Kreuzstein Memorial to Victims of Violence, Terror, and War

All sorts of situations and events.

In addition, the area is unsafe and several murder cases are reported. In 1703 a strange butcher's boy died in the village, who had been attacked on the way and beaten to death. A memorial stone on the Eiberg on Dobler Weg still bears witness to another act of violence. Because “on August 8, 1715, the shepherds found a man dead on the Eiberg, where you go from Calmbach to the Dobel, and as is supposed, he would have frozen to death the previous cold winter. Just because he and his clothes, which were lying on their side, were already rotting away, the matter was reported to the bailiff in Neuenbürg and arrangements were made for him to be buried right next to it. After a careful inspection, it turned out that the good man had been violently killed, because he was injured from time to time, and had a large hole in his head.” A stone cross was then placed on the grave to mark it, and this is it the so-called Kreuzstein.


From the book "The History of Calmbach and Höfen" by Fritz Barth

The cross stone with the inscription is about 8 meters to the right behind the monument directly on the moat.

The cross stone was originally the victim of an unpunished murder, was then used by the Nazis as a memorial stone and today commemorates all victims of terror and violence.

The mighty triple stone cross on the Eiberg
Historical information based on archive files A 359 in the Calmbach town hall
In December 1933, the Stuttgart dentist Dr. Erwin Ball of the municipality of Calmbach 1000.00 Reichsmark for a NS memorial on the Eiberg. The founder's original wish to create the memorial on the mountainside of the Eiber was rejected by the district culture warden Schmückle. In early 1934, preparations for the memorial on the Eibergebne began. The artistic directors were the Calmbach sculptor Ferdinand Bott (preparation and installation of the sandstone blocks) and the Charlottenburg sculptor Julius Starke (bronze work for three Germanic runes and the inscription).
As early as 1945, a committee discussed an application to remove the memorial on the Eiberg. The majority of the municipal council wanted to keep the monument as a work of art. Only the three Germanic runes and the inscription were to be removed, which was done immediately with the symbols.
Since then, the monument has stood bare and bare, increasingly overgrown with moss and lichen. Many hikers stood in front of it helplessly.
On September 2006, the department for the preservation of monuments at the regional council in Karlsruhe received a proposal for rededication with the request for an opinion. The text proposal: "In memory of all victims of violence, terror and war" has been accepted in principle by both sides. An additional plaque on the side of a pedestal with the inscription: "Monument from 1934. Rededicated after World War II" refers to the history of the monument.