THE PROCLAMATION-STONE IN WESTPHALIA

by Wilhelm Brockpaehler

In medieval towns, there was a raised spot, usually under the eaves of the Town Hall, from which local decisions or statutes, results of council meetings, etc. were announced, as well as judicial verdicts. We have one example of this from Dortmund, where there was a booth called the ‘Gatter’ erected for the purpose in the shade of the Town Hall. In Munster, where the erection of such an edifice was not possible right by the Town Hall, we can still see the ‘Sentenz’ built in front of the town hostelry of 1615. This is a banister from which sentence of death was pronounced. A ‘sentencing lime’ serving the same purpose can be found in the district of Warendorf between Harkotten and Tonnishäuschen. Under the church oak in Wetter in the Ruhr, at Candlemas (a major pagan festival – tr.) the ‘Rolls’ containing the ancient rights of the place would be read out. Here the burghers took their oath of burgherdom and here disputes were settled.

In several parts of Westphalia, proclamation stones are to be found, and some of them are still used today (1943) for the same purpose. They are roughly cut stone blocks or tooled drift-blocks, on which the chairman of the Town Council or local policeman will climb after high mass on Sundays, to read out the local announcements. Such proclamation stones can still be found at Brochterbeck, Ladbergen, Lengerich, Lienen and Werfen in the district of Tecklenburg; at Saerbeck in the district of Münsterland, and – apparently – at Gemen in the district of Borken. In yet other places they have only recently disappeared: at Westercappeln in the district of Tecklenburg, the stone was incorporated only a few years ago into the new war memorial. At Lienen and Werfen the stones are simply drift-blocks, in the other towns we have sandstone blocks worked into a pedestal form. There is a double proclamation stone at Ladberg: the block itself, an almost perfect cube, rests on a rectangular base. Only the stones in Lengerich and Saerbeck are artistically decorated, being reminiscent of parts of Gothic pillars. In all cases the proclamation stone is near to the local church. This is because, with the advent of Christianity, the town’s place of judgement was often moved to the churchyard or church porch, if indeed the church itself had not been built on the pagan place of worship. It was also the most fortunately sited place. Once a week, on Sunday, the villagers would congregate here not only for the holy office but also for various business transactions and conversations, and not least in order to catch up with the latest news. Among the widely-dispersed farmsteads of Münsterland, until the invention of wireless it was hardly possible to transmit news in any other way. In Westphalia, therefore, this custom, and with it the proclamation stone, remained up to the present day. In Ladbergen even today, the stone, known as the ‘Afroup stone’, is still used for official announcements and Party news. From here too the town herald reads out notices from organizations and associations, summonses and programs of public holidays. Farmers who wish to sell pigs, logs or hay have their intention announced here. On special occasions the mayor speaks from the stone to the townspeople. A similar custom continues to this day in Brochterbeck and Sauerbeck. In Brochterbeck, the proclamation atone is called simply ‘t’stone’ (dial – tr.) . “What’s bin read from ’t stone?” is the first question of any householder to the returning {6} churchgoer. Churchgoers are always reminded as they leave in the morning to pay attention to the announcements. Listening to the announcements is primarily men’s work. The women are happy to leave it to them and stand a little to one side, both listening to the news and keeping up with old acquaintances, whilst the men crowd around the stone to hear what is being announced.

For each item announced, according to ancient custom, 60 pfennig are to be paid to the announcer. Only official pronouncements are read out free. The local archives contain many interesting documents to support this ancient practice, which bear the ‘Published’ stamp from the local police. For example there is a demand for horses to be provided for the training of the Territorial Cavalry in 1860, or the announcement of dates of purchase for horses “rendered superfluous from the Royal Service by reason of demobilization” after the war of 1864. In Lienen and Werfen this custom died out a few years ago, in Lengerich about four decades ago.

But the proclamation stone was originally more than a simple raised spot for the announcement of news. The site of the stone of Lengerich, in the middle of the town between Town Hall and church, and even today still under the boughs of a mighty linden tree, used to be called the ‘Thieplatz’. In Werfen the proclamation stone lies under a ‘trained lime’*. Here we have quite unmistakably a form of the stone pedestal or ‘staple’ on which the ancient seat of judgement stood and which was used right into the Middle Ages for the judge’s office. Thus, these simple stones by their village lime tree are the last visible evidence of Germanic holy places and judgement-seats; and as such they are in need of our protection. In many other places the custom of Sunday proclamations is continued to this day even without a special proclamation stone. To be sure, in this age of the wireless, the usage is dying out. Many a burgomaster invests in a loudspeaker for relaying notices to his village. I do not think, however, that this will fit in well with the peace of a village Sunday.

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*Editor’s note: The huge war-memorial in George Square in Glasgow, built in the 1920s, is flanked by two perfectly-formed ‘trained limes’. We hope to have a translation of Brockpaehler’s work on ‘trained limes’ in a future issue of ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
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The Proclamation Stone first appeared in German in GERMANIEN, the official organ of the Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage organization), 1943. This translation is by Prudence Jones.
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