Externsteine: the rocks of the Teutoburg Forest between faith and ideology

In the Teutoburg Forest, near the small town of Horn-Bad Meinberg in the German region of Lippe, rises a group of sandstone towers up to some forty metres high. These are the Externsteine, a natural formation that has struck the imagination of onlookers for centuries. On these rocks have settled medieval Christian signs, folk legends and, in the twentieth century, romantic and ideological theories about the Germanic past. Distinguishing these layers is essential to understand the place and its history.

A Christian sanctuary carved in the rock

The clearest evidence is Christian. At the foot of the main rock is a large relief depicting the Descent from the Cross, a Romanesque work generally dated to the twelfth century and among the most important rock sculptures of that period in Europe. It shows Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus lowering the body of Christ, while below a pair of figures is entwined by a dragon, a symbol of evil overcome by redemption.

Carved into the rock are spaces interpreted as a lower chapel and a small upper chapel, once reached by steps and a bridge. An inscription records a consecration in 1115, but its reading and dating are debated. It has been suggested that the complex reproduced the holy places of Jerusalem in symbolic form, according to a widespread medieval custom, although the hypothesis has not been proven.

The hole in the upper chapel and the Irminsul

In the upper chapel there is a niche with a circular opening which, according to some authors, is aligned on the sunrise at the summer solstice. Ambitious astronomical interpretations have been built on this detail, which archaeologists regard as uncertain, because the room may have been altered over the centuries and the orientation is not necessarily intentional.

As early as the sixteenth century some scholars linked the rocks with the Irminsul, the Saxon sanctuary that Charlemagne destroyed in 772, according to the Frankish annals. The location of the Irminsul, however, remains unknown, and the sources point rather to the area of Eresburg. In the Deposition relief, a bent object beneath the feet of Nicodemus has been read by some as the felled Irminsul, a fascinating interpretation but one without confirmation.

The twentieth century and ideological use

In the 1920s the self-taught Wilhelm Teudt promoted with great success the idea that the Externsteine had been a solar observatory and a pre-Christian Germanic sanctuary. His theories were adopted by the National Socialist regime, and in the 1930s the Ahnenerbe, the research institute of the SS, supported excavations and landscaping of the site. The investigations produced no evidence of a pre-Christian cult, but the place was turned into a propaganda symbol.

After the war, archaeological studies confirmed that the main traces of human activity date from the Christian Middle Ages, although older finds are scattered in the area, such as stone tools left by Palaeolithic hunters. The rocks still attract very different groups today, especially on solstice nights, and the local authorities keep watch to protect the site and prevent extremist use.

The Externsteine are therefore a place to visit with attentive eyes. Their natural beauty and the quality of the Romanesque relief deserve admiration, while their recent history reminds us how easily the fascination of the past can be bent to political ends, and how necessary it is to rely on the sources. The site, protected as a natural monument, is reached by paths and stairways that allow visitors to climb some of the towers.