Reverberating Silence: The Termination of Bells and Bell Ringing as an Exercise of Political Power

Figures & data

Table 1. Requisition of church bells with a diameter greater than 20 cm. Data for Bavaria April 1918 (in proportion of classification). Raw data after Braun (1990).

Region	Group A	Group B	Group C	N
Mittelfranken	32.1	28.8	39.1	2909
Oberbayern	40.3	26.0	33.7	6668
Unterfranken	39.0	28.2	32.8	3351
Schwaben	40.9	28.5	30.6	4475
Oberpfalz	40.2	30.8	29.0	3107
Niederbayern	37.4	33.9	28.7	3956
Oberfranken	36.8	35.9	27.4	2135
Pfalz	56.5	37.5	6.0	2143
Bayern total	39.9	30.1	29.9	28744

Figure 1. World War I-era postcard showing the church bells of St. Martin (left) and Osternach (right), both Inn District, Austria, being farewelled en route to be melted down for the war effort (Postcard ca. 1917, Anton Hoftetter, publisher; postcard in possession of DHRS).

Table 2. The removal of bells across Europe by German forces in World War II (Data source: Price 1948b).

		In towers	Bells	Loss of bells
		pre-war	removed	removed	total stock
		N	%	%	%
Domestic	Austria	7,360	90.69	81.35	72.55
	Germany	109,000	94.04	87.80	82.57
Axis	Italy	25,000	48.00	86.96	41.74
Occupied	France	75,000	4.00	55.33	1.55
	Alsace	n/a	n/a	40.00	n/a
	Lorraine	n/a	n/a	87.02	n/a
	Czechoslovakia	15,000	80.00	95.33	76.27
	Poland	32,785	68.63	92.44	63.44
	Belgium	8,870	56.60	84.06	47.58
	Netherlands	9,000	72.22	71.69	51.78

Notes: the number of German bells includes the bells taken from the Sudetenland; exact figures of pre-war unknown for Lorraine-Alsace.

Figure 2. Hamburg, Freihafen – Glocken auf einem Kai lagernd (“Glockenfriedhof)” [Bells stored on a quay “bell cemetery”]; 1947.

Source: Unknown photographer, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2007-0705-501.

Braun, W. 1990. Glockenenteignung 1917/18 im Nürnberger Land (Vol. 39). Altnürnberger Landschaft e.V.

 Google Scholar

Price, F. P. 1948b. Campanology, Europe, 1945–47: A Report on the Condition of Carillons on the Continent of Europe as a Result of the Recent war; on the Sequestration and Melting Down of Bells by the Central Powers; and on Research Into the Tonal Qualities of Bells Made Accessible by War-Time Dislodgment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

 Google Scholar