The Bernuthsfeld Man

 

On May 24, 1907 peat cutters would discover human remains in the Hogehahn bog in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was found that the body belonged to a man who lived and died between A.D 660 and 870. He was a medium-sized man between 30 and 60-year-old.At one point he experienced some health or nutritional crises during growth. It was evident in Harris lines on the long bones. He had suffered from osteoarthritis in his joints, had a well-healed fracture, his spine had a fused vertebra caused by inflammatory disease, suffered from sinus infections, and scans showed he had cancer.   It's unstated or unknown how the man died, but it's not believed to have been unnatural. He had no signs of violence and believed his cancer may have been what killed him.

The body was wrapped in several garments. One garment was a tunic with sleeves made from 43 pieces of textile and two long-leg wrappings. The tunic was made with 20 different fabrics with 9 different weaving patterns. A sheath and a 6-inch knife were also found with the body. It's suspected that the sheath may have held the knife. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Archeology Magazine

Modern Middle Ages

Mummipedia Wiki

Bunsoh Man

 

On May 17, 1890, a mummified body was found in a peat bog in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The body now known as Bunsoh Man was discovered by peat workers. He was found around 100 cm below the surface with woolen textile and birch branches on top of the body. It is believed he had died and lived between 560 to 620 CE. It's unknown how he died, but it is thought by some he may have strangled with a type of textile garrote. 

After his body was placed in storage it decomposed greatly. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Mummipedia

UNIDENTIFIED:August 15,1853 Orleans Parish, Louisiana Orphaned German girl

 On August 15,1853 an 8 to 9-year-old Orphaned German girl would die from yellow fever in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Her identity would be unknown. She would be buried at Cypress Grove Cemetery 2 in New Orleans.

SOURCES:
Find a Grave
Unidentified Wiki

Grave of Caroline Christine Walter

 

Caroline Christine Walter was born in 1850  to a poor family in Germany. A tragedy would hit the family as her parents died. Caroline and her affectionate sister, Selma, would get to live with their grandparents in Freiburg. Caroline would grow up to become a beautiful young lady and was loved by many who knew her. 

At 16/17 the young lady would contract tuberculosis. She would then pass away in just a few weeks. Her sister would have her buried at the Alter Friedhof Freiburg im Breisgau. Her sister would have a life-size tomb statue of her sister falling asleep reading. The book's inscription is "it is surely God’s will to separate from what is dearest to you."

After a few weeks, Selma would notice that someone else had started leaving flowers at the grave. It didn't seem that anything stopped the visitor from leaving a flower. Caroline was a beauty and had many suitors it's unknown if she had someone she was seeing. Some think that she and a particular teacher were seeing each other. Some think that it was someone who loved her but regretted never telling her. 

For the next 150 years, someone left flowers on her grave. Unless the original visitor is some sort of immortal someone others have taken. It's unknown who these people are or for why they continue to do this.

SOURCES:
Find a Grave
Atlas Obscura

English News

Freiburg

Medium

Girl of the Uchter Moor

In 2000 the body of a teenage girl was found in a bog by a peat cutter in Uchte, Germany. The person was using a backhoe at the time and dismembered the body. Leaving more than 100 body parts to recover. The girl was found to be from the iron age and was called Girl of the Uchter Moor or Moora. 

Her remains were dated to 650 B.C. and she was around 16 to 19-years-old. It's believed that she lived as a laborer and had chronic malnutrition throughout her life, underwent two partial skull fractures, and suffered from different diseases. Due to her malnutrition, she suffered from bone decay and lack of bone growth, and she had a benign tumor in her skull.

Her death is believed to have been accidental. There had not been any violent injuries to her body that would have caused death. It's theorized that she may have been picking bilberries (intoxicating berries) at the time she died. She may have slipped and fallen to her death . She may have also been nude at the time she was mummified. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Mumipedia

Archeology

Ancient Origins

Röst Girl

 

In 1926 the remains of a toddler, now known as Röst Girl, were found in a bog in the Schleswig-Holstein state of Germany. Because her body was in the bog her body was mummified. She had a woolen cloak over her body. 

Her body is presumed to have been destroyed during WWII. The cloak was however not destroyed and was used for date testing. It's believed that she was alive between 200 B.C.E and 80 C.E. in what is now current Germany. 

SOURCES:

Mummipedia Wiki

Wikipedia

UNIDENTIFIED: September 21, 1914 Bronx, New York "German" John Doe

 On September 21, 1914, a man had committed suicide. He was found hanging at the Maple Grove Cemetary in Hart Island, Bronx, New York. It's believed that the John Doe may have been a German laborer. He was a white male between 39 to 45-years-old. he had a newspaper, a pair of spectacles, and a red handkerchief. 

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Unidentified Wiki

The Roum Man

In June of 1942, the severed head of a man was found in a bog in Himmerland, Germany. The head belonged to a young man about 20-years-old and the sheepskin wrapped around the head helped date him to the Iron Age. It was initially believed to be a woman's head, but the beard stubble on the dace now makes them believe they were a man. 

SOURCES:

Mummipedia Wiki

Wikipedia

MISSING: Marga Hillmer

 

On Jan. 18, 1949, 16-year-old Marga Hillmer went to her vocational school in Westersted, Germany. After school, she and two classmates cycled back to their homes that were 7 kilometers away in Ihausen. At the exit of the forest, the girls separated and Marga was to ride alone for a few hundred meters to her home. She would never make it back home. 

There was evidence of where she was before she was abducted on the path she would have taken home in Ihorst.  Her bike was found in a ditch with her trouser clip and her comb was 250 meters further up the path. There was evidence of a struggle and she was nowhere to be found. Police and the locals searched for the girl everywhere for days, but there was no sign of her.

Marga is a white female and had just turned 16 on Jan 2nd. She had blonde hair.

SOURCES: 

Internation Missing Persons Wiki

NWZ Online

UNIDENTIFIED: 5 March 1777, Hessen, Germany Jane Doe

 On 5 March 1777, the body of a woman was found near a resting area in the woods near Burgwald, Hessen, Germany after the snow had faded away. It was believed that she had died several months from the cold. She was wearing a brown camisole, a headband with a veil attached, and men's shoes. She had $4 and a piece of bread, but there was nothing to identify her on her person. 

She would be buried the next day in the churchyard in Oberrosphe,Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hessen, Germany.  

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

STRANGE HISTORY: Blutfahne (Blood Flag)

 

The Blutfahne or the Blood flag was a sacred item of Nazi Germany. It was used in ceremonies sanctioning other Nazi flags during Hitler's reign.

It started at the Beer Hall Putsch on November 8 and 9 1923.  The Nazi party attempted to take over the government in Bavaria.  The Men were stooped by the Munich police and they fired upon them.

Heinrich Trambauer was carrying a Nazi flag when he was shot he fell dropping the flag. Andreas Bauriedl, who was marching next to Trambauer, was shot in the stomach and automatically died. When he fell to the ground he landed on the flag and soaked it with his blood.

This lead to Hitler's less than a year stay in prison and the creation of Mien Kampf. After Hitler was released the flag was essentially given to him and it became a symbol and ceremonial item.

Trambaur had taken the flag and had hidden it until he was able to give it to Karl Eggers. Eggers then gave the flag to Hitler once he was out of Landsberg Prison. The flag then was fitted for a new staff and a silver sleeve was dedicated to the martyrs from Putsch was placed upon it. It had the names of Bauriedl, Trambauer, and Von Stransky on it.

On July 4, 1926, the flag was presented by Hitler to the SA at the Party Rally in Weimar. The flag was given the name Blufahne. Hitler used it to consecrate new Nazi colors by holding it in one hand and Blufahne in the other.

Trumbauer was selected by Joseph Berchtold, leader of the SS at the time, to be the bearer of the Blutfahne. Due to poor health and later a skull injury, it was shared with  Jakob Grimminger until his death in 1942. Then Grimminger was the sole bearer.

The last time it was publicly seen was in April of 1944 at the funeral of Adolf Wagner. It was kept at the warehouse of Brown House in Munich but may have been destroyed during the Allied bombings in Munich.

It is unknown what had happened to the flag and if it even still exists.

SOURCES:
Axis History
History Extra
Wikipedia

Serial Killers: Ida Schnell the 13-year-old Serial Killer

13-year-old Ida Schnell worked as a nursemaid in Munich, Germany. She was under the service of several families. She was described as being big for her age, dull and sulky. She didn't stay very long at each home. No one suspected the young teen of the deaths of their children until after the funeral of the 6th infant that died in her care. Each one had died sudden and mysterious deaths within six months and all under her care.

It was decided that they would exhume the body of the last victim, a 14-day-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Bichler of Ampermoching. The investigation revealed that the baby had been killed. The death was caused by a perforation of the child's soft skull with a sharp instrument. This was when it was confirmed that Ida had killed infants in her care. They tried exhuming two other victim's but they were too decomposed to tell the cause of death.

She was quickly questioned about Bichler's sons death. At first, she denied and said that his wound was from a fall. She would soon confess though. She stated that she hated hearing the baby cry and that she stuck her hairpin into his head until he stopped crying.

She would then go on and confess to doing it to the other babies that died under her care. She said that she had gotten into the habit of stabbing them in the back of the head with her hairpin until they stopped crying. She hated hearing them cry and wanted it to stop.

I could not find what had happened to the case and if Ida had served anytime in jail or an asylum.

SOURCES:
The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser  (19 Oct. 1907)
The Baltimore Sun (03 Nov. 1907)
Buffalo Evening News (04 Nov. 1907)
Buffalo Evening News (18 Nov. 1907)

The Kayhausen Boy

In 1922 the body of a young boy was found in a bog in Lower Saxony, Germany. He was a boy between 7 and 10-years-old and had lived and died between 300 and 400 BC. The boy had been killed and it's more than likely due to sacrificial reasons.

The young boy had been bound. Strips of woolen fabric were used to tie his arms behind his back, and a length of textile was wound around his neck, passed between his legs, and back up to his neck where the two ends were tied together. It was found that he had been stabbed 3 times in the neck and once in the left arm. It was likely killed with a dagger with a 4-centimeter blade. It's unknown if he was stabbed before or after he was bound.

It's likely he was sacrificed because he was disabled and probably considered disfavored by their gods. He had suffered from an infected socket at the top of his femur and was unable to walk without assistance. His story and identity will never be known as it was lost to history.

There is a picture of the boy, but it shows how he's tied up and to be a bit too much to post on here. Both links below do have images of this mummy though.

SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Mummipedia