1862 - Cremations

Cremation

This section of the cemetery was added in 1862. It was a time of industrial expansion and an influx of artisans and workers into the city. Today, former family gravesites are occupied by communal urn graves.

In our time, cremation has surpassed burial. The ashes are placed in an urn and interred or scattered.

The Cremation Act has been in effect since 1934. It was the first law to place cremation and burial on equal footing. A medical post-mortem examination is required prior to cremation. Burial of the urn is permitted only in a cemetery. This cemetery requirement has since been relaxed by the North Rhine-Westphalia Funeral Act. It permits the burial of urns in “memorial forests” or the scattering of ashes—but only with official approval.

In 1878, Thuringia’s Prince Ernst II authorized the construction of Germany’s first crematorium in Gotha. Heidelberg, Hamburg, and the state of Hesse followed—with Bavaria and Prussia being the last to do so.

On May 15, 1934, the Nazis enacted the first German cremation law. But at that time, barely ten percent of Germans supported cremation. This was linked to the strict influence of the Church: From Christianization through to modern times, people believed in a physical resurrection. Cremations were considered pagan and forbidden. In the Middle Ages, criminals were punished by being burned at the stake so that they would have no chance of resurrection. The Catholic Church renewed the ban as late as 1886.

The urn as a decorative vessel on gravestones came into fashion at the end of the 19th century. It was regarded as a symbol of the Enlightenment, progress, and hygiene. This did not refer to cremation.</poi>

1862 - Cremations

1862 - IMPRESSIONS

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