The Kalebuz as a court case
The famous mummy in the Kampehl church is not just a curiosity or a strange whim of nature. It is also a criminal case. However, the executioner was not used.
lore
The mummy of the "Knight of Kalebuz" was found in 1794 during the renovation of the church. Then it was remembered in the village that he should have killed a shepherd when he was driving his sheep across his land. The knight took an oath in court that he did not kill the shepherd, and he reinforced the oath by saying that if he was guilty he would never rot. Mummification was soon considered a "divine judgment". And there were also spooky stories about the "Knight Kalebuz", who hung around on the Schwenze Bridge in front of Wusterhausen during the witching hour and "squatted" on the pedestrians or carts and made himself so difficult that they could hardly move forward.
Kampehl: The mummy in her tomb, photo: Markus Tiemann, TVP archive
facts
Unfortunately, little is known about the court case: while researching Bückwitz's chronicle in 1865, teacher Jordan found a file "Acta pertaining to the Cornet von Kahlbutz". In 1690 the Cornet Kalebuz was accused of having killed the shepherd Picker from Bückwitz. In the absence of witnesses, an oath of purification was imposed on him. There was no trace of a statement that he never wanted to decompose or of a fiancee who was being pursued by Kalebuz.
Additional information
Literature:
- Jörg Spielberg, The Leather Knight, 1998 H.-J.Ziemann, Berlin
- The "Kahlbutz" in Kampehl near Neustadt (Dosse), compiled by Leopold Schaumann, print of the "Dosse-Zeitung", undated )