Six feet under: Hamburg allows people to be buried with pets

Animal lovers in the northern German city of Hamburg will soon be allowed to be buried with their pet, the city legislature has decreed.

Under the new burial law, the cremated ashes of a beloved pet would be placed in an urn in a pre-arranged grave waiting for their owners to join them. If a pet owner passes away first, family members would be responsible for arranging the burial. 

“Many people have a very close and emotional relationship with their pets,” said Green party spokeswoman Ulrike Sparr. “The animals are like part of the family, and it’s only logical to permit a common grave.”

Read more: Germany: ‘Highly aggressive cow’ sparks lengthy police chase in Bavaria

Sparr added that cemeteries in Hamburg should have a special section set aside for animal burials to respect anyone who doesn’t support the idea. 

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Life is finite

  R.I.P.: In 2018, about 954,900 people died in Germany, according to the federal statistics office. Even if burial in a cemetery is obligatory almost everywhere in Germany, burial practices are changing, often leaving large swathes of grassy areas between traditional burial plots, which are not permanent but leased for a period of 15 to 20 years at a time — leases often are not renewed.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Fewer traditional burials

  With steep burial costs and declining interest in investing in and tending to family plots, Germans particularly in urban areas are increasingly opting for a less expensive option: cremation. Even here, a coffin or other container is a requirement: Cremated remains can’t simply be scattered in your back yard. In general, they must be sealed in an urn and buried in a cemetery or designated forest.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  End-of-life choice

  Sealed, yet decorative ceramic, metal, wood or biodegradable urns hold the remains of more than one out of two deceased in Germany, with a much higher percentage in cities. In 2015 Germany’s smallest state, Bremen, became the only one to liberalize the rule that stipulates burial in a cemetery. It began allowing a loved one’s ashes to be scattered or buried in one’s own back yard.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Back to the roots

  80 centimeters deep: Germans have also taken to the woodland burial, where a wooden or biodegradable urn is buried among the roots of a tree in a designated area of specifically approved forests. No individual care is required, no flowers or candles allowed — it’s just nature, peace and quiet, and open year-round.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  DIY coffin

  The idea hasn’t quite caught on in Germany, but some funeral homes and experts offer casket-building workshops, like Lydia Röder, head of an outpatient hospice service, and artist Anna Adam (above). A handmade casket takes four square meters of lumber – and at a few hundred euros, it’s cheaper than buying a casket at upwards of €1,000 ($1,150). Building your own can be a therapeutic experience.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Public viewing

  Before funerals, private or public viewings at funeral homes with the casket open or closed are common in many countries but not so much in Germany. Neither is the practice of embalming. Moreover, in Germany the term “public viewing” has a vastly different meaning, standing for for watching sports events or live concerts on a large screen in a public area, usually in a big crowd.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Condolences and sympathy

  Deutsche Post issues special stamps for traditional condolence letters and death notices. Instead of or along with a newspaper obituary, the bereaved often send personal notices in the mail, notifying the reader of the time and place of a funeral or memorial service. People are also told whether flower arrangements are welcome, or whether the bereaved prefer donations, for instance to a hospice.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Grieve, socialize and eat

  After a funeral or memorial service, mourners — family and close friends, usually by invitation only — gather in a restaurant nearby to socialize, share memories and have a bite to eat. A traditional “Leichenschmaus” (literally, corpse feast) snack includes coffee, a fortifying cup of broth, sandwiches and almost always some variety of sheet cake, for instance, streusel cake (above).

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Learning the trade

  In 2005 Germany opened a federal training center for future funeral directors in the Bavarian town of Münnerstadt. In practice and theory, trainees spend three years learning the ins and outs of the trade, including how to counsel families, make funeral arrangements and prepare bodies for burial. Undertakers from as far away as China and Russia have taken advanced classes at the German academy.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Practical aspects

  Future undertakers learn how to operate special excavators to dig graves — you don’t want walls to collapse or tombstones to topple — and how to bury an urn at Germany’s only practice cemetery, set up in 1994 near the center of the town of Münnerstadt by the Bavarian Undertakers Association.

• R.I.P.: German funeral rites

  Sepulchural culture

  Germany has a museum devoted entirely to death in all its facets: the Museum of Sepulchral Culture in Kassel. It displays caskets and hearses, art, and traditional and contemporary product design spanning the centuries. The curators say visiting the unique museum that opened in 1992 is “all about life.” The above exhibit shows an 1880 funeral carriage and a 1978 hearse in the museum courtyard.

  Author: Dagmar Breitenbach

A spokesperson for Hamburg’s cemeteries told Germany’s KNA news agency that plans are in place for a large cemetery in the north of the city to set aside a hectare (2.5 acres) of land for the pet-person burials.

The spokesperson added that the burials are intended for smaller pets like dogs and cats, and not larger animals like horses.

There are currently around 150 pet cemeteries in Germany, however, there are very few communities allowing people to be buried with their pets. Hamburg’s cemetery authority said it will likely be a year before the first burials take place. 

wmr/rt (dpa, KNA, EPD)

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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/six-feet-under-hamburg-allows-people-to-be-buried-with-pets/a-50979462?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom