In Kleinberghofen the much-visited grave of Pastor Herbert Ziegen was razed from the ground.
The deceased's family is appalled.
Kleinberghofen
- Martin Ziegenaus is still close to tears. He has to swallow several times when he talks about what happened to him a few days ago in the cemetery in Kleinberghofen. The 88-year-old pensioner wanted to visit his brother's grave with his wife Josefine (85). A familiar course for over twelve years. Pastor Herbert Ziegenaus died in June 2009 and found his final resting place in the cemetery in Kleinberghofen. But during this visit to the grave, the Ziegenaus could not believe their eyes.
The brother's grave was gone. Razed to the ground overnight. The wrought-iron cross that the pastor himself had chosen during his lifetime had been sawn off, the grave plants torn out, and the stones around the edges and the holy water font removed. The remaining earth was straightened as if this grave had never existed.
The couple immediately called their son Martin Ziegenaus junior.
He too could not believe what he was seeing - or no longer seeing.
“Uncle Herbert chose the grave cross and the place at the entrance to the cemetery for his final resting place,” recalls the 58-year-old.
“It was in autumn 2008 when my uncle told me casually that he was suffering from a serious illness and probably didn't have that long to live.
He didn't make a big stir about it, that was his modest manner. He asked me to drive him to an antique dealer because he had picked out an old, forged cross for his grave and wanted to buy it. "
It was important to him to be buried in Kleinberghofen
+
In 2009 the pastor Herbert Ziegenaus passed away.
© Christian Chymyn
Actually, Pastor Herbert Ziegenau would have been entitled to a priest's grave in Munich, where he last lived. But it was very important to him to be buried in his birthplace Kleinberghofen, where he was born in 1934. In 48 years as a passionate pastor he was active in various places of activity: as a chaplain in Palling, the parish Herz Jesu Munich, in Thalkirchen and in Grafing. Then he was pastor in Haag and until his retirement in St. Bernhard, Fürstenfeldbruck. In retirement he was happy to work again for his home parish in Kleinberghofen.
"On the day our uncle died, we did his last will and mounted the grave cross on a small boulder at the grave site before he was buried," says Eleonore Pucher.
The 61-year-old is the sister of Martin
Ziegenaus junior and thus the niece of the deceased.
“The news about our uncle's leveled grave came as a complete surprise to me while we were on vacation in Italy,” she says.
"I couldn't believe it at first when someone from Kleinberghofen wrote to me via WhatsApp and asked why Uncle Herbert's grave was gone."
Many people visited the tomb regularly
The grave was not only a frequently visited place of the family, but also many people from the various parishes in which Pastor Ziegenaus worked, visited the resting place regularly. "Even people who got to know our uncle on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela have visited his grave to this day and have laid shells and memorial stones there." This clearly shows, according to Pucher, that there is a great deal of public interest here as well as family the final resting place of the popular pastor. “It seems to me that memory is about to be erased here,” her brother adds.
Even if the siblings and their parents tended the grave so far, they are not the legal owners.
Pucher says that after the uncle's death twelve years ago, it became known that the clergyman had adopted another niece, the daughter of his late sister.
As the sole heir, she is also the rightful owner of the grave.
As such, she is said to have tried several times to have her uncle's grave demolished.
A fact that the Ziegenaus / Pucher family cannot understand.
"Uncle Herbert paid for his grave for 15 years, so there would be no costs for anyone for the next three years", explains Martin Ziegenaus.
The cousin wanted to open the grave several times
Neither he nor his sister can say whether the grave was actually eliminated by his own cousin.
The two tried in vain to contact their cousin.
The rightful owner of the grave, who does not live in the district but in the Rosenheim area, cannot be reached for a statement.
Family fears for the valuable grave cross
+
The grave cross was simply sawn off.
© Christian Chymyn
According to Eleonore Pucher, the resting time of a grave is 15 years.
According to the 61-year-old, the legal department of the Ordinariate will probably clarify whether the incident is a disturbance of the peace of the dead, "since it is a priest's grave".
Martin Ziegenaus wants to prevent the valuable grave cross, which was so close to his uncle's heart, from being “sold off” somewhere on the Internet.
“And if the costs really matter, we would take over the grave immediately, there is no question”, says the 58-year-old, who wishes for his family, his parents and the many people who were close to Pastor Herbert Ziegenaus that at the Kleinberghofener Friedhof there is once again the place of remembrance that the deceased once wished for so much.
Christian Chymyn
By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our new, regular Dachau newsletter.