Friedhöfe in gemischtkonfessionellen deutschen Städten der Frühen Neuzeit

Abstract

This article considers how urban magistrates in Early Modern German cities dealt with the dead from multiple confessions or religions. It introduces three different strategies for dealing with burial spaces in early modern pluriconfessional towns. Firstly, an exclusion of people from burial in a region or the town centre. Secondly, the demarcation of the dead of a different confession or religion within the town, for example through the establishment of multiple cemeteries or different sections within the same cemetery. Thirdly, a more integrative approach that made it possible for multiple religions or confession to be buried in the same space. In many cases, these different strategies were combined and changed over time, and they could also be adapted depending on circumstances and specific needs. The complexity of the treatment of the urban dead of different confessions and religions mirrored and reinforced how urban magistrates had to constantly engage with the question how to govern a diverse and complex civic community.