A funeral is an expensive affair. The proportion of cost-effective burns is increasing in Germany since years. The various reasons for this.
Two coffins lie in a large, gloomy room in Essen crematorium in front of closed gates. When a gate opens slowly, pushed the first coffin, made of a kind of lift in the kiln. The oven is over 600 degrees hot, within a few seconds, the wood begins to burn up in flames. The gate closes again. The procedure is repeated oven a few minutes later on the right fuel. After a good two and a half hours, only ash is of two corpses left.
The Essen-based crematorium is one of about 150 nationwide – because of a rising demand for cremations 20 new facilities opened in the past eight years. According to estimates by the Federal Association of German undertakers have been burned in the past year, 64 percent of around 930,000 Deaths in Germany – in 2010 the proportion was estimated at 50 percent. At that time, around 80 000 people died, according to the Federal statistical office in Germany.
5000 Undertaker, 32.000 Cemeteries
According to estimates by the Federal Association of funeral needs around 5000 undertaker work in Germany. Some 32,000 cemeteries people find their last rest. Regardless of combustion or Erdbeisetzung a coffin is needed. This business is one of more foreign companies, especially from Eastern Europe.
Around 4,000 of the mainly medium-sized funeral companies have in the past year in Germany, according to the Federal Association of German undertakers a largely unchanged turnover of nearly two billion euros. The number of deaths had risen due to the demographic change, the turnover of Late, however, it appears to be lower.
Cheap and easy to care for
But why more and more Deceased to be burned? A not insignificant reason is the price. “Cremations are cheaper,” says the crematorium Director Reinhold Velten. According to mortician Association between 300 and 600 Euro “are usual on the market” for a combustion in Germany. A Grave in the earth may well cost four times as much. However, there may be according to the Association, enormous differences in the cost of funerals due to the different costs of the coffin or the urn, as well as nationwide very different cemetery fees.
The prices in the Essen crematorium has risen in the past few years. According to the crematorium Manager Velten, the current fee is 316,14 Euro. Two years ago, it cost about 20 euros less – so that the establishment in the Ruhr area, but still in the lower price segment. In Germany, about half of the crematoria by local authorities and the other half from private companies.
Peaceful forest in Dietzenbach: A woman touches place your Hand to the trunk of a tree with the rest. The organization “FriedWald GmbH”, with 120 employees and over 60 locations in Germany, the market leader in Germany. The company offers an Alternative to traditional burial in the cemetery. The ashes of the Deceased in biodegradable urns degradation sets in the middle of the forest at the roots of trees.
In the Winter, the prices are on the rise
With the beginning of winter, the number of burns rising in the Essen crematorium, since more people die in Winter than in summer. “In the Winter there are up to 600 cremations a month, in summer months, between 350 and 400.” In more than 40 years, were cremated in the food of nearly 150,000 people.
Another reason that more Dead are burned, is the lower maintenance costs for the grave. “Urn-graves are also maintenance is easier. It makes a difference, whether I have to maintain as a member of a grave with a size of 1.20 meters by 2.50 meters or a Meter times a Meter,” says Velten. The impact on the wallet.
Regional Differences
“The increasing number of cremations could be in our view a reference to the fact that for many people the cost for a burial are not longer cope,” says the social Association VdK.
Not everywhere in Germany, burns are the most popular form of burial. This has historical reasons. Regional in Germany, there are enormous differences in the types of burial, such as Ethnology, Professor Norbert Fischer of the University of Hamburg. “In rural and Catholic regions in Germany, the share of fire in burials is significantly lower than, for example, in the new länder.” Burns accounted, therefore, already in the former GDR, more than 90 percent. In the case of the Catholics, burns up the middle of the 20th century. Century is prohibited.