Wulfen (Fehmarn)

There was once an important burial site here on Wulfener Berg with several long beds up to 130 metres long. The giant bed of Wulfen is a replica of the working group ‘Schönes Wulfen’ e.V.

The model for the replica of the long bed is based on drawingsby the antiquities researcher and pastor Diederich Harries had made of a well-preserved longbed at the time, which was located on the salt marsh below the Wulfener Berg. It consisted of an east-west orientated enclosure and two chambers, each with seven supporting stones and two capstones. This megalithic structure was destroyed in 1876 when stones were needed to build a dyke.

The tomb is located on a golf course but is freely accessible. You can park in the Kuschelwiese car park approx. 220m south of the tomb.

Visited October 2024

Taken from the on-site information board:

THE SECRET OF THE ‘VITZDORF STONE CIST’.

You are standing in front of a replica of a so-called ‘longbed’ from the Neolithic period, which was around 4000 BC. The first farming population in Schleswig-Holstein built these structures and buried their dead in the stone chambers inside. Long beds or megalithic tombs are also called ‘giants tombs’ because it was believed that giants were buried in them. Some original remains of these megalithic tombs can still be found on Fehmarn today, including the ‘Vitzdorfer Steinkiste’ near Katharinenhof. As this tomb is located on private property, it is unfortunately not freely accessible to interested visitors, but the story surrounding this grave is one you must know, but please don’t be alarmed:

It was in 1420 when the Danish king Erik of Pomerania wanted to annex the strategically important Baltic island of Fehmarn, landed here with a sizeable army after several unsuccessful attempts, mercilessly wiped out all living things – 2,500 Fehmarans are said to have died – and from then on placed the attractive island under the rule of the Danish crown. Only very few Fehrnarans escaped the bloodbath, including a certain Christian Rauert, who hid in the Vitzdorf stone cist, the aforementioned megalithic tomb, namely in the bone chamber from which he was rescued after the Battle of Fehmarn. from which he emerged unscathed after the Battle of Fehmarn.

According to tradition, two other Fehmaran men survived, so that the three men made up the male population of the island, which was later interpreted to mean that all Fehmarans were inevitably related to each other and therefore only ‘nepotism’ prevailed here. It is commonly said that ‘faith moves mountains’ and if this is true, then it’s no wonder that Fehmarn is so flat.

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF ERNST-LUDWIG KIRCHNER?
He was a famous German expressionist painter who lived on Fehmarn for a long time and whose works were considered ‘degenerate’ during the terrible Nazi era. A museum was built in his honour; the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Documentation in Burg.
Here you can admire some of his most beautiful works.

Taken from the on-site information board:

On Wulfener Berg there was an important Stone Age burial ground with megalithic tombs dating from 3600-3200 BC. Particularly noteworthy were several long beds (‘giant beds’) up to 130 metres long. Long beds are Stone Age megalithic tombs that are covered by a long rectangular mound of earth. mound.

In 1836, the archaeologist and pastor Diederich Harries described the tombs near Wulfen, which had already been largely destroyed by then. The stones were blown up by stonecutters and sold as building material. Today there are no traces of the burial ground.

The working group ‘Schönes Wulfen’ e.V. encouraged the reconstruction of a long bed and organised the implementation of the project in 2010. It was modelled on a drawing that Pastor Harries had made of a longbed that was still in good condition at the time, which had been located on the salt marsh below the Wulfener Berg.

The long bed consisted of an east-west orientated stone enclosure and two chambers, each with seven supporting stones and two capstones. This grave was destroyed in 1876 when stones were needed to build a dyke.

The stones used for the 60 metre long and 7 metre wide replica were collected from various places all over Fehmarn and erected with the help of excavators. The stones were not covered with earth, as was customary in the Stone Age, nor were the gaps between the stones filled with dry masonry and clay.

Until the 18th century, the opinion persisted, that the megalithic tombs built from boulders weighing several tonnes could only be the work of giants with superhuman strength. It was not until the late 19th century that scientific research into megalithic tombs (Greek: megas = large, lithos = stone) began.

Today we know that the North German and Scandinavian megalithic tombs were built by Stone Age farmers. They used wooden rollers and poles as levers to build the tombs.

The stone chambers were collective tombs in which numerous dead were buried over a long period of time. It is possible that only the bones were deposited after the deceased had been laid elsewhere.

Common burial objects for the afterlife were flint axes and decorated clay vessels with funnel-shaped rims, the so-called ‘funnel cups’.