1862 - Cremations
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 become more common than burial. The ashes are placed in an urn and either buried or scattered.
The Cremation Act has been in effect since 1934. It was the first law to place cremation and burial on an equal footing. A medical postmortem examination is required prior to cremation. The interment of the urn is permitted only in a cemetery. The North Rhine-Westphalia Funeral Act has since relaxed this requirement to bury ashes in a cemetery. It allows for the interment of urns in “memorial forests” or the scattering of ashes—but only with official permission.
In 1878, Ernst II, Prince of Thuringia, 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 Germany’s first cremation law. But at that time, only just under ten percent of Germans favored cremation. This was due to the strong influence of the Church: From the time of Christianization through to modern times, people believed in the physical resurrection. Cremation was considered pagan and was 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 reaffirmed this ban as late as 1886.
The urn as a decorative vessel on gravestones became fashionable in the late 19th century. It was regarded as a symbol of the Enlightenment, progress, and hygiene. This did not refer to cremation.