Origin unknown
Students bury school human skeleton
The coffin with the bones of the school skeleton in the biology class at the Johannes-Sturmius-Gymnasium. Photo: Roberto Pfeil/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
For decades, the skeleton was shown in class. Now students have buried the bones of an unknown woman. Where it came from is yet to be determined through DNA analysis.
Pupils in the Eifel town of Schleiden buried a human skeleton that had been used in biology lessons for many years. The students of the Johannes-Sturmius-Gymnasium carried the coffin with the bones from the biology room to the nearby evangelical cemetery.
There the coffin bearing the symbols of the world religions was lowered into a grave. About 80 students, teachers and city officials attended. Because of the unknown origin of the female skeleton, the burial took place in an interreligious manner, as the evangelical pastor and religion teacher Oliver Joswig said. He designed the ceremony with his Catholic colleague.
Origin of the skeleton remains unknown
Pupils presented the meaning of death in the different world religions. They named the skeleton Anh Bian, which means “mysterious peace” in Vietnamese.
“We are actually burying a school member,” Pastor Joswig had previously said. The skeleton had been in the school’s biology department since 1952. In the meantime, the demonstration object has been replaced by a plastic model. The skeleton was bought by the city of Schleiden in 1952 for 600 Deutschmarks. A DNA analysis that has already been taken is said to provide information about the age and approximate origin of the unknown.
Students have supported the burial
Pupils from the 11th grade had campaigned for the burial. They had previously designed a blue children’s coffin donated by an undertaker and placed the bones in it. There had been plans for a funeral for a long time, but they had not yet been implemented due to the corona pandemic.
“We wanted to give our skeleton a final resting place,” reported Joswig. The model was the similar approach of a high school in Stolberg near Aachen. There, students had buried the school skeleton in 2016.