Danube-Networkers
The cementery of no names
Text: Elfi Marek
Pictures 1 and 3: Elfi marek
Picture 2: Gerti Zupanich
There is situated a special cemetery at steam kilometre 1918, 3 of the Danube, where woods and meadows border on the Danube harbour of Albern.
A water whirl in the Danube kept on drifting floatsam and jetsam as well as drowned bodies on the riverbank. These corpses often were ruined so bad that they could not be recognized and identified.
At first they were delivered to the earth at the riverside, which however was flooded constantly.
A new cemetery was erected in the year 1900 behind the embankment by voluntaries, additional added by a stonewall and a confirmation chapel.
After the regulation of the Danube and the erection of silos as well as the powerstation no more corpses were driven there on the bank since 1939.
As I visited the cemetery in the late autumn the poor decoration of the graves was gilded by the late sun and the glowing of the autumnal colours of the leaves. White and silver painted figures of Christ on plain wrought-iron crucifixes represent last greetings to the dead persons.
There were lighted candles on many graves. It nearly appears that the posterity gives the attention to the often desparate victims of the Danube that was not dedicated to them being alive.
A poem on a memorial stone takes the fate of the here buried into account:
„Tief im Schatten alter Rüstern starren Kreuze hier am düstern Uferrand.
Aber keine Epitaphe,
Sagen uns wer unten schlafe, kühl im Sand.
Still ist´s in den weiten Auen, selbst die Donau ihre blauen Wogen hemmt.
Denn sie schlafen hier gemeinsam, die die Fluten still und einsam, angeschwemmt.
Alle, die sich hier gesellen, trieb Verzweiflung in der Wellen kalten Schoß.
Drum die Kreuze die da ragen, wie das Kreuz das sie getragen „NAMENLOS".
More comforting is another obituary for the nameless dead persons:
Wenn Ruh'und Frieden Ihr gesucht, Ihr arg gequälten Herzen,
Fern von der Welt, die Euch nun sucht, hier gibt es keine Schmerzen.
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Fehlt auch moderner Gräbertand, nennt Euch kein Kreuz mit Namen,
Ihr ruhet hier in Gottes Hand, in seinem Frieden Amen.
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Und kommt es einst zum Wiederseh'n, geniesst die Ruh indessen.
Der einstens ruft das „Aufersteh'n" wird Eurer nicht vergessen.
As on every cemetery there are also children graves; it is especially sad when you have to suppose an adverse fate of a child because of an inscription "By the hand of a stranger".
There are also graves or tombs with the names of persons who have taken the credit for the cemetery: as for Mr. JOSEF FUCHS who had devoted himself sacrificing for 60 years to looking after the cemetery.
There is also remembered a parish chairman who initiated the erection of the cemetery.
Before leaving the meadow district I looked in the eye a notice where a society of fishermen put up an indication of a wreath laying for the victims of the Danube on the first Sunday after All Saints Day. As every year they let drift a selfmade float equipped with wreathes and flowers in the Danube in remebrance of the drifting bodies in the Danube.
There remains the question, why only the dead will be gained the respect that was refused them alive. Perhaps it was their fate, having become the victims of the Danube.
