Crime at Mühlebach: Atonement Cross in the Moss

In the records of the Baad Chronicle we read: “In the year 1761, on March 29th, Schwarzhinßles Hans, stricken by a hallucinatory fit, chopped his five year old child’s head off with a wood carver; he threw the body into the Mühlebach stream and took the head to his lodgings.” Thus the report of the serious crime which the father had committed. It is not clear or not whether he was granted leniency because of his psychological condition. Today, the Mühlebach runs along not far from where the cross is located. This man Hans was forced to make amends for his guilty actions by putting up a stone cross. This sign of penitence was the last of four crosses of this kind put up in Mittelberg.