Little remains untasted in Germany ’s pursuance for efficiency and safety for its citizen . Everything fromGerman board gamesto the internationally recognizedAutobahnhas its own stage set of strict dominion .
But too stringent regulation even widen to the police fence a at rest person’sfuneral and entombment right .
Cemetery Obligations
Unless your loved one life — or dies — in Bremen , it ’s against the law to disperse their cremains anywhere in Germany ( so forget spreading grandpa in his favourite sportfishing lake or nanna in her garden ) . A 1934 law , Der Friedhofszwangliterally means " burying ground obligation " and states that all remain , whether in a casket or urn , must have a last resting place in a cemetery .
The law was initially to protect public health because there was a awe that decay bodies eat up in any former post could do an epidemic . However , this does n’t make sense for the ashes of cremated someone , where the gamey - heat cremation procedure break down any micro - organisms . So why are cremains also regulated ? Because Germany want to make trusted everyone has the right to publicly grieve .
Descriptionsof the law say that an prescribed place of mourning is a culturally significant part of the grieving process and should be available to anyone . There are no secret burials or necropolis ; everyone must be buried in a public cemetery or in a dovecote . But here ’s the kicker : For casket inhumation , a cemetery is n’t the " net " rest position at all .
Cemetery Plots Are Leased
Due to distance limitations , many German cemeteries control how long a casket — and its resident — can ride out in a cemetery , usually between 10 to 30 year . burial site plot are , essentially , rented by families . After the remains decompose ( assuming the stain experimental condition are ripe , which is anincreasing problemin German cemeteries ) , the plot lease is usable for renewal by the folk . If they choose not to pay off or ca n’t afford to , a new " resident " move in .
Finding Ways Around the Regulations
The high costs of required inhumation ( between 5,000 euros to 15,000 euros or about $ 4,900 to $ 14,800 ) and the desire to circularize cremains in preferable location are do some German citizen to transport their be intimate one ’s body to neighboring body politic in a relatively new practice call " corpse tourism " or " cremation tourism . "
Ash spread or sepulture regulations are much more flexible in countries like Switzerland and The Netherlands . Because secret mortal in Germany ca n’t deal cremains , it ’s becoming more popular for them to charge their make out ones ' bodies to a country where they are cremated and given back to their syndicate where they can they spread the cremains however they like .
One of the only options kinsperson have for disperse cremains in Germany is aburial at sea . Using a biodegradable urn and only in very specific locations in the Baltic and North sea , the cremains can be spread . More recently , though , kin can choose to have the ashes scattered in forests orplanted at the roots of a treeand commemorated with a plaque hang on the tree diagram ’s trunk , like in Berlin’sFriedWald cemetery .
Many phratry and local authorities are asking that the German governmentleave their rigid regulationsto thing like transportation and architecture and finally allow family to mourn and keep the lifetime of their loved single in meaningful and healing shipway .
