial fell into disrepair for a time, until three local girls undertaking to replant flowers and tend the graves in 1974. Since 1988, an annual memorial service keeps alive the memories of those poor babies.

It was a sad reminder of a time when evil dominated Germany.

Then there were the skulls — enclosed in a glass case along three shelves in a separate area from the Children’s Grave. There were no helpful plaques explaining their jarring presence here. Each bore an inscription. What appeared to be a giant beehive was sitting next to a skull at the bottom. It took some digging to figure this out since there was nobody around to ask.

Beinhäuser, or bone houses, are part of an old Alpine Catholic tradition once practiced in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and beyond. These ossuaries were used when cemetery space was limited. After a set burial period, skulls and larger bones were exhumed, cleaned, and often painted or inscribed. After a set period underground, skulls and larger bones were dug up, cleaned, and often painted or inscribed. One skull at the Burgkirchen ossuary was marked in German: Maria Hartmayerin geweße Ridlbacherin which translates roughly to Maria Martmayer, formerly (nee) Ridlebacher. Inscribing skulls with the deceased’s name, date of death, and sometimes a religious or commemorative phrase—much like what is often found on tombstones—was a widespread and respected tradition.

I haven’t a clue why there was a beehive inside the ossuary. That does not appear to have been a widespread practice.

While ossuaries like this have been maintained for historical preservation, the practice of creating new ones has long ended. Existing examples, such as the one Mere and I found, are preserved as cultural artifacts. In this tiny town, it clearly is not a tourist attraction. Other ossuaries, such as the Michaelskapelle in Oppenheim, contain the skulls and bones of roughly 20,000 people.

Matt’s dental appointment finally concluded, and we headed to Burghausen, merely 10 minutes away. It was time to explore the World’s Longest Castle, the next adventure on the tour.

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