Itzehoe Germanengrab am Galgenberg

Itzehoe Germanengrab am Galgenberg

Round Barrow in Schleswig-Holstein.

Big Round Barrow with a history.

In the town of Itzehoe.

What started as a Grave for a man and his wife, grew bigger and bigger and more and more graves where build on this barrow. It is dated 1600 - 1200 BCE.

Later on, the Barrow was used as a Hangmans Hill. For some 300 years the local murderers had a hard time on the Galgenberg.

The Barrow was excavated in 1937 and the 12 different graves where discovered. The also found a blue glass pearl, which is the oldest piece of glass found in Schleswig-Holstein.

The local Nazis jumped on the story and called the place 'Germanengrab'

The first 3 graves were restored, and they build a huge circled enclosure arround it.

The Nazis planned to missuse the graves as a place to celebrate the german archetype, the Arian.

The place arround the Barrow was prepared for the shows of the SS, SA and Deutsche Wehrmacht.

see picture here: http://www.itzehoe.de/itzehoe/Kultur/Stadtgeschichte/1930-1960/Stadtgeschichte1930-1960/8

After the war, the Round Barrow was restored to the original size. You can still visit the restored graves. There is a hallway and door in the barrow, and you can look on the graves through a lattice door.